Who was born on December 16?

December 16 is packed with notable birthdays. Explore 113 famous birthdays, sorted by recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Top ranked names include Alcides Escobar, Amy Carmichael, Anamul Haque, André Andersen, Anna Anderson. Filter by actor, musician, athlete, and more — or open any other calendar day.

December 16

113 people

  1. Alcides Escobar

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    Alcides Escobar (Spanish: [alˈsiðes eskoˈβaɾ]) (born December 16, 1986) is a Venezuelan professional baseball infielder for the Centauros de La Guaira of the Venezuelan Major League. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the Milwaukee Brewers, Kansas City Royals, and Washington Nationals, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows.

  2. Amy Carmichael

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    Amy Beatrice Carmichael (16 December 1867 – 18 January 1951) was an Irish Christian missionary in India who opened an orphanage and founded a mission in Dohnavur. She served in India for 55 years and wrote 35 books about her work as a missionary.

  3. Anamul Haque

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    Mohammad Anamul Haque Bijoy (born 16 December 1992) is a Bangladeshi cricketer. He is a wicket-keeper and right-handed batsman. He is the first player to score 1000 runs and most runs in a single List-A tournament.

  4. André Andersen

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    André Andersen (born 16 December 1961) is a Russian-born multi-instrumentalist and composer best known as the keyboardist and founder of the Denmark-based progressive metal band Royal Hunt. André started his "music life" at very young age and went the whole circle through studio sessions, live performances and literally anything in between, establishing a remarkable carrier which is still evolving, bringing him to every aspect, every corner of music industry.

  5. Anna Anderson

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    Anna Anderson (born Franziska Schanzkowska; 16 December 1896 – 12 February 1984) was an impostor who claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia. Anastasia, the youngest daughter of the last Tsar and Tsarina of Russia, Nicholas II and Alexandra, was murdered along with her parents and siblings on 17 July 1918 by Bolshevik revolutionaries in Yekaterinburg, Russia, but the location of her body was unknown until 2007. In 1920, Anderson was institutionalized in a mental hospital after a suicide attempt in Berlin. At first, she went by the name Fräulein Unbekannt (German for Miss Unknown) as she refused to reveal her identity. Later, she used the name Tschaikovsky and then Anderson. In March 1922, claims that Anderson was a Russian grand duchess received public attention. Most members of Grand Duchess Anastasia's family and those who had known her, including court tutor Pierre Gilliard, said Anderson was an impostor but others were convinced she was Anastasia. In 1927, a private investigation funded by the Tsarina's brother, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse, identified Anderson as Franziska Schanzkowska, a Polish factory worker with a history of mental illness. After a lawsuit lasting many years, the German courts ruled that Anderson had failed to prove she was Anastasia, but through media coverage, her claim gained notoriety. Between 1920 and 1968, Anderson lived in Germany and the United States with various supporters and in nursing homes and sanatoria, including at least one asylum. She emigrated to the United States in 1968. Shortly before the expiration of her visa she married history professor Jack Manahan, who was later characterized as "probably Charlottesville's best-loved eccentric". Upon her death in 1984, Anderson's body was cremated, and her ashes were buried in the churchyard at Castle Seeon, Germany. After the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union, the locations of the bodies of the Tsar, Tsarina, and all five of their children were revealed. Multiple laboratories in different countries confirmed their identity through DNA testing. DNA tests on a lock of Anderson's hair and surviving medical samples of her tissue showed that her DNA did not match that of the Romanov remains or that of living relatives of the Romanovs. Instead, Anderson's mitochondrial DNA matched that of Karl Maucher, a great-nephew of Franziska Schanzkowska. Most scientists, historians and journalists who have discussed the case accept that Anderson and Schanzkowska were the same person.

  6. Anton Denikin

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    Anton Ivanovich Denikin (Russian: Анто́н Ива́нович Дени́кин; 16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1872 – 7 August 1947) was a Russian military officer who served as a lieutenant general in the Imperial Russian Army and as a leading commander of the anti-Bolshevik White movement during the Russian Civil War. A veteran of the Russo-Japanese War and a highly decorated commander in World War I, Denikin rose to prominence for his leadership of the "Iron Brigade". Following the February Revolution, he became a vocal critic of the Russian Provisional Government's military policies. After the October Revolution, he was a co-founder of the anti-Bolshevik Volunteer Army in South Russia. He assumed command of the army in April 1918 and became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of South Russia (AFSR) in January 1919. In mid-1919, Denikin's forces launched the Moscow offensive, a major assault that captured large swathes of territory and advanced to within 350 kilometres (220 miles) of the capital, representing the high-water mark of the White movement. However, the offensive was ultimately defeated by a Red Army counter-attack. The defeat was attributed to several factors, including overstretched supply lines and the White movement's political failures. Denikin's government, the Special Council, failed to implement an effective land reform policy to win the support of the peasantry, while its uncompromising slogan of "a great, united, and indivisible Russia" alienated potential allies, including the Cossacks and various national minorities. The territories under Denikin's control were also ravaged by waves of brutal antisemitic pogroms, which he failed to suppress, discrediting the movement internationally and eroding its internal discipline. After a disastrous retreat, Denikin resigned his command to General Pyotr Wrangel in April 1920 and went into exile. He lived in France and, after World War II, in the United States. He dedicated his life in exile to writing, producing a multi-volume memoir, The Russian Turmoil, and other historical works. A staunch Russian patriot and an opponent of communism, Denikin urged Russian émigrés to support the Red Army in defending their homeland against Nazi Germany during World War II. He remains a controversial figure in Russian history, remembered for his military skill and personal courage, but criticized as an inflexible and politically inept leader whose defeat was a crucial factor in the Bolshevik victory.

  7. Antonio Vega

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    Antonio Vega Tallés (a.k.a. Antonio Vega) (16 December 1957 – 12 May 2009) was a Spanish pop singer-songwriter.

  8. Antonio de La Gándara

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    Antonio de La Gándara (16 December 1861 – 30 June 1917) was a French painter, pastellist and draughtsman of the Belle Époque.

  9. Antrel Rolle

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    Antrel Rocelious Rolle (born December 16, 1982) is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Miami Hurricanes, earning unanimous All-American honors. He was selected by the Arizona Cardinals with the eighth overall pick in the 2005 NFL draft. Rolle also played for the Chicago Bears and New York Giants, winning Super Bowl XLVI with New York in 2011 over the New England Patriots.

  10. Aykut Barka

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    Aykut Barka (December 16, 1951, Fatih, Istanbul – February 1, 2002) was a Turkish geoscientist specialized in seismology. He is best known for his contributions to understanding the behaviour of the North Anatolian Fault Zone (NAFZ), one of the most dangerous active faults in the world.

  11. Barbara Kent

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    Barbara Kent (née Cloutman; December 16, 1907 – October 13, 2011) was a Canadian film actress, prominent from the silent film era to the early talkies of the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925, Barbara Kent won the Miss Hollywood Beauty Pageant.

  12. Bart Oates

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    Bart Steven Oates (born December 16, 1958) is an American former professional football player who was a center in the National Football League (NFL) for the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers. He played for the Giants from 1985 to 1993 and with the 49ers from 1994 to 1995. He was a member of the Giants teams that won Super Bowls XXI and XXV and the 49ers team that won Super Bowl XXIX. He is one of two players (along with Sean Landeta) to be on both a Super Bowl-winning team and a team that won a championship in the original United States Football League (USFL).

  13. Ben Cross

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    Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947 – 18 August 2020) was an English actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire and for playing Billy Flynn in the original West End production of the musical Chicago.

  14. Benjamin Bratt

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    Benjamin Bratt (born December 16, 1963) is an American actor. He is known for playing Paco Aguilar in Blood in Blood Out. He had supporting film roles in the 1990s in Demolition Man (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994) and The River Wild (1994). From 1995 to 1999, he starred as NYPD Detective Rey Curtis on the NBC drama series Law & Order, for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series. In the 2000s, Bratt appeared in Miss Congeniality (2000), Traffic (2000), Piñero (2001), Catwoman (2004), Trucker (2008), and Snitch (2013), among other films. On television, Bratt has portrayed Dr. Jake Reilly on ABC's Private Practice (2011–2013), Steve Navarro on 24: Live Another Day (2014), Jahil Rivera on Star (2016–2018) and Senator Bail Organa on Andor (2025). He has also done voice acting in the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs film franchise (2009–2013), Despicable Me 2 (2013) and Coco (2017).

  15. Benny Andersson

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    Göran Bror Benny Andersson (Swedish: [ˈbɛ̌nːʏ ˈânːdɛˌʂɔn] ; born 16 December 1946) is a Swedish musician, composer and producer best known as a member of the pop group ABBA and co-composer of the musicals Chess, Kristina från Duvemåla, and Mamma Mia! For the 2008 film version of Mamma Mia! and its 2018 sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, he also worked as an executive producer. Since 2001, he has been active with his own band Benny Anderssons orkester.

  16. Bill Brittain

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    William E. Brittain (December 16, 1930 – December 16, 2011) was an American writer. He is best known for work set in the fictional New England village of Coven Tree, including The Wish Giver, a Newbery Honor Book. Brittain was born in Rochester, New York. He decided he wanted to be a 5th-grade teacher, and in addition to teaching, used to read stories in mystery magazines. After some time, he decided he could do as good a job at writing as some of the authors he read; he got coaching on writing from Frederic Dannay of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (in which, along with Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, most of his mystery stories were published). He wrote two serials from 1964 to 1983, as well as other stories, before moving on to the children's books for which he is better known. Brittain is also the author of the popular book All the Money in the World, which was adapted as a 1983 movie.

  17. Billy Gibbons

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    William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American rock musician who is the guitarist, primary songwriter, and lead vocalist for and a founding member of ZZ Top. He began his career in Moving Sidewalks, who recorded Flash (1969) and opened four dates for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Gibbons formed ZZ Top in late 1969 and released ZZ Top's First Album in early 1971. He has also maintained a solo career in recent years, starting with his first album Perfectamundo (2015). Gibbons has made appearances with other artists and acted on television shows, most notably in a recurring role as Angela's rock star father on Bones. In 2001, Rolling Stone named him the 32nd greatest guitarist of all time.

  18. Catherine of Aragon

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    Catherine of Aragon (also spelled Katherine; Spanish: Catalina de Aragón; 16 December 1485 – 7 January 1536) was Queen of England as the first wife of Henry VIII from their marriage on 11 June 1509 until its annulment on 23 May 1533. She had previously been Princess of Wales as the wife of Henry's elder brother Arthur, Prince of Wales for a short time before his death. Catherine was born at the Archbishop's Palace of Alcalá de Henares, and was the youngest child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. She was three years old when she was betrothed to Arthur, the eldest son of Henry VII of England. They married in 1501, but Arthur died five months later. Catherine spent years in limbo, and during this time, she held the position of ambassador of the Aragonese crown to England in 1507, the first known female ambassador in European history. She married Henry VIII shortly after his accession in 1509. For six months in 1513, she served as regent of England while Henry was in France. During that time the English defeated a Scottish invasion at the Battle of Flodden, an event in which Catherine played an important part with an emotional speech about courage and patriotism. By 1526, Henry was infatuated with Anne Boleyn and dissatisfied that his marriage to Catherine had produced no surviving sons, leaving their daughter Mary as heir presumptive at a time when there was no established precedent for a woman on the throne. He sought to have their marriage annulled, setting in motion a chain of events that led to England's schism from the Catholic Church. When Pope Clement VII refused to annul the marriage, Henry defied him by assuming supremacy over religious matters in England and marrying Anne secretly in 1532. In 1533, Catherine's marriage was declared invalid by Henry's new Anglican Church, which subsequently validated his marriage to Anne without reference to the pope. Catherine refused to accept Henry as supreme head of the Church in England and considered herself the King's rightful wife and queen, attracting much popular sympathy. Despite this, Henry acknowledged her only as dowager princess of Wales. After being banished from court by Henry, Catherine lived out the remainder of her life at Kimbolton Castle, dying there in January 1536, probably of cancer. The English people held Catherine in high esteem, and her death set off tremendous mourning. Her daughter Mary became the first undisputed English queen regnant in 1553. Catherine commissioned The Education of a Christian Woman by Juan Luis Vives, who dedicated the book, controversial at the time, to the Queen in 1523. Such was Catherine's impression on people that even her adversary Thomas Cromwell said of her, "If not for her sex, she could have defied all the heroes of History." She successfully appealed for the lives of the rebels involved in the Evil May Day, for the sake of their families, and also won widespread admiration by starting an extensive programme for the relief of the poor. Catherine was a patron of Renaissance humanism and a friend of the great scholars Erasmus and Thomas More.

  19. Charles Gipson

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    Charles Wells Gipson Jr. (born December 16, 1972) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played 8 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners (1998–2002), New York Yankees (2003), Tampa Bay Devil Rays (2004), and Houston Astros (2005).

  20. Claudia Cohen

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    Claudia Lynn Cohen (December 16, 1950 – June 15, 2007) was an American gossip columnist, socialite, and television reporter. She is credited with putting the New York Post's Page Six gossip column on the map. The building housing the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts and Sciences was renamed in her honor in 2008.

  21. Craig Goodwin

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    Craig Alexander Goodwin (born 16 December 1991) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a left winger for Adelaide United and the Australia national team. Known for his agility, crossing and shot placement, he is Adelaide United's all-time leading goalscorer and considered one of the club's greatest players.

  22. Cy Leslie

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    Seymour Marvin "Cy" Leslie (December 16, 1922 – January 6, 2008) was an American businessman, the founder of Pickwick Records, and the first president and founder of MGM/UA Home Entertainment Group. Pickwick Records aimed to make music more affordable, and carried such artists as Elvis Presley at various times. MGM Home Video was one of the first companies to enter the home video business, which today has become the home entertainment industry including DVD and other sales. He began his career by founding Voco Records, producing record greeting cards, and later children's records. He was Jewish.

  23. Danish Kaneria

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    Danish Parabha Shankar Kaneria (Urdu: دانش پربھا شنکر کنیریا; Urdu pronunciation: [d̪ɑːn̪ɪʃ kəneːɾɪjɑː] , born 16 December 1980) is a Pakistani former cricketer who played for the Pakistan national cricket team between 2000 and 2010. A right-arm leg spinner who could bowl a googly, Kaneria played 61 Test matches for Pakistan and took 261 wickets at an average of 34.79. He was the second Hindu, after his cousin Anil Dalpat, and the seventh non-Muslim overall to represent Pakistan in international cricket. After allegations of involvement in spot fixing, Kaneria was given a lifetime ban by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), preventing him from playing in matches under their jurisdiction. His subsequent appeal against the ban was rejected in July 2013. Subsequently, in 2015, the ECB made an effort to recover £250,000 from him with the help of Pakistani authorities. Kaneria also represented the team in 18 ODIs taking 15 wickets with an average of over 45. In Test cricket, Kaneria's best bowling performance in an innings was seven wickets for 77 runs whereas his best performance in a match was 12 wickets for 94 runs, both against Bangladesh. He also took 15 five-wicket hauls in Test cricket, and achieved six and seven wickets in an innings on three and four occasions respectively. He took ten wickets or more in a match on two occasions, once against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka each. Kaneria never played Twenty20 International matches (T20I) for Pakistan. He played 206 first-class matches, 167 List A (LA) and 65 Twenty20 matches during his career. Kaneria also played in English county cricket during 2004 and 2010 representing Essex County Cricket Club. In October 2018, Kaneria admitted to having met with a match fixer named Anu Bhatt but Kaneria did not know he was meeting with a fixer. He also mentioned that a lot of his teammates knew the alleged fixer (Anu Bhatt).

  24. Diego Silang

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    Diego Silang y Andaya (Spanish: [ˈdjeɣo si.ˈlaŋg]; December 16, 1730 – May 28, 1763) was a Filipino revolutionary leader who allied with British forces to overthrow Spanish rule in the northern Philippines and establish an independent Ilocano state. His revolt was fueled by grievances stemming from Spanish taxation and abuses, and by his belief in self-government, that the administration and leadership of the Roman Catholic Church and government in the Ilocos be invested in trained Ilocano officials. His wife, the Itneg Gabriela Cariño, took on leadership of his revolt after his assassination.

  25. Donald Carcieri

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    Donald Louis Carcieri ( kər-CHEER-ee; Italian: [karˈtʃɛːri]; born December 16, 1942) is an American politician and corporate executive who served as the 73rd governor of Rhode Island from January 2003 to January 2011. Carcieri has worked as a manufacturing company executive, aid relief worker, bank executive, and teacher. He is the most recent member of the Republican Party to have served as Governor of Rhode Island.

  26. Donovan Bailey

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    Donovan Bailey (born December 16, 1967) is a Jamaican-Canadian retired sprinter. He once held the world record for the 100 metres. He recorded a time of 9.84 seconds to become Olympic champion in 1996. He was the first Canadian to legally break the 10-second barrier in the 100 m. Particularly noted for his top speed, Bailey ran 12.10 m/s (43.6 km/h; 27.1 mph) in his 1996 Olympic title run, the fastest ever recorded by a human at the time. He was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2004 as an individual athlete and in 2008 as part of the 1996 Summer Olympics 4 × 100 relay team. In 2005, he was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.

  27. Elizabeth Carter

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    Elizabeth Carter (pen name Eliza; 16 December 1717 – 19 February 1806) was an English poet, classicist, writer, translator, and linguist. As one of the Bluestocking Circle that surrounded Elizabeth Montagu, she earned respect for the first English translation of the 2nd-century Discourses of Epictetus. She also published poems and translated from French and Italian, and corresponded profusely. Among her many eminent friends were Elizabeth Montagu, Hannah More, Hester Chapone and other Bluestocking members. Also close friends were Anne Hunter, a poet and socialite, and Mary Delany. She befriended Samuel Johnson, editing some editions of his periodical The Rambler.

  28. Ernst von Bergmann

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    Ernst Gustav Benjamin von Bergmann (16 December 1836 – 25 March 1907) was a Baltic German surgeon. He was the first physician to introduce heat sterilisation of surgical instruments and is known as a pioneer of aseptic surgery.

  29. Eulalio González

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    Eulalio "Lalo" González Ramírez (16 December 1921 – 1 September 2003), nicknamed "Piporro", was a Mexican actor, comedian, singer-songwriter, screenwriter, announcer, film director, and film producer.

  30. Fatima Lamarti

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    Fatima Lamarti (born 16 December 1966) is a Belgian politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of Vooruit, she has represented Flemish Brabant since June 2024. Lamarti was born on 16 December 1966 in Vilvoorde and is of Moroccan origin. Her mother is from Tangier and her father is from the Rif Mountains region. She was a school development worker for the municipal council in Vilvoorde for many years. She was later a manager at a transport company. She was also active in PROJO, a progressive youth organisation. Lamarti was elected to the municipal council in Vilvoorde at the 2000 local election. She was re-elected at the 2006, 2012 and 2018 local elections. She was Schepen (alderman) for education and social integration, Schepen for social affairs and equal opportunities, and a member of the board of directors of Incovo, the local municipal waste company in northern Halle-Vilvoorde. She was elected to the provincial council in Flemish Brabant at the 2006 local elections. She was re-elected at the 2012 and 2018 local elections. She resigned from the provincial council in July 2019. Lamarti unsuccessfully contested the 2009, 2014 and 2019 regional elections in Flemish Brabant. She was elected to the Chamber of Representatives at the 2024 federal election. She is contesting the 2024 local election as Vooruit's lead candidate for the provincial council in Flemish Brabant and would be required to give up her seat in the Chamber of Representatives if she is elected to the provincial council. Lamarti has three children.

  31. Frank Deford

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    Benjamin Franklin Deford III (December 16, 1938 – May 28, 2017) was an American sportswriter and novelist. From 1980 until his death in 2017, he was a regular sports commentator on NPR's Morning Edition radio program. Deford wrote for Sports Illustrated magazine from 1962 until his death in 2017, and was a correspondent for the Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel television program on HBO. He wrote 18 books, nine of them novels. A member of the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association Hall of Fame, Deford was six times voted National Sportswriter of the Year by the members of that organization, and was twice voted Magazine Writer of the Year by the Washington Journalism Review. In 2012, Deford became the first magazine recipient of the Red Smith Award. In 2013, he was awarded the National Humanities Medal, was presented with the William Allen White Citation for "excellence in journalism" by the University of Kansas, and became the first sports journalist ever to receive the National Press Foundation's highest honor, the W.M. Kiplinger Award for Distinguished Contributions to Journalism. Deford's archives are held by the University of Texas at Austin, where an annual lecture is presented in his name. He was a long-time advocate for research and treatment of cystic fibrosis.

  32. Freddie Brown

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    Frederick Richard Brown (16 December 1910 – 24 July 1991) was an English amateur cricketer who played Test cricket for England from 1931 to 1953, and first-class cricket for Cambridge University (1930–31), Surrey (1931–48), and Northamptonshire (1949–53). He was a genuine all-rounder, batting right-handed and bowling either right-arm medium pace or leg break and googly. Brown was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1933, but his career declined thereafter until he was made captain of Northamptonshire and England in 1949. Brown was an England selector from 1951 to 1953 and Chairman of Selectors in 1953 when England regained the Ashes. Subsequently, he was involved in cricket administration including tour management. He was elected President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1971–72 and Chairman of the Cricket Council in 1977. He was awarded the MBE in 1942 for his gallantry in the evacuation of the British Army from Crete and the CBE in 1980 for services to cricket.

  33. Frederick Rotimi Williams

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    Chief Frederick Rotimi Alade Williams, QC, SAN (16 December 1920 – 26 March 2005) was a prominent Nigerian lawyer who was the first Nigerian to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. In the 1950s, he was a member of the Action Group and subsequently became the minister for local government and justice. He was the president of the Nigerian Bar Association in 1959. He left politics in the 1960s, as a result of the political crisis in the Western Region of Nigeria. During his career, he was involved in memorable court cases, such as Lakanmi vs the Western Government of Nigeria, which set the precedent that a military government could not use its power to make laws that will appropriate an individual's property. The Oloye Williams, himself a Yoruba chieftain, was also among a group of lawyers that represented the Oba of Lagos, Adeniji Adele, against challenges by the Nigerian National Democratic Party. The latter had previously gained solidarity and foundation from the ruling House of Docemo in Lagos.

  34. Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher

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    Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher (German pronunciation: [ˈɡɛphaʁt ˈleːbəʁɛçt fɔn ˈblʏçɐ]; 16 December 1742 – 12 September 1819), Graf (count), later elevated to Fürst (prince) von Wahlstatt, was a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal). He earned his greatest recognition after leading his army against Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813 and the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Blücher was born in Rostock, the son of a retired army captain. His military career began in 1758 as a hussar in the Swedish Army. He was captured by the Prussians in 1760 during the Pomeranian Campaign and thereafter joined the Prussian Army, serving as a hussar officer for Prussia during the remainder of the Seven Years' War. In 1773, Blücher was forced to resign by Frederick the Great for insubordination. He worked as a farmer until the death of Frederick in 1786, when Blücher was reinstated and promoted to colonel. For his success in the French Revolutionary Wars, Blücher became a major general in 1794. He became a lieutenant general in 1801 and commanded the cavalry corps during the Napoleonic Wars in 1806. War broke out between Prussia and France again in 1813 and Blücher returned to active service at the age of 71. He became a leading hero of the Germans in the struggle to end foreign domination of their lands. He was appointed full general over the Prussian field forces and clashed with Napoleon at the Battles of Lützen and Bautzen. Later he won a critical victory over the French at the Battle of Katzbach. Blücher commanded the Prussian Army of Silesia at the Battle of Leipzig, where Napoleon was decisively defeated. For his role, Blücher was made a field marshal and given the title of Prince of Wahlstatt. After Napoleon's return in 1815, Blücher took command of the Prussian Army of the Lower Rhine and coordinated his force with that of the British and Allied forces under the Duke of Wellington. At the Battle of Ligny, he was injured, and the Prussians retreated. Partially recovered, Blücher resumed command and joined Wellington at the Battle of Waterloo, with the intervention of Blücher's army playing a decisive role in the final allied victory. Blücher was made an honorary citizen of Berlin, Hamburg and Rostock. Known for his fiery personality, he was nicknamed Marschall Vorwärts ("Marshal Forward") by his soldiers because of his aggressive approach in warfare. Along with Paul von Hindenburg, he was the most highly decorated Prussian-German soldier in history: Blücher and Hindenburg are the only Prussian-German military officers to have been awarded the Star of the Grand Cross of the Iron Cross. A statue once stood in the square that bore his name, Blücherplatz, in Breslau (today Wrocław).

  35. George Ignatieff

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    Count George Pavlovich Ignatieff (Russian: Георгий Павлович Игнатьев, romanized: Georgy Pavlovich Ignatyev; 16 December 1913 – 10 August 1989) was a Russian-born Canadian diplomat. His career spanned nearly five decades in World War II and the postwar period.

  36. George Santayana

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    George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) was a Spanish American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Born in Spain, he moved to the United States at the age of eight. As a philosopher, Santayana is known for aphorisms, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", and "Only the dead have seen the end of war", and his definition of beauty as "pleasure objectified". Although an atheist, Santayana respected the culture of the Spanish Catholic values, practices, and worldview, in which he was raised. As an intellectual, George Santayana was a broad-range cultural critic in several academic disciplines. At the age of 48, he left his academic position at Harvard University and permanently returned to Europe; his last will was to be buried in the Spanish Pantheon in the Campo di Verano, Rome.

  37. Grace Alele-Williams

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    Grace Awani Alele-Williams OON, FMAN, FNAE (16 December 1932 – 25 March 2022) was a Nigerian professor of mathematics education, who made history as the first Nigerian woman to receive a doctorate, and the first female vice-chancellor at any Nigerian university, at the University of Benin.

  38. H. D. Kumaraswamy

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    Haradanahalli Devegowda Kumaraswamy (born 16 December 1959) is an Indian politician and film producer who is serving as the 21st Minister of Heavy Industries and 14th Minister of Steel of India since 2024. He also served as the 12th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 2018 to 2019 and previously from 2006 to 2007. He was also the leader of the opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from 2013 to 2014. He is currently the president of the Karnataka State Janata Dal (Secular). He is a member of Lok Sabha, having been elected from Mandya and the former member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Channapatna from 2018 to 2024, Ramanagara from 2004 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2018. He is the son of former Chief Minister of Karnataka & Prime Minister of India H. D. Deve Gowda.

  39. Hans Bol

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    Hans Bol or Jan Bol (16 December 1534 – 20 November 1593), was a Flemish painter, miniature painter, print artist and draftsman. He is known for his landscapes, allegorical and biblical scenes, and genre paintings executed in a late Northern Mannerist style. After a successful career in Flanders, he left his home country for the Dutch Republic during the Siege of Antwerp. His landscape work had an important influence on the next generation of Dutch landscape painters. His prints after his own designs as well as those of Flemish masters such as Pieter Brueghel the Elder contributed to the spread of their themes in the Northern Netherlands.

  40. Hardie Albright

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    Hardie Hunter Albright (born Hardie Hunter Albrecht; December 16, 1903 – December 7, 1975) was an American actor.

  41. Heike Drechsler

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    Heike Gabriela Drechsler (German pronunciation: [ˈhaɪkə ˈdʁɛkslɐ] ; née Daute; born 16 December 1964) is a German former track and field athlete who represented East Germany and later Germany. One of the most successful long jumpers of all time, she is a former world record holder and ranks third on the all-time list with her legal best of 7.48 metres in 1988. Her marginally wind-assisted jump of 7.63 metres (+2.1) in 1992 at altitude in Sestriere, is still the furthest a woman has ever long jumped. She is the only woman who has won two Olympic gold medals in the long jump, winning in 1992 and 2000. Drechsler also won Olympic medals in the 100 metres and 200 metres in 1988, a silver medal in the 100 metres at the 1987 World Championships, and is a former world record holder in the 200 metres with 21.71 seconds in 1986.

  42. Hristo Tatarchev

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    Hristo Tatarchev (Macedonian and Bulgarian: Христо Татарчев; 16 December 1869 – 5 January 1952) was a Macedonian Bulgarian doctor, revolutionary and one of the founders of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO). Tatarchev was the first president of IMRO's Central Committee.

  43. Jack Hobbs

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    Sir John Berry Hobbs (16 December 1882 – 21 December 1963) was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches between 1908 and 1930. Known as "The Master", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century-maker in first-class cricket, with 61,760 runs and 199 centuries. A right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Hobbs also excelled as a fielder, particularly in the position of cover point. Hobbs was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Shane Warne, and Sir Viv Richards. His early batting was undistinguished, but a sudden improvement in 1901 brought him to the attention of local teams. In 1903, he successfully applied to join Surrey, with the support of England batsman Tom Hayward. His reputation grew and when he qualified to play for Surrey, he scored 88 on his first-class debut and a century in his next game. Over the following seasons, he established himself as a successful county player and in 1908 made his Test debut for England, scoring 83 in his first innings. After some mixed early performances for England, Hobbs's success against South African googly bowlers made his place secure, and by 1911–12, when he scored three centuries in the Test series against Australia, critics judged him the world's best batsman. In county cricket, he developed an attacking, dynamic style of play and was very successful up until 1914. After serving in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, he maintained his reputation when cricket resumed in 1919, but his career was threatened by appendicitis, which caused him to miss most of the 1921 season. When he returned, he was a more cautious batsman and used a safer style of play. Subsequently, he became more consistent and scored prolifically in both Test and domestic cricket until his retirement. During this period, he played some of his most acclaimed innings. Hobbs's success was based on fast footwork, an ability to play many different shots, and excellent placement of the ball. Among the first batsmen to succeed against previously devastating googly bowlers, he adapted his technique to meet the new styles of bowling that arose early in his career; he mixed classical shots with an effective defence. He was particularly successful on difficult pitches for batting. An opening batsman, Hobbs established several effective opening partnerships; with Tom Hayward and Andy Sandham for Surrey and with Wilfred Rhodes and Herbert Sutcliffe for England. Despite batting against "ruthless bowlers on very hostile pitches with [fewer] safety regulations", his partnership with Sutcliffe remains in 2022 the highest average for a first-wicket partnership in Test history by a wide margin. Contemporaries rated Hobbs extremely highly, and critics continue to list him among the best batsmen of all time. Hobbs was very close to Ada, his wife of 56 years; the pair were able to live comfortably in later life through Hobbs's substantial wage from Surrey, his commercial endorsements, and the proceeds of the sporting goods shop he opened in 1921 and ran for nearly the rest of his life. After his retirement from cricket, he also worked in journalism. Knighted in 1953—the first professional cricketer to be so honoured—he spent his later years nursing his wife. He died, aged 81, a few months after her in 1963.

  44. James McCracken

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    James McCracken (December 16, 1926 – April 29, 1988) was an American operatic tenor. At the time of his death The New York Times stated that McCracken was "the most successful dramatic tenor yet produced by the United States and a pillar of the Metropolitan Opera during the 1960s and 1970s."

  45. Jane Austen

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    Jane Austen ( OST-in, AW-stin; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English writer known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots often explore the dependence of women on marriage for the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her works are implicit critiques of the novels of sensibility of the second half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century literary realism. Her use of social commentary, realism, wit, and irony have earned her acclaim amongst critics and scholars. Austen wrote major novels before the age of 22, but she was not published until she was 35. The anonymously published Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), and Emma (1815) were moderate successes, but they did not bring her public fame in her lifetime. She wrote two other novels—Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, both published posthumously in 1817—and began another, eventually titled Sanditon, but it was left unfinished on her death. She also left behind three volumes of juvenile writings in manuscript, the short epistolary novel Lady Susan, and the unfinished novel The Watsons. Since her death Austen's novels have rarely been out of print. A significant transition in her reputation occurred in 1833, when they were republished in Richard Bentley's Standard Novels series (illustrated by Ferdinand Pickering and sold as a set). They gradually gained wide acclaim and popular readership. In 1869 her nephew published A Memoir of Jane Austen. Her work has inspired a large number of critical essays and has been included in many literary anthologies. Her novels have been frequently adapted into film and television. Notable film adaptations include Pride and Prejudice (1940), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Emma (1996), Mansfield Park (1999), Bride and Prejudice (2004), Pride & Prejudice (2005), Love & Friendship (2016), and Emma (2020). Notable television adaptations include Persuasion (1995), Pride and Prejudice (1995), Northanger Abbey (2007), Persuasion (2007), Lost in Austen (2008), Sense and Sensibility (2008), Emma (2009), and Sanditon (2019–2023).

  46. Jeff Kanew

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    Jeffrey Roger Kanew (born December 16, 1944) is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer and film editor who early in his career made trailers for many films of the 1970s and is probably best known for directing the film Revenge of the Nerds (1984) and for editing Ordinary People (1980). Kanew directed Gotcha! (1985) and Tough Guys (1986), the final film pairing actors Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, having initially directed Douglas in 1983's Eddie Macon's Run. His other directorial efforts include Troop Beverly Hills (starring Shelley Long), V.I. Warshawski (starring Kathleen Turner), Natural Enemies (starring Hal Holbrook and Louise Fletcher), Babij Jar, a Holocaust drama, National Lampoon's Adam & Eve, several TV episodes, and versions for the stage and video of the Kirk Douglas one-man show Before I Forget (2009). Kanew also directed the documentary Black Rodeo (1972), capturing the events surrounding the first ever performance of an all-black rodeo at Triborough Stadium on Randall's Island, New York. Kanew's son Justin Kanew is a reality show contestant from season 15 and season 18 of The Amazing Race. Justin was also the Democratic candidate for Congress in Tennessee's 7th District in the 2018 midterm election.

  47. Jen Golbeck

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    Jennifer Golbeck is an American computer scientist and journalist. She is a professor at the College of Information, an affiliate professor in the Computer Science Department, and an affiliate professor in the Journalism Department, all at the University of Maryland, College Park. Golbeck was director of the University of Maryland Human–Computer Interaction Lab from 2011 to 2014.

  48. Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland

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    Jerome Weston, 2nd Earl of Portland (16 December 1605 – 17 March 1663) was an English diplomat and landowner who held the presidency of Munster, Kingdom of Ireland.

  49. Joel Garner

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    Joel Garner (born 16 December 1952) is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early 1980s West Indies cricket teams. Garner is the highest ranked One Day International bowler according to the ICC best-ever bowling ratings, and is 37th in Tests. Garner was a member of the West Indies teams that won their second world title in the 1979 Cricket World Cup as well as finishing as runners-up at the 1983 Cricket World Cup. In conjunction with fellow fast bowlers Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Colin Croft, and later Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh, the West Indies reached unprecedented heights in the Test and one-day cricket arenas, not losing a Test series in 15 years. In 2010, Garner was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

  50. Johann Wilhelm Ritter

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    Johann Wilhelm Ritter (16 December 1776 – 23 January 1810) was a German chemist, physicist and philosopher. He is associated with the German Romanticism. He is also known for discovering the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum. He is also credited for the first achieved sustained electrolysis of water and the discovery of electroplating.

  51. John Gunn

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    John Gunn (16 December 1884 – 27 June 1959) was an Australian politician who served as the 29th Premier of South Australia, leading the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party to government at the 1924 election.

  52. John Morris

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    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.

  53. John Ordronaux

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    John Ordronaux (born Jean Ordronaux; December 16, 1778 – August 24, 1841) was a French-born privateer and businessman. Born in Nantes, Brittany, he eventually moved to the United States. During the War of 1812, Ordronaux captained two ships, Marengo and Prince de Neufchatel, and conducted several privateering cruises with both vessels. He captured or burnt approximately 30 British merchantmen and seized a total volume of goods worth between $250,000 and $300,000 during the war. Following the end of the conflict in 1815, Ordronaux settled in New York City in 1816 and married, having five children, including a son named John. After allegedly working in the sugar industry, he died at Cartagena, Colombia, South America in 1841.

  54. John Selden

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    John Selden (16 December 1584 – 30 November 1654) was an English jurist, a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law. He was known as a polymath; John Milton hailed Selden in 1644 as "the chief of learned men reputed in this land".

  55. Joyce Bulifant

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    Joyce Collins Bulifant (born December 16, 1937) is an American actress and author. In addition to recurring roles on television, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Marie Slaughter, Bulifant is recognized for film roles in The Happiest Millionaire and Airplane! and as a frequent panelist on game shows, including Chain Reaction, Match Game, and Password Plus.

  56. Jyoti Amge

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    Jyoti Kishanji Amge (born 16 December 1993) is an Indian model and actress notable for being the world's shortest living woman according to the Guinness World Records. Following Amge's 18th birthday on 16 December 2011, she was officially declared the world's shortest living woman by Guinness World Records with a height of 62.8 centimetres (2 ft 3⁄4 in). Her restricted height is due to a genetic disorder called primordial dwarfism. In 2012, she met the world's shortest man, Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal. The pair posed together for the 57th edition of the Guinness World Records. On 21 November 2024, she met Rumeysa Gelgi, the tallest living woman in the world, for the first time, at the Savoy Hotel in London.

  57. Kai Cenat

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    Kai Carlo Cenat III ( KY sə-NAT; born December 16, 2001) is an American online streamer, YouTuber, and internet personality who specializes in comedic live streams and videos. As of 2026, he is the most-subscribed Twitch streamer in the world, as well as the most-followed Twitch streamer with 21 million followers. He is a member of the streamer collective Any Means Possible (AMP). Regarded as one of the most popular online streamers in the world, he is known for popularizing several viral internet phrases like Rizz, Fanum tax, and Gyatt. Cenat has achieved significant milestones in the streaming community, notably becoming the first Twitch streamer to surpass 500,000 subscribers during his "Mafiathon 2" subathon in November 2024, and repeating the feat with 1,000,000 subscribers during his "Mafiathon 3" subathon in September 2025.

  58. Kelenna Azubuike

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    Kelenna Azubuike (born 16 December 1983) is a Nigerian-American former professional basketball player and currently the Golden State Warriors television analyst on NBC Sports Bay Area. Born in London to Nigerian parents, Azubuike moved to the United States as a child. He was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he became a standout player at Victory Christian High School, and was eventually recruited to play for the Wildcats of the University of Kentucky. After finishing his junior season in college, Azubuike declared himself eligible for the 2005 NBA draft, eventually going undrafted that year. Azubuike then played for the Fort Worth Flyers of the NBA Development League, leading the league in scoring during the 2006–07 season and eventually being called up to play for the Golden State Warriors.

  59. Kim Chwa-chin

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    Kim Chwajin (Korean: 김좌진; Hanja: 金佐鎭; 24 November 1889 – 24 January 1930), also known by his art name Paegya, was a Korean military officer, independence activist, and anarchist. Born into a noble family in the kingdom of Joseon, Kim was educated at the military academy of the newly-founded Korean Empire shortly before the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. After spending three years in prison for freeing his family's slaves, he joined the Korean independence movement and went to Manchuria to fight against the Empire of Japan. While in Manchuria, Kim established the Northern Military Administration Office in 1919 and trained Korean soldiers in guerrilla warfare before going on to lead the Korean Independence Army to victory in the Battle of Cheongsanri. In 1920, Kim co-founded the Korean Independence Corps and went to Siberia, but was forced back to Manchuria following the Free City Incident. He was subsequently influenced by anarchism and in 1925 established the New People's Administration, which Kim intended to follow egalitarian and libertarian principles. Following a split in the Administration, in 1929 he joined with young socialists and anarchists to establish the Korean People's Association in Manchuria, a self-governing federation of agricultural cooperatives. In 1930, he was assassinated by a young member of the Communist Party of Korea. Kim is considered a national hero in modern-day South Korea and has been compared to the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno.

  60. Krysten Ritter

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    Krysten Alyce Ritter (born December 16, 1981) is an American actress, musician, author, and former model. After an early modeling stint, she appeared on the UPN noir mystery series Veronica Mars (2005–2006) and the CW comedy drama series Gilmore Girls (2006–2007). Her breakthrough role was playing Jane Margolis on the AMC drama series Breaking Bad (2009–2010), a character she reprised in its spinoff film El Camino (2019). She headlined the ABC sitcom Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23 (2012–2013) before playing the character Jessica Jones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe series Jessica Jones (2015–2019), The Defenders (2017), and Daredevil: Born Again (2026–present). She appeared in the Max miniseries Love & Death (2023). Ritter's early film roles include the romantic comedies 27 Dresses (2007), What Happens in Vegas (2008), Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009), and She's Out of My League (2010). She wrote, co-produced, and starred in the comedy Life Happens (2011). Those roles were followed by parts in the horror comedy Vamps (2012), the comedy drama Listen Up Philip (2014), the Veronica Mars continuation (2014), the biographical drama Big Eyes (2014), the comedy drama The Hero (2017), and the dark fantasy film Nightbooks (2021). In addition to acting, Ritter is a singer and guitarist for the indie rock duo Ex Vivian, and wrote the psychological thriller novel Bonfire in 2017.

  61. Károly Kós

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    Károly Kós (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˈkaːroj ˈkoːʃ], born Károly Kosch; 16 December 1883 – 25 August 1977) was a Hungarian architect, writer, illustrator, ethnologist and politician of Hungary and Romania.

  62. Lesley Stahl

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    Lesley Rene Stahl (born December 16, 1941) is an American television journalist. She has spent most of her career with CBS News, where she began as a producer in 1971. Since 1991, she has reported for CBS's 60 Minutes. She is known for her news and television investigations and award-winning foreign reporting. For her body of work she has earned various journalism awards including a Lifetime Achievement News and Documentary Emmy Award in 2003 for overall excellence in reporting. Prior to joining 60 Minutes, Stahl served as CBS News White House correspondent – the first woman to hold that job – during the Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan presidencies and part of the term of George H. W. Bush. Her reports appeared frequently on the CBS Evening News, first with Walter Cronkite then with Dan Rather and on other CBS News broadcasts. During much of that time, she also served as moderator of Face the Nation, CBS News's Sunday public affairs broadcast from September 1983 to May 1991. As a moderator on Face the Nation, she interviewed world leaders, including Margaret Thatcher, Boris Yeltsin and Yasser Arafat. From 1990 to 1991, she was co-host with Charles Kuralt of America Tonight, a daily CBS News late-night broadcast of interviews and essays.

  63. Livia della Rovere

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    Livia della Rovere (16 December 1585 – 6 July 1641) was an Italian noblewoman of the House of della Rovere and the last Duchess of Urbino (1599–1631).

  64. Lizzy Mercier Descloux

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    Martine-Elisabeth Mercier Descloux (16 December 1956 – 20 April 2004) was a French musician, singer-songwriter, and composer associated with New York City's late 1970s no wave music scene. She recorded several albums on ZE Records beginning with her 1979 debut Press Color.

  65. Louis Jules Mancini Mazarini

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    Louis Jules Mancini, 4th (and last) Duke of Nevers (Louis Jules Barbon; 16 December 1716 – 25 February 1798) was a French diplomat and writer. The Duke was the sixth member elected to occupy seat No. 4 of the Académie française in 1742. In England, he was styled Duke of Nivernois.

  66. Lucille Lortel

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    Lucille Lortel (née Wadler, December 16, 1900 – April 4, 1999) was an American actress, artistic director, and theatrical producer. In the course of her career Lortel produced or co-produced nearly 500 plays, five of which were nominated for Tony Awards: As Is by William M. Hoffman, Angels Fall by Lanford Wilson, Blood Knot by Athol Fugard, Mbongeni Ngema's Sarafina!, and A Walk in the Woods by Lee Blessing. She also produced Marc Blitzstein's adaptation of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Threepenny Opera, a production which ran for seven years and according to The New York Times "caused such a sensation that it...put Off-Broadway on the map."

  67. Ludwig van Beethoven

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    Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a German composer, conductor, and pianist. Regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, he was mentored during the Classical period, and his musical style was a key driver of the transition to Romantic music, and the expansion of instrumental forms such as the symphony, the piano sonata and the string quartet. His compositions have attracted extraordinary casual and scholarly interest, and remain among the most performed in the world. Born in Bonn, Beethoven was a musical prodigy. He was initially taught intensively by his father, Johann van Beethoven, and later by Christian Gottlob Neefe. He found relief from a dysfunctional home life with the family of Helene von Breuning, whose children he loved, befriended, and taught piano. At age 21, he moved to Vienna, which subsequently became his base, and studied composition with Joseph Haydn. Beethoven gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist, and was soon patronized by Karl Alois, Prince Lichnowsky for compositions, which resulted in his three Piano Trios, Op. 1, (the earliest works to which he accorded an opus number) in 1795. His Pathétique Sonata was composed in 1798. Around this time, Beethoven began experiencing symptoms of hearing loss. His career is divided into three periods. In the first, he composed in the classical style of Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Beethoven's First Symphony premiered in 1800, and his first set of string quartets was published in 1801. The Moonlight Sonata, dedicated to his pupil Julie Guicciardi, is one of his most popular works. In the middle period (1802–1812), he developed a distinctive style. His Third (Eroica) and Fifth Symphonies premiered in 1805 and 1808, respectively. The former was unprecedented in scale and scope. His opera, Fidelio, premiered in 1805, and was later revised. His Violin Concerto appeared in 1806. His Razumovsky quartets were published in 1808. Other middle works include the Waldstein and Appassionata sonatas for piano, the Kreutzer sonata for violin and his Seventh Symphony. His Emperor piano concerto premiered in 1811, without the composer as soloist. His late period (1812–1827) included some of his most innovative works. His Missa solemnis and his final symphony, the Ninth, premiered in 1824. The latter was the first major example of a choral symphony. His Diabelli Variations and late piano sonatas, particularly the Hammerklavier, are summits of the keyboard literature. His late string quartets, including the Große Fuge, of 1825–1826, are considered pinnacles of the genre. After several months of illness, which left him bedridden, Beethoven died on 26 March 1827 at the age of 56.

  68. Léon Walras

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    Marie-Esprit-Léon Walras (French: [valʁas]; 16 December 1834 – 5 January 1910) was a French mathematical economist and Georgist. He formulated the marginal theory of value (independently of William Stanley Jevons and Carl Menger) and pioneered the development of general equilibrium theory. Walras is best known for his book Éléments d'économie politique pure, a work that has contributed greatly to the mathematization of economics through the concept of general equilibrium. For Walras, exchanges only take place after a Walrasian tâtonnement (French for "trial and error"), guided by the auctioneer, has made it possible to reach market equilibrium. It was the general equilibrium obtained from a single hypothesis, rarity, that led Joseph Schumpeter to consider him "the greatest of all economists". The notion of general equilibrium was very quickly adopted by major economists such as Vilfredo Pareto, Knut Wicksell and Gustav Cassel. John Hicks and Paul Samuelson used the Walrasian contribution in the elaboration of the neoclassical synthesis. For their part, Kenneth Arrow and Gérard Debreu, from the perspective of a logician and a mathematician, determined the conditions necessary for equilibrium.

  69. Margaret Mead

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    Margaret Mead (December 16, 1901 – November 15, 1978) was an American cultural anthropologist, author and speaker, who appeared frequently in the mass media during the mid-twentieth century. Mead's first ethnographic work, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928), addressed adolescence and sexuality and catapulted her to national visibility. Her book Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (1935), explored gender roles and personality based on fieldwork in Papua New Guinea. Mead also conducted fieldwork with the Omaha people; in Manus, Papua New Guinea; and in Bali. She wrote Keep Your Powder Dry, an ethnographic examination of American life, in the hopes of supporting mobilization for World War II. She coordinated two comparative studies on modern cultures in the 1950s, while focusing her own work on Russia. Her later work included returns to Papua New Guinea, Bali, and Samoa for longitudinal studies. She was curator of ethnology at the American Museum of Natural History from 1946 to 1969. Mead served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1975. According to anthropologist Paul Shankman, "Mead was anthropology’s most significant public voice during the twentieth century." She is regarded as a founding figure in public anthropology and visual anthropology. Her ethnography of the South Pacific and Melanesia has been subject to vigorous academic debate. From the 1920s to the 1960s, her fieldwork was widely discussed in the press and she wrote a monthly column in Redbook magazine co-authored with partner Rhoda Métraux. Her reports detailing the attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures influenced the 1960s sexual revolution. Mead's association with cultural relativism and the sexual revolution led to sharp criticism from conservatives.

  70. Marie Hall Ets

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    Marie Hall Ets (December 16, 1895 – January 17, 1984) was an American writer and illustrator who is best known for children's picture books.

  71. Maruschka Detmers

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    Maruschka Detmers (born 16 December 1962, Schoonebeek) is a Dutch actress. She moved to France as a teenager after finishing school, where she captured the attention of director Jean-Luc Godard. In 1983, she made her dramatic debut under Godard's direction in Prénom Carmen. Other noteworthy films include Hanna's War (1988) and The Mambo Kings (1992), but she is best known for her role in Devil in the Flesh (1986).

  72. Mary Hartwell Catherwood

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    Mary Hartwell Catherwood (December 16, 1847 – December 26, 1902) was an American writer of popular historical romances, short stories, and poetry. Early in her career she published under her birth name, Mary Hartwell, and under the pseudonym Lewtrah (Hartwell spelled backwards, with the final letter dropped). She was known for setting her works in the Midwest, for a strong interest in American dialects, and for bringing a high standard of historical accuracy to the period detail of her novels.

  73. Mary Russell Mitford

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    Mary Russell Mitford (16 December 1787 – 10 January 1855) was an English essayist, novelist, poet and dramatist. She was born in New Alresford in Hampshire, England. She is best known for Our Village, a series of sketches of village scenes and vividly drawn characters based upon her life in Three Mile Cross near Reading in Berkshire.

  74. Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort

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    Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort (baptised 16 December 1630 – 7 January 1715) also known by her other married name of Mary Seymour, Lady Beauchamp and her maiden name Mary Capell, was an English noblewoman, gardener and botanist. Among her introductions to British gardening are Pelargonium zonale, Ageratum species and Passiflora caerulea.

  75. Mats Hummels

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    Mats Julian Hummels (German pronunciation: [ˈmats ˈhʊml̩s]; born 16 December 1988) is a German former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. Considered one of the best defenders of his generation, he was known for his tackling, anticipation, goal scoring ability and deadly crosses. Hummels came through the Bayern Munich youth academy before joining Borussia Dortmund on loan in January 2008, and officially signing for Dortmund in February 2009 for €4 million. He rejoined Bayern in 2016 for an undisclosed fee, and was sold back to Dortmund three years later, having won the Bundesliga in all his seasons in Munich. Hummels made over 500 total appearances for Dortmund, winning the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal twice, as well as finishing runner-up in the UEFA Champions League in 2013 and 2024. After a season in Italy with Roma, Hummels announced his retirement from the sport in 2025. Hummels was part of the Germany national team from 2010 to 2023, earning over 70 caps. He represented the nation at the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and 2018, winning the former edition, and at the UEFA European Championship in 2012, 2016 and 2020.

  76. Melanie Sloan

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    Melanie Sloan (born December 16, 1965) is an American attorney, former counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, and the former executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit government ethics and accountability watchdog group. In March 2017, Sloan joined a new government ethics watchdog group, American Oversight, as senior adviser.

  77. Menahem Pressler

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    Menahem Pressler (Hebrew: מנחם פרסלר; 16 December 1923 – 6 May 2023) was a German-born Israeli-American pianist and university instructor. He co-founded the Beaux Arts Trio in 1955 and performed with the group until its dissolution in 2008, playing in hundreds of recordings and concerts. He taught at Indiana University Bloomington, and his playing was described as focused on elegance, delicacy, and clarity.

  78. Mira Antonitsch

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    Mira Antonitsch (born 16 December 1998) is an inactive Austrian tennis player. Antonitsch has won two singles and five doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 12 June 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 507. On 4 November 2019, she peaked at No. 717 in the WTA doubles rankings. In May 2016, Antonitsch was awarded a wildcard into the main draw of the 2016 Nürnberger Versicherungscup, but lost in the first round to fourth seed and world No. 42, Lesia Tsurenko.

  79. Morris Dees

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    Morris Seligman Dees Jr. (born December 16, 1936) is an American attorney, businessman, and civil rights activist who in 1971 co-founded, alongside Joseph J. Levin Jr., and served as its chief trial counsel, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Dees and his colleagues at the SPLC have been "credited with devising innovative ways to cripple hate groups" such as the Ku Klux Klan, particularly by using "damage litigation". On March 14, 2019, the SPLC announced that Dees had been fired from the organization and that the SPLC would hire an "outside organization" to assess the SPLC's workplace climate. Former employees alleged that Dees was "complicit" in harassment and racial discrimination, and said that at least one female employee had accused him of sexual harassment.

  80. Nabi Bux Khan Baloch

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    Nabi Bakhsh Khan Baloch (Sindhi: نبي بخش خان بلوچ; 16 December 1917 – 6 April 2011) was a Pakistani research scholar, historian, Sindhologist, educationist, linguist and writer. He predominantly wrote in Sindhi, but also in Urdu, English, Persian and Arabic. He has been described as the "moving library" of the Pakistani province of Sindh. The author of some 150 books, he contributed to many subjects and disciplines of knowledge, which include history, education, folklore, archeology, anthropology, musicology, Islamic culture and civilisation. He contributed two articles - on Sindh and Baluchistan - which appeared in the Fifteenth Edition of Encyclopædia Britannica, 1972. Baloch did pioneering work on the classic poets of Sindh, culminating in the ten-volume critical text of Shah Jo Risalo, the poetic compendium of the Sufi poet of Sindh, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. He edited 42 volumes on Sindhi folklore, with scholarly prefaces in English, under the heading of the Folklore and Literature Project. In addition, he compiled and published a Sindhi dictionary, Jami'a Sindhi Lughaat in five volumes, which was later revised into three volumes. With Ghulam Mustafa Khan, he also compiled Sindhi-to-Urdu, Urdu-to-Sindhi dictionaries. His works also include the compilation and editing of classical Sindhi poets, including Shah Inayat Rizvi, Qadi Qadan, Khalifo Nabibakhsh, and Hamal Faqir. In the field of history, he edited works including Tareekh Ma'soomee, Chachnama, Tuhfatul Kiram by Mir Ali Sher Qania, Lubb-i-Tareekh Sindh by Khudad Khan, Tareekh-i-Tahiree by Mir Tahir Muhammad Nisyani, Beglar Nama by Idrakee Beglaree.

  81. Nicholas Courtney

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    William Nicholas Stone Courtney (16 December 1929 – 22 February 2011) was an Egyptian-born British actor. He was best known for his long-running role as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.

  82. Nicolas Sidjakov

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    Nicolas Sidjakov (December 16, 1924 – June 20, 1993) was an American commercial artist and illustrator. He was a co-founder of Sidjakov & Berman Associates and later Sidjakov, Berman & Gomez design firms.

  83. Nigel Hayes

    Athlete 0 visits Profile Wikipedia

    Nigel Hayes-Davis (né Hayes; born December 16, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for Panathinaikos of the Greek Basketball League and the EuroLeague. He attended Whitmer High School in Toledo, Ohio and played college basketball for the Wisconsin Badgers. A two-time All-EuroLeague First Team selection, Hayes-Davis holds the record for most points scored in a EuroLeague game, having scored 50 points against Alba Berlin in the 2023–24 season. He won the EuroLeague championship in 2025 with Fenerbahçe, earning the Final Four MVP award in the process.

  84. Noël Coward

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    Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899 – 26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise". Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage début at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set. Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onwards. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theatre repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theatre works (including the operetta Bitter Sweet and comic revues), screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography. Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades, during which he starred in many of his own works, as well as those of others. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Coward volunteered for war work, running the British propaganda office in Paris. He also worked with the Secret Service, seeking to use his influence to persuade the American public and government to help Britain. Coward won an Academy Honorary Award in 1943 for his naval film drama In Which We Serve and was knighted in 1970. In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs, such as "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "London Pride", and "I Went to a Marvellous Party". Coward's plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. He did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner, and in Coward's diaries and letters, published posthumously. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.

  85. O. Winston Link

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    Ogle Winston Link (December 16, 1914 – January 30, 2001), known commonly as O. Winston Link, was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photography and sound recordings of the last days of steam locomotive railroading on the Norfolk and Western in the United States in the late 1950s. A commercial photographer, Link helped establish rail photography as a hobby. He also pioneered night photography, producing several well-known examples including Hotshot Eastbound, a photograph of a steam train passing a drive-in movie theater, and Hawksbill Creek Swimming Hole showing a train crossing a bridge above children bathing.

  86. Olavo Bilac

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    Olavo Brás Martins dos Guimarães Bilac (16 December 1865 – 28 December 1918), known simply as Olavo Bilac (Portuguese pronunciation: [oˈlavu biˈlak(i)]), was a Brazilian Parnassian poet, journalist and translator. Alongside Alberto de Oliveira and Raimundo Correia, he was a member of the "Parnassian Triad". He was elected the "Prince of Brazilian Poets" in 1907 by the magazine Fon-Fon. He wrote the lyrics of the Brazilian Flag Anthem. He founded and occupied the 15th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1918. He is also the patron of the military service in Brazil due to his campaigns in favor of conscription.

  87. Peter Dickinson

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    Peter Malcolm de Brissac Dickinson OBE FRSL (16 December 1927 – 16 December 2015) was an English author and poet, best known for children's books and detective stories. Dickinson won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association for both Tulku (1979) and City of Gold (1980), each being recognised as the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. Through 2020 he is one of eight writers to win two Carnegies; no one has won three. He was also a highly commended runner-up for Eva (1988) and four times a commended runner-up. For his contributions as a children's writer Dickinson was a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2000.

  88. Philip Langridge

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    Philip Gordon Langridge (16 December 1939 – 5 March 2010) was an English tenor, considered to be among the foremost exponents of English opera and oratorio.

  89. Piet Hein

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    Piet Hein (16 December 1905 – 17 April 1996) was a Danish polymath (mathematician, inventor, designer, writer and poet), often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym Kumbel, meaning "tombstone". His short poems, known as gruks or grooks (Danish: gruk), first started to appear in the daily newspaper Politiken shortly after the German occupation of Denmark in April 1940 under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell". He also invented the Soma cube and the board game Hex.

  90. Rafael Alberti

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    Rafael Alberti Merello (16 December 1902 – 28 October 1999) was a Spanish poet, a member of the Generation of '27. He is considered one of the greatest literary figures of the so-called Silver Age of Spanish Literature, and he won numerous prizes and awards. He died aged 96. After the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile because of his Marxist beliefs. On his return to Spain after the death of Franco, Alberti was named Hijo Predilecto de Andalucía in 1983, and Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universidad de Cádiz in 1985. He published his memoirs under the title La Arboleda perdida ("The Lost Grove") in 1959 and this remains the best source of information on his early life.

  91. Rebecca Forstadt

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    Rebecca Forstadt is an American voice actress, best known for playing young female roles in various animated series.

  92. Remedios Varo

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    María de los Remedios Alicia Rodriga Varo y Uranga (known as Remei or Remedios Varo, 16 December 1908 – 8 October 1963) was a Spanish surrealist painter, writer, and graphic artist. Her work features Surrealist worlds, where science, mysticism, and magic mix together. One of the first women to study at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid, she went on to establish herself in Barcelona in 1932. While there, she worked as a graphic designer and joined the Surrealist group Logicofobista. In 1937, Remedios moved to Paris with French poet Benjamin Péret. With the Nazis arrival in Paris in 1941, she self exiled to Mexico. Varo never returned to Spain. Despite widespread belief, Remedios Varo never became a Mexican citizen. Though she never returned to her homeland, she kept her Spanish citizenship, unlike her friend Leonora Carrington, who was naturalized as a United States citizen.

  93. Ruth Johnson Colvin

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    Ruth Johnson Colvin (December 16, 1916 – August 18, 2024) was an American philanthropist who was the founder of the non-profit organization Literacy Volunteers of America, now called ProLiteracy Worldwide in Syracuse, New York, in 1962. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in December 2006.

  94. Seyhan Kurt

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    Seyhan Kurt (born December 16, 1971) is a French-Turkish poet, writer, anthropologist and sociologist.

  95. Sid Eudy

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    Sidney Raymond Eudy (December 16, 1960 – August 26, 2024) was an American professional wrestler, best known for his tenures in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) under the ring names Sid Justice, Sid Vicious, and Sycho Sid. He was a two-time WWF Champion and two-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion. Eudy wrestled in a number of promotions, most notably the Continental Wrestling Association (CWA) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), en route to being signed by WCW in 1989 under the name "Sid Vicious". There, Sid was part of The Skyscrapers tag team with Dan Spivey, then part of The Four Horsemen in 1990 to 1991 with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson, and Barry Windham. In the summer of 1991, Eudy jumped to the WWF and adopted the ring name "Sid Justice", going on to main event WrestleMania VIII against Hulk Hogan in April 1992. Eudy abruptly quit the promotion later that spring following disagreements with management, and he returned to WCW at Slamboree '93: A Legends' Reunion in May 1993. Five months later, Eudy was involved in an infamous real-life altercation with Arn Anderson, which led to his immediate termination from WCW. This was just months prior to Sid's planned winning of the WCW World Heavyweight Championship at Starrcade '93: 10th Anniversary that December. After a run in the United States Wrestling Association (USWA), where he won the USWA Unified World Heavyweight Championship twice, Eudy returned to the WWF in 1995 as "Sycho Sid", first as a bodyguard for Shawn Michaels, and then as part of Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation stable. He won the WWF Championship in 1996 by beating Michaels, where notably he was wildly cheered on by the crowd despite being a heel character. He won it again, this time from Bret Hart, in 1997, after which he headlined the WrestleMania 13 pay-per-view against challenger The Undertaker. Following an injury, Eudy left the WWF and spent some time on the independent circuit and in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Eudy (as "Sid Vicious") returned to WCW in 1999 where he feuded with Kevin Nash and Scott Steiner before winning the WCW United States Heavyweight Championship. He headlined Starrcade in December 2000 and defeated Nash on two occasions to win the WCW World Heavyweight Championship. During the main event of the 2001 pay-per-view Sin, Eudy jumped off the ropes and suffered a double compound fracture in his left leg, which forced him to largely retire from professional wrestling. He returned to the WWE in 2012 in two appearances as Sycho Sid as part of WWE Raw 1000. Eudy died of cancer in 2024. He was posthumously inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2026.

  96. Simon Grayson

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    Simon Nicholas Grayson (born 16 December 1969) is an English professional football manager and former player who is assistant coach of the Indonesia national team. As a player, he was a right back, but he was also utilised in midfield in a career that lasted from 1988 until 2006. Having started his career with Leeds United, he played in the Premier League for Leicester City, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers, before moving into the Football League with Sheffield Wednesday, Stockport County, Notts County, Bradford City and Blackpool. He won promotion twice with Leicester City, both via the playoffs, in 1993–94 and 1995–96, and followed it up with a League Cup win in 1996–97. His next piece of silverware came at Blackpool in 2003–04, when he lifted the Football League Trophy. He was appointed as player-manager of Blackpool in 2005, and a year later retired from playing to concentrate on the managerial side of his job. He guided the club to promotion, via the playoffs, from League One to the Championship in 2006–07. In 2008, he was appointed manager of Leeds United, leading them to promotion to the Championship in 2010. Dismissed in February 2012, he moved to Huddersfield Town, where he again gained promotion from League One via the play-offs, beating Sheffield United in the final. In February 2013, Grayson became the new manager of Preston North End, winning promotion from League One to the Championship with them in 2014–15, and later had short spells in charge of Sunderland, Bradford City, Blackpool again and Fleetwood Town.

  97. Stanislav Manolev

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    Stanislav Lyubenov Manolev (Bulgarian: Станислав Любенов Манолев; born 16 December 1985) is a Bulgarian professional football manager and former player. During his playing career, his primary position was at right-back.

  98. Steven Bochco

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    Steven Ronald Bochco (December 16, 1943 – April 1, 2018) was an American television writer and producer. He developed a number of television series, mostly crime dramas, including Hill Street Blues; L.A. Law; Doogie Howser, M.D.; Cop Rock; and NYPD Blue.

  99. Stuart Donaldson

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    Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson (16 December 1812 – 11 January 1867) was the first Premier of the Colony of New South Wales.

  100. Terry Carter

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    John Everett DeCoste (December 16, 1928 – April 23, 2024), known professionally as Terry Carter, was an African-American actor and filmmaker, known for his roles as Sgt. Joe Broadhurst on the television series McCloud and as Colonel Tigh on the original Battlestar Galactica.

  101. Themba Mnguni

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    Themba Mnguni (born 16 December 1973) is a retired South African football player who played mostly for Mamelodi Sundowns and Supersport United. He played for South Africa national soccer team and was in part of the squad that travelled to France for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

  102. Theo James

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    Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis (born 16 December 1984) is an English actor and producer. He gained recognition for playing Tobias Eaton in The Divergent Series (2014–2016). He has starred in the horror films Underworld: Awakening (2012) and Underworld: Blood Wars (2016), the science fiction film Archive (2020), and the dark comedy The Monkey (2025) in a dual role as a pair of twin brothers. In television, James appeared in the short-lived CBS crime drama series Golden Boy (2013), the romance series The Time Traveler's Wife (2022), and the dark comedy series The White Lotus (2022), which earned him a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award. Since 2024, he has played the lead role in Guy Ritchie's action comedy series The Gentlemen.

  103. Tony Hicks

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    Anthony Christopher Hicks (born 16 December 1945) is an English guitarist and singer who has been a member of the British rock/pop band the Hollies since 1963, and as such was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010. His main roles within the band are lead guitarist and backing singer.

  104. Trevor Immelman

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    Trevor John Immelman (born 16 December 1979) is a South African retired professional golfer and television commentator who has played on the PGA Tour, European Tour and Sunshine Tour. He won his sole major championship at the 2008 Masters Tournament. He is the chairman of the Official World Golf Ranking board.

  105. Valentin Bădoi

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    Valentin Emanoil Bădoi (born 16 December 1975) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player.

  106. Valerie Chow

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    Valerie Chow (born 16 December 1970) is a Hong Kong former actress, fashion publicist, and entrepreneur. In English language film and television roles, she was credited as Rachel Shane. She starred in numerous films and television series, including in Wong Kar-wai's 1994 feature, Chungking Express, for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 14th Hong Kong Film Awards. Chow was also a former Miss Hong Kong second runner-up in 1991. She is also the first Chinese model to be signed by US cosmetics company Revlon in 1998. Since 2003, she has worked primarily as a fashion publicist and in 2010, opened Mama Kid, a children's designer concept store in Hong Kong. In 2018, she made a return to acting, starring in the film Prison Architect by Chinese visual artist Cao Fei. The film was commissioned by Tai Kwun, the Centre for Heritage and Arts in Hong Kong, and screened at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival as part of their Forum Expanded programme. The movie was well received. Many described the film as "very heartfelt and beautiful".

  107. Viktor Bunyakovsky

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    Viktor Yakovlevich Bunyakovsky (Russian: Виктор Яковлевич Буняковский; Ukrainian: Віктор Якович Буняковський, romanized: Viktor Yakovych Buniakovskyi; 16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1804 – 12 December [O.S. 30 November] 1889) was a Russian mathematician, member and later vice president of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences. Bunyakovsky was a mathematician, noted for his work in theoretical mechanics and number theory (see: Bunyakovsky conjecture), and is credited with an early discovery of the Cauchy–Schwarz inequality, proving it for the infinite dimensional case as well as for definite integrals of real-valued functions in 1859, many years prior to Hermann Schwarz's works on the subject.

  108. Wassily Kandinsky

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    Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (16 December [O.S. 4 December] 1866 – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist active in Germany during the late Belle Époque and Interwar eras. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in Western art. Born in Moscow, he began painting studies (life-drawing, sketching and anatomy) at the age of 30. In 1896, Kandinsky settled in Munich, studying first at Anton Ažbe's private school and then at the Academy of Fine Arts. During this time, he was first the teacher and then the partner of German artist Gabriele Münter. He returned to Moscow in 1914 after the outbreak of World War I. Following the Russian Revolution, Kandinsky "became an insider in the cultural administration of Anatoly Lunacharsky" and helped establish the Museum of the Culture of Painting. However, by then, "his spiritual outlook... was foreign to the argumentative materialism of Soviet society" and opportunities beckoned in Germany, to which he returned in 1920. There, he taught at the Bauhaus school of art and architecture from 1922 until the Nazis closed it in 1933. He then moved to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and producing some of his most prominent art. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944.

  109. Wendy Doolan

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    Wendy Doolan (born 16 December 1968) is a former Australian professional golfer who played mainly on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.

  110. Wilfred Ndidi

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    Onyinye Wilfred Ndidi (born 16 December 1996) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Süper Lig club Beşiktaş and captains the Nigeria national team.

  111. Xander Berkeley

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    Alexander Harper Berkeley (born December 16, 1955) is an American actor. Since beginning his career in the early 1980s, he has appeared in over 200 film and television projects. His films include Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Candyman (1992), Apollo 13, Barb Wire (1996), Air Force One (1997), Gattaca (1997), and Shanghai Noon (2000). He also appeared in the crime dramas L.A. Takedown (1989) and its remake Heat (1995), although he played a different character in each film. On television, he headlined the Citytv psychological thriller The Booth at the End (2010–2012) and was a series regular on the Fox action drama 24 (2001–2003) and The CW action thriller Nikita (2010–2012). As a guest star, Berkeley portrayed Sheriff Thomas McAllister on the CBS drama The Mentalist (2008–2013) and Gregory on the AMC post-apocalyptic horror The Walking Dead (2016–2018).

  112. Zara Larsson

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    Zara Maria Larsson (Swedish: [ˈsɑ̂ːra ˈlɑ̌ːʂɔn] ; born 16 December 1997) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She first rose to prominence in 2008 after winning the second season of the Swedish talent show competition Talang. Larsson signed with Ten Music Group in 2012, and released her debut extended play (EP), Introducing, the following year. Its single "Uncover" charted at number one in Sweden, where it was certified six-times platinum, and in Norway. Her debut studio album, 1 (2014), spawned the Swedish top-ten singles "Carry You Home" and "Rooftop". Larsson later signed a three-year contract with Epic Records in the United States, through which she released her debut international album, So Good (2017). The record became her second number-one album in Sweden, while charting in the top-ten in seven other countries. Its lead single "Lush Life" charted in the top-five in 18 countries and became one of the best-selling songs of the 2010s in the United Kingdom. The album features the follow-up singles "Never Forget You" (with MNEK) and "Ain't My Fault", both of which reached number one in Sweden, as well as "I Would Like", which reached number two in the UK. Larsson was featured on Clean Bandit's 2017 single "Symphony", which topped the UK singles chart, as well as the Swedish and Norwegian charts. Her third studio album, Poster Girl (2021), was led by the single "Ruin My Life", which reached the top ten in the UK and Sweden, and earned a platinum certification in the United States. In 2022, Larsson left Ten Music Group and acquired her music catalogue. Her fourth studio album, Venus, was released in 2024 under Epic Records and her own label, Sommer House. Its singles "Can't Tame Her" and "On My Love" (with David Guetta) achieved commercial success in Europe, reaching the top five in Sweden and the top thirty in the United Kingdom. Larsson subsequently made her acting debut in the Swedish Netflix drama A Part of You (2024). Her fifth studio album, Midnight Sun (2025), was released to widespread critical acclaim. Its title track became Larsson's highest charting solo entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, and earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Dance Pop Recording. In 2025, she collaborated with British singer-songwriter and producer PinkPantheress on the track "Stateside + Zara Larsson", which reached number one on the Billboard Global 200 and the top ten on the Hot 100. In Sweden, Larsson has achieved a total of five number one singles on the Sverigetopplistan chart, three number one albums, with her EP Honor the Light (2023) also topping the charts. She is the recipient of two American Music Awards, a Bambi Award, four Grammis awards, four MTV Europe Music Awards, and has been nominated for four Brit Awards and a Grammy Award.

  113. Éric Bélanger

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    Éric Bélanger (born December 16, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played the majority of his professional career as a centre in the National Hockey League (NHL), representing the Los Angeles Kings, Carolina Hurricanes, Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, Washington Capitals, Phoenix Coyotes and Edmonton Oilers. He was originally drafted in the fourth round, 96th overall, in the 1996 NHL entry draft by Los Angeles. In 2021, Bélanger was named the first head coach the Trois-Rivières Lions, an expansion team in the ECHL affiliated with the Montreal Canadiens. He has also served as an assistant coach for the UQTR Patriotes men's ice hockey team.

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