Who was born on December 23?
December 23 is packed with notable birthdays. Explore 119 famous birthdays, sorted by recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Top ranked names include Adly Mansour, Adrian Belew, Agustín Delgado, Akihito, Andres Alver. Filter by actor, musician, athlete, and more — or open any other calendar day.
December 23
119 people
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Adly Mansour
Adly Mahmoud Mansour (Arabic: عدلى محمود منصور, romanized: ʻAdlī Maḥmūd Manṣūr, pronounced [ˈʕædli mæħˈmuːd mɑnˈsˤuːɾ]; born 23 December 1945) is an Egyptian judge and politician who served as the president (or chief justice) of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Egypt. He also served as interim president of Egypt from 4 July 2013 to 8 June 2014 following the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état by the military which deposed President Mohamed Morsi. Several secular and religious figures, such as the Grand Imam of al-Azhar (Ahmed el-Tayeb), the Coptic Pope (Tawadros II), and Mohamed ElBaradei supported the coup against President Morsi and the military appointed Mansour interim-president until an election could take place. Morsi refused to acknowledge his removal as valid and continued to maintain that only he could be considered the legitimate President of Egypt. Mansour was sworn into office in front of the Supreme Constitutional Court on 4 July 2013.
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Adrian Belew
Robert Steven "Adrian" Belew (born December 23, 1949) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. A multi-instrumentalist primarily known as a guitarist and singer, he is noted for his unusual approach to the instrument, his playing cited as fluid, expressive, and often resembling "animal noises or mechanical rumblings". Widely recognized as an "incredibly versatile [guitar] player", Belew is perhaps best known for his tenure as guitarist and frontman in the progressive rock group King Crimson between 1981 and 2009. He has also released nearly twenty solo albums for Island Records and Atlantic Records in various styles. In addition, Belew has been a member of the intermittently active band the Bears, and fronted GaGa in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Belew has also worked extensively as a session, guest, and touring musician, including periods with Frank Zappa, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Laurie Anderson, and Nine Inch Nails, as well as contributing to hit singles by Paul Simon, Tom Tom Club, and others. His 1989 solo single "Oh Daddy" was a top ten hit in the United States, and his 2005 single "Beat Box Guitar" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Belew has also worked in instrument design and multimedia, collaborating with Parker Guitars to help design his Parker Fly signature guitar, and designing two iOS mobile apps.
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Agustín Delgado
Agustín Javier Delgado Chalá (born 23 December 1974) is an Ecuadorian politician and former professional footballer who played as a forward. Nicknamed El Tín, he was the all-time top scorer for the Ecuador national team with 31 goals in 72 games, before being overtaken by Enner Valencia. Delgado played professional club football in Ecuador, Mexico and England. Delgado made his debut for Ecuador against Peru in 1994. He was part of their squad at the FIFA World Cup in 2002 and 2006, becoming the first Ecuadorian to score a goal at the tournament.
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Akihito
Akihito (born 23 December 1933) is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The era of his rule was named the Heisei era, Heisei being an expression of achieving peace worldwide. Akihito was born as the fifth child and first son of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Kōjun. During the Second World War, he moved out of Tokyo with his classmates and remained in Nikkō until the surrender of Japan. In 1952, his Coming-of-Age ceremony and investiture as crown prince were held, and he began to undertake official duties in his capacity as crown prince. The next year, he made his first journey overseas and represented Japan at the coronation of Elizabeth II in London. He completed his university education in 1956. In April 1959, he married Michiko Shōda, a commoner; it was the first imperial wedding to be televised in Japan, drawing about 15 million viewers. The couple has three children: Naruhito, Fumihito, and Sayako. Akihito succeeded to the Chrysanthemum Throne and became emperor upon his father's death in January 1989, with an enthronement ceremony in 1990. He made efforts to bring the Japanese imperial family closer to the Japanese people, and made official visits to all forty-seven prefectures of Japan and to many of the remote islands of Japan. He has a keen interest in natural life and conservation, as well as Japanese and world history. Akihito abdicated in 2019, citing his advanced age and declining health, and assumed the title Emperor Emeritus (上皇, Jōkō; lit. 'Retired Emperor'). He was succeeded by his elder son, Naruhito, whose era is named Reiwa (令和). At age 92, Akihito is the longest-lived verifiable Japanese emperor in recorded history. During his reign, 17 prime ministers served in 25 terms, beginning with Noboru Takeshita and ending with Shinzo Abe. He is the oldest living member of the Imperial House of Japan, following the death of Yuriko, Princess Mikasa, on 15 November 2024.
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Andres Alver
Andres Alver (born 23 December 1953) is an Estonian architect. Born in Tartu, from 1961 to 1972, Alver studied in the 2nd Secondary School of Tartu (today's Miina Härma Gymnasium). From 1972, Alver studied in the State Art Institute of the Estonian SSR (today's Estonian Academy of Arts) in the department of architecture, graduating in 1977. From 1977 to 1990, Alver worked in the architectural office of the S. M. Kirov collective farm. From 1990 to 2006, Alver worked in the architectural bureau Alver&Trummal OÜ. From 2006 to present Alver has worked in the A. Alver Architects OÜ architectural office. The works of Alver from the 1980s include a recreational home in Loksa, restaurant Toidutare in Kose-Risti and a shop in Tallinn. Most notable works by Alver after the 1990s include restaurant Toidutare in Pirita, De La Gardie department store, City Plaza office building and the new design of the Vabaduse Väljak (Freedom Square) in Tallinn. Alver is currently an editorial board member of Ehituskunst: Estonian Architectural Review magazine. He resides in the rural municipality of Viimsi, Estonia and is a professor of urban design at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Alver is a member of the Union Of Estonian Architects.
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Anna J. Harrison
Anna Jane Harrison (December 23, 1912 – August 8, 1998) was an American organic chemist and a professor of chemistry at Mount Holyoke College for nearly forty years. She was the first female president of the American Chemical Society, and the recipient of twenty honorary degrees. She was nationally known for her teaching and was active nationally and internationally as a supporter of women in science.
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Anna of Saxony
Anna of Saxony (23 December 1544 – 18 December 1577) was the daughter of Maurice, Elector of Saxony, and Agnes of Hesse. Her wealth drew many suitors; she ultimately accepted the proposal of widowed William the Silent, and they were married on 25 August 1561. They had to flee the Netherlands in 1567 in the face of the Habsburg army dispatched to suppress the Dutch Revolt. In 1570, Anna began an affair with her lawyer Jan Rubens which resulted in a child. She was put under house arrest, and William had their marriage dissolved. Anna died five days before her 33rd birthday, mentally and physically ill.
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Anthony Mary Claret
Anthony Mary Claret, (born Antoni Maria Claret i Clarà; Spanish: Antonio María Claret y Clarà; 23 December 1807 – 24 October 1870) was a Spanish Catholic prelate and missionary who served as Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba and was the confessor of Queen Isabella II. He founded the congregation of Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, commonly called the Claretians. In addition to the Claretians, which in the early 21st century had over 450 houses and 3100 members, with missions in five continents, Claret founded or drew up the rules of several communities of religious sisters. Claret is the patron saint of weavers.
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Anthony Phillips
Anthony Edwin Phillips (born 23 December 1951) is an English musician, songwriter, and composer who co-founded the progressive rock band Genesis. He served as the group's original lead guitarist from 1967 until his departure in 1970, performing on their formative studio albums From Genesis to Revelation (1969) and Trespass (1970). His early 12-string acoustic guitar arrangements heavily shaped the band's signature pastoral sound. Phillips voluntarily left the group on the eve of their mainstream breakthrough due to increasing stage fright and health complications. This exit has frequently led music critics to compare his trajectory to that of other early departed band members. Following his departure, Phillips stepped back from the music industry to pursue formal education in classical orchestration and music theory. He emerged as a solo artist with his debut album, The Geese & the Ghost (1977). He subsequently established a prolific and diverse multi-instrumental solo career. His catalogue spans mainstream pop projects, ambient and experimental recordings, and his extensive multi-volume Private Parts & Pieces series. Alongside his solo discography, Phillips is a highly active library music composer for television and film, originating from his first productions in 1976 which intensified from 1981 when he signed with the production music label Atmosphere.
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Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan (23 December 1894 – 5 September 1976) was an English first-class cricketer who captained the England cricket team nine times in 1924 and 1925, winning four Test matches, losing four and drawing one. In first-class cricket, he played as an amateur, mainly for Cambridge University and Sussex, and captained the latter team between 1922 and 1929. A fast bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman, Gilligan completed the double in 1923 and was one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year for 1924. When his playing career ended, he held several important positions in cricket, including that of England selector and president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). A popular figure within cricket, he was widely regarded as sporting and friendly. Gilligan played cricket for Dulwich College before the First World War, then for Cambridge, twice winning his blue. He briefly played county cricket for Surrey but moved to Sussex in 1920. Following a slow start to his county career, he rapidly improved and in partnership with Maurice Tate established a formidable bowling reputation. First playing for England in 1922, he was appointed Test captain in 1924. In the latter year, Gilligan was at the height of his form when he suffered a blow to his heart while batting. The strain affected his bowling, which was never again as effective, but he still captained England in Australia during the 1924–25 season. The series was lost, but both he and his team were popular and respected. In following years, he played less frequently; he resigned as Sussex captain in 1929 and retired three years later. He subsequently became a writer, journalist and cricket commentator while maintaining his connections with Sussex. As a captain, Gilligan was well-liked by players and commentators, although many did not believe he was an effective tactician. Nevertheless, under his leadership, Sussex became an attractive, competitive team. He encouraged the search for young talent, and the players consequently discovered became the backbone of the club into the 1930s. As a fielder, he inspired his teams to become good fielding sides. In addition, as MCC captain of a team which toured India in 1926–27, he encouraged Indians to take responsibility for their own cricket board instead of allowing white Englishmen to run Indian cricket, and lobbied the MCC to bestow Test match status on the Indian team. As MCC president, he played a part in the D'Oliveira affair in 1968. During his playing days, Gilligan was a member of the British Fascists. He came to the notice of the Australian secret service during the 1924–25 MCC (England) tour, and it is possible he helped to establish small fascist groups in Australia. It is unknown how long he remained a member, but the organisation practically ceased to exist by 1926. Gilligan died in 1976, aged 81.
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Badi Assad
Badi Assad (born 23 December 1966) is a Brazilian singer, composer and guitarist in the jazz and worldbeat genres.
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Barney Rosenzweig
Barney Rosenzweig (born December 23, 1937) is an American television producer.
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Bartosz Kapustka
Bartosz Kapustka (born 23 December 1996) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ekstraklasa club Legia Warsaw, which he captains, and the Poland national team.
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Bertrand Gachot
Bertrand Jean Louis Gachot (French pronunciation: [bɛʁ.tʁɑ̃ ʒɑ̃ ɡa.ʃo]; born 23 December 1962) is a former racing driver and businessman who competed in Formula One from 1989 to 1995. In endurance racing, Gachot won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1991 with Mazda. Gachot was born in Luxembourg City to a French father and German mother and began competitive kart racing at the age of fifteen before attending the Winfield Racing School at Paul Ricard in 1983. Gachot enjoyed some success in the junior formulae, winning titles in Formula Ford before progressing through Formula 3 and Formula 3000, reaching Formula One in 1989. After winning the 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans, Gachot was sentenced to eighteen months in prison for an aggravated assault with a London taxi driver that had occurred the previous December. He was released after two months on appeal, but was replaced by debutant Michael Schumacher, Roberto Moreno and Alessandro Zanardi for the remainder of the 1991 season.
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Bill Rodgers
William Henry Rodgers (born December 23, 1947) is an American runner, Olympian, and former record holder in the marathon. Rodgers is best known for his four victories in both the Boston Marathon, including three straight from 1978 to 1980, and 4 straight wins in the New York City Marathon, between 1976 and 1979.
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Bob Kahn
Robert Elliot Kahn (born December 23, 1938) is an American electrical engineer who, along with Vint Cerf, first proposed the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), the fundamental communication protocols at the heart of the Internet. In 2004, Kahn won the Turing Award with Vint Cerf for their work on TCP/IP.
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Bob Kurland
Robert Albert Kurland (December 23, 1924 – September 29, 2013) was an American basketball player, who played for the two-time NCAA champion Oklahoma A&M Aggies (now Oklahoma State Cowboys). Standing 7-foot (2.1 m) tall, he has been credited as the first person to dunk in a college basketball game. He led the U.S. basketball team to gold medals in two Summer Olympics, and led his AAU team to three national titles. He is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
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Brice Dja Djédjé
Brice Florentin Dja Djédjé (born 23 December 1990) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a right back or wing back for Championnat National 3 club ES Fosséenne. He began his career training at the Camp des Loges, the training centre of Paris Saint-Germain. Dja Djédjé's cousin, Franck Dja Djédjé - they grew up as brothers - is also a footballer.
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Carl Gustaf Wrangel
Fältmarskalk Carl Gustaf Wrangel (also Carl Gustav von Wrangel; 23 December 1613 – 5 July 1676) was a Swedish statesman and military commander who commanded the Swedish forces in the Thirty Years' War, as well as the Torstenson, Bremen, Second Northern and Scanian Wars. A Baltic German, he held the ranks of a Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief of the Swedish forces in Germany (1646–1648), and Lord High Admiral of Sweden (from 1657). Wrangel was Governor-General of Swedish Pomerania (1648–1652 and 1656–1676) and, from 1664, Lord High Constable of Sweden and a member of the Privy Council. He held the title of a Count of Salmis until 1665, when he became Count of Sölvesborg. By 1673, Wrangel's title was "Count of Sölvesborg, Freiherr of Lindeberg and Ludenhof, Lord of Skokloster, Bremervörde, Wrangelsburg, Spyker, Rappin, Ekebyhov, Gripenberg and Rostorp". From 1658, Wrangel was Supreme judge in Uppland, and in 1660, he became Chancellor of the University of Greifswald. He held several estates, primarily in the Dominions of Sweden, where he constructed representative mansions: Wrangelsburg, in Pomerania, still bears his name. Wrangel is part of the Wrangel family and was a close friend of King Charles X Gustav of Sweden.
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Carla Bruni
Carla Bruni-Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa (born Carla Gilberta Bruni Tedeschi; Italian pronunciation: [ˈkarla dʒilˈbɛrta ˈbruːni teˈdeski]; 23 December 1967) is an Italian and French singer, songwriter and fashion model who served as the first lady of France from 2008—when she married then president Nicolas Sarkozy—to 2012. She was born in Italy and moved to France at the age of seven. Bruni was a model from 1987 to 1997 before taking up a career in music. She wrote several songs for Julien Clerc that were featured on his 2000 album, Si j'étais elle. Bruni released her first album, Quelqu'un m'a dit, in 2003, which eventually spent 34 weeks in the top 10 of the French Albums Chart. Bruni won the Victoire Award for Female Artist of the Year at the 2004 Victoires de la Musique. The same year, Bruni released her second album, No Promises, then the following year, she released her third album, Comme si de rien n'était. In 2013, Bruni released her fourth album, Little French Songs. In 2017, Bruni released her fifth album, French Touch. In 2024, she walked in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
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Carol Ann Duffy
Dame Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, serving in this position until her term ended in 2019. She was the first female, the first Scottish-born and the first openly lesbian poet to hold the Poet Laureate position. Her collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Book Award; Selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Mean Time (1993), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Rapture (2005), which won the T. S. Eliot Prize. Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in accessible language.
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Catriona LeMay Doan
Catriona Ann Le May Doan (born December 23, 1970) is a retired Canadian speed skater and a double Olympic champion in the 500 m. She served as the chef de mission for Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
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Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve (French: [ʃaʁl oɡystɛ̃ sɛ̃t bœv]; 23 December 1804 – 13 October 1869) was a French literary critic.
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Chet Baker
Chesney Henry Baker Jr. (December 23, 1929 – May 13, 1988) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool". Baker earned much attention and critical praise through the 1950s, particularly for albums featuring his vocals: Chet Baker Sings (1954) and It Could Happen to You (1958). Jazz historian Dave Gelly described the promise of Baker's early career as "James Dean, Sinatra, and Bix, rolled into one". His well-publicized drug habit also drove his notoriety and fame. Baker was in and out of jail frequently before enjoying a career resurgence in the late 1970s and 1980s.
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Cody Ross
Cody Joseph Ross (born December 23, 1980), nicknamed "Toy Cannon" and "Ross the Boss," is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for 12 seasons; with the Detroit Tigers (2003), Los Angeles Dodgers (2005–2006), Cincinnati Reds (2006), Florida Marlins (2006–2010), San Francisco Giants (2010–2011), Boston Red Sox (2012), Arizona Diamondbacks (2013–2014) and Oakland Athletics (2015). Ross won a World Series with the San Francisco Giants in 2010. He is one of the few Major League players to bat right-handed and throw left-handed. Following high school, Ross embarked on his professional career, getting selected by the Detroit Tigers in the fourth round of the 1999 Major League Baseball draft. He reached the Major Leagues in 2003, but suffered a torn ACL which caused him to miss most of September. He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers following spring training in 2004, appearing in a handful of games with them in 2005. In 2006, he played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Florida Marlins. It was in Florida that he finally established himself, as he played with the Marlins through 2010. He was used mainly as a reserve outfielder in 2006 and 2007, but during the 2008 season he took over a starting role. He would be a starting outfielder for the rest of his Marlins career, playing center field or right field. In 2009, he hit a career-high 24 home runs and won the Marlins' Charlie Hough Good Guy award. During the 2010 season, the Marlins placed Ross on waivers, and he was claimed by the San Francisco Giants. Named their starting right fielder for the 2010 playoffs, he went on to win the National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award, hitting five home runs in the postseason while helping the Giants win the 2010 World Series over the Texas Rangers. He re-signed with San Francisco in 2011, batting .240 during the year. In 2012, he signed a one-year contract with the Boston Red Sox, hitting 22 home runs while playing every day despite the fact that the Red Sox originally expected him to be a reserve player for them. The Arizona Diamondbacks signed him to a three-year contract in December 2012, but a season-ending hip injury limited Ross to 94 games during his first year with the team.
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Corey Haim
Corey Ian Haim (December 23, 1971 – March 10, 2010) was a Canadian actor who rose to fame in the 1980s as a teen heartthrob. He starred in Silver Bullet (1985), Murphy's Romance (1985), Lucas (1986), License to Drive (1988) and Dream a Little Dream (1989). His role in The Lost Boys (1987) made him a household name. Known as The Two Coreys, Haim and Corey Feldman became 1980s icons and appeared together in seven films, later starring in the A&E American reality show The Two Coreys. Haim's early success led to money and fame. He had difficulty breaking away from the trauma of his experience as a child actor and struggled with substance abuse. He faced numerous challenges in his adult life, including financial difficulties and ongoing battles with addiction. He died of pneumonia on March 10, 2010.
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Dan Bigras
Dan Bigras (born 23 December 1957) is a francophone rock singer and actor from Canada. He has released a number of albums of rock music, beginning with Ange Animal in 1990. He is the spokesman of Refuge des Jeunes de Montréal (meaning Refuge of Montreal's youth), an agency to help homeless and at-risk youth. The organisation produces le show du Refuge each year.
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David Davis
Sir David Michael Davis (born 23 December 1948) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Goole and Pocklington, previously Haltemprice and Howden and Boothferry, since 1987. He served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2003 to 2008 and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2016 to 2018. Davis was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1997 New Year Honours, while serving as Minister of State for Europe, a role he held from 1994 to 1997. Brought up on the Aboyne Estate, a council estate in Tooting, south-west London, he attended Bec School. Later he earned an MBA from London Business School and worked for Tate & Lyle. He was a close personal friend of former leader of the Scottish National Party and First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond. Having entered Parliament in 1987, he was appointed Europe Minister by Prime Minister John Major in July 1994. He held that position until the 1997 general election. He was subsequently Chairman of the Conservative Party and Shadow Secretary of State for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister under Iain Duncan Smith. Between 2003 and 2008 he was the Shadow Home Secretary in the Shadow Cabinets of both Michael Howard and David Cameron. Davis had previously been a candidate in the 2001 and 2005 Conservative Party leadership elections, coming fourth and second respectively. On 12 June 2008 Davis unexpectedly announced his intention to resign as an MP and was immediately replaced as Shadow Home Secretary; this was in order to force a by-election in his seat, for which he intended to seek reelection by mounting a specific campaign designed to provoke wider public debate about the erosion of civil liberties in the United Kingdom. Following his formal resignation as an MP he became the Conservative candidate in the resulting by-election, which he won a month later. In July 2016, following the Brexit referendum, Davis was appointed by the new prime minister, Theresa May, to the new Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) as Secretary of State, with responsibility for negotiating the UK's prospective exit from the EU. He was sidelined mid-way through the talks, with the Prime Minister's Europe Adviser Olly Robbins taking charge of negotiations. Davis resigned from his government position on 8 July 2018 over May's Brexit strategy and the Chequers plan. Following his resignation, the DExEU junior minister Steve Baker and the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson also resigned. Since 2018, Davis has remained active in the House of Commons as a backbencher, using parliamentary privilege to criticise various issues, including the Scottish Government's investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by Alex Salmond, doubts about the conviction of Lucy Letby, and the scandal surrounding Peter Mandelson's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2023 Political Honours for public and political service.
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David Szymanski
David Szymanski ( sə-MAN-skee; Polish pronunciation: [ʂɨˈmaɲ.ski]; born December 23, 1989) is an American video game developer. Szymanski is known for having developed games such as Dusk, Iron Lung, and Gloomwood.
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Dino Risi
Dino Risi (23 December 1916 – 7 June 2008) was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy, and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of commedia all'italiana.
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Dost Mohammad Khan
Dost Mohammad Khan Barakzai, (23 December 1792 – 9 June 1863) nicknamed the Great Emir, was the founder of the Barakzai dynasty and one of the prominent rulers of Afghanistan during the First Anglo-Afghan War. With the decline of the Durrani dynasty, he succeeded his brother Sultan Mohammad Khan, and became the Emir of Afghanistan in 1826. An ethnic Pashtun, he belonged to the Mohammadzai branch of the Barakzai tribe. He was the 11th son of Payandah Khan, chief of the Barakzai Pashtuns, who was killed in 1800 by King Zaman Shah Durrani. At the beginning of his rule, the Afghans lost their former stronghold of Peshawar Valley in March 1823 to the Sikh Khalsa Army of Ranjit Singh at the Battle of Nowshera. The Afghan forces in the battle were led by Mohammad Azim Khan, half-brother of Dost Mohammad Khan. By the end of his reign, he had reunited the principalities of Kandahar and Herat with Kabul. Dost had ruled for a lengthy 36 years, a span exceeded only by Mohammad Zahir Shah more than a century later. A brilliant strategist, and ruthless fighter from a young age, Dost Mohammad is regarded as one of the greatest rulers in the history of Afghanistan, his myriad of campaigns had successfully forged the cities of Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat into one state, which all his predecessors, with the exception of Ahmad Shah Durrani and Timur Shah Durrani, had failed to do.
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Dudu Aharon
Dudu Aharon (Hebrew: דודו אהרון; born on 23 December 1984) is a singer-songwriter, musician, and composer from Israel.
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Duncan Hallas
Duncan Hallas (23 December 1925 – 19 September 2002) was a prominent member of the Trotskyist movement and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party in Great Britain.
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Eddie Vedder
Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III, December 23, 1964) is an American musician who is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a guest vocalist for supergroup Temple of the Dog, a tribute band dedicated to singer Andrew Wood. In 2007, Vedder released his first solo album as a soundtrack for the film Into the Wild (2007). His second album, Ukulele Songs, and a live DVD titled Water on the Road were released in 2011. His third solo album Earthling was released in 2022. In late June 2024, Vedder released a single cover of The English Beat's "Save It for Later" for the TV series The Bear. Vedder, who is known for his baritone vocals, was ranked seventh on a list of "Best Lead Singers of All Time", based on a readers' poll compiled by Rolling Stone. In 2017, Vedder was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Pearl Jam.
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Edgar P. Rucker
Edgar Parks Rucker (December 23, 1861 – April 21, 1908) was an American lawyer, politician, and businessman in the U.S. state of West Virginia. He was a Republican who served as the 12th attorney general of West Virginia from March 4, 1897, until March 3, 1901. Rucker was born in Covington, Virginia, in 1861 and was raised in Lewisburg, West Virginia, where he attended school at Lewisburg Academy. He briefly worked as a schoolteacher in Greenbrier County public schools then earned a Bachelor of Laws from West Virginia University's Department of Law in 1887. He returned to Lewisburg and practiced law with his father William Parks Rucker. In July 1887, Rucker engaged in a duel with Lewisburg deputy postmaster Bedford Beirne, resulting in serious injuries to Beirne. Rucker relocated to Princeton, where he practiced law for three years; then to Bramwell, where he was editor of the Flat Top Monitor. He then moved to Welch and established a law firm in which he served as senior partner with Benjamin Franklin Keller among his firm's partners. In 1888, Rucker unsuccessfully ran for the 8th Senate district seat and in 1892 for the 3rd congressional district seat. He served on the West Virginia University board of regents from 1895 to 1897. In 1896, Rucker was elected state attorney general, and during his tenure, his office was involved with cases resulting in increased tax revenue for the state. In addition to his political career, Rucker served as an incorporator and the president of several companies in Welch. After suffering poor health in his later years, Rucker died in 1908 in Washington, D.C. following surgery.
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Edward Blyth
Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta (now Kolkata). He catalogued the specimens in the collection in his Catalogue of the Birds of the Asiatic Society in 1849. He did not collect specimens himself but received and described bird specimens from A.O. Hume, Samuel Tickell, Robert Swinhoe among others. His Natural History of the Cranes was published posthumously in 1881.
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Emperor Zhenzong of Song
Emperor Zhenzong of Song (23 December 968 – 23 March 1022), personal name Zhao Heng, was the third emperor of the Song dynasty of China. He reigned from 997 to his death in 1022. His personal name was originally Zhao Dechang, but was changed to Zhao Yuanxiu in 983, Zhao Yuankan in 986, and finally Zhao Heng in 995. He was the third son of his predecessor, Emperor Taizong, and was succeeded by his sixth son, Emperor Renzong at the end of his reign. From 1020 he was seriously ill, but retained power despite this. Because of his illness, day-to-day rule of China was often placed in the hands of his third wife, Empress Liu.
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Esthero
Esthero ( es-TERR-oh; born Jenny-Bea Englishman on December 23, 1978) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who lives in Los Angeles, California. The name Esthero refers both to the singer and formerly to the two-person team of herself and producer Doc McKinney. Esthero is a portmanteau of "Esther the hero"; she claims to have gotten the name by combining the name of the heroine (Esther) and last line ("If I am to be the hero, then I cannot fly from darkness") of the film from Sylvia Plath's only novel, The Bell Jar (1963). Esthero's sound characteristically features her voice over a mix of mellow bass lines, jazzy trumpets, classical guitar and hip-hop. She is sometimes compared to artists Björk, Portishead, Billie Holiday, and Sade. She has co-produced the majority of the material she performed. Later female artists who count Esthero among their influences include Res, Fergie and fellow Canadian Nelly Furtado. Esthero's brother, Jason Englishman, is also a musician.
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Ezzat el Kamhawi
Ezzat El Kamhawi (Arabic: عزت القمحاوي) is an Egyptian novelist and journalist. In December 2012, El Kamhawi was awarded the Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature for his novel House of the Wolf. In June 2022 he was awarded the Samir Kassir Award for Freedom of the Press (Opinion Piece category) for his article "Suspicious architecture: The obsession with grand buildings and wide streets". He was born in 1961 and graduated from the department of journalism in the Faculty of Mass Communications, Cairo University in 1983.
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Finn Wolfhard
Finn Michael Wolfhard (born December 23, 2002) is a Canadian actor, musician, and film director. He received international attention for playing Mike Wheeler on the Netflix series Stranger Things (2016–2025). He also played Richie Tozier in the horror film It (2017) and the sequel It Chapter Two (2019), and Trevor Spengler in the supernatural comedy Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and its sequel Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). Wolfhard has also directed the comedy short film Night Shifts (2020) and the comedy horror film Hell of a Summer (2023). As a musician, he was the lead vocalist and guitarist for the rock band Calpurnia, and has been a member of The Aubreys since 2020, in addition to his solo work.
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Frederic Forrest
Frederic Fenimore Forrest Jr. (December 23, 1936 – June 23, 2023) was an American actor. A figure of the New Hollywood movement, Forrest was best known for his collaborations with director Francis Ford Coppola, playing featured roles in The Conversation (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), One from the Heart (1982), and Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988). He was nominated for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a New York Film Critics Circle Award, and received a National Society of Film Critics for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Huston Dyer in the musical drama The Rose (1979), an honor that was also shared with his performance as Jay "Chef" Hicks in Apocalypse Now. Forrest came to public attention for his performance in When the Legends Die (1972), which earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. His other film credits include The Missouri Breaks (1976), Hammett (1982), Valley Girl (1983), The Two Jakes (1990), Falling Down (1993), and All the King's Men (2006), along with the television series 21 Jump Street, Lonesome Dove, and Die Kinder.
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Gertrude Bancroft
Gertrude Bancroft McNally (December 23, 1908 – January 28, 1985) was an American economist who was chief of the economic statistics section of the United States Census Bureau until 1951. She was later associated with the Social Science Research Council and special assistant to the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Giovanni Battista Crespi
Giovanni Battista Crespi (23 December 1573 – 23 October 1632), called Il Cerano, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect. He is one of the most prominent of the Milanese artists of the early 17th century whose work represents a transitional phase between Mannerism and Baroque. He was highly esteemed in his day and patronized by the Fabbrica of Milan Cathedral, the civic authorities and highly distinguished private patrons, such as the Borromeo and Gonzaga families and the House of Savoy.
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Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Giuseppe Tomasi, 11th Prince of Lampedusa, 12th Duke of Palma, GE (23 December 1896 – 23 July 1957), known as Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa (Italian pronunciation: [dʒuˈzɛppe toˈmaːzi di lampeˈduːza]), was a Sicilian writer, as well as the last generation of Tomasi Princes of Lampedusa before the family's and their titles' extinction (although his uncle Pietro Tomasi della Torretta, former Ambassador of Italy to the United Kingdom and President of the Senate, was the last official holder of the family’s princely title). Tomasi di Lampedusa is most famous for his only novel, Il Gattopardo (first published posthumously in 1958), which is set in his native Sicily during the Risorgimento. A reserved, solitary, shy, and somewhat misanthropic aristocrat, he opened up only with a few close friends, and spent a great deal of his time reading and meditating. He said of himself as a child, "I was a boy who liked solitude, who preferred the company of things to that of people", and in 1954 wrote, "Of my sixteen hours of daily wakefulness, at least ten are spent in solitude."
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Guy Beaulne
Guy Beaulne, (23 December 1921 – 1 October 2001) was a French Canadian actor and theatre director. Born in Ottawa, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Philosophy from the University of Ottawa. He also had a Normal School Teacher Diploma. In 1953, he directed the Quebec television series, La famille Plouffe. From 1970 to 1976, he was the Director of the Grand Théâtre de Québec.
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Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham
Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham, (23 December 1620 – 18 December 1682), Lord Chancellor of England, was descended from the old family of Finch, many of whose members had attained high legal eminence, and was the eldest son of Sir Heneage Finch, Recorder of London, by his first wife Frances Bell, daughter of Sir Edmond Bell of Beaupre Hall, Norfolk.
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Henry B. Guppy
Henry Brougham Guppy (23 December 1854 – 23 April 1926) was a British surgeon, geologist, botanist and photographer. He was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1917.
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James Gregory
James Gregory (December 23, 1911 – September 16, 2002) was an American character actor who played roles such as Schaffer in Al Capone (1959), the McCarthy-like Sen. John Iselin in The Manchurian Candidate (1962), General Ursus in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), and Inspector Frank Luger in the television sitcom Barney Miller (1975–1982).
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James M. Canty
James Munroe Canty (December 23, 1865 – February 16, 1964) was an American educator, school administrator, and businessperson. Canty was an acting principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute (present-day West Virginia State University) in 1898 and is considered by West Virginia State as an acting president. Canty also served as the superintendent of Mechanical Industries for West Virginia Colored Institute from 1893 through 1914. Canty was born in 1865 in Marietta, Georgia, to former slaves. He attended public school from an early age, and worked numerous trades with his father, including as a carpenter, butcher, ironworker, and farmer. Following a friend's recommendation, Canty began attending Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1886 and graduated from the institute in 1890. After graduation, Canty served as the institute's commandant and head of its night school. When he returned to Marietta, he applied his trade in machinery at a carriage shop. After a year in Marietta, Canty received a letter from Booker T. Washington requesting he write to James Edwin Campbell, principal of the West Virginia Colored Institute in Farm, West Virginia (present-day Institute, West Virginia). He was hired as the superintendent of mechanics and began his tenure there in 1893. Canty established a drill team and a military training corps for students, which evolved to become the institute's Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) unit. In the summer of 1898, Canty served as the institute's acting principal. Later in life, Canty served as first vice president and as a director of the Mutual Savings and Loan Company in Charleston, West Virginia, which was the city's African-American bank. As an officer and director of the bank, Canty co-founded two companies to develop trading routes and relationships with Haiti, Africa, and British Guiana in 1922: the Overseas Navigation Corporation and the Overseas Trading Company. In 1950, West Virginia State College's ROTC unit honored Canty for his involvement in the college's military training corps program. Following an extended illness, Canty died at his residence in Institute in 1964 at the age of 98. His residence, Canty House, is on West Virginia State University's campus, houses the university's Athletic Hall of Fame, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate
Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate (December 23, 1819 – December 24, 1889) was a Dutch divine, prose writer and poet.
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Jean-François Champollion
Jean-François Champollion (French: [ʒɑ̃ fʁɑ̃swa ʃɑ̃pɔljɔ̃]), also known as Champollion le jeune ('the Younger'; 23 December 1790 – 4 March 1832), was a French philologist and orientalist, known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of Egyptology. Partially raised by his brother, the scholar Jacques Joseph Champollion-Figeac, Champollion was a child prodigy in philology, giving his first public paper on the decipherment of Demotic in his late teens. As a young man he was renowned in scientific circles, and read Coptic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Arabic. During the early 19th century, French culture experienced a period of 'Egyptomania', brought on by Napoleon's discoveries in Egypt during his campaign there (1798–1801), which also brought to light the trilingual Rosetta Stone. Scholars debated the age of Egyptian civilization and the function and nature of the hieroglyphic script, which language if any it recorded, and the degree to which the signs were phonetic (representing speech sounds) or ideographic (recording semantic concepts directly). Many thought that the script was used only for sacred and ritual functions, and that as such it was unlikely to be decipherable since it was tied to esoteric and philosophical ideas, and did not record historical information. The significance of Champollion's decipherment was that he showed these assumptions to be wrong, and made it possible to begin to retrieve many kinds of information recorded by the ancient Egyptians. Champollion lived in a period of political turmoil in France, which continuously threatened to disrupt his research in various ways. During the Napoleonic Wars, he was able to avoid conscription, but his Napoleonic allegiances meant that he was considered suspect by the subsequent Royalist regime. His own actions, sometimes brash and reckless, did not help his case. His relations with important political and scientific figures of the time, such as Joseph Fourier and Silvestre de Sacy, helped him, although in some periods he lived exiled from the scientific community. In 1820, Champollion embarked in earnest on the project of the decipherment of hieroglyphic script, soon overshadowing the achievements of British polymath Thomas Young, who had made the first advances in decipherment before 1819. In 1822, Champollion published his first breakthrough in the decipherment of the Rosetta hieroglyphs, showing that the Egyptian writing system was a combination of phonetic and ideographic signs – the first such script discovered. In 1824, he published a Précis in which he detailed a decipherment of the hieroglyphic script demonstrating the values of its phonetic and ideographic signs. In 1829, he travelled to Egypt where he was able to read many hieroglyphic texts that had never before been studied and brought home a large body of new drawings of hieroglyphic inscriptions. Home again, he was given a professorship in Egyptology but lectured only a few times before his health, ruined by the hardships of the Egyptian journey, forced him to give up teaching. He died in Paris in 1832, 41 years old. His grammar of Ancient Egyptian was published posthumously under the supervision of his brother. During his life as well as long after his death, intense discussions over the merits of his decipherment were carried out among Egyptologists. Some faulted him for not having given sufficient credit to the early discoveries of Young, accusing him of plagiarism, and others long disputed the accuracy of his decipherments. However, subsequent findings and confirmations of his readings by scholars building on his results gradually led to the general acceptance of his work. Although some still argue that he should have acknowledged the contributions of Young, his decipherment is now universally accepted and has been the basis for all further developments in the field. Consequently, he is regarded as the "Founder and Father of Egyptology".
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Jim Harbaugh
James Joseph Harbaugh ( HAR-baw; born December 23, 1963) is an American professional football coach and former quarterback who is the head coach for the Los Angeles Chargers of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the head coach at the University of Michigan from 2015 to 2023, the San Francisco 49ers from 2011 to 2014, Stanford University from 2007 to 2010, and the University of San Diego from 2004 to 2006. Harbaugh played college football at Michigan from 1983 to 1986 and in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons from 1987 to 2000, with his longest tenure (1987–1993) as a player with the Chicago Bears. Harbaugh was born in Toledo, Ohio. His father, Jack Harbaugh, was a football coach, and the family lived in Ohio, Kentucky, Iowa, Michigan, and California. He attended high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California, when his father was an assistant coach at Michigan and Stanford, respectively. After graduation from high school in Palo Alto in 1982, Harbaugh returned to Ann Arbor and enrolled at the University of Michigan and played quarterback for the Wolverines, starting for three seasons. As a fifth-year senior in 1986, he led Michigan to the 1987 Rose Bowl and was a Heisman Trophy finalist, finishing third. The Chicago Bears selected Harbaugh in the first round of the 1987 NFL draft. He played 14 years as a quarterback in the NFL, with Chicago from 1987 to 1993, the Indianapolis Colts from 1994 to 1997, the Baltimore Ravens in 1998, and the San Diego Chargers in 1999 to 2000. He first became a regular starting quarterback in 1990 with Chicago. In 1995 with Indianapolis, he led the Colts to the AFC Championship Game, was selected to the Pro Bowl and was honored as NFL Comeback Player of the Year. From 1994 to 2001, while still playing in the NFL, Harbaugh was an unpaid assistant coach at Western Kentucky University, where his father Jack was head coach. In 2002, he returned to the NFL as the quarterbacks coach for the Oakland Raiders. Harbaugh returned to the college ranks in 2004 as the head coach at the University of San Diego. After leading San Diego to consecutive Pioneer League championships in 2005 and 2006, he moved to Stanford in 2007, where he led the Cardinal to two bowl berths in four seasons, including a win in the 2011 Orange Bowl. Immediately afterward, Harbaugh signed a five-year deal as head coach of the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, where he led the team to the NFC Championship game in each of his first three seasons after the franchise missed the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons beforehand. He and his older brother, former Baltimore Ravens and current New York Giants head coach John Harbaugh, became the first pair of brothers to serve as head coaches in NFL history. Their teams played in a Thanksgiving Classic game in 2011 and in Super Bowl XLVII at the end of the 2012 season. Harbaugh accepted the job as head football coach for the University of Michigan Wolverines in 2015. Harbaugh led the team to three consecutive Big Ten Conference titles, including berths in the College Football Playoff in the 2021 and 2022 season, eventually winning a national championship in 2023: the school's first since 1997, and the first undisputed national championship since 1948. On January 24, 2024, Harbaugh left Michigan to return to the NFL, signing a five-year contract to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers, leading them to back-to-back playoff appearances in his first two years as head coach.
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Joan Severance
Joan Marie Severance (born December 23, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model.
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Joanna Hayes
Joanna Dove Hayes (born December 23, 1976, Williamsport, Pennsylvania) is an American hurdler, who won the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She originally specialized in the 400 metres hurdles. She won the silver medal at the 1999 Summer Universiade in a career best time of 54.57 seconds, and the gold medal at the 2003 Pan American Games. She competed at the 1999 World Championships and 2003 World Championships without reaching the final. From 2004 she competed internationally in the 100 metres hurdles. She finished fourth at the 2004 World Indoor Championships, and in August she won the Olympic gold medal in a career best time of 12.37 seconds. She also won the 2004 World Athletics Final toward the end of the season. At the 2005 World Championships, she was among the favorites, having run 12.47 seconds in June. She did reach the final race, only to fail to finish after stumbling in the hurdles. She finished third at the 2005 World Athletics Final. After that, mediocre seasons followed with 12.76 (2006), 13.28 (2007) and 12.63 seconds (2008) as her season's best times. She failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympics due to injury. While in high school at John W. North High School in Riverside, California she won both the 100 meter hurdles (setting the meet record) and 300 meter hurdles at the CIF California State Meet in 1995 and was named the national Girl's "High School Athlete of the Year" by Track and Field News. Receiving a track scholarship, she competed for UCLA. While assistant coach at the University of Southern California, where she has coached from 2017 to the 2024 season, she was named athletic director for Track and Field and Cross Country. She was the former personal coach (2018–2020) to professional runner and 400 m hurdle world recorder holder Sydney McLaughlin. Previously, she was an assistant coach at UCLA from 2014 through 2016, and prior to that she coached track and field and cross country at Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of Los Angeles homeless advocate Ted Hayes. She gave birth to a daughter, Zoe, in December 2010. Hayes began her comeback to competition in 2012. Hayes was inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame on October 11, 2014
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Johan Franzén
Johan Marcus Gunnar Franzén (pronounced [ˈjûːan franˈseːn] ; born 23 December 1979) is a Swedish former professional ice hockey winger who played 11 seasons for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). His career ended early in the 2015–16 season due to post-concussion syndrome. He also played for Linköpings HC in the Elitserien (later Swedish Hockey League). Franzén was drafted by the Red Wings in the third round, 97th overall, of the 2004 NHL entry draft and won the Stanley Cup with the team in 2008.
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John Albert I, Duke of Mecklenburg
John Albert I, in older literature known as John or Johann (23 December 1525 – 12 February 1576), was the reigning duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow from 1547 to 1556 and of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1556 to 1576. In 1549, John Albert I saw to it that the parliament of Mecklenburg carried through the Reformation for the entire duchy.
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John Marin
John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist visual artist. He is known for his abstract landscape paintings and watercolors.
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Joseph Bodin de Boismortier
Joseph Bodin de Boismortier (23 December 1689 – 28 October 1755) was a French baroque composer of chamber music, cantatas, opéra-ballets, and vocal music. Boismortier was one of the first composers to have no patrons: having obtained a royal licence for engraving music in 1724, he made enormous sums of money by publishing his music for sale to the public.
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Joseph Smith
Joseph Smith Jr. (December 23, 1805 – June 27, 1844) was an American religious and political leader and the founder of Mormonism and the Latter Day Saint movement. Publishing the Book of Mormon at the age of 24, Smith attracted tens of thousands of followers by the time of his death fourteen years later. The religious movement he founded is followed by millions of global adherents and several churches, the largest of which is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Born in Sharon, Vermont, Smith moved with his family to Western New York amid hardships following a series of crop failures in 1816. Living in an area of intense religious revivalism during the Second Great Awakening, Smith reported experiencing a series of visions. The first of these was in 1820, when he saw "two personages" (whom he eventually described as God the Father and Jesus Christ). In 1823, he said he was visited by an angel who directed him to a buried book of golden plates inscribed with a Judeo-Christian history of an ancient American civilization. In 1830, Smith published the Book of Mormon, which he described as an English translation of those plates. The same year he organized the Church of Christ, calling it a restoration of the early Christian Church. Members of the church were later called Latter Day Saints or nicknamed the Mormons. In 1831, Smith and his followers moved west, planning to build a communal Zion in the American heartland. They first gathered in Kirtland, Ohio, and established an outpost in Independence, Missouri, which was intended to be Zion's central location. During the 1830s, Smith sent out missionaries, published revelations, and supervised construction of the Kirtland Temple. Smith and his followers left Ohio and Missouri after the collapse of the church-sponsored Kirtland Safety Society and violent skirmishes with non-Mormon Missourians escalated into the Mormon extermination order. They established a new settlement at Nauvoo, Illinois, which quickly grew to be the second-largest city in Illinois during Smith's mayoralty. Smith launched a presidential campaign in 1844. During his campaign, Smith and the Nauvoo City Council ordered the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor's printing press after it criticized Smith's power and his practice of polygamy. This inflamed opposition to Smith and his followers. Smith surrendered to Illinois authorities but was shot and killed by a mob that stormed the jailhouse. During his ministry, Smith published numerous documents and texts, many of which he attributed to divine inspiration and revelation from God. He dictated the majority of these in the first-person, saying they were the writings of ancient prophets or expressed the voice of God. His followers accepted his teachings as prophetic and revelatory, and several of these texts were canonized by denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement, which continue to treat them as scripture. Smith's teachings discuss God's nature, cosmology, family structures, political organization, and religious community and authority. Mormons generally regard Smith as a prophet comparable to Moses and Elijah. Several religious denominations identify as the continuation of the church that he organized, including the LDS Church and the Community of Christ.
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José Greco
José Greco (né Costanzo Greco; December 23, 1918 – December 31, 2000) was an Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer known for popularizing Spanish dance on the stage and screen in America mostly in the 1950s and 1960s.
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János Murkovics
János Murkovics (Slovene: Janez Murkovič, Prekmurje Slovene: Janoš Murkovič, December 23, 1839 – April 15, 1917) was a Slovene teacher, musician, and writer in Hungary. He was born near Ljutomer, in Bučkovci. He studied in Germany. In 1862 he relocated to Beltinci, at that time in Hungary. In 1871 wrote the school primer Abecednik; this was the first Prekmurje Slovene book written in the Gaj's Latin alphabet. Murkovics worked in Trbovlje from 1878 to 1880, and by 1880 was in Hungary again, in Lendava. In 1910, he retired in Lendavske Gorice, where he later died.
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Karyn Bryant
Karyn Bryant is an American actress, writer, and television personality.
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Kenneth M. Taylor
Kenneth Marlar Taylor (December 23, 1919 – November 25, 2006) was a United States Air Force officer and a flying ace of World War II. He was a new United States Army Air Corps second lieutenant pilot stationed at Wheeler Field during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Along with his fellow pilot and friend George Welch, Taylor managed to get a fighter plane airborne under fire. Taylor claimed to have shot down four Japanese dive bombers but only two were confirmed. Taylor was injured during the incident and received several awards for his efforts, including the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart. Taylor later commanded several squadrons while stationed in the United States and elsewhere, and served for 27 years of active duty. He joined the Alaska Air National Guard until 1971 and worked in the insurance industry before retiring in 1985. His Pearl Harbor experience was portrayed in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora! and the film Pearl Harbor.
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Kurt Meyer
Kurt Meyer (23 December 1910 – 23 December 1961) was an SS commander and convicted war criminal of Nazi Germany. He served in the Waffen-SS (the combat branch of the SS) and participated in the Battle of France, Operation Barbarossa, and other engagements during World War II. Meyer commanded the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend during the Allied invasion of Normandy, and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords. After ordering the mass murder of civilians and prisoners of war (POWs) several times during the conflict, Meyer was convicted of war crimes for his role in the Ardenne Abbey massacre (the murder of Canadian POWs in Normandy). He was sentenced to death, but the sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Released in 1954, he subsequently became active in HIAG, a lobby group organised by former high-ranking Waffen-SS men. Meyer was a leading Waffen-SS apologist and HIAG's most effective spokesperson, depicting most of the Waffen-SS as apolitical, recklessly brave fighters who were not involved in the crimes of the Nazi regime. These notions have since been debunked by historians.
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Kyren Wilson
Kyren Wilson (; born 23 December 1991) is an English professional snooker player from Kettering. He is a former World Snooker Champion and has won 10 ranking titles. Wilson made his professional tour debut in the 2010–11 season after finishing fifth in the 2009–10 International Open Series rankings. He dropped off the tour after one season but regained his tour card for the 2013–14 season and has played professionally since. In September 2015, while ranked 54th in the world, he won his first ranking title by defeating Judd Trump 10–9 in the final of the Shanghai Masters. His other ranking titles include the 2019 German Masters, where he defeated David Gilbert 9–7 in the final; the 2022 European Masters, where he defeated Barry Hawkins 9–3 in the final; the inaugural 2024 Xi'an Grand Prix, where he defeated Trump 10–8 in the final; the 2024 Northern Ireland Open, where he defeated Trump 9–3 in the final; and the 2025 German Masters, where he defeated Hawkins 10–9 in the final. He also won the 2025 Players Championship, beating Trump 10-9 in the final. Wilson has played in five Triple Crown finals, two at the World Snooker Championship and three at the Masters. He lost to Mark Allen and Shaun Murphy in the Masters finals of 2018 and 2025 respectively, both times by a 7–10 scoreline, and lost 8–18 to Ronnie O'Sullivan in the 2020 World Snooker Championship final. He won his first world title and first Triple Crown title at the 2024 World Snooker Championship, beating Jak Jones 18–14 in the final, and won his second Triple Crown title at the 2026 Masters, defeating John Higgins 10–6 in the final. He has compiled more than 500 century breaks in professional competition, including five maximum breaks.
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Lady Starlight
Colleen Martin (born December 23, 1975), known professionally as Lady Starlight, is an American DJ and musical performer. Based in New York City's Lower East Side, she is best known for her numerous collaborations with Lady Gaga. Starlight released her debut extended play, Untitled, in 2017. The following year, she released her second extended play, Which One of Us Is Me?. Besides her own performances, she also sometimes performs with Surgeon (Anthony Child).
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Louis I, Duke of Bavaria
Louis I (23 December 1173 – 15 September 1231), called the Kelheimer or of Kelheim, since he was born and died at Kelheim, was the Duke of Bavaria from 1183 and Count Palatine of the Rhine from 1214. He was the only surviving son of Otto I, Duke of Bavaria (the first duke from the House of Wittelsbach) by his wife Agnes of Loon. He married Ludmilla of Bohemia, a daughter of Duke Frederick of Bohemia.
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Madam C. J. Walker
Madam C. J. Walker (born Sarah Breedlove; December 23, 1867 – May 25, 1919), Mrs. Charles Joseph Walker upon her third marriage, was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. Walker is recorded as the first woman to become a self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records. Multiple sources mention that although other women (like Mary Ellen Pleasant) might have been the first, their wealth is not so well-documented. Walker made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of cosmetics and hair care products for Black women through the business she founded, Madam C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company. Walker became known also for her philanthropy and activism. Walker made financial donations to numerous organizations such as the NAACP and became a patron of the arts. Villa Lewaro, Walker's lavish estate in Irvington, New York served as a social gathering place for the African-American community. At the time of her death, Walker was considered the wealthiest African-American businesswoman and wealthiest self-made Black woman in America.
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Mallory Hagan
Mallory Hytes Hagan Stramara (born December 23, 1988) is an American former news anchor and beauty queen. She won Miss America 2013 as Miss New York 2012 and campaigned unsuccessfully for the Alabama House of Representatives in 2018. Hagan moved to New York in 2008 after her first year of college at Auburn University in her native state Alabama. She became Miss New York's first runner-up in 2010 and 2011, before winning the Miss New York pageant in 2012 and subsequently the Miss America peagant in 2013. She won the competition on a platform for child sexual abuse awareness and prevention due to her family's history of child abuse. Following her win, she graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a communications degree, returned to Alabama in 2016 and worked for WLTZ as a news anchor and reporter between 2016 and 2018. She ran in the 2018 congressional election as a Democrat in Alabama's 3rd congressional district, which contains 14 counties and includes her hometown of Opelika, Alabama. After moving to Madison, Alabama, she ran for District 25 in the Alabama House of Representatives in the 2022 election.
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Mamnoon Hussain
Mamnoon Hussain (23 December 1940 – 14 July 2021) was a Pakistani politician, industrialist and statesman who served as the 12th president of Pakistan from 2013 to 2018. He also served as the governor of Sindh from June 1999 until being deposed in a coup d'état in October 1999, when the federal and all provincial governments were overthrown by Pervez Musharraf. Hussain was then nominated for the presidency by the PML(N) in July 2013 and was elected through an indirect presidential election. Hussain took over the presidency after an oath administered by the Chief Justice of Pakistan on 9 September 2013. Hussain maintained a low-key profile as president and his role was rarely seen in the nation's politics, although he was involved in a Polio eradication program.
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Manuel Lopes
Manuel António de Sousa Lopes (December 23, 1907 – January 25, 2005) was a Cape Verdean novelist, poet and essayist. With Baltasar Lopes da Silva and Jorge Barbosa he was a founder of the journal Claridade, which contributed to the rise of Cape Verdean literature. Manuel Lopes wrote in Portuguese, using expressions typical for Cape Verdean Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole. He was one of those responsible for describing world calamities of the droughts that caused several deaths in São Vicente and Santo Antão.
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Maritza Correia
Maritza Correia (born December 23, 1981), also known by her married name Maritza McClendon, is a former Olympic swimmer from Puerto Rico who swam representing the United States. When she qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in 2004, she became the first Puerto Rican of African descent to be a member of the U.S. Olympic swimming team. She was the first female African-American swimmer for the United States to win an Olympic medal. She also became the first black American swimmer to set an American and world swimming record.
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Martin Opitz
Martin Opitz von Boberfeld (23 December 1597 – 20 August 1639) was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime.
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Maruyama Gondazaemon
Maruyama Gondazaemon (Japanese: 丸山 権太左衛門; December 23, 1713 – November 14, 1749) was a Japanese sumo wrestler, who is formally recognised as the third yokozuna. His real name was Haga Gindayu (芳賀 銀太夫). He came from Mutsu Province in the Sendai Domain (part of what is now Miyagi Prefecture).
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Mathilde Wesendonck
Agnes Mathilde Wesendonck (née Luckemeyer; 23 December 1828 – 31 August 1902) was a German poet and author. The words of five of her verses were the basis of Richard Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder; the composer was infatuated with her, and his wife Minna blamed Mathilde for the break-up of their marriage.
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Matt Baker
Matthew James Baker (born 23 December 1977) is a British television presenter. He co-presented the children's television show Blue Peter from 1999 until 2006, BBC One's Countryfile since 2009 and The One Show from 2011 to 2020, with Alex Jones.
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Merle Barwis
This article lists Canadian supercentenarians (people from Canada who have attained the age of at least 110 years). The oldest verified Canadian person ever was Marie-Louise Meilleur, who died in 1998 aged 117 years, 230 days. As of 9 August 2026, the oldest living Canadian person is Katherine Baumchen, who was born in Saskatchewan on 10 February 1915 but currently resides in the United States, aged 111 years, 180 days. The oldest known living person in Canada is Marie Rosa, born 17 September 1915, aged 110 years, 326 days.
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Michael C. Burgess
Michael Clifton Burgess (born December 23, 1950) is an American physician and politician who represented Texas's 26th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2025. The district is anchored in Denton County, a suburban county north of Dallas and Fort Worth. He is a member of the Republican Party. Before his election, he practiced as a doctor of obstetrics and gynecology. In 2002, Burgess defeated Scott Armey, the son of House Majority Leader and then-U.S. Representative Dick Armey, in a primary runoff election. As a congressman, he was a member of the congressional Tea Party Caucus. Burgess has been involved in the debates over health care reform and energy policy. He opposes abortion, is unsure of the extent of the contribution of human activity to global warming, supported President Donald Trump's restrictions on travel from Muslim-majority countries and refugee immigration, and supports the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Burgess declined to seek a 12th term during the 2024 election cycle, and retired from Congress in 2025.
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Michael Chopra
Rocky Michael Chopra (born 23 December 1983) is an English professional footballer who plays as a striker for Cymru South club Trethomas Bluebirds. A product of the Newcastle United youth system, he spent six years at the club without managing to secure a regular first team place, instead spending time on loan at Watford, Nottingham Forest, and Barnsley. He was sold to Cardiff City for £500,000 in June 2006, and won a place on the PFA Team of the Year for his performances in the 2006–07 season. He then made a £5 million move to Premier League side Sunderland in July 2007, before returning to Cardiff on a loan deal that was made permanent in July 2009 for £3 million. He again was included in the PFA Team of the Year for the 2009–10 campaign, before being sold on to Ipswich Town for £1 million in June 2011. He joined Blackpool on a free transfer in July 2013, before moving to the Indian Super League with the Kerala Blasters for the inaugural 2014 season. Chopra signed for Scottish club Alloa Athletic in March 2015, playing for the side for a year before being released in March 2016. He returned to India to play for the Kerala Blasters again before retiring. In 2022 Chopra came out of retirement to play for West Allotment Celtic, and again in 2026 with Welsh side Trethomas Bluebirds. He has represented England at the under-16, under-17, under-19 and under-20 levels.
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Michele Alboreto
Michele Alboreto (Italian pronunciation: [miˈkɛːle alboˈreːto]; 23 December 1956 – 25 April 2001) was an Italian racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 1981 to 1994. Alboreto was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in 1985 with Ferrari, and won five Grands Prix across 14 seasons. In endurance racing, Alboreto won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1997 with Joest, as well as the 12 Hours of Sebring in 2001 with Audi. Alboreto's career in motorsport began in 1976, racing a car he and a number of his friends had built in the Formula Monza series. The car, however, achieved very little success and two years later Alboreto moved up to Formula Three. Wins in the Italian Formula Three championship and a European Formula Three Championship crown in 1980 paved the way for his entrance into Formula One with the Tyrrell team. Two wins, the first in the final round of the 1982 season in Las Vegas, and the second a year later in Detroit, earned Alboreto a place with the Ferrari team. Alboreto took three wins for the Italian team and challenged Alain Prost for the 1985 Championship, eventually losing out by twenty points. The following three seasons were less successful, however, and at the end of the 1988 season, the Italian left Ferrari and re-signed with his former employers Tyrrell, where he stayed until joining Larrousse midway through 1989. Further seasons with Footwork, Scuderia Italia and Minardi followed during the tail end of his F1 career. In 1995, Alboreto moved on to sportscars and a year later the American IndyCar series. He took his final major victories, the 1997 Le Mans 24 Hours and 2001 Sebring 12 Hours, with German manufacturers Porsche and Audi, respectively. In 2001, a month after his Sebring victory, he was killed testing an Audi R8 at the Lausitzring in Germany.
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Micheline Ostermeyer
Micheline Ostermeyer (23 December 1922 – 17 October 2001) was a French athlete and concert pianist. She won three medals at the 1948 Summer Olympics in shot put, discus throw, and high jump. After retiring from sports in 1950, she became a full-time pianist for fifteen years and then turned to teaching afterwards.
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Morgan
Marco Castoldi (born 23 December 1972), better known by his stage name Morgan, is an Italian singer, songwriter and musician. His musical genres are mainly alternative rock and electronic rock, sometimes experimental rock and synth-pop. He has also been a judge for eight seasons in the Italian version of The X Factor, winning five of them through acts he mentored: Aram Quartet (series 1 – 2008), Matteo Becucci (series 2 – 2008–9), Marco Mengoni (series 3 – 2009), Chiara Galiazzo (series 6 – 2012) and Michele Bravi (series 7 – 2013). He was also a coach on The Voice of Italy in 2019. He is also a founding member of Bluvertigo, an Italian band formed in 1992. Morgan has 3 daughters; the first, Anna Lou Castoldi, with Asia Argento.
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Nancy Graves
Nancy Graves (December 23, 1939 – October 21, 1995) was an American sculptor, painter, printmaker, and filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena like camels or maps of the Moon. Her works are included in many public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the Des Moines Art Center, Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), and the Museum of Fine Arts (St. Petersburg, FL). When Graves was just 29, she was given a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. At the time she was the youngest artist, and fifth woman to achieve this honor.
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Nathan Wilson
Nathan Wilson (December 23, 1758 – July 25, 1834) was a United States representative from New York. Born in Bolton, Worcester County, Massachusetts, he moved with his family to Greenwich, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, where he attended school. He served two enlistments in Massachusetts regiments during the Revolutionary War in 1777 and 1780 and moved to New Perth (now Salem), Washington County, New York. He enlisted as a private in the Sixteenth Regiment, Albany County Militia and was appointed by Governor George Clinton in 1791 adjutant in Washington County Militia Regiment. He was town collector in 1801 and 1802 and sheriff of Washington County from 1802 to 1806. Wilson was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Tenth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of David Thomas and served from November 7, 1808, to March 4, 1809. He was justice of the peace from 1808 to 1816 and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He died near Salem in 1834; interment was in Evergreen Cemetery, Salem.
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Nola Luxford
Nola Luxford (born Adelaide Minola Pratt; 23 December 1895 – 10 October 1994) was a New Zealand-born American film actress, spanning from the silent film era to the 1930s. During the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, she was also a writer and pioneer broadcaster, providing a daily radio programme for audiences in Australia and New Zealand.
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Norman Maclean
Norman Fitzroy Maclean (December 23, 1902 – August 2, 1990) was an American professor at the University of Chicago who, following his retirement, became a major figure in American literature. Maclean is known for his collection of novellas A River Runs Through It and Other Stories (1976), and the creative nonfiction book Young Men and Fire (1992).
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Onofre Marimón
Onofre Agustín Marimón (19 December 1923 – 31 July 1954) was an Argentine racing driver, who competed in Formula One at 12 Grands Prix between 1951 and 1954. Marimón participated in 12 Formula One Grands Prix, achieving two podiums at the 1953 Belgian and 1954 British Grands Prix, and scoring a total of 8 1⁄7 championship points with Maserati. He also won the non-championship 1954 Rome Grand Prix, driving the Maserati 250F. During practice for the 1954 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Marimón died after losing control of his Maserati 250F, impacting a ditch and causing a rollover. He was the first fatality at a Formula One Grand Prix.
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Pamheiba
Gharib Niwaz (Meitei: /pāmheiba/, Sanskrit: Gopal Singh; 23 December 1690 – 13 December 1748), also known as Pamheiba, was the ruler of the Manipur Kingdom, ruling from c. 1709 until his death in 1748. He introduced Hinduism as the state religion of his kingdom (1717) and changed the name of the kingdom from "Kangleipaak" to the Sanskrit Manipur (1724). He changed his royal name from his birth name Pamheipa to the Persianate "Gharib Niwaz". During most of his reign he was engaged in warfare against the weakened Burmese Toungoo Dynasty. In the early years of his rule (1710–1717 CE), Gharib Niwaz focused on consolidating his empire and engaging in military expeditions, including a notable victory in 1714 when his forces, disguised as a marriage party, defeated Burmese troops at the confluence of Chindwin and Ru Rivers. As conflicts with the expanding Burmese empire intensified, Gharib Niwaz achieved significant military triumphs, such as defeating Burmese forces at Shan villages and successfully defending against Burmese and Tripuri attacks in 1723. Gharib Niwaz's military endeavors went beyond defense, with offensive campaigns against Tripuris in 1727 and 1733, and multiple invasions into Burma from 1724 to 1741. The conquest of Saigang city on the Irrawaddy in 1738 highlighted his military prowess. His legacy, marked by tales of triumph over Burmese forces, showcases Garib Niwaz's strategic brilliance and the enduring impact of his military successes. Under his rule, the Manipuri empire reached unprecedented heights, solidifying its dominance in South-East Asia and leaving an indelible mark on the region's history. According to historian Gangmumei, during the reign of Garib Niwaz, the Manipuri empire achieved the peak of its power and consolidation in the contemporary South-East Asian region.
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Paul Hornung
Paul Vernon Hornung (December 23, 1935 – November 13, 2020), nicknamed "the Golden Boy", was an American professional football halfback and kicker who played for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 to 1966 (except the 1963 NFL season, for which he was suspended after a scandal involving gambling and associating with gamblers). He played on teams that won four NFL titles and the first Super Bowl. He is the first Heisman Trophy winner to win the NFL Most Valuable Player award and to be inducted into both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and College Football Hall of Fame. Packers coach Vince Lombardi stated that Hornung was "the greatest player I ever coached". Hornung was a halfback, quarterback, and kicker. He was an all-around college athlete at the University of Notre Dame, where he played basketball in addition to football.
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Peter Davis
Sir Peter John Davis (born 23 December 1941) is a British businessman, who was, from 2000 to 2004, the CEO of J Sainsbury plc, which operates the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's. Davis was born in Cheshire on 23 December 1941, the son of John Stephen Davis and Adriaantje de Baat. He was educated at Shrewsbury School. Peter Davis worked for a company called the Ditchburn Organisation, Dock Road, Lytham, Lancashire, U.K. circa 1960/61. Ditchburns had two sides, one side being Ditchburn Music Maker, which manufactured and sold Juke Boxes and the other side being Ditchburn Vending Machines, which manufactured and sold Hot and Cold drink vending machines. Davis worked for the sales and marketing side of Ditchburn Vending Machines. Davis worked for Sainsbury from 1976 to 1986 as marketing director and then assistant managing director. Between 1986 and 1994 he was chief executive and chairman of the publishing business Reed International and was involved in the merger with the Dutch scientific publisher Elsevier. He was chief executive of Prudential plc from 1995 having joined the company as a non-executive director. During this period, the company was condemned by the Treasury for mis-selling more pensions than any other firm. The Securities and Investments Board ordered the firm to retrain its entire sales staff, due to 'continuing and persistent breaches' of the standards of training for the sales force. Davis was knighted in the 1997 New Year Honours for services to training and to industry. In 1997 he featured in the Prudential's television advertising campaign 'The Man from the Pru', built around the image of Davis as a friendly man advising on his customers' futures. In reality, Prudential staff were required to call him 'Mr Davis' when they met him. Davis rejoined Sainsbury's on 1 March 2000 as chief executive officer and implemented a £2bn investment in upgrading IT systems, distribution depots and stores. During his term Sainsbury's was demoted to third in the UK grocery market, behind Tesco and Asda. However, in his first two years he raised profits above target and delivered significant cost savings. With the arrival of Justin King as CEO on 29 March 2004, Davis was promoted to chairman. He was due to step down in July 2005 (the appointment of Sir Ian Prosser, ex-Bass chairman, as his successor was aborted in February 2004), but in June 2004 he was forced to quit in the face of an impending shareholder revolt over his salary and bonuses. Investors were angered by a bonus share award of £2.4m in the face of the supermarket's drop in market share. Davis was succeeded by Philip Hampton. Davis has also served on the board of Boots. He was previously on the board of Business in the Community (1991–2005), having been chairman from 1996 to December 2001 and served two terms on the Board of the Royal Opera House and was Trustee and Chairman of the Royal Opera House Foundation. Davis is a senior advisor and a member of the advisory board of Permira, Europe's largest private equity company. He has served as a Trustee of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers. Between 2006 and 2011 he was chairman of the charity Marie Curie Cancer Care.
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Pierre Brissaud
Pierre Brissaud (23 December 1885 – 17 October 1964) was a French Art Deco illustrator, painter, and engraver. He was born in Paris and trained at the École des Beaux-Arts and Atelier Fernand Cormon in Montmartre, Paris. His father was Dr. Édouard Brissaud, a student of Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot. His fellow students at Cormon were his brother Jacques, André-Édouard Marty, Charles Martin, and Georges Lepape. Students at the workshop drew, painted and designed wallpaper, furniture and posters. Earlier, Toulouse-Lautrec, van Gogh, and Henri Matisse had studied and worked there. Pierre's older brother Jacques Brissaud was a portrait and genre painter and his uncle Maurice Boutet de Monvel illustrated the fables of La Fontaine, songbooks for children and a life of Joan of Arc. A first cousin was the celebrated artist and celebrity portrait painter Bernard Boutet de Monvel. Brissaud is known for his pochoir (stencil) prints for the fashion magazine Gazette du Bon Ton published by Lucien Vogel in Paris. Many of Brissaud's illustrations are realistic leisure scenes of the well-to-do. They illustrate the designs of Paris fashion houses such as Jeanne Lanvin, Chéruit, Worth, and Doucet. Brissaud's illustrations appeared in Vogue after it bought Bon Ton in 1925, as well as House & Garden and Fortune, and in books like Madame Bovary, Manon Lescaut, Mémoires de Saint-Simon, the autobiographical novels of Anatole France, Two gentlemen of Verona and many others. In 1907 he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne.
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Quentin Bryce
Dame Quentin Alice Louise Bryce (née Strachan; born 23 December 1942) is an Australian academic who served as the 25th governor-general of Australia from 2008 to 2014. She is the first woman to have held the position. She was previously the 24th governor of Queensland from 2003 to 2008. Born in Brisbane, Queensland, Bryce was raised in Ilfracombe, with her family subsequently living in a number of country towns around Australia. She attended the University of Queensland, where she completed Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees, becoming one of the first women accepted to the Queensland Bar. In 1968, Bryce became the first woman appointed as a faculty member of the law school where she had studied. In 1978 she joined the new National Women's Advisory Council (later the National Women's Consultative Council and then the Australian Council for Women). This was followed by appointment to a number of positions, including the first director of the Queensland Women's Information Service, the Queensland director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 1988. Her services to the community saw her appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1988 and a Companion of the Order of Australia and Dame of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 2003. In 2011, Elizabeth II invested Bryce as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order at Government House. Bryce was appointed Governor of Queensland in 2003. Although concerns were raised by some over her time in the office, her five-year term was going to be extended until 2009. However, on 13 April 2008, it was announced by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd that Bryce was to become the next Governor-General of Australia. The decision was generally well-received and on 5 September 2008 she was sworn in, succeeding Major General Michael Jeffery and becoming the first woman to hold the office. Bryce's tenure was not without criticism. In an unprecedented move for an incumbent governor-general, Bryce made public comments in November 2013 widely interpreted as supporting an Australian republic and same-sex marriage. She was succeeded by General Peter Cosgrove as governor-general on 28 March 2014.
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Raivo Järvi
Raivo Järvi (23 December 1954 – 17 June 2012), commonly known under the pseudonym of Onu Raivo (Uncle Raivo) was an Estonian artist, radio personality and politician.
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Reed Alexander
Reed Alexander (born December 23, 1994) is an American actor, journalist, and author. He is currently a correspondent for Insider, formerly “Business Insider,” covering the business of entertainment and the global media industry. Among his most recognizable credentials from his time as an actor is his role as Nevel Papperman in Nickelodeon's iCarly. He reprised the role of Nevel on an episode of Sam & Cat as well as the Paramount+ revival of iCarly.
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Richard Arkwright
Sir Richard Arkwright (23 December 1732 – 3 August 1792) was an English inventor and a leading entrepreneur during the early Industrial Revolution. He is credited as the driving force behind the development of the spinning frame, known as the water frame after it was adapted to use water power; and he patented a rotary carding engine to convert raw cotton to 'cotton lap' prior to spinning. He was the first to develop factories housing both mechanised carding and spinning operations. Arkwright's achievement was to combine power, machinery, semi-skilled labour and the new raw material of cotton to create mass-produced yarn. His organisational skills earned him the accolade "father of the modern industrial factory system," notably through the methods developed in his mill at Cromford, Derbyshire (now preserved as part of the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site).
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Richard Clark Barkley
Richard Clark Barkley (December 23, 1932 – January 30, 2015) was a United States diplomat. From December 1988 until October 1990, he was the last United States Ambassador to East Germany. After that, from 1991 to 1994, he was the United States Ambassador to Turkey.
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Richard Conner
Richard Conner (December 23, 1843 – November 4, 1923) was an American Civil War Union Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his bravery in action.
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Robbie Dupree
Robert Dupuis (born December 23, 1946), known professionally as Robbie Dupree, is an American singer best known for his hit songs "Steal Away" (No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Hot Rod Hearts" (No. 15).
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Robert Bly
Robert Elwood Bly (December 23, 1926 – November 21, 2021) was an American poet, essayist, activist and leader of the mythopoetic men's movement. His best-known prose book is Iron John: A Book About Men (1990), which spent 62 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, and is a key text of the mythopoetic men's movement. He won the 1968 National Book Award for Poetry for his book The Light Around the Body.
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Ron Allen
Ronald Frederick Allen (born December 23, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player. He played part of the 1972 season in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, primarily as a first baseman. He was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed.
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Ronnie Schell
Ronald Ralph Schell (December 23, 1931 – June 12, 2026) was an American actor and stand-up comedian. He appeared on the May 28, 1959, episode of the TV quiz show You Bet Your Life, hosted by Groucho Marx. Schell demonstrated a comic barrage of beatnik jive talk. As a stand-up comedian, he first developed his act at the hungry i nightclub in San Francisco, California, and is heard (presumably as the opening act) introducing the Kingston Trio at the start of the group's 1962 College Concert album. Schell is probably best known for his 1960s television role as Duke Slater in Gomer Pyle – USMC.
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Samuel Lino
Samuel Dias Lino (Brazilian Portuguese: [sɐ̃muˈɛw ˈlĩnu]; born 23 December 1999) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a left winger or wing-back for Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Flamengo and the Brazil national team.
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Samuel Smiles
Samuel Smiles (23 December 1812 – 16 April 1904) was a British author and government reformer. Although he campaigned on a Chartist platform, he promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. His primary work, Self-Help (1859), promoted thrift and claimed that poverty was caused largely by irresponsible habits, while also attacking materialism and laissez-faire government. It has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism" and had lasting effects on British political thought.
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Severo Bonini
Severo Bonini (23 December 1582 – 5 December 1663) was an Italian composer, organist, and writer on music. He was born in Florence and became a Benedictine monk. He studied singing with Giulio Caccini. He served as organist in Forlì from 1613 and held a number of other posts before returning to Florence in 1640 where he was maestro di cappella and organist at Santa Trinita until his death. He died in Florence. He published several books of music, including motets and madrigals. He wrote music in the new monodic style. His treatise Prima parte de' discorsi e regole sovra la musica (1649–1650) is an important source of information on contemporary composers and the rise of monody and opera.
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Spencer Daniels
Spencer Eli Daniels (born December 23, 1992) is an American film and television actor born in Tarzana, Los Angeles. He began acting professionally at the age of ten and has appeared in over 30 films and TV series including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Star Trek (2009). He portrayed Tyler Lomand in a recurring role on the Starz series Crash (2008-2009). In 2013, he appeared in The Midnight Game which was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment.
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Stephen Timoshenko
Stepan Prokopovich Timoshenko (Ukrainian: Степан Прокопович Тимошенко, romanized: Stepan Prokopovych Tymoshenko, Ukrainian pronunciation: [steˈpan proˈkɔpoʋet͡ʃ tɪmoˈʃɛnko]; Russian: Степан Прокофьевич Тимошенко, romanized: Stepan Prokofyevich Timoshenko, [sʲtʲɪˈpan prɐˈkofʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tʲɪmɐˈʂɛnkə]; December 22 [O.S. December 10] 1878 – May 29, 1972), later known as Stephen Timoshenko, was a Ukrainian and later an American engineer and academician. He is considered to be the father of modern engineering mechanics. An inventor and one of the pioneering mechanical engineers at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. A founding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Timoshenko wrote seminal works in the areas of engineering mechanics, elasticity and strength of materials, many of which are still widely used today. Having started his scientific career in the Russian Empire, Timoshenko emigrated to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes during the Russian Civil War and then to the United States.
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Thomas Bourgin
Thomas Bourgin (23 December 1986 – 11 January 2013) was a French motorcycle racer. He was in 68th place in the overall ranking of his first Dakar Rally. Bourgin was born in Saint Etienne and had been racing since 2009, when he took part in the Morocco Rally, followed by a 4th place in the 2011 Africa Race and a 7th-place finish in the Tunisia Rally.
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Thomas Smith
Sir Thomas Smith (23 December 1513 – 12 August 1577) was an English scholar, parliamentarian and diplomat.
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Tianqi Emperor
The Tianqi Emperor (23 December 1605 – 30 September 1627), personal name Zhu Youjiao, was the 16th and penultimate emperor of the Ming dynasty of China, reigning from 1620 to 1627. He succeeded his father, the Taichang Emperor. Zhu Youjiao ascended the throne at the age of fifteen, following the sudden death of his father, who had ruled for only one month. The era name of his reign was Tianqi, which means "heavenly opening". Instead of taking an active role in state affairs and pursuing his father's political objectives, the Tianqi Emperor showed little interest and neglected his duties. He may have suffered from learning disabilities and was illiterate, which hindered his ability to read important documents and understand government matters. As a result, the head of the imperial eunuchs, Wei Zhongxian, took advantage of the situation and seized executive power, along with the emperor's former wet nurse, Madam Ke. While Wei placed his supporters in influential positions in the palace, Madam Ke used her influence to isolate and starve other women in the imperial harem, in order to maintain her own power. The conservative Confucian moralists of the Donglin movement were dissatisfied with this style of governance and expressed their discontent. In response, the government resorted to harsh repression, resulting in the execution of many officials. This oppressive rule led to worsening conditions for the population during the reign of the Tianqi Emperor, and several popular uprisings had to be confronted by the authorities. The Tianqi Emperor died in 1627 and was succeeded by his younger brother, Zhu Youjian, who became known as the Chongzhen Emperor.
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Tommaso Bellazzini
Tommaso Bellazzini (born 23 December 1987) is an Italian footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Aglianese.
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Victor Boniface
Victor Okoh Boniface (born 23 December 2000) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and the Nigeria national team.
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Viktor Gutić
Viktor Gutić (23 December 1901 – 20 February 1947) was the Ustaše commissioner for Banja Luka and the Grand Prefect of Pokuplje in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), an Axis puppet state during World War II. He was responsible for the persecution of Serbs, Jews and Roma in the Bosanska Krajina region between 1941 and 1942. In April 1941, following the establishment of the NDH, Ustaše leader Ante Pavelić placed Gutić in charge of the territory of the former Vrbas Banovina. Gutić initiated a campaign of Croatianizing Banja Luka—banning the Cyrillic script, prohibiting Serbs and Jews from using public transportation, and initiating a series of massacres targeting the Serb population. Pavelić transferred Gutić to Zagreb in August 1941, after the Germans complained about his brutality, but he continued to wield influence in Banja Luka and its surroundings. This culminated in the Drakulić massacre of 7 February 1942, which Gutić helped plan, and resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 Serb civilians. The following month, he was appointed as the Grand Prefect of Pokuplje, centred in Karlovac. By August 1942, partly due to his excesses and partly due to those of his brother, whom he had appointed as Banja Luka's police chief, Gutić fell out of favour with the Ustaše leadership and tendered his resignation. He moved to Zagreb and remained there until the NDH collapsed in May 1945. After the Allied victory, Gutić fled first to Austria and then to Italy. He was arrested in Venice several months later after a Jewish refugee from Banja Luka recognized him and reported him to the authorities. He was imprisoned at an Allied prison camp in Grottaglie before being extradited to Yugoslavia in 1946. In February 1947, he was found guilty of collaboration and war crimes, sentenced to death, and executed by hanging in Banja Luka.
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Wesley Clark
Wesley Kanne Clark, SSM, BVO, KBE (born Wesley J. Kanne, 23 December 1944) is a retired United States Army officer. He graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1966 at West Point and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford, where he obtained a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He later graduated from the Command and General Staff College with a master's degree in military science. He commanded an infantry company in the Vietnam War, where he was shot four times and awarded a Silver Star for gallantry in combat. Clark served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO from 1997 to 2000, commanding Operation Allied Force during the Kosovo War. He spent 34 years in the U.S. Army, receiving many military decorations, several honorary knighthoods, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2003, Clark launched his candidacy for the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries. After winning only the Oklahoma state primary, he withdrew from the race in February 2004, endorsing and campaigning for the eventual Democratic nominee, John Kerry. Clark leads a political action committee, "WesPAC", which he formed after the 2004 primaries and used to support Democratic Party candidates in the 2006 midterm elections. Clark was considered a potential candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2008, but, on 15 September 2007, endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton. After Clinton dropped out of the presidential race, Clark endorsed the then-presumptive Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. Clark has his own consulting firm, Wesley K. Clark and Associates, and is chairman and CEO of Enverra, a licensed boutique investment bank. He has worked with over 100 private and public companies on energy, security, and financial services. Clark is engaged in business in North America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia. Between July 2012 and November 2015, he was an honorary special advisor to Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta on economic and security matters.
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Wilhelm Bauer
Wilhelm Bauer (German: [ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈbaʊɐ]; 23 December 1822 – 20 June 1875) was a German marine engineer and inventor who built several hand-powered submarines.
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Wilhelm Hisinger
Wilhelm Hisinger (23 December 1766 – 28 June 1852) was a Swedish physicist and chemist who in 1807, working in coordination with Jöns Jakob Berzelius, noted that in electrolysis any given substance always went to the same pole, and that substances attracted to the same pole had other properties in common. This showed that there was at least a qualitative correlation between the chemical and electrical natures of bodies.
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William Armstrong
William Armstrong (December 23, 1782 – May 10, 1865) was an American lawyer, civil servant, politician, and businessperson. He represented Hampshire County in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1818 to 1820, and Virginia's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1825 to 1833. Armstrong was born in 1782 in Lisburn, County Antrim, Ireland, and emigrated to the United States in 1792. He studied law under Charles Magill, became a lawyer, and settled in Hampshire County, Virginia (present-day West Virginia). Armstrong served in a number of civil service positions, including postmaster of Paddytown (present-day Keyser); U.S. tax collector appointed by President James Madison; director of the Bank of the Valley of Virginia; member of the Virginia Board of Public Works from 1822 to 1823; justice of the peace for Hampshire County from 1820 to 1852; and Hampshire County sheriff in 1843. Armstrong was chosen as a presidential elector for Virginia in the 1820 and 1824 U.S. presidential elections. He was elected to two terms in the Virginia House of Delegates and four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, two as an Adamsite Democratic-Republican and two as a National Republican. In Congress, he assisted in passing a bill to appropriate funds to construct the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in 1828. Following his tenure in Congress, Armstrong engaged in the tavern business and operated the Armstrong House hotel in Romney. In 1862, he relocated to Keyser, where he died in 1865.
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William Kristol
William Kristol (; born December 23, 1952) is an American neoconservative writer. A frequent commentator on several networks including CNN, he was the founder and editor-at-large of the political magazine The Weekly Standard. Kristol is editor-at-large of the center-right publication The Bulwark and is among the editors of its Substack publication that bears the same name. Since 2014, he has been the host of Conversations with Bill Kristol, an interview web program. Kristol played a leading role in the defeat of the Clinton health care plan of 1993, as well as for advocating the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He has been associated with a number of conservative think tanks. He was chairman of the New Citizenship Project from 1997 to 2005. In 1997, he co-founded the Project for the New American Century (PNAC) with Robert Kagan. He is a member of the board of trustees for the free-market Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a member of the Policy Advisory Board for the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and a director of the Foreign Policy Initiative. He is also one of the three board members of Keep America Safe, a national-security think tank co-founded by Liz Cheney and Debra Burlingame, and serves on the boards of the Emergency Committee for Israel and of the Susan B. Anthony List (as of 2010). Kristol is a critic of president Donald Trump, a supporter of the Never Trump movement, and a founder and director of Defending Democracy Together, an advocacy organization responsible for such projects as Republicans for the Rule of Law and the Republican Accountability Project.
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Yousuf Karsh
Yousuf Karsh (Armenian: Հովսեպ Քարշ, romanized: Hovsep K'arsh; December 23, 1908 – July 13, 2002) was an Armenian-Canadian photographer, known for his portraits of notable individuals. He has been described as one of the greatest portrait photographers of the 20th century. An Armenian genocide survivor, Karsh emigrated to Canada as a refugee. By the 1930s, he established himself as a significant photographer in Ottawa, where he lived most of his adult life, though he traveled extensively for work. His iconic 1941 photograph of Winston Churchill marked a major turning point in his career and brought him international recognition. More than 20 photos by Karsh appeared on the cover of Life magazine, until he retired in 1993.
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Zbyněk Michálek
Zbyněk Michálek (Czech pronunciation: [ˈzbɪɲɛk ˈmɪxaːlɛk], born 23 December 1982) is a Czech former professional ice hockey defenceman. He most recently played for Sparta Praha of the Czech Extraliga (ELH). Michálek has also previously played in the NHL for the Minnesota Wild, Arizona Coyotes, Pittsburgh Penguins, and St. Louis Blues. He is the older brother of former NHL star Milan Michálek.
Who's birthday is it today? — FAQ
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