Who was born on December 25?
December 25 is packed with notable birthdays. Explore 127 famous birthdays, sorted by recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Top ranked names include Adut Akech, Ahmed Ben Bella, Ali Tandoğan, Andreas Haitzer, Annie Lennox. Filter by actor, musician, athlete, and more — or open any other calendar day.
December 25
127 people
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Adut Akech
Adut Akech Bior ( ə-DUUT ə-KETCH; born 25 December 1999) is a South Sudanese-Australian model. Akech made her fashion week runway debut as an exclusive in the Saint Laurent S/S 17 show and went on to close both their F/W 17 and S/S 18 shows as an exclusive. In 2018, she was chosen as "Model of the Year" by models.com, an honour which was repeated the next year. Models.com includes Akech in its list of the "New Supers".
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Ahmed Ben Bella
Ahmed Ben Bella (Arabic: أحمد بن بلّة, romanized: Aḥmad bin Billah; 1916 – 11 April 2012) was an Algerian politician, soldier and revolutionary who served as the head of government of Algeria from 27 September 1962 to 15 September 1963 and then the first president of Algeria from 15 September 1963 until his overthrow on 19 June 1965. Ben Bella played an important role during the Algerian war of independence against France, leading the National Liberation Front (FLN), organizing the shipment of foreign weapons and coordinating political strategy from Cairo. Despite not being present in Algeria, French authorities tried to assassinate him multiple times. Once Algeria gained independence in 1962, Ben Bella's Oujda Group seized power from Benyoucef Benkhedda's provisional government, and Ben Bella became prime minister of Algeria with Ferhat Abbas as acting president. Ben Bella succeeded Ferhat Abbas on 15 September 1963 after rapidly sidelining him, and was elected president after winning an election with 99.6 percent of the votes. Ben Bella pursued Arab socialist and pan-Arabist policies and came to describe himself as a Nasserist. He nationalized several industries and established good relations with other anti-Zionist Arab states and left-wing states such as Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt and Fidel Castro's Cuba. He encountered political conflict during his presidency, and was faced with border clashes in the Sand War with Morocco in 1963 and a failed rebellion by the Socialist Forces Front against his regime in 1963–1964. He was ousted from power and put under house arrest following a coup d'état by his Minister of Defense Houari Boumédiéne in 1965. He was freed from house arrest on 17 January 1980 and died in 2012.
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Ali Tandoğan
Ali Tandoğan (born 25 December 1977) is a Turkish former football player and coach who was most recently the manager of Şanlıurfaspor.
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Andreas Haitzer
Andreas Haitzer (born 25 December 1967) is an Austrian politician and member of the National Council. A member of the Social Democratic Party, he has represented Salzburg since October 2024. He was a member of the Salzburg Landtag from June 2013 to March 2015. Haitzer was born on 25 December 1967 in Schwarzach im Pongau. He was an apprentice industrial electrician at Tauernkraftwerke AG in Kaprun from 1983 to 1987. He was an electrical engineer at Elektro Florian/Fa Bleckmann from 1987 to 1993. He was a dispatcher and emergency co-ordinator for Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) from 1993 to 2011. He has held various positions in the Schwarzach im Pongau and Salzburg branches of the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) since 2001. He has been a member of the municipal council in Schwarzach im Pongau since 2004 and has been mayor since 2008. He was elected to the Salzburg Landtag at the 2013 state election. He resigned from the Landtag in March 2015 and was replaced by Gerd Brand. He was elected to the National Council at the 2024 legislative election.
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Annie Lennox
Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart went on to achieve international success in the 1980s as Eurythmics. She appeared in the 1983 music video for "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" with orange cropped hair and wearing a lounge suit. Subsequent hits with Eurythmics include "There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)", "Love Is a Stranger" and "Here Comes the Rain Again". Lennox embarked on a solo career in 1992 with her debut album, Diva, which produced several hit singles including "Why" and "Walking on Broken Glass". The same year, she performed "Love Song for a Vampire" for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Her 1995 studio album Medusa includes cover versions of songs such as "No More 'I Love You's'" and "A Whiter Shade of Pale". To date, she has released six solo studio albums and a compilation album, The Annie Lennox Collection (2009). With eight Brit Awards, which includes being named Best British Female Artist a record six times, Lennox has been named the "Brits Champion of Champions". She has also collected four Grammy Awards and an MTV Video Music Award. In 2002, Lennox received a Billboard Century Award; the highest accolade from Billboard. In 2004, she received the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Into the West", written for the soundtrack to the feature film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Lennox's vocal range is contralto. She has been named "The Greatest White Soul Singer Alive" by VH1 and one of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone. In June 2013, the Official Charts Company called her "the most successful female British artist in UK music history". By June 2008, including her work with Eurythmics, Lennox had sold over 80 million records worldwide. As part of a one-hour symphony of British Music, Lennox performed "Little Bird" during the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. At the 2015 Ivor Novello Awards Lennox was made a fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (The Ivors Academy), the first woman to receive the honour. Lennox and her Eurythmics partner Dave Stewart were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020, and the duo were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. Lennox is also a political and social activist, raising money and awareness for HIV/AIDS as it affects women and children in Africa. She founded the Sing campaign in 2007 and founded a women's empowerment charity called The Circle in 2008. In 2011 Lennox was appointed an OBE by Queen Elizabeth II for her "tireless charity campaigns and championing of humanitarian causes". On 4 June 2012 she performed at the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Concert in front of Buckingham Palace. In 2017, Lennox was appointed Glasgow Caledonian University's first female chancellor.
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Antiochos Evangelatos
Antiochos Evangelatos (sometimes spelled Evanghelatos) (Greek: Αντίοχος Ευαγγελάτος; 1903 – 1981) was a Greek classical composer and conductor.
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Antoinette de Bourbon
Antoinette of Bourbon, Duchess of Guise (25 December 1494 – 22 January 1583), was a French noblewoman of the House of Bourbon. She was the wife of Claude, Duke of Guise.
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Archibald Pitcairne
Archibald Pitcairne or Pitcairn (25 December 1652 – 20 October 1713) was a Scottish physician. He was a physician and poet who first studied law at Edinburgh and Paris graduating with an M.A. from Edinburgh in 1671. He turned his attention to medicine, and commenced to practise in Edinburgh, around 1681. He was appointed professor of physic at Leyden, in 1692, resigning his chair. On returning to Edinburgh, however, around 1693, he was suspected of being at heart an atheist, chiefly on account of his mockery of the puritanical strictness of the Presbyterian church. He was the reputed author of two satirical works, 'The Assembly, or Scotch Reformation: a Comedy,' 1692, and Habel, a Satirical Poem,' 1692. He wrote also a number of Latin verses. He was one of the most celebrated physicians of his time.
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Arseny Mironov
Arseny Dmitrievich Mironov (Russian: Арсений Дмитриевич Миронов; 25 December 1917 – 3 July 2019) was a Russian scientist, aerospace engineer, and aviator. He was one of the oldest researchers in aircraft aerodynamics and flight testing, a Gromov Flight Research Institute (GFRI) director from 1981 to 1985, a recipient of the Stalin Prize in 1948 and the USSR State Prize in 1976, and an honorary citizen of Zhukovsky. Mironov contributed to aviation engineering and research through the GFRI, serving as a flight test engineer, researcher, and director. He turned 100 in December 2017.
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Avu-chan
Avu-chan (アヴちゃん; born December 25) is a Japanese singer, songwriter, producer and actor. They debuted as the lead vocalist and songwriter of the band Queen Bee in 2009, and took on a side project as the lead vocalist and trumpeter of the supergroup Gokumontō Ikka in 2015. As a producer and songwriter, Avu-chan uses the name Avu Barazono (薔薇園アヴ, Barazono Avu; "Avu Rose-Garden"), and has written songs for Meg, Rina Satō, Ai Shinozaki, Hey! Say! JUMP, LiSA, KERENMI, and the SUPERNOVA sub-unit Funky Galaxy. They also produce the alternative vocal-and-dance boy group Ryugujo, formed in 2023 through the audition program "0th Class 0 - Avu-chan's Classroom" (0年0組 -アヴちゃんの教室-).
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Basil Heatley
Benjamin Basil Heatley (25 December 1933 – 3 August 2019) was a British competitive long-distance runner, who was an Olympic marathon silver medallist and former world marathon record-holder. Although he favoured cross country running, he was also a skilled marathon runner and, despite running shoe technology being in its infancy, he was able to adapt easily to the change of conditions underfoot. Heatley was a three-time winner of the English National Cross Country title (1960, 1961, 1963). He competed in the International Cross Country Championships seven times between 1957 and 1964, winning the world title in 1961. In the early 1960s, he set a British record and a world record for the 10-mile run, then on 13 June 1964 he broke the record for the world's fastest marathon. Four months later, he won a silver medal for Great Britain at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics when he finished second in the Olympic marathon (defending champion Abebe Bikila broke Heatley's world record on winning his second gold medal). The 1964 Olympics marked the end of Heatley's international career.
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Benjamin Pierce
Benjamin Pierce (December 25, 1757 – April 1, 1839) was an American politician who twice served as the governor of New Hampshire from 1827 to 1828 and from 1829 to 1830. Pierce fought during the American Revolutionary War before becoming a Democratic-Republican Party politician. He was the father of Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States.
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Cab Calloway
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer, songwriter, bandleader, and actor. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the swing era. His niche of mixing jazz and vaudeville won him acclaim during a career that spanned over 65 years. Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the most popular dance bands in the United States from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. His band included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie, Jonah Jones, and Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon "Chu" Berry, guitarist Danny Barker, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Cozy Cole. Calloway had several hit records in the 1930s and 1940s, becoming the first African-American musician to sell one million copies of a record. He became known as the "Hi-de-ho" man of jazz for his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher", originally recorded in 1931. He reached the Billboard charts in five consecutive decades (1930s–1970s). Calloway also made several stage, film, and television appearances. He had roles in Stormy Weather (1943), Porgy and Bess (1953), The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and Hello Dolly! (1967). In the 1980s, Calloway enjoyed a marked career resurgence following his appearance in the musical comedy film The Blues Brothers (1980). Calloway was the first African-American to have a nationally syndicated radio program. In 1993, Calloway received the National Medal of Arts from the United States Congress. He posthumously received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008. His song "Minnie the Moocher" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, and added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry in 2019. In 2022, the National Film Registry selected his home films for preservation as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films". He was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame and the International Jazz Hall of Fame.
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Camille Herron
Jacquelyn Camille Herron (born December 25, 1981) is an American ultramarathon runner. She has achieved 12 world records in ultramarathon distances.
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Candy Candido
Jonathan Joseph "Candy" Candido (December 25, 1913 – May 19, 1999) was an American radio performer and voice actor. He was best remembered for his famous line "I'm feeling mighty low" on Jimmy Durante's radio show. He voiced characters in several Disney animated movies, including Peter Pan (1953), Sleeping Beauty (1959) and Robin Hood (1973). Candido was known for providing many animal vocalizations in his movies and was dubbed "The Man of a Thousand Voices".
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Carlos Castaneda
Carlos Castaneda (December 25, 1925– April 27, 1998) was a Peruvian-American writer, trained as an anthropologist. Starting in 1968, Castaneda published a series of books that describe alleged training in shamanism that he received under the tutelage of a Yaqui "Man of Knowledge" named Don Juan Matus. While Castaneda's work was accepted as factual by many when the books were first published, the character of Don Juan and the training he described is now generally considered to be fabricated and to have little relation to the actual cultural practices of the Yaqui. Castaneda's early writings featuring Don Juan were bestsellers with the general public, and are considered to be a significant influence on neoshamanism and the New Age movement more broadly. The first three books—The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, A Separate Reality, and Journey to Ixtlan—were written while he was an anthropology student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Castaneda was awarded his bachelor's and doctoral degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, based on the work he described in these books. Castaneda's later works have a greater focus on religious themes. Always reclusive, and following increasing doubt about the veracity of his encounters with Don Juan, in the early 1970s, Castaneda withdrew from the public eye, and began cultivating a following of young female devotees whom he called his "witches" or "chacmools" who he demanded cut off contact with their families, change their names, and sexually submit to him. At the time of his death in 1998, Castaneda's books had sold more than eight million copies and had been published in 17 languages. Following his death, five of his closest female devotees went missing. The car and skeletal remains of one of them, Patricia Partin, were later found in Death Valley, though the fate of the other four remains unknown.
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Ceyhun Gülselam
Ceyhun Gülselam (born 25 December 1987) is a Turkish professional footballer who plays as a center back and defensive midfielder. He plays for Altay.
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Charles Finger
Charles Joseph Finger (December 25, 1869 – January 7, 1941) was a British born American writer. He also directed an orchestra and taught piano.
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Cheryl Chase
Cheryl Chase (born Cheryl Christine Hudock; December 25, 1958) is an American actress and children's book author. She is best known for voicing Angelica Pickles in the television series Rugrats and its spinoffs All Grown Up, Angelica and Susie's Pre-School Daze, and on the revival.
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Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George(s) (; French: [ʒozɛf bɔlɔɲ]; 25 December 1745 – 9 June 1799) was a French violinist, conductor, composer, and soldier of African descent. Moreover, he demonstrated excellence as a fencer, an athlete, and a dancer. His historical significance lies partly in his distinctive background as a biracial free man of colour. Bologne was the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim in Western music. He composed an array of violin concertos, string quartets, sinfonia concertantes, violin duets, sonatas, two symphonies, and an assortment of stage works, notably opéra comique. Born in the French colony of Guadeloupe, his father, Georges Bologne de Saint-Georges, was a wealthy, white plantation owner, while his mother was one of the Senegalese people Georges kept enslaved. At the age of seven, he was taken to France where he began his formal education. As a young man he won a fencing contest leading to his appointment as a “gendarme de la garde du roi" by king Louis XVI. Having received music and musical composition lessons, he joined the orchestra Le Concert des Amateurs, culminating in his appointment as its conductor in 1773. In 1776, Saint-Georges began conducting the Paris Opera. However, this prospect was thwarted by opposition from certain performers who resisted the idea of an individual of colour directing them. Around this time, he shifted his focus to composing operas. In 1781, he joined a new orchestra, Le Concert de la Loge Olympique. By 1785, he had stopped composing instrumental works altogether. Following the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, Saint-Georges left for England. Upon his return to France, he joined the National Guard in Lille and then served as a colonel in the Légion St.-Georges, which comprised "citizens of colour". His social and professional ties to prominent figures such as Marie Antoinette and the Duke of Orléans made him a target of the Reign of Terror, culminating in a period of imprisonment spanning at least eleven months. Saint-Georges, a contemporary of Mozart, has at times been called the "Black Mozart." Some have criticized this appellation as racist, but others have used it to champion Saint-Georges. The violinist Randall Goosby said, “I prefer to think of Mozart as the white Chevalier."
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Chris Cahill
Christopher Cahill (born 25 December 1984) is a retired professional footballer. Born in Australia, he represented Samoa at international level.
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Christina of Saxony
Christina of Saxony (25 December 1461 – 8 December 1521) was Queen of Denmark, Norway and Sweden as the wife of King John.
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Christine M. Jones
Christine M. Jones (December 25, 1929 – January 26, 2013) was an American politician who represented District 26 in the Maryland House of Delegates.
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Christine of Saxony
Christine of Saxony (25 December 1505 – 15 April 1549) was a German noblewoman, landgravine consort of Hesse by her marriage to Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse. She was the regent of Hesse during the absence of her husband from 1547 to 1549.
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Christmas Evans
Christmas Evans (25 December 1766 – 19 July 1838) was a Welsh nonconformist minister, who, according to D. M. Lloyd-Jones, was "the greatest preacher that the Baptists have ever had in Great Britain."
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Clara Barton
Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was an American nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent clerk. Since nursing education was not very formalized, and she did not attend nursing school, she provided self-taught nursing care. Barton is noteworthy for doing humanitarian work and civil rights advocacy at a time before women had the right to vote. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1973.
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Conrad Hilton
Conrad Nicholson Hilton (December 25, 1887 – January 3, 1979) was an American hotel magnate and politician who founded the Hilton Hotels chain. From 1912 to 1916, Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature, but became disillusioned with the "inside deals" of politics. In 1919, he purchased his first hotel, the Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, for US$40,000 (equivalent to $742,802 in 2025) and subsequently capitalized on the oil boom. The rooms were rented out in eight-hour shifts. He continued to purchase and sell hotels, and eventually established the world's first international hotel chain. When he died in 1979, he left the bulk of his estate to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
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Dorothy Wordsworth
Dorothy Mae Ann Wordsworth (25 December 1771 – 25 January 1855) was an English author, poet, and diarist. She was the sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth, and the two were close all their adult lives. Dorothy Wordsworth had no ambitions to be a public author, yet she left behind numerous letters, diary entries, topographical descriptions, poems, and other writings.
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Duane Armstrong
Duane Albert Armstrong (born December 25, 1938) is an American painter, best known for his oil on canvas paintings. He was born in Fresno California, and was raised near San Luis Obispo California. His foster mother taught him to paint as a child. His best-known works are his "Fields of Grass" series of oil on canvas paintings, which depict California landscapes and are noted for their inclusion of a small ladybug near the bottom of some or all of the paintings in the series. A story claims that he began adding the ladybug to his "Fields of Grass" paintings after a customer saw one in another painting and requested he add it to the painting she just bought. He has painted over 7,000 paintings over the years, over 185 of which are in print, including reproductions by Heritage Publications, Illinois Moulding Co., Windsor Art Co., Turner Art Co., Continental Art Co., and Art Market International. His work is included in the exhibitions of Stanford University, the de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University, and in the Cal Poly Graphic Communication Support Program Gallery.
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Ed Davey
Sir Edward Jonathan Davey (born 25 December 1965) is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats since 2019. He served in the Cameron–Clegg coalition as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015 and as Deputy Leader to Jo Swinson in 2019. An "Orange Book" liberal, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston and Surbiton since 2017, a seat he previously held from 1997 to 2015. Davey was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire. After both his parents died before he was 16, Davey was raised by his grandparents, and subsequently attended Nottingham High School. He then went on to study at Jesus College, Oxford, and Birkbeck, University of London. He worked as an economics researcher and financial analyst before being elected to the House of Commons. Davey served as a Liberal Democrat spokesperson to Charles Kennedy, Menzies Campbell and Nick Clegg from 2005 to 2010, in various portfolios including education and skills, trade and industry, and foreign and Commonwealth affairs. In 2010, after the Liberal Democrats entered into a coalition government with the Conservative Party, Davey served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs from 2010 to 2012, and in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change from 2012 to 2015, following Chris Huhne's resignation. Davey focused on increasing competition in the energy market by removing barriers to entry for smaller companies, and by streamlining the process of customer switching. He also approved the construction of Hinkley Point C nuclear power station. As postal affairs minister, Davey did not investigate the details of the Post Office Horizon scandal that had led to the wrongful prosecution of hundreds of sub-postmasters, but was the only Post Office minister to meet Alan Bates, the founder of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance. Davey lost his seat in the 2015 general election and was knighted in the 2016 New Year Honours for political and public service. He regained his seat in the 2017 general election, and served as the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson from 2017 to 2019. After the retirement of Vince Cable, Davey unsuccessfully ran against Jo Swinson in the 2019 Liberal Democrats leadership election, and was later appointed Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson and elected unopposed as the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. After Swinson lost her seat at the 2019 general election, Davey, while remaining deputy leader, served as acting leader alongside Liberal Democrat presidents Baroness Brinton and Mark Pack from December 2019 to August 2020. Davey stood in the 2020 Liberal Democrats leadership election, in which he defeated Layla Moran with 63.5% of the vote. In his campaign he said that he would prioritise defeating the Conservatives and ruled out working with them following the 2024 general election. With Davey as their leader, the Liberal Democrats made gains alongside Labour in the 2024 local elections, where the Liberal Democrats finished second for the first time in a local election cycle since 2009. In the 2024 general election Davey led his party both to their highest ever number of seats and to the highest number of seats for a third party since 1923, and was noted, with praise and criticism, for his campaign stunts. He was re-elected unopposed as Liberal Democrat leader in 2024 and led his party to further gains in the 2025 local elections.
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Emi Takei
Emi Takei (武井 咲, Takei Emi; born December 25, 1993) is a Japanese actress and model.
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Emiliano Buendía
Emiliano Buendía Stati (born 25 December 1996) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Premier League club Aston Villa and the Argentina national team. Buendía's senior career began at Spanish club Getafe with whom he spent four years, including a short spell with Cultural Leonesa, before he moved to England, joining Norwich City in 2018. His first season at Norwich saw the club achieve promotion to the Premier League. However, the next season saw them relegated back to the Championship. In his final season at Norwich, he won the EFL Championship Player of the Season award. Buendía transferred to Aston Villa in 2021. After falling out of favour by the end of the 2024–25 season, he re-emerged as a focal player in the 2025–26 season. In 2026, he won the Europa League, being named man of the match in the final.
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Emmanuel Agassi
Emmanuel "Mike" Agassi (born Emanoul Aghasi; December 25, 1930 – September 24, 2021) was an Iranian-American amateur boxer and tennis coach. He represented Iran in boxing at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics before moving to the United States, where he became a three-time Chicago Golden Gloves champion. After retiring from boxing, he coached his son, tennis player Andre Agassi.
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Emmanuel Amunike
Emmanuel Amunike () (born 25 December 1970) is a Nigerian professional football manager and former footballer who played as a winger.
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Enrique Jorrín
Enrique Jorrín (December 25, 1926 – December 12, 1987) was a Cuban charanga violinist, composer and music director. He is considered the inventor of the cha-cha-chá, a popular style of ballroom music derived from danzón.
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Eric Gordon
Eric Ambrose Gordon Jr. (born December 25, 1988) is a Bahamian-American professional basketball player who last played for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). In high school, he was named Indiana Mr. Basketball during his senior year while playing at North Central High School. He is known, in part, as the subject of a recruiting competition between the University of Illinois and Indiana University in the spring and summer of 2006; because of Gordon's talent and high level of play that year, his recruitment was the subject of media coverage. Gordon played one season of college basketball at Indiana and was considered one of the top collegiate players in the nation that year. He finished his freshman season leading the Big Ten in scoring and tied for 19th in the nation at 21.5 points per game. Gordon entered the 2008 NBA draft and was selected seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers.
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Evangeline Booth
Evangeline Cory Booth OF (December 25, 1865 – July 17, 1950) was a British evangelist and the fourth General of The Salvation Army from 1934 to 1939. She was the first woman to hold the post.
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Ferman Akgül
İbrahim Ferman Akgül (born 25 December 1979) is a Turkish singer, songwriter, TV host and actor. He is the lead singer of Turkish rock band maNga. In 2015 he opened the independent record label 06 Records and released his first solo single "İstemem Söz Sevmeni" in early 2016.
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Filippo Mazzei
Philip Mazzei (December 25, 1730 – March 19, 1816), originally Filippo Mazzei (Italian pronunciation: [fiˈlippo matˈtsɛi]), and sometimes erroneously cited as Philip Mazzie, was an Italian physician, philosopher, diplomat, winemaker, merchant, and author. A neighbor of Thomas Jefferson, he was a supporter of the American Revolution and the American colonies' war for independence from Britain.
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Francesco Marinoni
Francesco Marinoni (25 December 1490 – 13 December 1562) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest who was a member of the Theatines. He assumed the name Giovanni upon his admittance into the order. His cult was confirmed and acted as his formal beatification in 1764 under Pope Clement XIII. His life of heroic virtue was approved and Pope Benedict XVI added the title of Venerable to him despite the fact he was beatified. A miracle - now under investigation - is needed for his canonization.
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Francis Aveling
Francis Arthur Powell Aveling MC ComC (25 December 1875 – 6 March 1941) was a Canadian psychologist and Catholic priest. He married Ethel Dancy of Steyning, Sussex in 1925.
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Francis Dunnery
Francis Dunnery (born 25 December 1962) is an English musician, singer-songwriter, record producer and record label owner. Dunnery was the lead singer and guitarist for British prog-pop band It Bites between 1982 and 1990. Since 1990 he has pursued a solo career, and has owned and run his own record label, Aquarian Nation, since 2001. He has collaborated with artists including Robert Plant, Ian Brown, Lauryn Hill, Santana and Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe and as a producer and/or collaborator with David Sancious, Chris Difford (of Squeeze), James Sonefeld (Hootie and the Blowfish), Erin Moran, Steven Harris (ex-The Cult, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction), and Ashley Reaks (Younger Younger 28s). Dunnery was one of the candidates invited to audition as a lead singer and frontman for Genesis following Phil Collins' departure in 1996. He also played in the reformed 1960s beat/prog band The Syn between 2008 and mid-2009.
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Francis Henry Buzzacott
Francis Henry Buzzacott (1861–1947) was an American hunter, conservationist, army scout, and explorer famous for writing the Hunter's and Trapper's Complete Guide and the Complete American and Canadian Sportsman's Encyclopedia, better known today as Buzzacott's Masterpiece.
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Françoise Dürr
Françoise Dürr (born 25 December 1942; sometimes referred to by English writers as Frankie Durr) is a retired French tennis player. She won 50 singles titles and over 60 doubles titles. Durr played with an unorthodox backhand, which she played with an Eastern forehand grip and her index finger extended up the handle. She is also noted for having an unorthodox serve that "might not have registered on a radar gun" according to her official Tennis Hall of Fame biography. According to Lance Tingay, Bud Collins, and the Women's Tennis Association, Dürr was ranked in the world top ten from 1965 through 1967, from 1970 through 1972, and from 1974 through 1976, reaching a career high of world No. 3 in those rankings in 1967. She finished second to Billie Jean King in prize money earnings in 1971. Dürr reached a total of 27 Grand Slam finals – one in singles, 18 in women's doubles, and eight in mixed doubles. She won twelve of them.
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Gerhard Herzberg
Gerhard Heinrich Friedrich Otto Julius Herzberg, (German: [ˈɡeːɐ̯.haʁt ˈhɛʁt͡sˌbɛʁk] ; December 25, 1904 – March 3, 1999) was a German-Canadian pioneering physicist and physical chemist, who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1971, "for his contributions to the knowledge of electronic structure and geometry of molecules, particularly free radicals". Herzberg's main work concerned atomic and molecular spectroscopy. He is well known for using these techniques that determine the structures of diatomic and polyatomic molecules, including free radicals which are difficult to investigate in any other way, and for the chemical analysis of astronomical objects. Herzberg served as Chancellor of Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada from 1973 to 1980.
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Ghislaine Maxwell
Ghislaine Noelle Marion Maxwell ( ghee-LEN; born 25 December 1961) is a British convicted child sex trafficker and former socialite. In 2021, she was convicted of child sex trafficking, and in 2022 was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Born in France and raised in Oxford, England, she attended Balliol College, Oxford, in the 1980s and became a prominent member of London's social scene. She is a naturalised American citizen and retains both French and British citizenship. She worked for her father, the media proprietor Robert Maxwell, until his death in 1991; she then moved to New York City, where she continued living as a socialite and developed a close relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Alongside Epstein, Maxwell maintained an extensive social network of prominent elites. Maxwell maintained friendships with Naomi Campbell, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton and Kerry Kennedy. In July 2020, Maxwell was arrested by the FBI in the United States following a federal indictment charging her with multiple offences, including conspiracy to entice minors and sex trafficking of minors to Jeffrey Epstein. She was denied bail. Her trial ran from 29 November until 29 December 2021 when she was convicted on five out of six counts, including one of sex trafficking of a minor.
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Ghulam Ahmad Bilour
Ghulam Ahmad Bilour (Urdu: غلام احمد بلور; born 25 December 1939) is a Pakistani politician who served as a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from 2008 to 2018. He additionally served as Federal Minister for Railways twice and as Federal Minister for Local Government and Rural Development once.
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Giovanni Battista Somis
Giovanni Battista Somis (December 25, 1686 – August 14, 1763) was an Italian violinist and composer of the Baroque music era. He studied under Arcangelo Corelli between 1703 and 1706 or 1707. He was later appointed solo violinist to the king at Turin and leader of the royal band, and seems scarcely ever to have left Turin after these appointments. A trip to Paris in 1731 to play at the Concert Spirituel produced a report in the April 1733 Le Mercure praising his playing. He published eight opus numbers in all: Opus 1 - 12 sonatas for violin and figured bass (1717 Amsterdam, published by J. Roger) Opus 2 - 12 sonatas for violin and figured bass (1723 Turin) Opus 3 - 12 sonatas for violin and figured bass (1725 Turin) Opus 4 - 12 sonatas for violin and figured bass (1726 Paris) Opus 5 - 6 trio sonatas for two violins and figured bass (1733 Paris, published by Boisvin) Opus 6 - 12 sonatas for violin and figured bass (1734 Paris) Opus 7 - "Ideali trattimenti da camera" for two violins, two flutes or violes (1750 Paris) Opus 8 - 6 trio sonatas A set of twelve sonatas for cello and figured bass was published by LeClerc of Paris around 1740, as well. He formed a style more brilliant and more emotional, and caused a decided step forward in the art of violin playing. He was the teacher of Jean-Marie Leclair, Felice Giardini, Louis-Gabriel Guillemain, and Chabran, as well as Gaetano Pugnani, and he forms a connecting link between the classical schools of Italy and France. He died in Turin.
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Helena Rubinstein
Helena Rubinstein (born Chaja Rubinstein; December 25, 1872 – April 1, 1965) was a Polish businesswoman, art collector, and philanthropist. She founded Helena Rubinstein Incorporated cosmetics company, which ultimately made her one of the world's wealthiest women.
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Hideki Okajima
Hideki Okajima (岡島 秀樹, Okajima Hideki; born December 25, 1975) is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. Okajima pitched for the Yomiuri Giants, Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and Yokohama DeNA BayStars of Nippon Professional Baseball, and the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball. Okajima was elected to the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game as a first time All-Star via the All-Star Final Vote. He became the first Japanese-born pitcher to play in the World Series in Game 2 of the 2007 World Series. On July 18, 2016, Okajima announced his retirement.
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Hilary Spurling
Susan Hilary Spurling (née Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer.
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Hugo Bergmann
Hugo Bergmann (Hebrew: שמואל הוגו ברגמן; December 25, 1883 – June 18, 1975) was an Israeli philosopher, born in Prague.
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Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart ( BOH-gart; December 25, 1899 – January 14, 1957), nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema. Bogart began acting in Broadway shows. Debuting in film in The Dancing Town (1928), he appeared in supporting roles for more than a decade, regularly portraying gangsters. He was praised for his work as Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936). Bogart also received positive reviews for his performance as gangster Hugh "Baby Face" Martin in William Wyler's Dead End (1937). His breakthrough came in High Sierra (1941), and he catapulted to stardom as the lead in John Huston's The Maltese Falcon (1941), considered one of the first great noir films. Bogart's private detectives, Sam Spade (in The Maltese Falcon) and Philip Marlowe (in 1946's The Big Sleep), became the models for detectives in other noir films. In 1947, he played a war hero in another noir, Dead Reckoning, tangled in a dangerous web of brutality and violence as he investigates his friend's murder, co-starring Lizabeth Scott. His first romantic lead role was a memorable one, as Rick Blaine, paired with Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa Lund in Casablanca (1942). Blaine was ranked as the fourth greatest hero of American cinema by the American Film Institute, and Blaine and Lund's romance the greatest love story in American cinema, also by the American Film Institute. Raymond Chandler, in a 1946 letter, wrote that "Like Edward G. Robinson when he was younger, all he has to do to dominate a scene is to enter it." During the filming of To Have and Have Not (1944), 44-year-old Bogart fell in love with his costar, 19-year-old Lauren Bacall. In 1945, a few months after principal photography for The Big Sleep, their second film together, he divorced his third wife and married Bacall. After their marriage, they played each other's love interest in the mystery thrillers Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948). Bogart's performances in Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place (1950) are considered among his best, although they were not recognized as such when the films were released. He reprised those unsettled, unstable characters as a World War II naval-vessel commander in The Caine Mutiny (1954), a critical and commercial hit that earned him a third Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, following Casablanca and a win for portraying a cantankerous river steam launch skipper opposite Katharine Hepburn's missionary in the World War I African adventure The African Queen (1951). Other significant roles in his later years included The Barefoot Contessa (1954) with Ava Gardner and his on-screen competition with William Holden for Audrey Hepburn in Sabrina (1954). A heavy smoker and drinker, Bogart died from esophageal cancer in January 1957. Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The African Queen made the American Film Institute's 1998 list of the greatest American movies of all time, with Casablanca ranked second. Regarding her husband's enduring popularity, Bacall later said, "There was something that made him able to be a man of his own, and it showed through his work. There was also a purity, which is amazing considering the parts he played. Something solid, too. I think as time goes by, we all believe less and less. Here was someone who believed in something."
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Ian Bostridge
Ian Charles Bostridge CBE (born 25 December 1964) is a renowned English tenor and historian.
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Irish McCalla
Nellie Elizabeth "Irish" McCalla (December 25, 1928 – February 1, 2002) was an American film and television actress and artist best known as the title star of the 1950s television series Sheena, Queen of the Jungle. She co-starred with actor Chris Drake. McCalla was also a "Vargas Girl" model for pin-up girl artist Alberto Vargas.
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Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton ( ; (1643-01-04)4 January 1643 [O.S. 25 December 1642] – 31 March [O.S. 20 March] 1727) was an English polymath who was a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, author and inventor. He was a key figure in the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment that followed. His book Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy), first published in 1687, achieved the first great unification in physics and established classical mechanics. Newton also made seminal contributions to optics, and shares credit with the German mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz for formulating infinitesimal calculus, although he developed calculus years before Leibniz. Newton contributed to and refined the scientific method, and his work is considered the most influential in bringing forth modern science. In the Principia, Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that formed the dominant scientific viewpoint for centuries until it was superseded by the theory of relativity. While this is the case, his laws still serve as excellent approximations for the vast majority of physical phenomena involving low speeds (much less than the speed of light) and weak gravitational fields. He used his mathematical description of gravity to derive Kepler's laws of planetary motion, account for tides, the trajectories of comets, the precession of the equinoxes and other phenomena, eradicating doubt about the Solar System's heliocentricity. Newton solved the two-body problem and introduced the three-body problem. He demonstrated that the motion of objects on Earth and celestial bodies could be accounted for by the same principles. Newton's inference that the Earth is an oblate spheroid was later confirmed by the geodetic measurements of Alexis Clairaut, Charles Marie de La Condamine, and others, convincing most European scientists of the superiority of Newtonian mechanics over earlier systems. He was also the first to calculate the age of Earth by experiment, and described a precursor to the modern wind tunnel. Further, he was the first to provide a quantitative estimate of the solar mass. Newton built the first reflecting telescope and developed a sophisticated theory of colour based on the observation that a prism separates white light into the colours of the visible spectrum. His work on light was collected in his book Opticks, published in 1704. He originated prisms as beam expanders and multiple-prism arrays, which would later become integral to the development of tunable lasers. Newton invented a double-reflecting quadrant and was the first to theorise the Goos–Hänchen effect. He also formulated an empirical law of cooling, which was the first heat transfer formulation and serves as the formal basis of convective heat transfer, made the first theoretical calculation of the speed of sound, and introduced the notions of a Newtonian fluid and a black body. He was also the first to explain the Magnus effect. Moreover, he was the first to analyse Couette flow. In addition to his creation of calculus, Newton's work on mathematics was extensive. He generalised the binomial theorem to any real number, introduced the Puiseux series, was the first to state Bézout's theorem, classified most of the cubic plane curves, contributed to the study of Cremona transformations, developed a method for approximating the roots of a function, originated the Newton–Cotes formulas used for numerical integration, and further produced the earliest explicit enunciation of the general Taylor series. Additionally, Newton initiated the field of calculus of variations, formulated and solved the earliest problem in geometric probability, devised the earliest form of linear regression, and was a pioneer of vector analysis. Newton was a fellow of Trinity College and the second Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge; he was appointed at the age of 26. He was a devout but unorthodox Christian who privately rejected the doctrine of the Trinity. He refused to take holy orders in the Church of England, unlike most members of the Cambridge faculty of the day. Beyond his work on the mathematical sciences, Newton dedicated much of his time to the study of alchemy and biblical chronology, but most of his work in those areas remained unpublished until long after his death. Politically and personally tied to the Whigs, Newton served two brief terms as Member of Parliament for the University of Cambridge, in 1689–1690 and 1701–1702. He was knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 and spent the last three decades of his life in London, serving as Warden (1696–1699) and Master (1699–1727) of the Royal Mint, in which he increased the accuracy and security of British coinage. He was also the president of the Royal Society (1703–1727).
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James Fletcher Jnr
Sir James Muir Cameron Fletcher (25 December 1914 – 29 August 2007), often known as Jim or JC Junior, was a New Zealand industrialist known for heading Fletcher Construction, one of the country's largest firms. His father, also Sir James Fletcher, founded the company in 1908.
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Jean-Joseph de Mondonville
Jean-Joseph de Mondonville (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ ʒozɛf də mɔ̃dɔ̃vil], 25 December 1711 (baptised) – 8 October 1772), also known as Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville, was a French violinist and composer. He was a younger contemporary of Jean-Philippe Rameau and enjoyed great success in his day. Pierre-Louis Daquin (son of the composer Louis-Claude Daquin) claimed, "If I couldn't be Rameau, there's no one I would rather be than Mondonville".
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Jim Dowd
James Thomas Dowd (born December 25, 1968) is an American former professional ice hockey center who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for ten different teams over the course of 17 NHL seasons. Dowd, who won the 1995 Stanley Cup with his hometown New Jersey Devils, was the second New Jersey high school hockey player to make it to the NHL. He is also a frequent guest on NHL Live.
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Jimmy Buffett
James William Buffett (December 25, 1946 – September 1, 2023) was an American singer-songwriter, author, and businessperson. He was known for his tropical music sound blending country, rock, folk, calypso, and his persona, which often portrayed a lifestyle described as "island escapism." It promoted enjoying life and following passions. Buffett recorded many hit songs, including those known as "The Big 8": "Margaritaville" (1977), which is ranked 234th on the Recording Industry Association of America's list of "Songs of the Century"; "Come Monday" (1974); "Fins" (1979); "Volcano" (1979); "A Pirate Looks at Forty" (1974); "Cheeseburger in Paradise" (1978); "Why Don't We Get Drunk" (1973); and "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes" (1977). His other popular songs include "Son of a Son of a Sailor" (1978), "One Particular Harbour" (1983), and "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" with Alan Jackson (2003). Buffett formed the Coral Reefer Band in 1975. Of over 30 albums released by Buffett, eight are certified gold and nine others are certified platinum or multi-platinum by the RIAA. He sold over 20 million certified records worldwide. In addition to two Grammy Award nominations, Buffett was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio in the Musical Excellence category in 2024. Buffett parlayed the "island escapism" lifestyle of his music into several business ventures including the Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant chain, the Cheeseburger in Paradise restaurant chain which is defunct, and ventures in hotels, casinos, liquor, and retirement communities. He was a bestselling author. Buffett's estate was estimated to be worth $275 million. His devoted fans are known as "Parrotheads".
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Johann Adam Hiller
Johann Adam Hiller (25 December 1728 – 16 June 1804) was a German composer, conductor and writer on music, regarded as the creator of the Singspiel, an early form of German opera. In many of these operas he collaborated with the poet Christian Felix Weiße. Hiller was a teacher who encouraged musical education for women, his pupils including Elisabeth Mara and Corona Schröter. He was Kapellmeister of Abel Seyler's theatrical company, and became the first Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
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Johann Jakob Reiske
Johann Jakob Reiske (Latin: Johannes Jacobus Reiskius; 25 December 1716 – 14 August 1774) was a German scholar and physician. He was a pioneer in the fields of Arabic and Byzantine philology as well as Islamic numismatics.
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Johannes Buxtorf
Johannes Buxtorf (Latin: Johannes Buxtorfius) (December 25, 1564 – September 13, 1629) was a celebrated Hebraist, member of a family of Orientalists; professor of Hebrew for thirty-nine years at Basel and was sometimes informally styled magister rabbinorum, or "Master of the Rabbis", by early modern European authors such as Edward Pococke and Johann Christoph Wolf. His massive tome, De Synagoga Judaica (1st. ed. 1603), scrupulously documents the customs and society of German Jewry in the early modern period. Buxtorf was the father of Johannes Buxtorf the Younger.
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John IV Laskaris
John IV Doukas Laskaris (or Ducas Lascaris) (Greek: Ἰωάννης Δούκας Λάσκαρις, romanized: Iōánnēs Doúkās Láskaris; December 25, 1250 – c. 1305) was the fourth emperor of the Nicaean Empire from August 16, 1258 to December 25, 1261, one of the Greek successor states formed after the Sack of Constantinople by the Roman Catholics during the Fourth Crusade. He was the last emperor from the prominent Laskarid dynasty and the last to only rule Nicaea before the Reconquest of Constantinople by his successor in 1261.
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John Sutton, 1st Baron Dudley
John Sutton VI, 1st Baron Dudley (25 December 1400 – 30 September 1487) was an English nobleman, diplomat, and councillor of King Henry VI. He fought in several battles during the Hundred Years' War and the Wars of the Roses, as well as acted as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1428 to 1430.
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Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament (MP) for Papineau from 2008 until 2025. Trudeau was born in Ottawa, Ontario, as the eldest child of then prime minister Pierre Trudeau. He attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from McGill University and a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of British Columbia. He then taught at the secondary school level in Vancouver before returning to Montreal in 2002 to further his studies. From 2002 to 2006, he served as chair of Katimavik, a youth charity. In 2006, he became chair of the Liberal Party's Task Force on Youth Renewal. In the 2008 federal election, Trudeau was elected to represent the riding of Papineau in the House of Commons. He was appointed the Liberal Party's Official Opposition critic for youth and multiculturalism in 2009 and critic for citizenship and immigration in 2010. In 2011, he was appointed to be a critic for post secondary education, youth and sport. Trudeau was elected as leader of the Liberal Party in 2013. In the 2015 federal election, Trudeau led the Liberals to a majority government, bringing the party from third party status with the largest-ever numerical increase of seats by a party in a Canadian election. Aged 43, he became the second-youngest prime minister in Canadian history (after Joe Clark) and was the first to be the child of a previous prime minister. Upon assuming office, Trudeau introduced the Canada Child Benefit, legalized medical assistance in dying, legalized recreational cannabis, pursued Senate reform by creating the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, and established the federal carbon tax. In foreign policy, Trudeau's government resettled refugees of the Syrian civil war, signed the Paris Agreement on climate change, and negotiated trade deals such as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). He was found twice to have violated conflict of interest law by Canada's ethics commissioner—first in the Aga Khan affair, and later in the SNC-Lavalin affair. Trudeau's Liberal Party was re-elected with a minority government in the 2019 federal election. From 2020, Trudeau responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent recession by launching financial aid measures, a nationwide vaccination campaign, and military support. His government also announced a ban on "assault-style" weapons after the 2020 Nova Scotia attacks and introduced a national $10-a-day child care program. He was investigated for a third time by the ethics commissioner for his role in the WE Charity scandal, but was cleared of any wrongdoing. Trudeau led the Liberals to another minority government in the 2021 federal election. He then invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history in response to the Freedom Convoy protests; the Federal Court later ruled against this action. His party signed a confidence and supply agreement with the New Democratic Party (NDP) in early 2022, which resulted in the introduction of the Canadian Dental Care Plan and a framework for national pharmacare before the NDP withdrew from the agreement in late 2024. He also launched a national school food program. Internationally, Trudeau's government responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine by imposing sanctions on Russia and authorizing humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. His premiership ended during a trade war with the United States, to which he responded by introducing 25% retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion of U.S. goods. Following a steady decline in popular support, the sudden resignation of deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland in December 2024 and an ensuing political crisis, Trudeau announced in January 2025 that he would resign as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party. He advised the governor general to prorogue Parliament until March 24, while the party held a leadership election. Trudeau remained Liberal leader until Mark Carney was elected as his successor on March 9. He resigned as prime minister five days later and stood down as an MP at the 2025 federal election.
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Kaarlo Maaninka
Kaarlo Hannes Maaninka (born 25 December 1953) is a Finnish former long-distance runner who won a silver medal in the 10,000 metres and a bronze medal in the 5,000 metres at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Maanink later admitted to using blood transfusions during the 1980 Olympics, although this practice was not prohibited under the rules at that time.
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Kenneth Anderson
General Sir Kenneth Arthur Noel Anderson, (25 December 1891 – 29 April 1959) was a senior British Army officer who saw service in both world wars. He is mainly remembered as the commander of the British First Army during Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa and the subsequent Tunisian campaign which ended with the capture of almost 250,000 Axis soldiers. An outwardly reserved character, he did not court popularity either with his superiors or with the public. His American superior, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, wrote that he was "blunt, at times to the point of rudeness". In consequence he is less well known than many of his contemporaries. According to Richard Mead, however, "he handled a difficult campaign more competently than his critics suggest, but competence without flair was not good enough for a top commander in 1944."
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Kenneth Calman
Sir Kenneth Charles Calman (25 December 1941 – 21 July 2025) was a Scottish doctor and academic who worked as a surgeon, oncologist and cancer researcher, and held the position of Chief Medical Officer of Scotland, and then England. He was Warden and Vice-Chancellor of Durham University from 1998 to 2006 before becoming Chancellor of the University of Glasgow. He held the position of Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute from 2008 until 2011. From 2008 to 2009, he was convener of the Calman Commission on Scottish devolution.
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Kenny Everett
Kenny Everett (born Maurice James Christopher Cole; 25 December 1944 – 4 April 1995) was an English radio DJ and television comedian, known for his zany comedic style. After spells working on pirate radio and Radio Luxembourg in the mid-1960s, Everett was one of the first DJs to join newly created BBC Radio 1 in 1967, where he developed the comedic voices and characters which he later adapted for television. He was dismissed from the BBC in 1970 after making a flippant comment on air after a news item concerning a government minister's wife. He was later reinstated at the BBC, working both on local and national radio. In 1973, when commercial radio became licensed in the UK, he joined Capital Radio. In the late 1970s, moving to television, he made numerous comedy series, notably The Kenny Everett Video Show on ITV from 1978 to 1981, and The Kenny Everett Television Show on the BBC from 1981 to 1988, often appearing with Cleo Rocos, whose glamour and curvaceous figure were often used to comic effect. He was a highly versatile performer, able to write his own scripts and compose jingles in addition to operating advanced recording and mixing equipment. His personality made him a regular guest on chat shows and game shows such as Blankety Blank. In 2006, the British public ranked him number 45 in ITV's poll of TV's 50 Greatest Stars. Everett supported the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher and made a public appearance at the Young Conservatives conference in 1983. As a gay man, he was criticised for supporting a Conservative government which enacted Section 28, a clause of the Local Government Act which made it illegal for councils to promote gay rights. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1989, developed AIDS in 1993, and died in 1995.
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L. L. Langstroth
Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth (December 25, 1810 – October 6, 1895) was an American apiarist, clergyman, and teacher, who has been called the father of American beekeeping. He recognized the concept of bee-space, a minimum distance that bees avoid sealing up. Although not his own discovery, the use of this principle allowed for the use of frames that the bees leave separate and this allowed the use of rectangular frames within the design of what is now called the Langstroth hive.
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Lady Grizel Baillie
Lady Grizel Baillie (née Hume, 25 December 1665 – 6 December 1746) was a Scottish gentlewoman and songwriter. Her accounting ledgers, in which she kept details about her household for more than 50 years, provide information about social life in Scotland in the eighteenth century.
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Laura Sadler
Laura Ruth Sadler (25 December 1980 – 19 June 2003) was an English actress. She played pupil Judi Jeffreys in the children's school drama series Grange Hill, and nurse Sandy Harper in the BBC One hospital drama series Holby City for three years from 2000 until her death in 2003.
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Lew Grade, Baron Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Isaakovich Winogradsky, Russian: Лев Исаакович Виноградский, romanized: Lev Isaakovich Vinogradsky; 25 December 1906 [O.S. 7 January 1907] – 13 December 1998) was a British media proprietor and impresario. Born to Jewish parents in the Russian Empire, he emigrated to the United Kingdom as a child and was raised in London. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 when he founded the Incorporated Television Company (ITC; commonly known as ITC Entertainment) to distribute programmes. Following the success of The Adventures of Robin Hood, Grade decided to focus on bringing ITC programmes to the American market. Grade had some success in this field with such series as Gerry Anderson's many Supermarionation series such as Thunderbirds, Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner, and Jim Henson's The Muppet Show. Later, Grade invested in feature film production, but several expensive box-office failures caused him to lose control of ITC, and ultimately resulted in the disestablishment of its associate ATV, which lost its ITV franchise.
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Lila Bell Wallace
Lila Bell Wallace (December 25, 1889 – May 8, 1984) was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist. She co-founded Reader's Digest with her husband Dewitt Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922.
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Lina Cavalieri
Natalina "Lina" Cavalieri (25 December 1874 – 7 February 1944) was an Italian operatic dramatic soprano, actress, and monologist.
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Louis Chevrolet
Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (December 25, 1878 – June 6, 1941) was a Swiss-born American racing driver, mechanic, and entrepreneur who co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911.
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Louise Bourgeois
Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (French: [lwiz buʁʒwa] ; 25 December 1911 – 31 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a variety of themes over the course of her long career including domesticity and the family, sexuality and the body, as well as death and the unconscious. These themes connect to events from her childhood which she considered to be a therapeutic process. Although Bourgeois exhibited with the abstract expressionists and her work has a lot in common with Surrealism and feminist art, she was not formally affiliated with a particular artistic movement.
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Mabel King
Mabel King (née Donnie Mabel Elizabeth Washington; December 25, 1932 – November 9, 1999) was an American actress and singer. She was known for her role as Mabel "Mama" Thomas on the ABC sitcom What's Happening!! from its premiere in 1976 until the end of its second season in 1978. King was also known for portraying Evillene the Witch, a role she originated in the stage musical The Wiz and reprised in Sidney Lumet's 1978 film adaptation. She recorded on the Rama Records and Amy Records labels.
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Madan Mohan Malaviya
Madan Mohan Malaviya (25 December 1861 — 12 November 1946; Hindi pronunciation: [məd̪ən̪ moːɦən̪ maːlʋiːj(ə)] ) was an Indian scholar, educational reformer, and activist notable for his role in the Indian independence movement. He was president of the Indian National Congress four times and the founder of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha. He was addressed as Pandit, a title of respect. Malaviya is known as the founder of one of the most prestigious universities of India named Banaras Hindu University. Malaviya strove to promote modern education among Indians and founded the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916, which was created under the 1915 BHU Act. It is the largest residential university in Asia and one of the largest in the world, with over 40,000 students across arts, commerce, sciences, engineering, linguistic, ritual, medicine, agriculture, performing arts, law, management, and technology disciplines from all over the world. He was the Vice Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University from 1919 to 1938. Malaviya was one of the founders of the Bharat Scouts and Guides. He founded a highly influential English newspaper, The Leader, in 1919, published from Allahabad. He was also the chairman of Hindustan Times from 1924 to 1946. His efforts resulted in the launch of its Hindi edition named Hindustan Dainik in 1936. Malaviya was posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian distinction, on 24 December 2014, a day before what would have been his 153rd birthday.
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Malak Hifni Nasif
Malak Hifni Nasif (25 December 1886 – 17 October 1918) was an Egyptian feminist who contributed greatly to the intellectual and political discourse on the advancement of Egyptian women in the early 20th century.
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Mansoor Akhtar
Mansoor Akhtar (born 25 December 1957) is a Pakistani former cricketer who played in 19 Test matches and 41 One Day Internationals between 1980 and 1990. In his Test career Mansoor scored one century and three half-centuries, with a highest score of 111 against Australia in Faisalabad. In his ODI career he failed to even record a half century and took only two wickets. At the age of only 19 he partnered Waheed Mirza in a world record opening stand of 561 on 7 and 8 February 1977 while playing for Karachi Whites against Quetta at National Stadium, Karachi. The partnership is still the best for the first wicket in first-class cricket, and took just six and a half hours. On 7 August 2019, Mansoor Akhtar, along with one other person named Ramesh Gupta from India, was alleged to have approached Pakistani cricketer Umar Akmal for match fixing during the second edition of the Global T20 Canada tournament. Akmal, however, reported the approach to the Pakistan Cricket Board and tournament officials. Anti-corruption officials instructed all participating teams to stay away from Akhtar and Ramesh Gupta. Mansoor Akhtar has admitted meeting Umar Akmal, but hasn't admitted to the allegations of fixing.
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Martin Mathathi
Martin Irūngū Mathathi (born 25 December 1985 in Nyahururu) is a Kenyan long-distance runner, who competes in track, cross country and road running events. Mathathi won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka. He represented his country in the same event at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He holds the 10 miles world junior record of 44:51. He trains with PACE Sports Management. He was schooled at Sipili secondary school. Mathathi was the 2010 winner of the men's short race at the Chiba Cross Country in Japan. He won the Sendai Half Marathon in a personal best time of 59:48 minutes, easily beating second placed Mekubo Mogusu. He gained selection for the 2011 World Championships in Athletics and came fifth for Kenya in the men's 10,000 m. That year, Mathathi set a course record for the Great North Run half marathon, finishing in a time of 58 minutes 56 seconds. Two weeks later he also won the Great Edinburgh Run 10K in course record time. At the start of 2012 he finished second at the Chiba Cross Country meet. He won the 10,000 m at the Hyogo Relays with a world-leading time of 27:35.16 minutes, but said that he intended to miss the Olympics and focus on a marathon debut at the Fukuoka Marathon instead. He won the Gifu Half Marathon for a second time in May and won the Sapporo Half Marathon in July. Mathathi attempted to run the fastest marathon debut at the Fukuoka Marathon but he dropped out of the race after 38 km. He attempted to extend his undefeated streak at the Gifu Half Marathon and although he finished in 1:00:54 hours he was runner-up to world champion Zersenay Tadese.
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Maung Aye
Maung Aye (Burmese: မောင်အေး; pronounced [maʊɴ ʔé]; born 25 December 1937) is a retired Burmese army general who played a significant role in Myanmar's military government. He served as Vice Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the ruling military junta of Myanmar, from July 1993 to March 2011, holding the second highest-ranking position in the regime. He graduated from the Defence Services Academy in Pyin Oo Lwin and began his military career by commanding the Northeast Region in 1968, followed by the Eastern Region in 1988. His career progression included promotions to major-general in 1990 and Army Chief in 1992. In 1993, he was appointed as Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services, and the following year, he assumed the role of Deputy Chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which later evolved into the SPDC. Despite rumours of resignation in August 2010, Maung Aye remained deputy head of state until the SPDC was dissolved on 30 March 2011 by Senior General Than Shwe, marking a significant transition in Myanmar's governance. Maung Aye served as vice-chairman of Myanmar's State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) from July 1993 to March 2011, playing a significant role in the country's military administration. Known for his strategic foresight and leadership, Maung Aye oversaw key military operations and held influential positions within the SPDC hierarchy. His tenure coincided with crucial moments in Myanmar's political landscape, navigating through reforms and challenges within the Tatmadaw regime. Despite speculations and adversities, Maung Aye's steadfast tenure as deputy head of state until the SPDC's dissolution in March 2011 underscored his enduring influence on Myanmar's governance.
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Merry Clayton
Merry Clayton (born December 25, 1948) is an American soul and gospel singer. She contributed vocals to numerous tracks and worked with many major recording artists for decades, including a duet with Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones song "Gimme Shelter". Clayton is prominently featured in 20 Feet from Stardom, the Oscar-winning documentary about background singers and their contributions to the music industry.
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Michael P. Anderson
Michael Phillip Anderson (December 25, 1959 – February 1, 2003) was a United States Air Force officer and NASA astronaut. He and his six fellow crew members were killed in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the craft disintegrated during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Anderson served as the payload commander and lieutenant colonel in charge of science experiments on the Columbia. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor.
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Mitakeumi Hisashi
Mitakeumi Hisashi (Japanese: 御嶽海 久司; born December 25, 1992 as Hisashi Omichi (大道 久司, Ōmichi Hisashi)) is a Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Agematsu, Nagano. He is in the Dewanoumi stable. He is a pusher thruster-type wrestler. A former amateur champion at Toyo University, he made his professional debut in March 2015, reaching the top makuuchi division in November of the same year. He has ten special prizes for Fighting Spirit, Technique and Outstanding Performance, as well two gold stars for defeating a yokozuna while ranked as a maegashira. His highest rank has been ōzeki. He won his first top division championship (yūshō) in July 2018, his second in September 2019, and his third in January 2022. All three yūshō were won at the rank of sekiwake.
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Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Muhammad Ali Jinnah (born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, statesman, and the founder of Pakistan. He served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the independence of Pakistan on 14 August 1947, and then as Pakistan's first governor-general until his death a year later in 1948. Born at Wazir Mansion in Karachi, Jinnah was trained as a barrister at Lincoln's Inn in London, England. Upon his return to India, he enrolled at the Bombay High Court, and took an interest in national politics, which eventually replaced his legal practice. Jinnah rose to prominence in the Indian National Congress in the first two decades of the 20th century. In these early years of his political career, Jinnah advocated for Hindu–Muslim unity, helping to shape the 1916 Lucknow Pact between the Congress and the All-India Muslim League, in which Jinnah had also become prominent. Jinnah became a key leader in the All-India Home Rule League, and proposed a fourteen-point constitutional reform plan to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. In 1920, however, Jinnah resigned from the Congress when it agreed to follow a campaign of satyagraha, which he regarded as political anarchy. After joining the All-India Muslim League, Jinnah worked for the rights of Muslims in the subcontinent to protect them from the threat of marginalisation in a Hindu-dominated state. In 1940, the Muslim League, led by Jinnah, passed the Lahore Resolution. During the Second World War, the League gained strength while leaders of the Congress were imprisoned, and in the provincial elections held shortly after the war, it won most of the seats reserved for Muslims. Ultimately, the Congress and the Muslim League could not reach a power-sharing formula that would allow the entirety of British India to be united as a single state following independence, leading all parties to agree instead to the independence of a Hindu-majority India, and for a predominantly Muslim state of Pakistan. As the first governor-general of Pakistan, Jinnah worked to establish the government of the new nation and policies to aid the millions of Muslim migrants who had emigrated from regions that became part of the Dominion of India to Pakistan after the independence of both states, personally supervising the establishment of refugee camps. Jinnah died at age 71 in September 1948, just over a year after Pakistan gained independence from the United Kingdom. He left a deep and respected legacy in Pakistan. Several universities and public buildings in Pakistan bear Jinnah's name. He is revered in Pakistan as the Quaid-e-Azam ("Great Leader") and Baba-e-Qaum ("Father of the Nation"). His birthday is also observed as a national holiday in the country. According to his biographer, Stanley Wolpert, Jinnah remains Pakistan's greatest leader.
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Naushad Ali
Naushad Ali (25 December 1919 – 5 May 2006) was an Indian composer for Hindi films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and foremost music directors of the Hindi film industry. He is respectfully remembered as "Moseeqar-e-Azam" (The great Musician) in the Hindi film industry. He is particularly known for popularising the use of classical music in films. His first film as an independent music director was Prem Nagar in 1940. His first musically successful film was Rattan (1944), followed by 35 silver jubilee hits, 12 golden jubilee and 3 diamond jubilee mega successes. Naushad was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and 1992 respectively for his contribution to the Hindi film industry.
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Nellie Fox
Jacob Nelson Fox (December 25, 1927 – December 1, 1975) was an American professional baseball player. Fox was one of the best second basemen of all time, and the third-most difficult hitter to strike out in Major League Baseball (MLB) history. Fox played in the big leagues from 1947 through 1965 and spent the majority of his career as a member of the Chicago White Sox; his career was bookended by multi-year stints for the Philadelphia Athletics and, later, the Houston Astros. Fox was an American League (AL) All-Star for twelve seasons, an AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) for one season, and an AL Gold Glove winner for three seasons. He had a .288 major-league career batting average with 2663 hits, 35 home runs, and 790 runs batted in. He hit .300 or more six times, and led the AL in singles eight times (seven consecutive seasons) and in fielding average six times as a second baseman. His career fielding percentage was .984. In 1959, when the "Go Go" Chicago White Sox won the American League pennant, he hit .306 with 149 singles and 70 RBI. He coached for the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers after his playing career. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997.
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Nicolas Godin
Nicolas Godin (born 25 December 1969) is a French musician best known for being one half of the music duo Air.
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Noel Odell
Noel Ewart Odell FRSE FGS (25 December 1890 – 21 February 1987) was an English geologist and mountaineer. In 1924 he was an oxygen officer on the Everest expedition in which George Mallory and Andrew Irvine famously perished during their summit attempt. Odell spent two weeks living above 23,000 feet (7,000 m), and twice climbed to 26,800 feet (8,200 m) and higher, all without supplemental oxygen. In 1936, Odell with Bill Tilman climbed Nanda Devi, at the time the highest mountain climbed.
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Noël Coypel
Noël Coypel (French pronunciation: [nɔɛl kwapɛl]; 25 December 1628 – 24 December 1707) was a French painter, and was also called Coypel le Poussin, because he was heavily influenced by Poussin.
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Orlando Gibbons
Orlando Gibbons (bapt. 25 December 1583 – 5 June 1625) was an English composer and keyboard player who was one of the last masters of the English Virginalist School and English Madrigal School. The best known member of a musical family dynasty, by the 1610s he was the leading composer and organist in England, with a career cut short by his untimely death in 1625. As a result, Gibbons's oeuvre was not as large as that of his contemporaries, like the elder William Byrd, but he made considerable contributions to many genres of his time. Musicologists characterize his music as exemplifying the transition from the Renaissance to the Baroque periods. Gibbons was born into a musical family where his father was a wait, his brothers—Edward, Ellis and Ferdinand—were musicians and Orlando was expected to follow the tradition. It is not known under whom he studied, although it may have been with Edward or Byrd, but he almost certainly studied the keyboard in his youth. Irrespective of his education, he was musically proficient enough to be appointed an unsalaried member of the Chapel Royal in May 1603 and a full-fledged gentleman of the Chapel Royal as junior organist by 1605. By 1606, he had graduated from King's College, Cambridge, with a Bachelor of Music degree. Throughout his professional career, Gibbons maintained good relations with many important people of the English court. King James I and Prince Charles were supportive patrons and others, such as Sir Christopher Hatton, even became close friends. Along with Byrd and John Bull, Gibbons was the youngest contributor to the first printed collection of English keyboard music, Parthenia, and published other compositions in his lifetime, notably, the First Set of Madrigals and Motets (1612) which includes the best known English madrigal: The Silver Swan. Other important compositions include "This is the Record of John", the eight-part full anthem "O Clap Your Hands Together" and two settings of Evensong. The most important position achieved by Gibbons was his appointment in 1623 as the organist at Westminster Abbey, which he held for two years until his death. Gibbons developed Byrd's foundations of the English madrigal, full and verse anthems, and by doing so he exerted significant influence on subsequent English composers. This generation included his oldest son Christopher, who would teach John Blow, Pelham Humfrey and Henry Purcell, the English pioneer of the Baroque era. After his death he was primarily remembered a composer of sacred music. Since the early music revival however, increased attention has come to his other compositions, with his keyboard works championed by Glenn Gould, while his madrigals and viol fantasies are popular among early music ensembles. By the 21st-century almost all of his music has been published and recorded.
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Otto Frederick Hunziker
Otto Frederick Hunziker (25 December 1873 – 16 November 1959) was a pioneer in the American and international dairy industry, as both an educator and a technical innovator. Hunziker was born and raised in Switzerland, emigrated to the U.S., and studied at Cornell University. He started and developed the dairy program at Purdue University when such programs were at their infancy. At this same time, Hunziker was heavily involved with the development of the American Dairy Science Association (ADSA) and the standardization and improvement of many dairy tests and processes. Hunziker wrote several of the leading dairy processing texts, which continue to be cited. After leaving Purdue University, Hunziker managed research and operations at a large, national condensary, continued to drive ADSA's standardization and publishing efforts, represented the U.S. at international dairy congresses, and facilitated dairy industry improvements across the globe.
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Patrick Gilmore
Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (December 25, 1829 – September 24, 1892) was an Irish-born American composer and military bandmaster who lived and worked in the United States after 1848. While serving in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War, Gilmore wrote the lyrics to the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home". This was published under the pseudonym Louis Lambert in September 1863.
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Pete Rugolo
Pietro Rugolo (December 25, 1915 – October 16, 2011), known professionally as Pete Rugolo, was an American jazz composer, arranger, and record producer.
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Peter Boardman
Peter Boardman (25 December 1950 – 17 May 1982) was an English mountaineer and author. He is best known for a series of bold and lightweight expeditions to the Himalayas, often in partnership with Joe Tasker, and for his contribution to mountain literature. Boardman and Tasker died on the North East Ridge of Mount Everest in 1982. The Boardman Tasker Prize for Mountain Literature was established in their memory.
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Princess Alexandra of Kent
Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy (Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel; born 25 December 1936), is a member of the British royal family. She is the only daughter of Prince George, Duke of Kent, and Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, the only living granddaughter of George V, a niece of Edward VIII and George VI, and a first cousin of Elizabeth II. Alexandra's mother was also a first cousin of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Elizabeth II, making her both a second cousin and first cousin once removed of Charles III. Alexandra was married to the businessman Sir Angus Ogilvy from 1963 until his death in 2004. At the time of her birth, she was sixth in the line of succession to the British throne; as of 2026, she is 59th.
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Pud Galvin
James Francis "Pud" Galvin (December 25, 1856 – March 7, 1902) was an American Major League Baseball pitcher in the 19th century. He was MLB's first 300-game winner and was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1965. In 1883, Galvin had 656+1⁄3 innings pitched (IP); the next season, he had 636+1⁄3 IP. These totals are the fifth and sixth most IP by a player in a single season, respectively.
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Qu Yunxia
Qu Yunxia (simplified Chinese: 曲云霞; traditional Chinese: 曲雲霞; pinyin: Qǔ Yúnxiá; born 25 December 1972) is a Chinese Olympic athlete who specialised in the 1500 metres. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, she won a bronze medal in 1500 m. On 11 September 1993, she set the world record in the 1,500 metres at 3:50.46 minutes while running in the National Games of China in Beijing. The record stood 22 years, until broken on 17 July 2015, by Genzebe Dibaba who was the only non-Chinese athlete to seriously challenge the mark during that period. She won the 3000 metres at the 1993 World Championships in Athletics, setting what will likely be the permanent Championship Record in the event due to women switching to the 5,000 metres distance beginning in 1995.
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Quentin Crisp
Quentin Crisp (born Denis Charles Pratt; (1908-12-25)25 December 1908 – (1999-11-21)21 November 1999) was an English raconteur whose personal expression broke social norms of the era. Crisp gained notoriety for the 1968 memoir The Naked Civil Servant, popularized by its 1975 screen adaptation. Her flamboyant personality, fashion, and wit made Crisp a queer icon, and a sensation in live solo appearances later in life. Crisp worked briefly as a rent boy during her teen years, then spent three decades as a professional artist's model for life classes in art colleges. The interviews she gave about her unusual life attracted great curiosity, and she was soon sought after for her personal views on social manners and the cultivation of style. Her solo stage show was a long-running hit both in Britain and America, and she also appeared in films and on television. Crisp defied convention by criticising both gay liberation and Diana, Princess of Wales. Some of Crisp's public remarks regarding the AIDS crisis earned censure from gay activists and human rights advocates.
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René Girard
René Noël Théophile Girard (; French: [ʁəne nɔɛl teɔfil ʒiʁaʁ]; 25 December 1923 – 4 November 2015) was a French academic best known for developing mimetic theory, which posits that human desire is fundamentally imitative, leading to rivalry, violence and the scapegoat mechanism as foundations of religion and culture. Holding academic appointments primarily in literature departments in the United States, his interdisciplinary work influenced fields ranging from theology to economics to psychology and cultural studies. Girard first outlined the foundations of mimetic theory in his debut book Deceit, Desire, and the Novel (1961), a work of literary criticism, and extended it to anthropology in Violence and the Sacred (1972). Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (1978), considered his magnum opus, synthesized these ideas while applying them to a reinterpretation of Christian scriptures. Later accessible works, such as The Scapegoat (1982) and I See Satan Fall Like Lightning (1999) further elaborated his biblical insights. In 2005, he was elected to the Académie Française, one of its 40 "immortals".
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Rick Berman
Richard Keith Berman (born December 25, 1945) is an American television producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as the executive producer of several of the Star Trek television series: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise, as well as several of the Star Trek films, and for ultimately succeeding Gene Roddenberry as head of the Star Trek franchise until the cancellation of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005.
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Robbie Elliott
Robert James Elliott (born 25 December 1973) is an English football coach and former professional player, who is the strength coach for the United States U20 men's football team. As a player, he was a left-back and centre-half who notably played in the Premier League for Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers, as well as in the Football League for Sunderland, Leeds United and Hartlepool United. With the Magpies during his first spell he was part of the side who won the First Division title in 1993, and who finished runners-up in two consecutive Premiership seasons. Following retirement, Elliott returned for a third spell with Newcastle as a fitness coach but later moving to work for the United States Soccer Federation.
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Rod Serling
Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter and television producer, widely known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen, and helped form television industry standards. He was known as the "angry young man" of Hollywood, clashing with television executives and sponsors over a wide range of issues, including censorship, racism, and war. He was nominated for nine Primetime Emmy Awards, winning six times.
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Sadiq al-Mahdi
Sadiq al-Mahdi (Arabic: الصادق المهدي, romanized: aṣ-Ṣādiq al-Mahdī; 25 December 1935 – 26 November 2020), also known as Sadiq as-Siddiq, was a Sudanese political and religious figure who was Prime Minister of Sudan from 1966 to 1967 and again from 1986 to 1989. He was head of the National Umma Party and Imam of the Ansar, a Sufi order that pledges allegiance to Muhammad Ahmad (1844–1885), who claimed to be the Mahdi, the messianic saviour of Islam.
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Samuel Berger
Samuel Berger (December 25, 1884 – February 23, 1925) was an American heavyweight boxer who won the first Olympic Gold Medal in heavyweight boxing in 1904, competed as a professional, and acted as a promoter and manager for heavyweight Jim Jeffries in the first two decades of the 20th century.
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Shawn Andrews
Shawn Cornelius Andrews (born December 25, 1982) is an American former professional football player who was an offensive lineman for the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Arkansas Razorbacks, and was a two-time consensus All-American. Philadelphia selected him in the first round of the 2004 NFL draft, and he earned two Pro Bowl selections during his career. He was inducted to the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Simon Jones
Simon Philip Jones (born 25 December 1978) is a Welsh former cricketer, who played internationally for the England cricket team. Jones played in eighteen Test matches for England, before injury ended his international career. He played county cricket for Glamorgan, Worcestershire and Hampshire, before retiring in 2013. His father, Jeff Jones, played cricket for Glamorgan and England in the 1960s.
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Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira
Simone Bittencourt de Oliveira (born December 25, 1949), better known as Simone, is a Brazilian singer of Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) who has recorded more than 30 albums.
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Stephen F. Chadwick
Stephen Fowler Chadwick (December 25, 1825 – January 15, 1895) was an American Democratic politician who served as the fifth governor of Oregon from 1877 to 1878. Chadwick was the first person to obtain the governorship by way of the state's line of succession.
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Sydney, Lady Morgan
Sydney, Lady Morgan (née Owenson; c. 1778 – 14 April 1859), was an Irish novelist, best known for The Wild Irish Girl (1806), a romantic, and some critics suggest, "proto-feminist", novel with political and patriotic overtones. Her work, including continental travelogues, sparked controversy and faced censorship. She counted Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron among her defenders.
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Thomas Halyburton
Rev Prof Thomas Halyburton (25 December 1674 – 23 September 1712) was a Scottish divine. Thomas was educated there at Erasmus's school, in Rotterdam, where his mother had taken him to avoid persecution. He returned to Scotland in 1682, graduated at the university of St. Andrews on 24 July 1696 and, after serving as a private chaplain, was licensed by the presbytery of Kirkaldy on 22 June 1699. He was ordained to the parish of Ceres, Fifeshire, 1 May 1700, but he injured his health by excessive labour. On 1 April 1710 he was appointed by Queen Anne, at the instance of the synod of Fife, professor of divinity at St. Mary's. He devoted his inaugural lecture to an attempt to confute the deistical views lately promulgated by Dr. Archibald Pitcairn in 1688. He died at St. Andrews on 23 September 1712, aged only 38.
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Tolossa Kotu
Tolossa Kotu Terfe (born 25 December 1952 also transliterated as Tolosa Kotu) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner and coach. He placed fourth in men's 10,000 metres at the 1980 Summer Olympics and has coached the national teams of both Ethiopia and Bahrain.
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Toshi Arai
Toshihiro Arai (新井敏弘, Arai Toshihiro; born December 25, 1966) is a Japanese rally driver and team owner. He is the first Japanese FIA world champion. Arai was born in Isesaki, Gunma. He made his debut in 1987 and drove for the Subaru World Rally Team in the Group N World Rally Championship from 1997 to 2000 and 2002–2003, and in the Group A Championship in 2000–2001. In 2004, Arai established his own team, Subaru Team Arai, and won the FIA Production Car World Rally Championship for Drivers in 2005 and 2007 driving a Subaru Impreza WRX STI, which made him the first Japanese FIA world champion. He scored class victories in Turkey, Japan and Australia on his way to the title. Arai was also the winner of the short-lived FIA Teams' Cup in 2000.
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Trenesha Biggers
Trenesha Biggers (born December 25, 1981) is an American former model and professional wrestler. She is best known for her appearances with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling under the ring name Rhaka Khan; she also appeared with WWE as Trenesha, competing in the 2005 WWE Diva Search.
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Tuomas Holopainen
Tuomas Lauri Johannes Holopainen (born 25 December 1976) is a Finnish musician, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the primary songwriter, keyboardist, and founding member of the symphonic metal band Nightwish. He has stated that his songwriting is influenced by harmonic film music. Before founding Nightwish, he played in the band Darkwoods My Betrothed. He later recorded an album with them as a full member in 2020. He also collaborated with the gothic metal band For My Pain... and the band of Timo Rautiainen. Holopainen has written several songs that have been included in movie soundtracks, including a collaboration with Nightwish bass player and male vocalist Marko Hietala on "While Your Lips Are Still Red", for the Finnish film Lieksa! in 2007. He also co-wrote the music for Nightwish's own film, Imaginaerum, released in November 2012. Holopainen released his first solo album Music Inspired by the Life and Times of Scrooge in 2014.
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Warren Robinett
Joseph Warren Robinett Jr. (born December 25, 1951) is an American video game designer. He is most notable as the developer of the Atari 2600's Adventure and as a founder of The Learning Company, where he designed Rocky's Boots and Robot Odyssey. More recently he has worked on virtual reality projects. Robinett graduated in 1974 with a B.A. from Rice University, with a major in "Computer Applications to Language and Art". After graduating from Rice University, he was a Fortran programmer for Western Geophysical in Houston, Texas. He received an M.S. from University of California, Berkeley in 1976, and went to work at Atari, Inc. in November 1977.
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Wilfried Singo
Wilfried Stephane Singo (born 25 December 2000) is an Ivorian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Süper Lig club Galatasaray and the Ivory Coast national team.
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William Bell
William John Bell (born December 25, 1902, Creston, Iowa, died August 7, 1971, Perry, Iowa) was the premier player and teacher of the tuba in America during the first half of the 20th century. In 1921, he joined the band of John Philip Sousa, and from 1924 to 1937 he served as Principal Tuba with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In 1937 General Electric's David Sarnoff invited conductor Arturo Toscanini to select personnel for The NBC Symphony Orchestra. William Bell was the third musician selected by Toscanini, after his concertmaster Mischa Mischakoff and principal oboe Philip Ghignatti. In 1943, he became principal tubist for the New York Philharmonic. Leopold Stokowski invited Bell to perform and narrate George Kleinsinger's "Tubby the Tuba", and to perform and sing a special arrangement of 'When Yuba Plays The Rhumba on the Tuba'. In 1955, Bell performed the American premiere of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Concerto for Bass Tuba and Orchestra. He was professor of tuba at the Manhattan School of Music until 1961, and Indiana University from 1961 to 1971. Bell's students included the late Harvey Phillips, the late Edward Herman, Jr., the late Joseph Novotny, the late Abe Torchinsky, the late Ed Livingston, the late Dennis F. Parker, Don Harry, Fred Marzan, Dick Babcock, Paul Krzywicki, and R. Winston Morris. As Bell died in 1971, low brass lineage practitioners on the Bell method have become more rare.
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William Demby
William Demby (December 25, 1922 – May 23, 2013) was an African-American writer, whose works include Beetlecreek (1950), The Catacombs (1965), Love Story Black (1978) and King Comus (published posthumously in November 2017).
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Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior
Wilson Fittipaldi Júnior (25 December 1943 – 23 February 2024) was a Brazilian racing driver and Formula One team owner. He participated in 38 World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, debuting on 1 May 1972, scoring a total of three championship points. He ran the Fittipaldi Formula One team between 1974 and 1982. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races.
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Yulia Svyrydenko
Yulia Anatoliivna Svyrydenko (born 25 December 1985) is a Ukrainian politician who served as the 19th prime minister of Ukraine from 17 July 2025 to 14 July 2026. Before that, she was the first deputy prime minister and Minister of Economic Development and Trade from 2021, until she replaced Denys Shmyhal as prime minister as part of a government reshuffle proposed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah
Zaib-un-Nissa Hamidullah (Bengali: জেবুন্নেসা হামিদুল্লাহ, Urdu: زیب النساء حمیداللہ; 25 December 1918 – 10 September 2000) was a Pakistani writer and journalist. Begum Hamidullah was a pioneer of Pakistani literature and journalism in English, and also of feminism in Pakistan. She was Pakistan's first female editor and publisher, and the country's first female columnist writing in English. Zaibunnisa Street in Karachi was named after her. Before independence in 1947, she wrote for many Indian newspapers, and was the first Muslim woman to write a column in an Indian newspaper. After independence, her column in the newspaper Dawn made her the first female political commentator in Pakistan. After she left Dawn, she became the founder and editor-publisher of the Mirror, the first social glossy magazine in Pakistan. Due to her status as Pakistan's first female editor, she became the first woman to be included in press delegations sent to other countries. On one of these delegations, in 1955, she became the first woman to speak at the ancient al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. She also repeatedly represented Pakistan at the United Nations, including by serving as the deputy chief of the Pakistani delegation to the special 1970 session.
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Zora Arkus-Duntov
Zachary "Zora" Arkus-Duntov (born Zachar Arkus; December 25, 1909 – April 21, 1996) was a Russian and American engineer whose work on the Chevrolet Corvette earned him the nickname "Father of the Corvette." He is sometimes erroneously referred to as the inventor of the Corvette; that title belongs to Harley Earl. He was also a racing driver, appearing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times and taking class wins in 1954 and 1955.
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Íngrid Betancourt
Íngrid Betancourt Pulecio (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈiŋɡɾið βetaŋˈkuɾ]; born 25 December 1961) is a Colombian-French politician, former senator, and anti-corruption activist. She gained international prominence after being kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 2002 while campaigning for the Colombian presidency as a Green candidate. She was rescued in 2008 during Operation Jaque, a military operation conducted by Colombian security forces. Born in Bogotá, Betancourt is the daughter of Gabriel Betancourt, a former Colombian Minister of Education and UNESCO official, and Yolanda Pulecio, a former beauty queen and congresswoman. She was educated in France and England, attending Sciences Po in Paris, and later earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Theology from Harris Manchester College, Oxford, in 2023. Betancourt began her political career in the 1990s, serving in the Colombian Chamber of Representatives from 1994 to 1998 and in the Senate from 1998 to 2001. She founded the Oxygen Green Party and was known for her strong stance against political corruption. On 23 February 2002, Betancourt and her campaign manager, Clara Rojas, were kidnapped by FARC guerrillas near San Vicente del Caguán. They were held captive in the Colombian jungle for over six years. During her captivity, Betancourt became an international symbol of resistance against political violence, particularly in France, where she also holds citizenship through her first marriage to French diplomat Fabrice Delloye. Betancourt was rescued on 2 July 2008 during Operation Jaque, along with 14 other hostages, including three American contractors and 11 Colombian military personnel. The operation was widely celebrated and brought significant political capital to the Colombian government. Following her release, Betancourt received several international honors, including France's Légion d'honneur and Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Concord. Accounts of her behavior during captivity varied; some fellow hostages described her as controlling, while others praised her courage and compassion. In January 2022, Betancourt announced her candidacy for the Colombian presidential election but withdrew from the race in May 2022.
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