Who was born on May 16?
May 16 is packed with notable birthdays. Explore 115 famous birthdays, sorted by recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Top ranked names include Janet Jackson, Megan Fox, Pierce Brosnan, Grigor Dimitrov, Melanie Lynskey. Filter by actor, musician, athlete, and more — or open any other calendar day.
May 16
115 people
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Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. An influential figure in popular culture, she is known for her innovative works that incorporate socially conscious and sexually provocative themes, as well as her elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreography became a catalyst in the growth of MTV, breaking American gender and racial barriers and enabling her rise to prominence. Lyrical content that concerned social issues and deeply felt experiences contributed to the appeal of Jackson's work to the youth audience. The tenth and youngest child of the Jackson family, Jackson was a child actress, starring in the television shows Good Times (1977–1979), Diff'rent Strokes (1980–1984) and Fame (1984–1985). After signing with A&M Records in 1982 and terminating business affairs with her family, she achieved global stardom with Control (1986) and Rhythm Nation 1814 (1989). The albums led to crossover success in popular music and influenced the development of the new jack swing fusion genre. In the 1990s, Jackson became one of the highest-paid musicians, signing two of the largest music deals of all time with Virgin Records. She cemented her sex symbol status with a leading role in the film Poetic Justice (1993), and the albums Janet (1993) and The Velvet Rope (1997). Jackson achieved her tenth US number-one single with the title track from her seventh studio album, All for You (2001). Following the controversy surrounding her 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, Jackson experienced a career decline. She faced an industry blacklisting under the direction of Les Moonves, then-CEO of CBS, resulting in reduced radio airplay, televised promotion, and sales figures of her music catalog. The aftermath impacted the commercial performance of her eighth studio album, Damita Jo (2004). Over the next decades, Jackson continued to perform and release new music, including the studio albums 20 Y.O. (2006), Discipline (2008), and Unbreakable (2015). Her tenth concert tour, Together Again Tour (2023–2024), became the highest-grossing tour of her career. Jackson is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, with estimated sales of over 100 million records. One of the highest-charting musicians in the history of the Billboard charts, she holds the record for the most consecutive top-ten entries on the US Billboard Hot 100 by a female artist (18) and remains the only artist in history to have seven singles from one album—Rhythm Nation 1814—peak within the top five positions. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, 11 Billboard Music Awards, 11 American Music Awards, 10 MTV Video Music Awards, eight Guinness World Records entries, and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
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Megan Fox
Megan Denise Fox (born May 16, 1986) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the family film Holiday in the Sun (2001), which was followed by numerous supporting roles in film and television, such as the teen musical comedy Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004), as well as a starring role in the ABC sitcom Hope & Faith (2004–2006). Her breakout role was as Mikaela Banes in the blockbuster action film Transformers (2007), which she reprised in its sequel Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009). Fox also portrayed the titular character in the horror comedy Jennifer's Body (2009), starred as April O'Neil in the superhero action film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) and its sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016), and appeared in the fifth and sixth seasons of the Fox sitcom New Girl (2016–2017). Described as a sex symbol, Fox has made appearances in numerous magazines such as Maxim, Rolling Stone, and FHM. She has received two Scream Awards and four Teen Choice Awards.
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Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brendan Brosnan (born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor. He achieved worldwide fame playing James Bond in four James Bond films from 1995 to 2002: GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), The World Is Not Enough (1999) and Die Another Day (2002). Brosnan has also received two Golden Globes nominations for the television series Nancy Astor (1982) and the film The Matador (2005). After leaving school at 16, Brosnan trained in commercial illustration before attending the Drama Centre London for three years. Following a stage acting career, he rose to popularity in the television series Remington Steele (1982–1987). After its conclusion, Brosnan appeared in films, including The Fourth Protocol (1987), his break out role was in The Lawnmower Man (1992) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Post-Bond, Brosnan toplined other major films including Dante's Peak (1997) and the remake of The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) and has starred in The Ghost Writer (2010), Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), The November Man (2014), Mamma Mia! (2008) and its sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). In 2022, Brosnan played Dr. Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate in the DC Extended Universe film Black Adam. Additionally, Brosnan narrated the 2008 Thomas & Friends film The Great Discovery. In 2025 he starred in the movie The Thursday Murder Club and in Guy Ritchie's crime drama series MobLand. In 1996, he and American film producer Beau St. Clair founded the production company Irish DreamTime. He is also known for charitable work and environmental activism. In 1997, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry. In 2020, he was listed at No. 15 on The Irish Times' list of the greatest Irish film actors.
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Grigor Dimitrov
Grigor Dimitrov Dimitrov (Bulgarian: Григор Димитров Димитров, pronounced [ɡriˈɡɔr dimiˈtrɔf]; born 16 May 1991) is a Bulgarian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles by the ATP, making him the highest-ranked Bulgarian in history. Dimitrov reached the ranking after winning the biggest title of his career at the season-ending ATP Finals in November 2017. He has won nine ATP Tour singles titles. Prior to his professional career, Dimitrov enjoyed a successful junior career, in which he reached the world No. 1 ranking and won consecutive major boys' singles titles at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships and the 2008 US Open. In October 2013 at the Stockholm Open, Dimitrov became the first Bulgarian man to win an ATP Tour singles title. By reaching the 2024 French Open quarterfinals, Dimitrov became the second player born in the 1990s (after Daniil Medvedev), to complete the career set of both Grand Slam and Masters 1000 quarterfinals. He holds the Open Era record for most Grand Slam retirements (10), including a record 5 times consecutively. As of 2025 Wimbledon, he was the male player with the longest active and fifth-longest overall streak of consecutive Grand Slam appearances, at 58, which ended when he withdrew from the 2025 US Open. Dimitrov was named Bulgarian Sportsperson of the Year in 2014 and 2017, marking the first and second occasions a tennis player received the honor since the award's inception in 1958. In 2017, he was also awarded the Balkan Athlete of the Year. In December 2024, he was selected the winner of the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship Award.
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Melanie Lynskey
Melanie Jayne Lynskey ( LIN-skee; born 16 May 1977) is a New Zealand actress. Known for her portrayals of complex women and her command of American accents, she works predominantly in independent films and television. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including three Critics' Choice Awards and nominations for three Primetime Emmy Awards. Lynskey made her film debut at age 17 portraying Pauline Parker in Heavenly Creatures (1994). She went on to establish herself as a character actress through supporting parts in Ever After (1998); But I'm a Cheerleader (1999); Coyote Ugly (2000); Sweet Home Alabama (2002); Shattered Glass (2003); Flags of Our Fathers (2006); Away We Go; Up in the Air; The Informant! (all 2009); Win Win (2011); The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012); and Don't Look Up (2021). Her starring role in Hello I Must Be Going (2012) proved to be a turning point in Lynskey's career, with subsequent lead parts in Happy Christmas (2014), The Intervention (2016), and I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017) highlighting her as a prominent figure in independent cinema. On television, Lynskey played the recurring role of Rose on Two and a Half Men (2003–2015). Her other credits include Togetherness (2015–2016) and Castle Rock (2018), as well as the miniseries Mrs. America (2020) and Candy (2022). Since 2021, she has starred as Shauna on Yellowjackets, winning the 2022 Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress and being nominated twice for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress (2022; 2023). For her portrayal of Kathleen on the first season of The Last of Us (2023), Lynskey received another Emmy nomination.
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Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 – August 12, 1982) was an American actor whose career spanned five decades on Broadway and in Hollywood. Known for his work on screen and stage, he often portrayed characters who embodied an everyman image. Born and raised in Nebraska, Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor and made his Hollywood film debut in 1935. He rose to film stardom with performances in films such as Jezebel (1938), Jesse James (1939) and Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath (1940). In 1941, Fonda starred opposite Barbara Stanwyck in the screwball comedy classic The Lady Eve. After his service in World War II, he starred in two highly regarded Westerns: The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and My Darling Clementine (1946), the latter directed by John Ford. He also starred in Ford's Western Fort Apache (1948). During a seven-year break from films, Fonda focused on stage productions, returning to star in the war-boat ensemble movie Mister Roberts in 1955, a role he championed on Broadway. In 1956, at the age of 51, Fonda played the title role of 38-year-old Manny Balestrero in Alfred Hitchcock's thriller The Wrong Man. In 1957, Fonda starred as Juror 8, the hold-out juror, in 12 Angry Men, a film he co-produced and that earned him a BAFTA award for Best Foreign Actor. Later in his career, Fonda played a range of characters, including a villain in the epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and the lead in the romantic comedy Yours, Mine and Ours with Lucille Ball. He also portrayed military figures, such as a colonel in Battle of the Bulge (1965) and Admiral Nimitz in Midway (1976). Fonda won the Academy Award for Best Actor at the 54th Academy Awards for his final film role in On Golden Pond (1981), which co-starred Katharine Hepburn and his daughter Jane Fonda. He was too ill to attend the ceremony and died from heart disease five months later. Fonda was the patriarch of a family of actors, including daughter Jane Fonda, son Peter Fonda, granddaughter Bridget Fonda and grandson Troy Garity. In 1999, he was named the sixth-Greatest Male Screen Legend of the Classic Hollywood Era (stars with a film debut by 1950) by the American Film Institute.
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David Boreanaz
David Paul Boreanaz (; born May 16, 1969) is an American actor, television producer, and director known for playing the roles of vampire-turned-private investigator Angel on The WB/UPN supernatural drama television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and its spin-off Angel (1999–2004); FBI Special Agent Seeley Booth, a homicide investigator, on the Fox television crime procedural comedy-drama series Bones (2005–2017); and United States Navy SEAL Master Chief Petty Officer Jason Hayes in CBS/Paramount+ military drama series SEAL Team (2017–2024). He is set to star in a reboot of The Rockford Files in 2027, which he will also serve as a producer.
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Liberace
Władziu Valentino Liberace (May 16, 1919 – February 4, 1987) was an American pianist, singer, and actor. He was born in Wisconsin to parents of Italian and Polish origin and enjoyed a career spanning four decades of concerts, recordings, television, motion pictures, and endorsements. At the height of his fame, from the 1950s to 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world, with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule. Liberace became popular with general audiences through performances that included showmanship and elaborate costumes and choreography. Critical reception was mixed, with some believing his playing was flashy but lacked depth. In 1959 Liberace successfully sued the Daily Mirror for libel after they published an article implying he was homosexual (which was criminalized at the time). Later, in 1982, he was sued by his lover and chauffeur, Scott Thorson, for palimony. He continued to deny he was homosexual.
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Tori Spelling
Victoria Davey Spelling (born May 16, 1973) is an American actress. Her first major role was Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210, from 1990 to 2000. She has appeared in made-for-television films, including A Friend to Die For (1994), A Carol Christmas (2003), The Mistle-Tones (2012), both versions of Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? (1996 and 2016) and The Last Sharknado: It's About Time (2018). She has also starred in several independent films including The House of Yes (1997), Trick (1999), Scary Movie 2 (2001), Cthulhu (2007), Kiss the Bride (2007) and Izzie's Way Home (2016). She reprised her role of Donna Martin in Beverly Hills, 90210's spin-off, BH90210, in 2019. Spelling's autobiography, Stori Telling, topped the New York Times Best Seller list.
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Krist Novoselic
Krist Anthony Novoselic (; born May 16, 1965) is an American musician, politician, and activist. Novoselic co-founded and played bass on every album for the grunge band Nirvana. Novoselic and Kurt Cobain formed the band Nirvana in 1987, soon recruiting drummer Aaron Burckhard, who was the drummer of the group until October 1987. Through the late 1980s, Nirvana established themselves as part of the Seattle grunge scene, releasing three albums between 1989 and 1993. Nirvana abruptly ended in 1994 following the death of Kurt Cobain. Novoselic has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Nirvana, and has also received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award as a member of the band. After Nirvana disbanded, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 in 1995 and Eyes Adrift in 2002, releasing one album with each band. From 2006 to 2009, he played in the punk rock band Flipper. In 2011, he contributed bass and accordion to the song "I Should Have Known" on the Foo Fighters' studio album Wasting Light. From 2017 to 2020, he played bass and accordion for the band Giants in the Trees. Outside of music, Novoselic has been active politically. From 2007 through 2010, he wrote a weekly column on music and politics for the Seattle Weekly website. Novoselic has served on the board of the electoral reform organization FairVote and has served as its chair. In 2020, he became board chair of Zócalo Public Square. He joined the Forward Party in 2023 and became the party's leader in Washington after the resignation of Chris Vance. In 2024, he founded the Cascade Party of Washington.
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Behati Prinsloo
Behati Prinsloo ( bee-AH-tee PRIN-sloo, Afrikaans: [ˈbɛɦati ˈprənsluə]; born 16 May 1988) is a Namibian model. In 2008, she became a Pink contract model, and moved on to become a Victoria's Secret Angel in 2009. She walked in twelve Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows (2007–2015; 2018; 2024–2025), and opened consecutive Victoria's Secret Fashion shows in 2014 and 2015.
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Gabriela Sabatini
Gabriela Beatriz Sabatini (Spanish pronunciation: [gaˈβɾjela saβaˈtini]; born 16 May 1970) is an Argentine former professional tennis player. A former world No. 3 in both singles and doubles, Sabatini was one of the leading players from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, amassing 41 titles across both disciplines. In singles, Sabatini won the 1990 US Open, the WTA Finals in 1988 and 1994, and was runner-up at Wimbledon 1991, the 1988 US Open, and the silver medalist at the 1988 Olympics. In doubles, she won Wimbledon in 1988 partnering with Steffi Graf, and reached three French Open finals. Among Open Era players who did not reach the world No. 1 ranking, Sabatini has the most wins over reigning No. 1 players. In 2006, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and in 2018, Tennis Magazine ranked her as the 20th-greatest female player of the preceding 50 years.
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Ryan Gravenberch
Ryan Jiro Gravenberch (Dutch pronunciation: [Ryɑn ɣrɑvɛnbɛrx]; born 16 May 2002) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team. Gravenberch began his career with Ajax, where he won three Eredivisie titles. In 2022, he signed for Bayern Munich, helping them win the Bundesliga. He transferred to Liverpool in 2023, where he emerged as a focal player in the club’s 2024–25 Premier League win. Gravenberch played for the Netherlands at various youth levels, and was part of the under-17 squad that won the 2018 UEFA European Under-17 Championship. He made his senior debut in 2021, and represented the nation at UEFA Euro 2024 and the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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Laura Pausini
Laura Pausini (Italian pronunciation: [ˈlaura pauˈziːni]; born 16 May 1974) is an Italian pop singer. She rose to fame in 1993, winning the newcomer artists' section of the 43rd Sanremo Music Festival with the song "La solitudine", which became an Italian standard and an international hit. Her self-titled debut album was released in Italy on 23 April 1993 and later became an international success, selling two million copies worldwide. Its follow-up, Laura, was released in 1994 and confirmed her international success, selling three million copies worldwide. Pausini has released fifteen studio albums, two international greatest hits albums and one compilation album for the Anglophone market only. She mostly performs in Italian and Spanish, but has also recorded and sung songs in Portuguese, English, French, German, Latin, Chinese, Catalan, Neapolitan, Romanian, Romagnol and Sicilian. In 2004, AllMusic's Jason Birchmeier considered Pausini's sales "an impressive feat for someone who'd never really broken into the lucrative English-language market". In 2014, FIMI certified Pausini's sales of more than 70 million records with a FIMI Icon Award, making her the fourth best-selling female artist in Latin music, and the best-selling non-Spanish speaking female Latin music artist. In 2025, she ranked 9th on Billboard's "Best 50 Female Latin Pop Artists of All Time" list. Pausini appeared as a coach on both the Mexican and Spanish versions of international reality television singing competition franchise The Voice, was a judge on the first and second series of La banda, and was likewise a judge on the Spanish version of international franchise The X Factor. In 2016, she debuted as a variety show presenter, hosting the television show Laura & Paola, with actress Paola Cortellesi. She was also one of the presenters of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 and the Sanremo Music Festival 2026. Throughout her career, she has won numerous music awards in Italy and internationally. In 2006, she won a Grammy Award, receiving the accolade for Best Latin Pop Album for the record Escucha. In 2021, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song with "Io sì (Seen)" from the film The Life Ahead. The single also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, making it the first Italian-language song to win the award. She has been honoured as a Commander Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and as a World Ambassador of Emilia Romagna.
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John Salley
John Thomas Salley ( SAL-ee; born May 16, 1964) is an American former professional basketball player. He was the first player in NBA history to win championships with three franchises (since joined by Robert Horry, Danny Green, and LeBron James), as well as the first player in the NBA to win a championship in three different decades (since joined by Tim Duncan). After being drafted in the first round out of Georgia Tech in the 1986 NBA draft, the 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)-tall Salley played both power forward and center for the Detroit Pistons, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Panathinaikos, and Los Angeles Lakers. He was a long-time host of the former Fox Sports Net show The Best Damn Sports Show Period. He is a vegan activist, chef, and wellness entrepreneur.
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William H. Seward
William Henry Seward (; May 16, 1801 – October 10, 1872) was an American politician who served as United States Secretary of State from 1861 to 1869 and earlier served as governor of New York and as a United States senator. A determined opponent of the spread of slavery in the years leading up to the American Civil War, he was prominent in the Republican Party in its formative years and was praised for his work on behalf of the Union as Secretary of State during the Civil War. He also negotiated the treaty for the United States to purchase the Alaska Territory. Seward was born in 1801 in the village of Florida, in Orange County, New York, where his father was a farmer and owned slaves. He was educated as a lawyer and moved to the Central New York town of Auburn. Seward was elected to the New York State Senate in 1830 as an Anti-Mason. Four years later, he became the gubernatorial nominee of the Whig Party. Though he lost that race, Seward was elected governor in 1838 and won a second two-year term in 1840. During this period, he signed several laws that advanced the rights of and opportunities for black residents, as well as guaranteeing jury trials for fugitive slaves in the state. The legislation protected abolitionists, and he used his position to intervene in cases of freed black people who were enslaved in the South. After many years practicing law in Auburn, he was elected by the state legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1849. Seward's strong stances and provocative words against slavery brought him hatred in the South. He was re-elected to the Senate in 1855 and soon joined the nascent Republican Party, becoming one of its leading figures. As the 1860 presidential election approached, he was regarded as the leading candidate for the Republican nomination. Several factors, including his opposition to slavery, his support for immigrants and Catholics, and his association with the editor and political boss Thurlow Weed, worked against him, and Abraham Lincoln secured the presidential nomination. Although devastated by his loss, he campaigned for Lincoln, who appointed him Secretary of State after winning the election. Seward did his best to stop the southern states from seceding; once that failed, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the Union cause. His firm stance against foreign intervention in the Civil War helped deter the United Kingdom and France from recognizing the independence of the Confederate States. He was one of the targets of the 1865 assassination plot that killed Lincoln and was seriously wounded by conspirator Lewis Powell. Seward remained in his post through the presidency of Andrew Johnson, during which he negotiated the Alaska Purchase in 1867 and supported Johnson during his impeachment. His contemporary Carl Schurz described Seward as "one of those spirits who sometimes will go ahead of public opinion instead of tamely following its footprints".
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Yvonne Craig
Yvonne Joyce Craig (May 16, 1937 – August 17, 2015) was an American actress best known for her role as Barbara Gordon/Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman. Other notable roles in her career include Dorothy Johnson in the 1963 movie It Happened at the World's Fair, Azalea Tatum in the 1964 movie Kissin' Cousins, and the green-skinned Orion Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969). The Huffington Post called her "a pioneer of female superheroes" for television. Craig was a philanthropist and "an advocate for workers unions, free mammograms, and equal pay for women".
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Billy Martin
Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin (May 16, 1928 – December 25, 1989) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) second baseman and manager, who, in addition to leading other teams, was five times the manager of the New York Yankees. First known as a scrappy infielder who made considerable contributions to the championship Yankee teams of the 1950s, he then built a reputation as a manager who would initially make bad teams good, before ultimately being fired amid dysfunction. In each of his stints with the Yankees he managed them to winning records before being fired by team owner George Steinbrenner or resigning under fire. Martin was born in a working-class section of Berkeley, California. His skill as a baseball player gave him a route out of his home town. Signed by the Pacific Coast League Oakland Oaks, Martin learned much from Casey Stengel, the man who would manage him both in Oakland and in New York, with whom he enjoyed a close relationship. Martin's spectacular catch of a wind-blown Jackie Robinson popup late in Game Seven of the 1952 World Series saved that series for the Yankees, and he was the hitting star of the 1953 World Series, earning the Most Valuable Player award in the Yankee victory. He missed most of two seasons, 1954 and 1955, after being drafted into the Army, and his abilities never fully returned; the Yankees traded him after a brawl at the Copacabana club in New York during the 1957 season. The last team for whom Martin played, the Minnesota Twins, gave him a job as a scout, and he spent most of the 1960s with them, becoming a coach in 1965. After a successful managerial debut with the Twins' top minor league affiliate, the Denver Bears, Martin was made the Twins' manager in 1969. He led the club to the American League West title, but was fired after the season. He then was hired by a declining Detroit Tigers franchise in 1971, and led that team to an American League East title in 1972 before being fired by the Tigers late in the 1973 season. He was quickly hired by the Texas Rangers, and he turned them for a season (1974) into a winning team, but was fired amid conflict with ownership in 1975. He was almost immediately hired by the Yankees. As Yankee manager, Martin led the team to consecutive American League pennants in 1976 and 1977; the Yankees were swept in the 1976 World Series by the Cincinnati Reds but triumphed over the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in the 1977 World Series. The 1977 season saw season-long conflict between Martin and Steinbrenner, as well as between the manager and Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson, including a near brawl between the two in the dugout on national television, but the season culminated in Martin's only world championship as a manager. He was forced to resign midway through the 1978 season after saying of Jackson and Steinbrenner, "one's a born liar, and the other's convicted"; less than a week later, the news that he would return as manager in a future season was announced to a huge ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd. He returned in 1979, but was fired at season's end by Steinbrenner. From 1980 to 1982, Martin managed the Oakland Athletics, earning a division title with an aggressive style of play known as "Billyball" that led them to the ALCS in 1981, but he was fired after the 1982 season. He was rehired by the Yankees, whom he managed three more times, each for a season or less, and each ending in his firing by Steinbrenner. Martin died in an automobile accident in upstate New York on Christmas night in 1989.
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Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan (May 16, 1909 – January 1, 1960) was an American stage and film actress. She began her career onstage in 1929 with the University Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 1933, she caught the attention of film director John M. Stahl and made her screen debut that same year in Only Yesterday. She continued to be successful on stage and film, best known for The Shop Around the Corner. Sullavan preferred working on the stage and made only 16 films, four of which were opposite close friend James Stewart in a popular partnership that included The Mortal Storm and The Shop Around the Corner. Stewart and Sullavan were also close friends of Henry Fonda, to whom Sullavan was married from 1931 to 1933. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Three Comrades (1938). In the early 1940s, she retired from the screen to devote herself to her children and stage work. She returned to the screen in 1950 to make her last film, No Sad Songs for Me, in which she played a woman dying of cancer. For the rest of her career, she appeared only on the stage. Popular stage portrayals included Terry Randall in Stage Door, Sally Middleton in The Voice of the Turtle and Sabrina Fairchild in Sabrina Fair.
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Harry Carey Jr.
Henry George Carey Jr. (May 16, 1921 – December 27, 2012) was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films, including several John Ford Westerns, as well as numerous television series.
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Kevin McDonald
Kevin Hamilton McDonald (born May 16, 1961) is a Canadian actor, comedian and writer. He is a member of the comedy troupe The Kids in the Hall, who have appeared together in a number of stage, television and film productions, most notably the 1988–1995 TV series The Kids in the Hall. He played Pastor Dave in That '70s Show, and starred as a co-pilot in the 2011 web comedy series Papillon. He also does voice work in animation, most notably as Agent Wendy Pleakley in the Lilo & Stitch franchise, Waffle in Catscratch, and the Almighty Tallest Purple in Invader Zim. He starred alongside Rodney Dangerfield, Lou Ferrigno and Dom DeLuise as the titular character in the gangster parody film The Godson.
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Olga Korbut
Olga Valentinovna Korbut (born 16 May 1955) is a Belarusian retired gymnast who competed for the Soviet Union. Nicknamed the "Sparrow from Minsk," she won four gold medals and two silver medals at the Summer Olympic Games, in which she competed in 1972 and 1976 for the Soviet team, and was the inaugural inductee to the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 1988. Korbut retired from gymnastics in 1977 at the age of 22, considered young for gymnasts of the period, but her influence and legacy in gymnastics were far-reaching. Korbut's 1972 Olympic performances are widely credited as redefining gymnastics, changing the sport from emphasising ballet and elegance to acrobatics, as well as changing gymnastics from a niche sport to one of the most popular sports in the world. She emigrated to the United States in 1991, where she now lives and trains gymnasts. She became a citizen in 2000.
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Jesper Christensen
Jesper Christensen (Danish pronunciation: [ˈjespɐ ˈkʰʁestn̩sn̩, - ˈkʰʁæs-]; born 16 May 1948) is a Danish actor. A veteran of European cinema, he has made the transition to English language projects, including The Interpreter and Revelations. He has also appeared as the mysterious villain Mr. White in the James Bond films Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace, and Spectre. In his home country, Christensen has won four Bodil Awards, three for Best Actor: Did Somebody Laugh? (1978), The Bench (2000), and Manslaughter (2005), and one for Best Supporting Actor: Barbara (1997). In 2006, Jesper Christensen declined the offer to receive the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog. He said that he thought the entire idea of monarchy is a crime against the members of the royal family, and it does not fit with modern ideas.
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Royal Rife
Royal Raymond Rife (May 16, 1888 – August 5, 1971) was an American inventor and early exponent of high-magnification time-lapse cine-micrography. Rife is known for his microscopes, which he claimed could observe live microorganisms with a magnification considered impossible for his time, and for an "oscillating beam ray" invention, which he thought could treat various ailments by "devitalizing disease organisms" using radio waves. Although he came to collaborate with scientists, doctors and inventors of the epoch, and his findings were published in newspapers and scientific journals like the Smithsonian Institution annual report of 1944, they were later rejected by the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Cancer Society (ACS) and mainstream science. Rife's supporters continue to claim that impulses of electromagnetic frequencies can disable cancerous cells and other microorganisms responsible for diseases. Most of these claims have no scientific research to back them up, and Rife machines are not approved for treatment by any health regulator. Multiple promoters have been convicted of health fraud and sent to prison.
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Billy Cobham
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Cobham was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 1987 and the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013. AllMusic biographer Steve Huey said: "Generally acclaimed as fusion's greatest drummer, Billy Cobham's explosive technique powered some of the genre's most important early recordings – including groundbreaking efforts by Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra – before he became an accomplished bandleader in his own right. At his best, Cobham harnessed his amazing dexterity into thundering, high-octane hybrids of jazz complexity and rock & roll aggression." Cobham's influence stretched far beyond jazz; he influenced progressive rock contemporaries, including Bill Bruford of King Crimson, and later ones such as Danny Carey of Tool. Prince and Jeff Beck both played a version of Cobham's "Stratus" in concert. Phil Collins, who named the Mahavishnu Orchestra's The Inner Mounting Flame as a key influence on his early style, said: "Billy Cobham played some of the finest drumming I've ever heard on that record."
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Ralph Tresvant
Ralph Edward Tresvant (born May 16, 1968) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, and record producer, best known as the lead singer of R&B group New Edition. As a solo artist, Tresvant released his double platinum-selling debut album Ralph Tresvant (1990). In 2008, he began touring with Bobby Brown and Johnny Gill in a new group named Heads of State. On February 3, 2023, Tresvant became host of the syndicated radio show Love and R&B, heard on WOSF.
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Tamara de Lempicka
Tamara Łempicka (pronounced [taˈmara wɛmˈpit͡ska] ; 16 June 1894 – 18 March 1980), known outside Poland as Tamara de Lempicka, was a Polish painter who spent her working life in France and the United States. She is best known for her polished Art Deco portraits of aristocrats and the wealthy, and for her highly stylized paintings of nudes. Born in Warsaw, records have long asserted her birth name was Tamara Rozalia Gurwik-Górska, though documents have uncovered her name as Tamara Rosa Hurwitz. She briefly moved to Saint Petersburg where she married Tadeusz Łempicki, a prominent Polish lawyer, then travelled to Paris. She studied painting with Maurice Denis and André Lhote. Her style was a blend of late, refined cubism and the neoclassical style, particularly inspired by the work of Jean-Dominique Ingres. She was an active participant in the artistic and social life of Paris between the wars. In 1928, she became the mistress of Baron Raoul Kuffner, a wealthy art collector from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, divorcing Tadeusz Łempicki that same year. After the death of Kuffner's wife in 1933, Łempicka married Kuffner in 1934, and thereafter she became known in the press as "The Baroness with a Brush". Following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, she and her husband moved to the United States and she painted celebrity portraits, as well as still lifes and, in the 1960s, some abstract paintings. Her work was out of fashion after World War II, but made a comeback in the late 1960s, with the rediscovery of Art Deco. She moved to Mexico in 1974, where she died in 1980. At her request, her ashes were scattered over the Popocatépetl volcano.
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Levi P. Morton
Levi Parsons Morton (May 16, 1824 – May 16, 1920) was the 22nd vice president of the United States from 1889 to 1893. He also served as United States ambassador to France, as a United States representative from New York, and as the 31st governor of New York. The son of a Congregational minister, Morton was born in Vermont and educated at public schools in Vermont and Massachusetts. He trained for a business career by clerking in stores and working in mercantile establishments in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. After relocating to New York City, Morton became a successful merchant, cotton broker, and investment banker. Active in politics as a Republican, Morton was an ally of Roscoe Conkling. He was twice elected to the United States House of Representatives, and he served one full term, and one partial one (March 4, 1879 – March 21, 1881). In 1880, Republican presidential nominee James A. Garfield offered Morton the vice presidential nomination in an effort to win over Conkling loyalists who were disappointed that their choice for president, Ulysses S. Grant, had lost the Republican nomination to Garfield. Conkling advised Morton to decline, which he did. Garfield then offered the vice presidential nomination to another Conkling ally, Chester A. Arthur, who accepted. After Garfield and Arthur were elected, Garfield nominated Morton to be Minister Plenipotentiary to France, and Morton served in Paris until 1885. In 1888, Morton was nominated for vice president on the Republican ticket with presidential nominee Benjamin Harrison; they were elected, and Morton served as vice president from 1889 to 1893. In 1894, Morton was the successful Republican nominee for governor of New York, and he served one term, 1895 to 1896. In retirement, Morton resided in New York City and Rhinebeck, New York. He died from pneumonia on his 96th birthday in 1920, and was buried at Rhinebeck Cemetery.
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Studs Terkel
Louis "Studs" Terkel (May 16, 1912 – October 31, 2008) was an American writer, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1985 for The Good War and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.
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Nancy Roman
Nancy Grace Roman (May 16, 1925 – December 25, 2018) was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and stellar motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, establishing her as one of the "visionary founders of the US civilian space program". Roman created NASA's space astronomy program and is known to many as the "Mother of Hubble" for her foundational role in planning the Hubble Space Telescope. Throughout her career, Roman was an active public speaker and educator, and an advocate for women in the sciences. In May 2020, NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine announced that the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope would be named the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope in recognition of her enduring contributions to astronomy.
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Osgood Perkins
James Ridley Osgood Perkins (May 16, 1892 – September 21, 1937) was an American actor.
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Celâl Bayar
Mahmut Celâlettin "Celâl" Bayar (16 May 1883 – 22 August 1986) was a Turkish economist and politician who was the president of Turkey from 1950 to 1960. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey from 1937 to 1939. Bayar began his career in the Committee of Union and Progress, establishing its İzmir and Bursa branches. Following the declaration of the Republic, he founded much of Turkey's early financial institutions, including the country's first bank, İş Bankası. An advocate of liberal economic policies, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk appointed Bayar prime minister in 1937 to liberalize the economy, until he resigned in 1939 under Atatürk's successor, -and his political rival- İsmet İnönü. Until 1945, he was a member of Republican People's Party (CHP) which was the sole legal party. In 1946, he founded the center-right Democrat Party along with Adnan Menderes, Fuat Köprülü and Refik Koraltan. This began Turkey's multiparty period, which still goes on to this day. A peaceful transfer of power from the CHP to DP happened in the 1950 elections, after which Bayar was elected president. He was re-elected in 1954 and 1957, serving for 10 years as president. In that period, Menderes was his prime minister. He was criticized for supporting the DP's illegal actions as head of state. Bayar was overthrown in the 1960 coup d'etat. He was prosecuted for treason in the Yassıada trials for encouraging authoritarianism and corruption as president. He was sentenced the death penalty, but due to his advanced age his sentence was commuted to life-imprisonment. He was released in 1966 after a general amnesty to former DP members. He advocating for the restoration of rights of former politicians associated with the Democrat Party following his release. He is considered to be the longest-lived former head of state and was the longest-lived state leader until 8 December 2008 (when he was surpassed by Chau Sen Cocsal Chhum). Celâl Bayar died on 22 August 1986 at the age of 103 after a brief illness.
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Jeff Skinner
Jeffrey Scott Skinner (born May 16, 1992) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward. He most recently played for the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected seventh overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2010 NHL entry draft, and has also played for the Buffalo Sabres and Edmonton Oilers. Skinner was the youngest player in the NHL during the 2010–11 season and is the youngest player ever to play in the NHL All-Star Game, as well as any All-Star game within the four major North American sports leagues. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy for best rookie in the 2010–11 season, becoming the first Hurricanes player to do so. During the 2022–23 season, he surpassed Ron Hainsey’s record of 907 games without making the Stanley Cup playoffs. Skinner holds the NHL record for most regular season games played without a playoff appearance, having played 1,078 games before his first playoff game on April 21, 2025 with the Oilers.
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Christian Lacroix
Christian Marie Marc Lacroix (French pronunciation: [kʁistjɑ̃ lakʁwa]; born 16 May 1951) is a French fashion designer. The name also refers to the company he founded. Lacroix's designs combine luxury and insouciance. He prefers artisanal trades, fringe, bead, and embroidery. He's characterized by a strong sense of colour, and patterns mix.
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Pafnuty Chebyshev
Pafnuty Lvovich Chebyshev (Russian: Пафну́тий Льво́вич Чебышёв, IPA: [pɐfˈnutʲɪj ˈlʲvovʲɪtɕ tɕɪbɨˈʂof]) (16 May [O.S. 4 May] 1821 – 8 December [O.S. 26 November] 1894) was a Russian mathematician and considered to be the founding father of Russian mathematics. Chebyshev is known for his fundamental contributions to the fields of probability, statistics, mechanics, and number theory. A number of important mathematical concepts are named after him, including the Chebyshev inequality (which can be used to prove the weak law of large numbers), the Bertrand–Chebyshev theorem, Chebyshev polynomials, Chebyshev linkage, and Chebyshev bias.
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Ricardo Costa
Ricardo Miguel Moreira da Costa (Portuguese pronunciation: [ʁiˈkaɾðu ˈkɔʃtɐ]; born 16 May 1981) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played mainly as a central defender but occasionally as a full-back. He is the current manager of Liga Portugal 2 club Tondela. After making his senior debut with Porto (where he was only a reserve), he went on to play in Germany, France, Spain, Qatar, Greece and Switzerland, mainly spending several years with Valencia in the third country. Over ten seasons, he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 165 matches and seven goals. A Portugal international since 2005, Costa represented the nation in three World Cups and Euro 2012.
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Daniel Kerr
Daniel Alan Kerr (born 16 May 1983) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). He played 220 games for the club between 2001 and 2013, as a hard-running inside midfielder. Kerr was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia. His father Roger also played professional football, while his sister Samantha plays professional soccer. Kerr was recruited to West Coast with the 18th pick in the 2000 National Draft. He finished runner-up in the 2001 AFL Rising Star, and in 2003, aged 20, won the Goal of the Year award. Kerr placed in the top three of the Brownlow Medal in three consecutive seasons from 2005 to 2007, notably finishing runner-up to teammate Ben Cousins in 2005 by a single vote. He played in a premiership in 2006 after a grand final loss the previous year, and was also named in the 2007 All-Australian team. Kerr suffered from injuries later in his career, eventually retiring from AFL football at the end of the 2013 season. He has been convicted of a number of criminal offences both during and after his football career, culminating in his imprisonment for arson in 2021.
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Joan Benoit
Joan Benoit Samuelson (née Benoit; born May 16, 1957) is an American marathon runner who was the first women's Olympic Games marathon champion, winning the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She held the fastest time for an American woman at the Chicago Marathon for 32 years after winning the race in 1985. Her time at the Boston Marathon was the fastest time by an American woman in that race for 28 years. She was inducted into the Maine Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.
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Ephraim Katzir
Ephraim Katzir (Hebrew: אֶפְרַיִם קָצִיר, romanized: Ep̄rayim Qaṣir; 16 May [O.S. 3 May] 1916 – 30 May 2009) was an Israeli biophysicist and Labor Party politician. He was the president of Israel from 1973 until 1978.
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Betty Carter
Betty Carter (born Lillie Mae Jones; May 16, 1929 – September 26, 1998) was an American jazz singer known for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies. Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked: "There's really only one jazz singer—only one: Betty Carter."
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Vujadin Boškov
Vujadin Boškov (Serbian Cyrillic: Вујадин Бошков, pronounced [ʋujǎdin bǒʃkoʋ]; 16 May 1931 – 27 April 2014) was a Serbian football player and manager. A midfielder, he played 57 matches for the Yugoslavia national team. He experienced his greatest success as a coach in 1990, when he won the European Cup Winners' Cup with Sampdoria. He also reached the European Cup final in 1981 with Real Madrid and 1992 with Sampdoria. He also won the Yugoslav First League as technical director and the La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Serie A and the Coppa Italia twice as a coach. Throughout his career as a football manager, he stood out both for his many successes, as well as due to his unique sense of humour and memorable ironic comments, which were used to dissolve tension during post-match interviews; these led him to become a popular figure with football fans during his time in Italy. FC Vujadin Boškov, Vojvodina's training facility in Veternik, was named after him in 1996 and in February 2022, he was posthumously admitted to the Italian Football Hall of Fame.
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Friedrich Gulda
Friedrich Gulda (German: [ˌfʁiːdʁɪç ˈɡʊlda] 16 May 1930 – 27 January 2000) was an Austrian pianist and composer who worked in both the classical and jazz fields.
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Pierre Gilliard
Pierre Gilliard (16 May 1879 – 30 May 1962) was a Swiss academic and author, best known as the French-language tutor to the five children of Russian emperor Nicholas II from 1905 to 1918. In 1921, after the Russian Revolution, he published a memoir, Thirteen Years at the Russian Court, about his time with the family. In his memoirs, Gilliard described Empress Alexandra's torment over her son Alexei's hemophilia and her faith in the ability of the starets (elder) Grigori Rasputin to heal the boy.
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Rick Reuschel
Rickey Eugene Reuschel (RUSH-el, born May 16, 1949) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from 1972 to 1991, winning 214 games with a career 3.37 ERA. His nickname was "Big Daddy" because his speed belied his portly physique. He was known for his deceptive style of pitching, which kept hitters off balance by constantly varying the speeds of his pitches. Reuschel was listed as 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds. Reuschel could run surprisingly well for his size (logging four triples in his batting career) and he was frequently used as a pinch runner on days he was not pitching. He was also a fair—though awkward-looking—hitter, batting well over .200 several times. His older brother Paul Reuschel also pitched for the Cubs from 1975 to 1978, as Rick's teammate. Paul's career ended with the Cleveland Indians in 1979. The Reuschel brothers were Illinois farm boys, with strong physiques and plain-spoken ways. The two are the only siblings to combine on a shutout. On August 21, 1975, Rick started and went 6+1⁄3 innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, followed by Paul, who pitched the final 2+2⁄3 innings for the Cubs' 7–0 win.
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Wilf Mannion
Wilfrid James Mannion (16 May 1918 – 14 April 2000) was an English professional footballer who played as an inside forward, making over 350 senior appearances for Middlesbrough. He also played international football for England. With his blonde hair, he was nicknamed "The Golden Boy".
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Edward T. Hall
Edward Twitchell Hall Jr. (May 16, 1914 – July 20, 2009) was an American anthropologist and cross-cultural researcher. He is remembered for developing the concept of proxemics and exploring cultural and social cohesion, and describing how people behave and react in different types of culturally defined personal space. Hall was an influential colleague of Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller.
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Glen Michael
Cecil Edward Buckland (16 May 1926 – 9 July 2025), known professionally as Glen Michael, was a British children's television presenter and entertainer. He hosted the popular children's television show Glen Michael's Cartoon Cavalcade, which ran for 26 years on Scottish Television from 1966. He also acted on stage across Scotland supporting comic Jack Milroy as a feed, later working with Rikki Fulton too. He appeared in the three series of The Adventures of Francie and Josie and in other television shows. He was a radio presenter for several years between 1974 and 2009.
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Martine Carol
Martine Carol (born Marie-Louise Jeanne Nicolle Mourer; 16 May 1920 – 6 February 1967) was a French film actress. She frequently was cast as an elegant blonde seductress. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she was the leading sex symbol and a top box-office draw of French cinema, and she was considered a French version of America's Marilyn Monroe. One of her more famous roles was as the title character in Lola Montès (1955), directed by Max Ophüls, in a role that required dark hair. However, by late 1956, roles for Carol had become fewer, partly because of the introduction of Brigitte Bardot.
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Mario Monicelli
Mario Alberto Ettore Monicelli (Italian: [ˈmaːrjo moniˈtʃɛlli]; 16 May 1915 – 29 November 2010) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Considered one of the greatest Italian directors of his genre, he was one of the masters of the commedia all'italiana ("Italian-style comedy"), was nominated six times for an Academy Award, and received the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1991.
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Maria Gaetana Agnesi
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799) was a Milanese mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook, the first woman appointed as a mathematics professor at a university and the second woman appointed as a professor overall. She is credited with writing the first book discussing both differential and integral calculus and was a member of the faculty at the University of Bologna, although she never served. She devoted the last four decades of her life to studying theology (especially patristics) and to charitable work and serving the poor. She was a devout Catholic and wrote extensively on the marriage between intellectual pursuit and mystical contemplation, most notably in her essay Il cielo mistico (The Mystic Heaven). She saw the rational contemplation of God as a complement to prayer and contemplation of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini, harpsichordist and composer, was her sister.
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John II of Cyprus
John II or III of Cyprus (16 May 1418 – 28 July 1458) was the King of Cyprus and Armenia and also titular King of Jerusalem from 1432 to 1458. He was previously a titular Prince of Antioch.
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Tony Kakko
Toni Kristian "Tony" Kakko (born 16 May 1975) is a Finnish musician, composer and vocalist. He is known as the vocalist, primary songwriter, and creative lead of the band Sonata Arctica since 1996.
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Elizabeth Peabody
Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (May 16, 1804 – January 3, 1894) was an American educator who opened the first English-language kindergarten in the United States. Long before most educators, Peabody embraced the premise that children's play has intrinsic developmental and educational value. With a grounding in history and literature and a reading knowledge of ten languages, in 1840, she also opened a bookstore that held Margaret Fuller's "Conversations". She published books from Nathaniel Hawthorne and others in addition to the periodicals The Dial and Æsthetic Papers. She was an advocate of antislavery and of Transcendentalism. Peabody also led efforts for the rights of the Paiute Indians. She was the first translator into English of the Buddhist scripture the Lotus Sutra, translating a chapter from its French translation in 1844. It was the first English version of any Buddhist scripture.
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Dirk Nannes
Dirk Peter Nannes (born 16 May 1976) is an Australian-Dutch cricket commentator and former cricketer who has played internationally for both Australia and the Netherlands, one of the few players to represent multiple international teams. From Melbourne, Nannes was a freestyle skier before beginning his cricket career, and competed in mogul events at two FIS Freestyle Skiing World Cups. Beginning in Victorian Premier Cricket, he made his first-class debut for Victoria during the 2005–06 season, aged 29. A left-arm fast bowler, he had the ability to bowl at speeds of 150 km/h. Nannes had moderate success in the domestic first-class and one-day tournaments, leading to a stint with English county side Middlesex during the 2008 season. His greatest success, however, came in Twenty20 matches. Holding Dutch citizenship through his parents, he played two Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) for the Netherlands at the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 tournament, and later that year made his One Day International (ODI) and T20I debuts for Australia. Altogether, Nannes took 28 wickets in 17 T20I matches, with his last match coming in October 2010, for Australia against Sri Lanka. Although his last matches for Victoria came during the 2010–11 season, he has remained a regular player at the Twenty20 level, in both Australian and overseas tournaments. As one of the first freelance cricketers, Nannes has played for fifteen different teams or franchises across nine different countries, including the Melbourne Renegades and Sydney Thunder in Big Bash League matches, and the Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Chennai Super Kings in Indian Premier League (IPL) matches. As of August 2014, he had taken almost 250 wickets from 200 Twenty20 matches, ranking only behind Lasith Malinga and Alfonso Thomas in terms of wickets taken in that format.
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Łukasz Kubot
Łukasz Kubot (Polish pronunciation: [ˈwukaʂ ˈkubɔt]; born 16 May 1982) is a former Polish professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. He is a two-time Grand Slam champion in doubles, having won the 2014 Australian Open with Robert Lindstedt, as well as the 2017 Wimbledon Championships with Marcelo Melo. Kubot has won 27 doubles titles on the ATP Tour, including four at Masters 1000 level, all alongside Melo. The pair also finished runners-up at the 2018 US Open and 2017 ATP Finals. In January 2018 he became world No. 1 for the first time, the first Polish player ever to do so in singles or doubles. Kubot has also had success in singles, achieving a career-high ranking of world No. 41 in April 2010 and reaching the quarterfinals of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships. He also reached the final at the 2009 Serbia Open and the 2010 Brasil Open. Kubot has represented Poland in the Davis Cup since 2001, also competing at three editions of the Summer Olympics. In 2013 he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by Polish President Bronisław Komorowski.
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Pierre Cuypers
Petrus Josephus Hubertus "Pierre" Cuypers (16 May 1827 – 3 March 1921) was a Dutch architect. His name is most frequently associated with the Amsterdam Central Station (1881–1889) and the Rijksmuseum (1876–1885), both in Amsterdam. More representative for his oeuvre, however, are numerous churches, of which he designed more than 100. Moreover, he restored many monuments.
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Dafydd Williams
Dafydd "Dave" Rhys Williams (born May 16, 1954) is a Canadian physician, public speaker, CEO, author and retired CSA astronaut. Williams was a mission specialist on two Space Shuttle missions. His first spaceflight, STS-90 in 1998, was a 16-day mission aboard Space Shuttle Columbia dedicated to neuroscience research. His second flight, STS-118 in August 2007, was flown by Space Shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station. During that mission he performed three spacewalks, becoming the third Canadian to perform a spacewalk and setting a Canadian record for total number of spacewalks.…
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Ben Kuroki
Ben Kuroki (Japanese: 黒木 勉, May 16, 1917 – September 1, 2015) was the only American of Japanese descent in the United States Army Air Forces to serve in combat operations in the Pacific theater of World War II. He flew a total of 58 combat missions over Europe, North Africa, and Japan during World War II. He was also an advocate for Japanese-Americans after World War II.
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David Edward Hughes
David Edward Hughes (16 May 1830 – 22 January 1900), was a Welsh-American inventor, practical experimenter, and professor of music known for his work on the printing telegraph and the microphone. He is generally considered to have been born in London but his family moved around that time so he may have been born in Corwen, Wales. His family moved to the U.S. while he was a child and he became a professor of music in Kentucky. In 1855 he patented a printing telegraph. He moved back to London in 1857 and further pursued experimentation and invention, coming up with an improved carbon microphone…
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Friedrich Rückert
Johann Michael Friedrich Rückert (German: [ˈʁʏkɐt]; 16 May 1788 – 31 January 1866) was a German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages.
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Cheryl Clarke
Cheryl Lynn Clarke (born Washington D.C., May 16, 1947) is an American lesbian poet, essayist, educator, and Black feminist community activist. Her scholarship focuses on African-American women's literature, black lesbian feminism, and the Black Arts Movement in the United States. For more than 40 years, Clarke was founding Director of Diverse Community Affairs and Lesbian/Gay Concerns, later the Office of Social Justice Education and LBT Communities, at Rutgers University. She maintains a teaching affiliation with the Graduate Faculty of the Department of Women and Gender Studies, though…
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Darío Cvitanich
Darío Cvitanich (Croatian: Dario Cvitanić; born 16 May 1984) is an Argentine retired professional footballer who played as a striker.
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Scott Nicholls
Scott Karl Nicholls (born 16 May 1978) is an English motorcycle speedway rider, who has won the British Championship seven times, and was a full participant in the Speedway Grand Prix series between 2002 and 2008. He earned 8 international caps for the England national speedway team and 27 caps for the Great Britain team. He is also a speedway commentator.
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Kathinka von Deichmann
Kathinka von Deichmann (born 16 May 1994) is a professional tennis player from Liechtenstein. On 8 October 2018, she reached her best WTA ranking of world No. 153 in singles, and on 17 July 2017, she peaked at No. 343 in doubles. Von Deichmann has won 15 singles and four doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit.
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Anja Mittag
Anja Mittag (German pronunciation: [ˈʔanja ˈmɪtaːk]; born 16 May 1985) is a German football coach and a former player who played as a striker. In July 2020, Mittag announced that she would end her playing career after the women's Saxony Cup final on 30 August 2020 and become a full-time coach with RB Leipzig. She made her comeback in the winter season 2021/22 SV Eintrach Leipzig-Süd in the German Regionalliga Nordost.
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Floyd Smith
Floyd Robert Donald Smith (born May 16, 1935) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre and coach. Smith played 616 total games in the National Hockey League (NHL), doing so for the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Buffalo Sabres. He was the first team captain of the expansion team Sabres in 1970, serving the position until he stopped playing early in the 1971-72 season to become an assistant coach. He coached the AHL affiliate Cincinnati Swords and won the Calder Cup with them in 1973. He was hired to coach the Sabres in 1974, where…
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Georg Bednorz
Johannes Georg Bednorz (German: [ˈɡeːɔʁk ˈbɛdnɔʁt͡s] ; born 16 May 1950) is a German physicist who, together with K. Alex Müller, discovered high-temperature superconductivity in ceramics, for which they shared the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physics.
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Johannes Thingnes Bø
Johannes Thingnes Bø (born 16 May 1993) is a Norwegian former biathlete who has achieved significant success in the sport. Thingnes Bø has won the Biathlon World Cup five times, in the 2018/19, 2019/20, 2020/21, 2022/23, and 2023/24 seasons. He is the male biathlete with the second most individual World Cup victories in history, totaling 91, including victories at the Winter Olympic Games.
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Kenneth O. Morgan
Kenneth Owen Morgan, Baron Morgan, (born 16 May 1934) is a Welsh historian and author, known especially for his writings on modern British history and politics and on Welsh history. He is a regular reviewer and broadcaster on radio and television. He has been an influential intellectual resource in the Labour Party.
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Louis Nicolas Vauquelin
Louis Nicolas Vauquelin FRS(For) HFRSE (French pronunciation: [lwi nikɔla voklɛ̃]; 16 May 1763 – 14 November 1829) was a French pharmacist and chemist. He was the discoverer of chromium and beryllium.
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Margaret Fountaine
Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine (16 May 1862 – 21 April 1940), was a Victorian lepidopterist (a person interested in butterflies and moths), natural history illustrator, diarist, and traveller who published in The Entomologist's Record and Journal of Variation. She is also known for her personal diaries, which were edited into two volumes by W.F. Cater for the popular market and published posthumously. Fountaine was an accomplished natural history illustrator and had a great love and knowledge of butterflies, travelling and collecting extensively through Europe, South Africa, India, Tibet,…
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John Law
John Law (born 16 May 1946), is a sociologist and science and technology studies scholar, currently on the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. He has remained one of the leading proponents of Actor-Network Theory together with Madeleine Akrich, Michel Callon and Bruno Latour.
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Louisa Chirico
Louisa Chirico (born May 16, 1996) is an American tennis player. On 24 October 2016, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 58. On 6 March 2017, she peaked at No. 184 in the WTA doubles rankings. Chirico has won seven singles titles and two doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. Her best performance in singles at a Grand Slam tournament was reaching the second round at the 2016 French Open.
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Stuart Bell
Sir Stuart Bell (16 May 1938 – 13 October 2012) was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesbrough from the 1983 general election until his death in 2012. He was known as the longest serving Second Church Estates Commissioner, serving in this role during the entire period of Labour government from 1997 to 2010.
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David Penry-Davey
Sir David Herbert Penry-Davey (16 May 1942 – 10 October 2015) was a judge of the High Court of England and Wales. He was educated at Hastings Grammar School and at King's College London (LLB, 1964). He was called to the Bar at Inner Temple in 1965. He was made a Crown Court recorder in 1986, a QC in 1988, and a judge of the High Court of Justice (Queen's Bench Division) in 1997. He died on 10 October 2015.
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Mitch Webster
Mitchell Dean Webster (born May 16, 1959) is an American former outfielder in Major League Baseball who played from 1983 through 1995 for the Toronto Blue Jays, Montreal Expos, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Dodgers. Listed at 6' 0", 185 lb., he was a switch hitter and threw left handed.
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Karl Lehmann
Karl Lehmann (16 May 1936 – 11 March 2018) was a German prelate and cardinal of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Mainz from 1983 to 2016, being elevated to the cardinalate in 2001. He served as chairman of the Conference of the German Bishops from 1987 to 2008, being considered one of the most influential prelates in Germany in those years and a leading proponent of liberal stances within the Church. Before he became a bishop, he worked as professor of theology at the University of Mainz and the University of Freiburg.
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Phil Clarke
Philip Clarke (born 16 May 1971) is an English former professional rugby league footballer who played in the 1980s and 1990s. A Great Britain and England international representative back-rower or stand-off, he played his club rugby league in England for Wigan (with whom he won five consecutive Challenge Cup Finals from 1991 to 1995), and in Australia for the Sydney City Roosters. Since his retirement he has continued to work in the sport as a manager, executive and commentator.
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Doug Brocail
Douglas Keith Brocail (born May 16, 1967) is an American professional baseball pitcher and pitching coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers. He has coached in MLB for the Astros, Rangers, and the Orioles.
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Charles F. Brannock
Charles F. Brannock (May 16, 1903 – November 22, 1992) was the inventor and manufacturer of the Brannock Device for measuring overall length, width, and heel-to-ball length of the foot.
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Johann Voldemar Jannsen
Johann Voldemar Jannsen (16 May [O.S. 4 May] 1819 – 13 July [O.S. 1 July] 1890) was an Estonian journalist. He was one of the earliest figures of the Estonian national awakening, which he promoted through his newspaper, the Eesti Postimees, and two Estonian Song Festivals. He wrote the nationalist song "Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm", which became the national anthem of Estonia after its independence. Jannsen was the father of poet Lydia Koidula.
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Denis Hart
Denis James Hart (born 16 May 1941) is a retired Australian prelate of the Catholic Church. He was Archbishop of Melbourne from 2001 to 2018.
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William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot
William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, PC (16 May 1710 – 27 April 1782), styled as Lord Talbot from 1737 to 1761, was an English peer and Whig politician. Talbot was a notable figure among opposition Whig politicians during the reign of King George II before later coming to Court during the reign of King George III, taking the office of Lord Steward of the Household.
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Victoria Fromkin
Victoria Alexandra Fromkin (née Landish; May 16, 1923 – January 19, 2000) was an American linguist who taught at UCLA. She studied slips of the tongue, mishearing, and other speech errors, which she applied to phonology, the study of how the sounds of a language are organized in the mind.
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John Bulwer
John Bulwer (baptised 16 May 1606 – buried 16 October 1656) was an English physician and early Baconian natural philosopher who wrote five works exploring the Body and human communication, particularly by gesture. He was the first person in England to propose educating deaf people, the plans for an Academy he outlines in Philocophus and The Dumbe mans academie.
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Loretta Schrijver
Loretta Maxine Schrijver (16 May 1956 – 27 March 2025) was a Dutch television presenter.
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Nuria Llagostera Vives
Nuria Llagostera Vives (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈnuɾja ʎaɣosˈteɾa ˈβiβes]; born 16 May 1980) is a Spanish former tennis player. In June 2005, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 35. In November 2009, she peaked at No. 5 in the WTA doubles rankings.
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Horace Hutchinson
Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson (16 May 1859 – 27 July 1932) was an English amateur golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships. He had three top-10 finishes in the Open Championship, his best result being sixth in the 1890 Open Championship. He was also a prolific writer of books on the subject of golf and other sporting themes. Hutchinson was the second English captain of the St Andrews Golf Club, Scotland. Onesiphorus Tyndall Bruce was the first Englishman to captain the R&A in 1838. Hutchinson suffered from…
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Tom Onslow-Cole
Thomas Michael Onslow-Cole (born 16 May 1987 in Kingston, Surrey) is a British former racing driver. He won the International GT Open in Pro-Am category in 2018 and in 2019 and the 24H Series in 2015. It was announced in April 2014 that Onslow-Cole would not be returning to the British Touring Car Championship for 2014 and instead entered the British GT Championship driving in a factory-supported Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3. In 2015, Onslow-Cole won the GT3 class of the 24H Series after taking a podium at every round, including a second place at Dubai 24 Hours and a race win in the inaugural…
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Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews
Elizabeth Kay Andrews, Baroness Andrews (born 16 May 1943) is a British Labour politician and life peer. She was Chair of English Heritage from July 2009 to July 2013. She worked as a Library Clerk (senior researcher) in the House of Commons Library from 1970 to 1985 and was one of the first people in public service to job share. She then became a policy adviser to Neil Kinnock in his office as Leader of the Opposition 1985–92. She served as Director of Education Extra until 2002. She was created a life peer as Baroness Andrews, of Southover in the County of East Sussex on 9 May 2000. In the…
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Bob Tisdall
Robert Morton Newburgh Tisdall (16 May 1907 in Nuwara Eliya, Ceylon – 27 July 2004 in Nambour, Queensland, Australia) was an Irish athlete who won a gold medal in the 400-metre hurdles at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Tisdall was raised in Nenagh, County Tipperary. He had run only six 400 m hurdles when he won the gold medal at the 1932 Olympic Games in a world record time of 51.7 seconds, which was not recognised under the rules of the time because he had hit a hurdle. Later, because of the notoriety of this incident, the rules were changed and the President of the IOC, Juan…
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Gordon Chalk
Sir Gordon William Wesley Chalk, (16 May 1913 – 26 April 1991) was Premier of Queensland for a week, from 1 to 8 August 1968. He was the first and only Queensland Premier from the post-war Liberal Party.
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Maria Lacerda de Moura
Maria Lacerda de Moura (Portuguese pronunciation: [maˈɾiɐ laˈsɛʁdɐ dʒi ˈmowɾɐ]; 16 May 1887 – 20 March 1945) was a Brazilian teacher, writer and anarcha-feminist. The daughter of spiritist and anti-clerical parents, she grew up in the city of Barbacena, in the interior of Minas Gerais, where she graduated as a teacher at the Escola Normal Municipal de Barbacena and participated in official efforts to tackle social inequality through national literacy campaigns and educational reforms. She began to publish crônicas in a local newspaper in 1912 and in 1918 she published her first book, Em torno…
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Mario Segni
Mariotto "Mario" Segni (born 16 May 1939) is a retired Italian politician and professor of civil law. He founded several parties, which focused on fighting for electoral reform through referendums. He is the son of the politician Antonio Segni, one-time president of Italy.
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Jimmy Hood
James Hood (16 May 1948 – 3 December 2017) was a Scottish Labour Party politician, who served as a Member of Parliament from 1987 until being defeated in 2015. He represented the Clydesdale constituency until 2005, and the Lanark and Hamilton East constituency thereafter. Hood, a National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) trade union official during the miners' strike of 1984–85, remained a backbencher throughout his parliamentary career.
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Dudley North
Sir Dudley North (16 May 1641 in Westminster – 31 December 1691 in London) was an English merchant, politician, economist and writer on free trade. He was also a member of the North family.
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Rachel Griffith
Dame Rachel Susan Griffith (born 16 May 1963) is a British and American academic and educator. She is professor of economics at the University of Manchester and a research director at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Griffith was president of the European Economic Association for 2015, making her the first woman to hold the position. She was also joint managing editor of The Economic Journal between 2011 and 2017. Griffith holds both UK and US citizenship.
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Christian Califano
Christian Califano (born 16 May 1972) is a former French rugby union player who finished his career at Gloucester Rugby. At the end of 2003, he had been capped 68 times for the France national team, which was the record for a French prop until Sylvain Marconnet earned his 69th one on 4 February 2007. It seemed clear that Califano's international career was over, but he made a shock come-back as he was called to play against New Zealand on 2 and 9 June 2007. Califano earned his first national cap on 26 June 1994 against the All Blacks. His first two caps consist in two victories in New…
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Amanda Carreras
Amanda Carreras (born 16 May 1990) is an inactive British tennis player from Gibraltar. Carreras has won 11 singles and 15 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit. On 24 April 2017, she reached her best singles ranking of world No. 236, and peaked at No. 279 in the doubles rankings. Due to Carreras winning her first two singles and doubles titles back-to-back, the ITF website wrote a "Spotlight On…" article on Carreras in May 2009. On 24 July 2012, Carreras carried the Olympic flame in the torch relay in Ealing, London. Nicola Bosio (another Gibraltarian athlete) passed on the flame to…
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Olga Bergholz
Olga Fyodorovna Berggolts (Russian: Ольга Фёдоровна Берггольц, IPA: [ˈolʲɡə ˈfʲɵdərəvnə bʲɪrˈɡolʲts] ; May 16 [O.S. May 3] 1910 – November 13, 1975) was a Soviet and Russian poet, writer, playwright and journalist. She is most famous for her work on the Leningrad radio during the city's siege, when she became the symbol of the city's resilience.
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Luis García
Luis Victoriano García (born May 16, 2000) is a Dominican-American professional baseball infielder for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Washington Nationals. He made his MLB debut in 2020.
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Ernie McCormick
Ernest Leslie McCormick (16 May 1906 – 28 June 1991) was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Test matches from 1935 to 1938. McCormick was an instrument-maker and jeweler. After the 1960–61 West Indies tour of Australia, Donald Bradman and the Australian Cricket Board of Control commissioned McCormick to create a perpetual trophy for winners of Test match series between the two teams. Its design incorporated a ball used in the tied Test and the Frank Worrell Trophy was named in honour of the West Indies captain.
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Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg
Countess Anna Sibylle of Hanau-Lichtenberg (16 May 1542 – 5 January 1580) was a German noblewoman. She was born in Lichtenberg, the eldest surviving daughter of Count Philipp IV (20 May 1512 – 19 February 1590) and his wife, Countess Eleonore of Fürstenberg (11 October 1523 – 26 April 1544).
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Elizabeth Ralston
Elizabeth Rose "Liz" Ralston (born 16 May 1995) is an Australian football (soccer) player, who plays for Western Sydney Wanderers in the Australian W-League. She has previously played for Sydney FC. She also works as a physiotherapist. Ralston started playing soccer from the age of seven and made her debut for Sydney FC at the age of 17, in the 2012–13 season. In 2019, she received a call up to the national team. In September 2021, Ralston left Sydney FC, after 9 years at the club. A few months after leaving Sydney FC, Ralston joined cross-town rivals Western Sydney Wanderers. At the end of…
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Michael Oberlechner
Michael Oberlechner (born 16 May 1979) is an Austrian politician of the Freedom Party serving as a member of the National Council since 2024. He has been a district councillor of Ottakring since 2010.
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Helga Radtke
Helga Radtke (born 16 May 1962 in Sanitz, Rostock) is a retired German track and field athlete, former World Indoor Long Jump Champion.
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Wolfgang I of Oettingen
Wolfgang I of Oettingen (16 May 1455 – 29 January 1522, Harburg) was a Count of Oettingen-Oettingen. He was third son of Count Wilhelm of Oettingen (1413 – 12 March 1467) and his wife Beatrice della Scala from the family of Scaliger. He was a Count of Oettingen after the death of his brother John II of Oettingen, who died in 1519 without male heirs. In 1482 he married with Anna of Waldburg and Waldsee (d. 20 March 1507). They had two sons: Charles (1474-1549) Louis (1486-1557).
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Edith Grace White
Edith Grace White (May 16, 1890 – December 1, 1975) was an American zoologist known for her studies of elasmobranchs (sharks and rays). She was a professor of biology at Wilson College, and was a research associate of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
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Barbara Bachmann
Barbara Joyce Bachmann (May 16, 1924 – January 31, 1999) was a lecturer at Yale University, UC Berkeley, Columbia and NYU, and is best known as director of the E. coli Genetic Stock Center and for publishing editions of the standard E. coli K-12 genetic linkage map.
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Walter Yust
Walter M. Yust (May 16, 1894 – February 29, 1960) was an American journalist and writer. Yust was the American editor-in-chief of the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1938 to 1960.
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Fred Conrad Koch
Frederick Conrad Koch (May 16, 1876 – January 26, 1948) was an American biochemist and endocrinologist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, Koch graduated from the University of Illinois in 1899. He was affiliated with the University of Chicago from 1912 to 1941, serving as chairman of the department of biochemistry from 1936 to 1941. He retired as professor emeritus, and was director of biomedical research at Armour and Company. He was known primarily for his work on male sex hormones and testicular function. He served as the 19th president of the Endocrine Society, which in 1957 established the Fred…
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Landon Deireragea
Landon Deireragea (born 16 May 1960) is a Nauruan politician.
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Zvi Sliternik
Zvi Saliternik (Hebrew: צבי סליטרניק; 16 May 1897 – 17 October 1993) was an Israeli entomologist.
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Jesús Castillo
Jesús Castillo Ugarte (born 16 May 1988) is a former defender who last played for the Celaya on loan from Monarcas Morelia, in the Ascenso MX.
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Simeon Price
Simeon Taylor "Sim" Price Jr. (May 16, 1882 – March 16, 1945) was an American golfer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics.
Who's birthday is it today? — FAQ
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