Who was born on May 17?
May 17 is packed with notable birthdays. Explore 118 famous birthdays, sorted by recent English Wikipedia pageviews. Top ranked names include Bill Paxton, Dennis Hopper, Enya, Nikki Reed, Josh Homme. Filter by actor, musician, athlete, and more — or open any other calendar day.
May 17
118 people
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Bill Paxton
William Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. A versatile character actor known for his distinctive Texan drawl and everyman screen persona, he was a four-time Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award nominee, among other accolades. Paxton starred in films Near Dark (1987), Tombstone (1993), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Mighty Joe Young (1998), A Simple Plan (1998), U-571 (2000), Vertical Limit (2000) and played supporting roles in Weird Science (1985), Predator 2 (1990), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014). He was a close collaborator of director James Cameron, appearing in his films The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), True Lies (1994), and Titanic (1997). He made his directorial debut with the 2001 horror film Frailty, in which he also starred, earning him Saturn Award nominations for Best Director and Best Horror Film. On television, Paxton starred as Bill Henrickson on the HBO drama series Big Love (2006–2011), for which he earned three Golden Globe nominations for Best Actor – Television Series Drama during the show's run. He was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for portraying Randall McCoy in the History Channel miniseries Hatfields & McCoys (2012).
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Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He is considered one of the key figures of the New Hollywood era. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice International Film Festival as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Hopper studied acting at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego and the Actors Studio in New York. He made his first television appearance in 1954, and soon after appeared in two of the films that made James Dean famous, Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and Giant (1956). He then played supporting roles in films such as Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Hang 'Em High (1968) and True Grit (1969). Hopper made his directorial film debut with Easy Rider (1969), which he and co-star Peter Fonda wrote with Terry Southern. The film earned Hopper a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Debut, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He also began a prolific and acclaimed photography career in the 1960s. He became frequently typecast as mentally disturbed outsiders and rebels in such films as Mad Dog Morgan (1976), The American Friend (1977), Apocalypse Now (1979), Rumble Fish (1983), and Blue Velvet (1986). He received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in Hoosiers (1986). His later film roles included True Romance (1993), Speed (1994), Waterworld (1995) and Elegy (2009). He appeared posthumously in the long-delayed The Other Side of the Wind (2018), which had previously been filmed in the early 1970s. Other directorial credits for Hopper include The Last Movie (1971), Out of the Blue (1980), Colors (1988), and The Hot Spot (1990). He received Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie nomination for his role in Paris Trout (1991). His other television roles include in the HBO film Doublecrossed (1991), 24 (2002), the NBC series E-Ring (2005–2006), and the Starz series Crash (2008–2009).
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Enya
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin (Irish pronunciation: [ˈɛnʲə pˠɑːdʲɾʲəɟiːnʲ nʲiː vˠɾ˝eːnɑːnʲ]) (born 17 May 1961) better known as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated equivalent of more than 80 million albums sold, she is one of the world's best-selling music artists. Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist, and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall, after the band U2. Enya's music has been widely recognised for its use of multi-layers of her own vocals and instrumentation, lengthened reverb, and interwoven elements of Celtic music. Raised in the Irish-speaking region of Gweedore, Enya began her musical career in 1980, playing alongside her family's Irish folk band, Clannad. She left Clannad in 1982 to pursue a solo career, working with the former Clannad manager and producer, Nicky Ryan, and his partner Roma Ryan as their lyricist. She composed the majority of the soundtrack for The Frog Prince (1985). She also composed the soundtrack for the 1987 BBC documentary series The Celts, a selection of which BBC Records released that year as her debut album Enya. She signed with Warner Music UK, and the success of her second studio album, Watermark (1988), propelled Enya to worldwide fame, primarily through the single "Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)". She released the multi-million-selling albums Shepherd Moons (1991), The Memory of Trees (1995), the box set A Box of Dreams, first compilation album Paint the Sky with Stars (both released in 1997) and A Day Without Rain (2000). Sales of the 2000 album and its lead single, "Only Time", surged in the United States, following its use in media coverage of the September 11 attacks. Enya's subsequent releases include Amarantine (2005), And Winter Came... (2008), the compilation album The Very Best of Enya (2009), and Dark Sky Island (2015). Enya's accolades include four Grammy Awards and six World Music Awards. She is the most-nominated female Irish artist at the BRIT Awards, with four nominations. "May It Be", her composition from the soundtrack of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song. In 2025, Enya received the RTÉ Choice Music Prize's Classic Irish Album award for her 1988 breakthrough album, Watermark.
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Nikki Reed
Nikki Reed is an American actress, screenwriter, and entrepreneur best known for her role as Rosalie Hale in The Twilight Saga (2008–12). Reed rose to prominence when she starred in and co-wrote the psychological drama film Thirteen (2003) with director Catherine Hardwicke, for which she won Best Breakthrough Performance and was nominated for Best First Screenplay at the 19th Independent Spirit Awards.
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Josh Homme
Joshua Michael Homme III ( HOM-ee; born May 17, 1973) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He is best known as the founder and only continuous member of the rock band Queens of the Stone Age, which he formed in 1996 shortly after the breakup of his previous band Kyuss. Homme is the band's primary songwriter and mainly sings lead vocals and plays guitar. He also plays drums in the rock band Eagles of Death Metal, which he co-founded in 1998. Homme began his career as the co-founder and guitarist of the rock band Kyuss, with whom he performed from 1987 to 1995. He then served as a touring guitarist for the rock band Screaming Trees from 1996 to 1998, leaving to start Queens of the Stone Age. He has also overseen a musical improv project with other musicians (mostly from the Palm Desert Scene) known as The Desert Sessions since 1997. He formed the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures alongside Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones in 2009, releasing their eponymous debut album later that year. In 2016, he produced, co-wrote, and performed on the Iggy Pop album Post Pop Depression. He has also been involved with acts such as Royal Blood, Foo Fighters, Run the Jewels, and Arctic Monkeys.
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Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The band's line-up has constantly changed, with Reznor being its only official member from its creation in 1988 until 2016, when he added English musician and frequent collaborator Atticus Ross as its second permanent member. Reznor began his career in 1982 as a member of synth-pop bands such as The Innocent, Slam Bamboo, and Exotic Birds. The first Nine Inch Nails album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), was a moderate success but largely remained popular with underground audiences; the next two albums, The Downward Spiral (1994) and The Fragile (1999), brought the band widespread critical acclaim. There have since been eight more Nine Inch Nails albums and six EPs. Reznor has also contributed to the work of artists such as rock singer Marilyn Manson, rapper Saul Williams, and pop singer Halsey. Alongside his wife Mariqueen Maandig and long-time collaborators Atticus Ross and Rob Sheridan, he formed the post-industrial group How to Destroy Angels in 2009. Since 2010, Reznor and Ross have worked on numerous film and television scores, most notably for movies directed by David Fincher and Luca Guadagnino. These include Fincher's The Social Network (2010), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011), and Gone Girl (2014), as well as Guadagnino's Bones and All (2022), Challengers (2024), and Queer (2024). Reznor and Ross twice won the Academy Award for Best Original Score – for The Social Network and Soul (2020), and won two Grammy Awards for scoring The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Soul, sharing both awards (as well as the Golden Globe) for Soul with co-composer Jon Batiste. Reznor and Ross won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series for Watchmen (2019). The pair also scored Ken Burns's 10-part documentary The Vietnam War (2017).
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Alfonso XIII
Alfonso XIII (Spanish: Alfonso León Fernando María Jaime Isidro Pascual Antonio de Borbón y Habsburgo-Lorena; French: Alphonse Léon Ferdinand Marie Jacques Isidore Pascal Antoine de Bourbon; 17 May 1886 – 28 February 1941), also known as El Africano or the African for his Africanist views, was King of Spain from his birth until 14 April 1931, when the Second Spanish Republic was proclaimed. He became a monarch at birth as his father, Alfonso XII, had died the previous year. Alfonso's mother, Maria Christina of Austria, served as regent until he assumed full powers on his sixteenth birthday in 1902. Alfonso XIII's upbringing and public image were closely linked to the military estate; he often presented himself as a soldier-king. His effective reign started four years after the Spanish–American War, when various social milieus projected their expectations of national regeneration onto him. Like other European monarchs of his time he played a political role, entailing a controversial use of his constitutional executive powers. His wedding to Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg in 1906 was marred by an attempt at regicide; he was unharmed. With public opinion divided over World War I, and moreover a split between pro-German and pro-Entente sympathizers, Alfonso XIII used his relations with other European royal families to help preserve a stance of neutrality, as espoused by his government; however, several factors weakened the monarch's constitutional legitimacy: the rupture of the turno system, the deepening of the Restoration system crisis in the 1910s, a trio of crises in 1917, the spiral of violence in Morocco, and especially the lead-up to the 1923 installment of the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, an event that succeeded by means of both military coup d'état and the king's acquiescence. Over the course of his reign, the monarch ended up favouring an authoritarian solution rather than constitutional liberalism. Upon the political failure of the dictatorship, Alfonso XIII removed support from Primo de Rivera (who was thereby forced to resign in 1930) and favoured (during the dictablanda) an attempted return to the pre-1923 state of affairs. Nevertheless, he had lost most of his political capital along the way. He left Spain voluntarily after the municipal elections of April 1931 – which was understood as a plebiscite on maintaining the monarchy or declaring a republic – the result of which led to the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic on 14 April 1931. For his efforts with the European War Office during World War I, he earned a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1917, which was ultimately won by the Red Cross. As of 2026, he remains the only monarch known to have been nominated for a Nobel Prize.
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Andrea Corr
Andrea Jane Corr (born 17 May 1974) is an Irish musician and actress. Corr debuted in 1990 as the lead singer of the Celtic folk rock and pop rock group The Corrs along with her three elder siblings Caroline, Sharon and Jim. Aside from singing lead vocals, Corr plays the tin whistle, the ukulele and the piano. With the others, Corr has released seven studio albums, two compilation albums, one remix album and two live albums. Corr has also pursued a solo career, releasing her debut album, Ten Feet High, in 2007. The album moved away from the sound of the Corrs and features a dance-pop sound. Her next album, released on 30 May 2011, was entirely made up of covers of songs that were important to her when younger. Corr is involved in charitable activities. She has played charity concerts to raise money for the Pavarotti & Friends Liberian Children's Village, Freeman Hospital in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, the victims of the Omagh bombing in Northern Ireland and the Prince's Trust in 2004. She is an ambassador for the Nelson Mandela's "46664" campaign, raising awareness towards AIDS in Africa. During the Edinburgh Live 8 on 2 July 2005 The Corrs performed "When the Stars Go Blue" alongside Bono to promote the Make Poverty History campaign. Along with her siblings, she was appointed an honorary M.B.E. in 2005 by Queen Elizabeth II for her contribution to music and charity.
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Sugar Ray Leonard
Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), better known as Sugar Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professionally between 1976 and 1997, winning world titles in five weight classes; the lineal championship in three weight classes; as well as the undisputed welterweight championship. Leonard was part of the "Four Kings", a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of Leonard, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns, and Marvin Hagler. Leonard was the only one of them to beat the other three. As an amateur, Leonard won a light welterweight gold medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. The "Four Kings" created a wave of popularity in the lower weight classes that kept boxing relevant in the post-Muhammad Ali era, during which Leonard defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Hearns, Durán, Hagler, and Wilfred Benítez. Leonard was also the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, and was named "Boxer of the Decade" in the 1980s. The Ring magazine named him Fighter of the Year in 1979 and 1981, while the Boxing Writers Association of America named him Fighter of the Year in 1976, 1979, and 1981. He was honored as the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1981. In 2002, Leonard was voted by The Ring as the ninth greatest fighter of the last 80 years. In 2016, he was voted by The Ring to be the greatest living fighter. Outside his professional boxing career, Leonard has worked as a boxing analyst and actor, appearing in numerous television shows and films, including Half & Half, L.A. Heat, Married... with Children, Renegade, Tales from the Crypt, I Spy (2002), and The Fighter (2010).
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Marshall Applewhite
Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr. (May 17, 1931 – March 24, 1997), also known as Do, among other names, was an American religious leader who founded and led the Heaven's Gate new religious movement (often described as a cult), and organized their mass suicide in 1997. The suicide is the largest mass suicide to occur inside the United States. As a young man, Applewhite attended several universities and served in the United States Army. He initially pursued a career in education until he resigned from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, in 1970 after an inappropriate relationship with a male student. His father's death a year later brought on severe depression. In 1972, Applewhite developed a close friendship with Bonnie Nettles, a nurse; together, they discussed mysticism at length and concluded that they were called as divine messengers. They operated a bookstore and teaching center for a short while and then began to travel around the U.S. in 1973 to spread their views. They gained only one convert. In August 1974, Applewhite was arrested in Harlingen, Texas, for failing to return a rental car and was extradited to Missouri where he was subsequently jailed for six months. In jail, he further developed his theology. After Applewhite's release, he and Nettles travelled to California and Oregon, eventually gaining a group of committed "students." They told their followers that they would be visited by extraterrestrials who would provide them with new bodies. Applewhite initially stated that he and his followers would physically ascend to a spaceship, where their bodies would be transformed, but later he came to believe that their bodies were the mere "human vehicles," or containers of their souls, which would later be placed into new bodies. These ideas were expressed with language drawn from Christian eschatology, the New Age movement and American popular culture. Heaven's Gate received an influx of funds in the late 1970s, which it used to pay housing and other expenses. In 1985, Nettles died, leaving Applewhite distraught and challenging his views on physical ascension. In the early 1990s, the group took more steps to publicize their theology. In 1996, they learned of the approach of Comet Hale–Bopp and rumors of an accompanying spaceship, concluding that this was the vessel that would take their spirits on board for a journey to another planet. Believing that their souls would ascend to the spaceship and be given new bodies, the group members committed mass suicide in a rented mansion. A media circus followed the discovery of their bodies. In the aftermath, commentators and academics discussed how Applewhite persuaded people to follow his commands, including suicide. Some commentators attributed his followers' willingness to commit suicide to his skill as a manipulator, while others argued that their willingness was due to their faith in the narrative that he constructed.
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Howard Ashman
Howard Elliott Ashman (May 17, 1950 – March 14, 1991) was an American playwright, lyricist, and stage director. He is most widely known for his work on feature films for Walt Disney Animation Studios, for which Ashman wrote the lyrics and Alan Menken composed the music. Ashman has been credited as being a main driving force behind the Disney Renaissance. His work included songs for Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin. He died of AIDS complications in 1991.
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Kandi Burruss
Kandi Lenice Burruss (born May 17, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, actress and television personality. She first gained notice in 1992 as a member of the multi-platinum R&B female vocal group Xscape. As a songwriter, she has received writing credits on the singles "Bills, Bills, Bills" by Destiny's Child, "There You Go" by Pink, "Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I'm Bored" by Ariana Grande, and "Shape of You" by Ed Sheeran. In 2000, she won a Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for her work on the TLC hit song "No Scrubs". Burruss' debut single "Don't Think I'm Not", as well as her appearances on the singles "4, 5, 6" by Solé, and E-40's "U and Dat" alongside T-Pain, have all reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100. Additionally, she starred on the Bravo reality television series The Real Housewives of Atlanta from its second to fifteenth season, making her one of the longest-serving cast members in The Real Housewives franchise. Burruss has appeared in six Real Housewives spinoff and companion series as of 2022, beginning with 2012's The Kandi Factory, and continuing on with Kandi's Wedding (2014), Kandi's Ski Trip (2015), Xscape: Still Kickin' It (2017), and Kandi & the Gang (2022), all of which were aired by Bravo. Burruss also appeared as a guest in fellow housewife castmate Kim Zolciak's wedding special Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding (2012). Burruss had a recurring role as Roselyn Perry in the third season of the Showtime drama series The Chi. She won the third season of the Fox competition series The Masked Singer, and became the show's first female champion. Additionally, she also placed fifth on the second season of Celebrity Big Brother on CBS. In 2023, her production work on a 2022 Broadway production of the play The Piano Lesson earned her a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play.
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Bartholomew Roberts
Bartholomew Roberts (born John Roberts; 17 May 1682 – 10 February 1722) was a Welsh pirate who was, measured by vessels captured, the most successful pirate of the Golden Age of Piracy. During his piratical career, he took over 400 prize ships, although most were mere fishing boats. Roberts raided ships off the Americas and the West African coast between 1719 and 1722; he is also noted for creating his own pirate code, and adopting an early variant of the Skull and Crossbones flag. Roberts' infamy and success saw him become known as The Great Pyrate and eventually as Black Bart (Welsh: Barti Ddu, though this was a later attribution and was not used in his lifetime), and made him a popular subject for writers of both fiction and non-fiction. To this day, Roberts continues to feature in popular culture, and has inspired fictional characters (such as the Dread Pirate Roberts).
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Qusay Hussein
Qusay Saddam Hussein al-Nasiri al-Tikriti (Arabic: قصي صدام حسين; 17 May 1966 – 22 July 2003) was an Iraqi politician, military officer, and the second son of Saddam Hussein. He was appointed as his father's heir apparent in 2000. He was deputy head of the Iraqi Special Security Organization and was also in charge of the Republican Guard, a branch of the Iraqi military. Although he had a lower public profile compared to his brother Uday, he was said to have had a key role in crushing opposition during the 1991 Iraqi uprisings. As deputy head of the Special Security Organization, he was said to have authorized the use of torture against dissidents. Qusay served as the director of the Iraqi Special Security Organization from 1992 to 1997 and was in charge of the elite Republican Guard and Special Republican Guard, which were crucial to Saddam's regime. While his older brother Uday was known for being flamboyant and erratic, Qusay maintained a lower public profile and was considered quiet, calculating, and equally ruthless. He was allegedly involved in severe human rights abuses, including directing the brutal suppression of the Shia uprising in southern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, which included the destruction of the southern marshes, and authorizing the torture and execution of political prisoners. Due to Uday's behavior and injuries from a 1996 assassination attempt, Qusay was increasingly groomed to succeed his father. Qusay, his son Mustafa, and his brother Uday were killed in a 2003 U.S. raid in Mosul, during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
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Erik Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925), better known as Erik Satie, was a French composer and pianist. The son of a French father and a British mother, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire but was undistinguished and did not obtain a diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabarets in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes. He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached. Following a period of sparse compositional productivity, Satie entered Paris's second music academy, the Schola Cantorum, as a mature student. His studies there were more successful than those at the Conservatoire. From about 1910 he became the focus of successive groups of young composers attracted by his unconventionality and originality. Among them were the group known as Les Six. A meeting with Jean Cocteau in 1915 led to the creation of the ballet Parade (1917) for Sergei Diaghilev, with music by Satie, sets and costumes by Pablo Picasso, and choreography by Léonide Massine. Satie's example guided a new generation of French composers away from post-Wagnerian Impressionism towards a sparer, terser style. During his lifetime, he influenced Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Francis Poulenc, and he is seen as an influence on more recent composers such as John Cage and John Adams. His harmony is often characterised by unresolved chords; he sometimes dispensed with bar-lines, as in his Gnossiennes; and his melodies are generally simple and often reflect his love of old church music. He gave some of his later works absurd titles, such as Véritables Préludes flasques (pour un chien) ("True Flabby Preludes (for a Dog)", 1912), Croquis et agaceries d'un gros bonhomme en bois ("Sketches and Exasperations of a Big Wooden Man", 1913) and Sonatine bureaucratique ("Bureaucratic Sonatina", 1917). Most of his works are brief, and the majority are for solo piano. Exceptions include his "symphonic drama" Socrate (1919) and two late ballets Mercure and Relâche (1924). Satie never married, and his home for most of his adult life was a single small room, first in Montmartre and, from 1898 to his death, in Arcueil, a suburb of Paris. He adopted various images over the years, including a period in quasi-priestly dress, another in which he always wore identically coloured velvet suits, and is known for his last persona, in neat bourgeois costume, with bowler hat, wing collar, and umbrella. He was a lifelong heavy drinker, and died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 59.
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Taj Mahal
Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. (born May 17, 1942), better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments along with singing and whistling, often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.
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Caroline of Brunswick
Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (Caroline Amelia Elizabeth; 17 May 1768 – 7 August 1821) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen of Hanover from 29 January 1820 until her death in 1821 as the estranged wife of King George IV. She was Princess of Wales from 1795 to 1820. The daughter of Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, and Princess Augusta of Great Britain, Caroline was engaged in 1794 to her first cousin George, Prince of Wales, whom she had never met. He was already illegally married to Maria Fitzherbert. George and Caroline married the following year but separated shortly after the birth of their only child, Princess Charlotte, in 1796. By 1806, rumours that Caroline had taken multiple lovers and had an illegitimate child led to an investigation into her private life. The dignitaries who led the investigation concluded that there was "no foundation" to the rumours, but Caroline's access to her daughter was still restricted. In 1814, Caroline moved to Italy, where she employed Bartolomeo Pergami as a servant. Pergami soon became Caroline's closest companion, and it was widely assumed that they were lovers. In 1817, Caroline was devastated when Charlotte died in childbirth. She heard the news from a passing courier as George had refused to write and tell her. He was determined to divorce Caroline and set up a second investigation to collect evidence of her adultery. In January 1820, George became King of the United Kingdom and Hanover, and Caroline became nominal queen consort. George insisted on a divorce from Caroline, which she refused. A legal divorce was possible but difficult to obtain. Caroline returned to Britain to assert her position as queen. She was wildly popular with the British people, who sympathised with her and despised the new king for his immoral behaviour. On the basis of the loose evidence collected against her, George attempted to divorce Caroline by introducing the Pains and Penalties Bill 1820 to Parliament, but he and the bill were so unpopular and Caroline so popular with the masses that it was withdrawn by the Liverpool ministry. The King barred Caroline from his coronation in July 1821. She fell ill in London and died three weeks later. Her funeral procession passed through London on its way to her native Brunswick, where she was buried in Brunswick Cathedral.
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Paul Di'Anno
Paul Andrews (17 May 1958 – 21 October 2024), better known by his stage name Paul Di'Anno, was an English heavy metal singer. He was the lead vocalist for Iron Maiden from 1978 to 1981. In his post-Maiden career, Di'Anno issued numerous albums over the years, as both a solo artist and as a member of bands such as Gogmagog, Di'Anno's Battlezone, Killers, Rockfellas, and Warhorse. Together with fellow Iron Maiden member Dennis Stratton, he joined Praying Mantis for the recording of their 1990 live album Live at Last.
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Bill Bruford
William Scott Bruford (born 17 May 1949) is an English drummer and percussionist. He is known for his work from the late 1960s to the 1990s, primarily as both a founding member of Yes and as a member of three forms of King Crimson. Bruford co-founded Yes in 1968 and recorded five albums with them, including The Yes Album, Fragile (both 1971) and Close to the Edge (1972). He left Yes in 1972, and spent the rest of the 1970s recording and touring with numerous groups. Most prominently, he performed with King Crimson; then after they disbanded in 1974, he worked with Roy Harper and U.K., and toured with Genesis in 1976 as a part of their A Trick of the Tail promotional tour. In 1978 he formed his own group, Bruford, who were active until 1980. During the 1980s Bruford returned to King Crimson for three years in their Discipline line-up, consisting of him and Robert Fripp along with Americans Tony Levin and Adrian Belew. He performed on their albums Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984), until the group disbanded again in 1984. After this, he collaborated with several artists (including Patrick Moraz and David Torn) and formed his own electric jazz band, Earthworks, in 1986. He then played with his former Yes bandmates in the supergroup Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, which eventually led to a very brief second stint in Yes. Bruford played in King Crimson for his third and final tenure from 1994 to 1997 as part of the Double Trio, then continued with a new acoustic configuration of Earthworks. In 2009, Bruford announced his retirement from professional drumming. He pursued other projects, including the operation of his two record labels, Summerfold and Winterfold, releasing an autobiography, and speaking and writing about music. In 2016, he received a doctorate in music from the University of Surrey. In that year Bruford ranked No. 16 on Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Drummers of All Time". In 2017, Bruford was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes. In 2022, after a 13-year hiatus, he returned to live performance as a member of the Pete Roth Trio.
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Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines and created the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine. The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae ("pustules of the cow"), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1798 in the title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which Jenner described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox. Jenner is often called "the father of immunology", and his work is said to have saved "more lives than any other man". In Jenner's time, smallpox killed around 10% of the global population, with the number as high as 20% in towns and cities where infection spread more easily. In 1821, he was appointed physician to King George IV, and was also made mayor of Berkeley and justice of the peace. Jenner was a member of the Royal Society. In the field of zoology, he was among the first modern scholars to describe the brood parasitism of the cuckoo (Aristotle also noted this behaviour in his History of Animals). In 2002, Jenner was named in the BBC's list of the 100 Greatest Britons.
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Johanna Konta
Johanna Konta (born 17 May 1991) is a British-Australian former professional tennis player. Konta won four singles titles on the WTA Tour, along with eleven titles in singles and four in doubles on the ITF Women's Circuit. She was British No. 1 and reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 on 17 July 2017. She reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the French Open. Born to Hungarian parents in Sydney, Australia, Konta moved to England when she was 14. She has Hungarian, Australian and British citizenship. She switched her sporting allegiance from Australia to Great Britain after she became a British citizen in May 2012. Konta achieved a steep rise in her ranking by the WTA from the spring of 2015 to late 2016, climbing from 150th to inside the world's top 10, becoming the first Briton to be ranked amongst the WTA's top ten since Jo Durie was ranked fifth over 30 years prior. This period included her best major result up to that time, the semifinals of the 2016 Australian Open, a quarterfinal appearance at the Rio Summer Olympics and her maiden WTA Tour title in Stanford. In 2017, she won the Miami Open and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon. Konta had another successful season in 2019, reaching the semifinals at the French Open and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the US Open. Konta retired on 1 December 2021, after struggling with a chronic injury to her right knee, which led to her ranking dropping outside the top 100.
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Julius Sumner Miller
Julius Sumner Miller (May 17, 1909 – April 14, 1987) was an American physicist and television personality. He is best known for his work on children's television programs in North America and Australia.
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Dave Abbruzzese
David James Abbruzzese (Italian pronunciation: [abbrutˈtseːze, -eːse]; born May 17, 1968) is an American musician who was the drummer for the American rock band Pearl Jam from 1991 to 1994. He replaced drummer Matt Chamberlain in 1991, shortly before the release of the band's debut album, Ten. Abbruzzese played on the band's following records, Vs. and Vitalogy.
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Hubert Davis
Hubert Ira Davis Jr. (born May 17, 1970) is a former professional basketball player and former head basketball coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels men's team. Before his coaching career, Davis played for North Carolina from 1988 to 1992 and in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and New Jersey Nets from 1992 to 2004. He holds the franchise single-season and career three-point field goal shooting percentage records for the Knicks. He is the nephew of Walter Davis, another former Tar Heel and NBA player. Davis served as an assistant coach for the Tar Heels from 2012 until his elevation to head coach in 2021 following the retirement of Roy Williams. He was fired following the 2025–26 season.
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Jason Bernard
Jason Bernard (born Ronald Carl Johnson, May 17, 1938 – October 16, 1996) was an American actor.
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Antonio Aguilar
José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Márquez Barraza (17 May 1919 – 19 June 2007), known as Antonio Aguilar and acredited as Tony Aguilar, was a Mexican singer and actor. He recorded over 150 albums, which sold 25 million copies, and acted in more than 120 films. He was given the honorific nickname "El Charro de México" (Mexico's Horseman) because he is credited with popularizing the Mexican equestrian sport la charrería to international audiences. Aguilar began his career singing on Mexican radio station XEW in 1950. That year, he signed a contract with Mexican independent label Musart Records and became one of its best-selling artists. He made his acting debut with Pedro Infante in the drama Un rincón cerca del cielo (1952). After appearing in gentleman roles in several films, he achieved popularity as a film star with his performance as lawman Mauricio Rosales in a series of seven films in the mid-1950s. His success increased with his tours throughout Latin America and his studio albums, which included Mexican folk songs (rancheras) and ballads (corridos). In the 1960s, he focused on producing and starring in films set in the Mexican Revolution. In 1970, he won Latin ACE Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Emiliano Zapata in the 1970 epic film of the same name. He also portrayed Pancho Villa twice in film. In 1997, Aguilar was awarded the Golden Ariel for his "invaluable contribution and spreading of Mexican cinema". To this day, he has been the only Hispanic artist to sell out the Madison Square Garden of New York City for six consecutive nights in 1997. His second wife was famous singer and actress Flor Silvestre. They had two sons, Antonio Aguilar Hijo, and Pepe Aguilar, who also became singers and actors. His family is known as "la dinastía Aguilar" (the Aguilar dynasty).
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Alan Kay
Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) is an American computer scientist who pioneered work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox PARC he led the design and development of the first modern windowed computer desktop interface. There he also led the development of the influential object-oriented programming language Smalltalk, both personally designing most of the early versions of the language and coining the term "object-oriented." He has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. He received the Turing Award in 2003.
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Matt Cassel
Matthew Brennan Cassel (born May 17, 1982) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 14 seasons. He was a member of seven NFL teams, most notably the New England Patriots and Kansas City Chiefs. Cassel played college football for the USC Trojans and was selected by the Patriots in the seventh round of the 2005 NFL draft. Since retiring, he has served as a television football analyst on NBC Sports Boston, as well as Big Ten and Notre Dame college football games on NBC and Peacock. Cassel began his career as a backup to Tom Brady until Brady suffered a season-ending injury in the first game of 2008. During his one season as the Patriots' starter, Cassel helped them obtain a 11–5 record, but missed the playoffs. He was traded to the Chiefs the following year, playing there from 2009 to 2012. Cassel's most successful season was in 2010 when he led the Chiefs to their first division title since 2003 and earned Pro Bowl honors. After leaving Kansas City, Cassel joined the Minnesota Vikings before spending the rest of his career as a backup for the Buffalo Bills, Dallas Cowboys, Tennessee Titans, and Detroit Lions.
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Horace Elgin Dodge
Horace Elgin Dodge Sr. (May 17, 1868 – December 10, 1920) was an American automobile manufacturing pioneer and co-founder of Dodge Brothers Company.
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Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials Pennies from Heaven (1978) and The Singing Detective (1986) as well as the BBC television plays Blue Remembered Hills (1979) and Brimstone and Treacle (1976). His television dramas, often set or partly set in the Forest of Dean of his childhood, mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social, and often used themes and images from popular culture. Potter is widely regarded as one of the most influential and innovative dramatists to have worked in British television. Born in Gloucestershire and graduating from Oxford University, Potter initially worked in journalism. After standing for parliament as a Labour candidate at the 1964 general election, his health was affected by the onset of psoriatic arthropathy which necessitated Potter to change career and led to his becoming a television dramatist. He began with contributions to BBC1's regular series The Wednesday Play from 1965, and he continued to work in the medium for the rest of his life, including writing screenplay adaptations for Hollywood studios. Potter died of pancreatic cancer in 1994.
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Cool Papa Bell
James Thomas "Cool Papa" Bell (May 17, 1903 – March 7, 1991) was an American center fielder and pitcher in Negro league baseball and the Mexican League from 1922 to 1946. He is considered to have been one of the fastest men ever to play the game. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974. He ranked 66th on a list of the greatest baseball players published by The Sporting News in 1999. Bell has the most career games played by a player in the Negro Major Leagues, with 1,202.
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Frederick McKinley Jones
Frederick McKinley Jones (May 17, 1893 – February 21, 1961) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, engineer, winner of the National Medal of Technology, and an inductee of the National Inventors Hall of Fame. He innovated mobile refrigeration technology. Jones received 61 patents, including 40 for refrigeration technology, and also revolutionized the cinema industry by creating a superior sound system for projectors at the time. Jones co-founded Thermo King and also served as a sergeant in World War I. Due to his contributions to refrigeration technology, Jones is called the "Father of Refrigerated Transportation", and the "King of Cool".
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Dorothy Gibson
Dorothy Gibson (born Dorothy Winifred Brown; May 17, 1889 – February 17, 1946) was an American actress, socialite and artist's model, active in the early 20th century. She survived the sinking of the Titanic and starred in the first motion picture based on the disaster.
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Will Clyburn
William Dalen Clyburn (born May 17, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for Fenerbahçe of the Basketbol Süper Ligi (BSL) and the EuroLeague. Clyburn attended three colleges, from 2008 to 2013: Marshalltown Community College, University of Utah, and Iowa State University before playing professionally in Germany, Israel, Turkey, and Russia. He was the top scorer in the Israel Basketball Premier League in 2015–16. Clyburn was named the EuroLeague Final Four MVP in 2019.
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Albert, Duke of Prussia
Albert of Prussia (German: Albrecht von Preussen; 17 May 1490 – 20 March 1568) was a German prince who was the 37th grand master of the Teutonic Knights and, after converting to Lutheranism, became the first ruler of the Duchy of Prussia, the secularized state that emerged from the former Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights. Albert was the first European ruler to establish Lutheranism, and thus Protestantism, as the official state religion of his lands. He proved instrumental in the political spread of Protestantism in its early stage, ruling the Prussian lands for nearly six decades (1510–1568). Albert was the great-grandson of the converted pagan ruler Jogaila of Poland and Lithuania, vanquisher of the Teutonic Knights at the Battle of Grunwald. He was also a member of the Brandenburg-Ansbach branch of the House of Hohenzollern. He became grand master of the Teutonic Knights in their attempt to diplomatically win over the Polish-Lithuanian union. His skill in political administration and leadership ultimately succeeded in reversing the decline of the Teutonic Order. But Albert was sympathetic to the demands of Martin Luther, whose teachings had become popular in his lands. So he rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire by converting the Teutonic state into a Protestant and hereditary realm, the Duchy of Prussia, for which he paid homage to his uncle, Sigismund I, king of Poland. That arrangement was confirmed by the Treaty of Kraków in 1525. Albert pledged a personal oath to the king and in return was invested with the duchy for himself and his heirs. Albert's rule in Prussia was fairly prosperous. Although he had some trouble with the peasantry, the confiscation of the lands and treasures of the Catholic Church enabled him to propitiate the nobles and provide for the expenses of the newly established Prussian court. He was active in imperial politics, joining the League of Torgau in 1526, and acted in unison with the Protestants in plotting to overthrow Emperor Charles V after the issue of the Augsburg Interim in May 1548. Albert established schools in every town and founded the University of Königsberg in 1544. He promoted culture and arts, patronising the works of Erasmus Reinhold and Caspar Hennenberger. During the final years of his rule, Albert was forced to raise taxes instead of further confiscating now-depleted church lands, causing peasant rebellion. The intrigues of the court favourites Johann Funck and Paul Skalić also led to various religious and political disputes. Albert spent his final years virtually deprived of power and died at Tapiau on 20 March 1568. His son, Albert Frederick, succeeded him as Duke of Prussia.
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Archibald Cox
Archibald Cox Jr. (May 17, 1912 – May 29, 2004) was an American legal scholar who served as U.S. Solicitor General under President John F. Kennedy and as a special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal. During his career, he was a pioneering expert on labor law and was also an authority on constitutional law. The Journal of Legal Studies has identified Cox as one of the most cited legal scholars of the 20th century. Cox was Senator John F. Kennedy's labor advisor and in 1961, President Kennedy appointed him solicitor general, an office he held for four and a half years. Cox became famous when, under mounting pressure and charges of corruption against persons closely associated with Richard Nixon, Attorney General nominee Elliot Richardson appointed him as Special Prosecutor to oversee the federal criminal investigation into the Watergate burglary and other related crimes that became popularly known as the Watergate scandal. He had a dramatic confrontation with Nixon when he subpoenaed the tapes the president had secretly recorded of his Oval Office conversations. When Cox refused a direct order from the White House to seek no further tapes or presidential materials, Nixon fired him in an incident that became known as the Saturday Night Massacre. Cox's firing produced a public relations disaster for Nixon and set in motion impeachment proceedings which ended with Nixon stepping down from the presidency. Cox returned to teaching, lecturing, and writing for the rest of his life, giving his opinions on the role of the Supreme Court in the development of the law and the role of the lawyer in society. Although he was recommended to President Jimmy Carter for a seat on the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Cox's nomination fell victim to the dispute between the president and Senator Ted Kennedy. He was appointed to head several public-service, watchdog and good-government organizations, including serving for 12 years (1980–1992) as Chairman of Common Cause. In addition, he argued two important Supreme Court cases, winning both in part: one concerning the constitutionality of federal campaign finance restrictions (Buckley v. Valeo) and the other the leading early case testing affirmative action (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke).
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Simon Hughes
Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes (born 17 May 1951) is a British former politician. He is now the Chancellor of London South Bank University, and a strategic adviser to Talgo, a Spanish manufacturer of trains. Hughes was deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2014, and from 2013 until 2015 was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark (and its predecessors) from 1983 until 2015. He declined a position in the House of Lords in 2015. Until 2008, Hughes was president of the Liberal Democrats (the party president chairs the Federal Executive board of the party, is the senior elected party official and also represents the party at official functions). Hughes has twice run unsuccessfully for the leadership of the party and was its unsuccessful candidate for Mayor of London in the 2004 election. Hughes was appointed as a Privy Councillor on 15 December 2010. In December 2013, he was appointed as a Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties, and announced he would stand down as Deputy Leader upon the election of a successor. Hughes is also the deputy Chair of Millwall Community Trust Millwall Community Trust and the Rose Theatre Trust, and the Friends of Guy's and St Thomas’ Hospital Trust. In 2023 Hughes was appointed a Commissioner of the UK Trade and Business Commission. He is also a member of the Church of England Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Deanery Synod.
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Udo Lindenberg
Udo Lindenberg (born 17 May 1946) is a German singer, composer, and painter.
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Sirajuddin of Perlis
Sirajuddin ibni Almarhum Tuanku Syed Putra Jamalullail (Jawi: توانكو سيد سراج الدين ابن المرحوم توانكو سيد ڤوترا جمل الليل; born 17 May 1943) is the current Raja of Perlis, reigning since 2000. He reigned as the king of Malaysia from 2001 to 2006.
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Julie Anne San Jose
Julie Anne Peñaflorida San Jose (born May 17, 1994) is a Filipino singer and actress. She rose to prominence after competing in the reality singing competition Popstar Kids in 2005. San Jose is one of the best-selling recording artists of the 2010s in the Philippines. She is the youngest recipient of the Diamond Record Award from the Philippine Association of the Record Industry for her album Julie Anne San Jose (2012), selling 150,000 copies in the country. Among her many accolades include two FAMAS Awards, five Awit Awards, three Myx Music Awards, four PMPC Star Awards For Music, and induction into the Eastwood City Walk of Fame in 2015. She gained prominence as an actress with many primetime and daytime dramas. San Jose starred in Kahit Nasaan Ka Man (2013), My Guitar Princess (2018), and Heartful Café (2021) on the GMA Network. She earned acting credits with ensemble soaps such as Buena Familia (2015–2016) and a remake of the film Pinulot Ka Lang sa Lupa (2017). She achieved further acclaim as an actress in the primetime soap opera Maria Clara at Ibarra (2022–2023), a drama series inspired by the Filipino novel written by José Rizal, Noli Me Tángere, where she played the demure Maria Clara.
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Jesse Winchester
James Ridout "Jesse" Winchester Jr. (May 17, 1944 – April 11, 2014) was an American-Canadian musician and songwriter. He was born and raised in the southern United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he moved to Canada in 1967 to avoid the draft. During that time, he began his career as a solo artist. His highest-charting recordings were "Yankee Lady" in 1970 and "Say What" in 1981. He became a Canadian citizen in 1973, gained amnesty in the U.S. in 1977 and settled in Memphis, Tennessee in 2002. Winchester's songs were recorded by Patti Page, Elvis Costello, Brewer & Shipley, Jimmy Buffett, Joan Baez, Jerry Garcia, Anne Murray, The Weather Girls, Reba McEntire, the Everly Brothers, Lyle Lovett, Emmylou Harris, George Strait, Gary Allan, Willie Nelson, Jennifer Warnes, Jessi Colter, The Mavericks, Jerry Jeff Walker and Michael Stanley. Some of these recordings achieved chart positions.
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Mohamed Nasheed
Mohamed Nasheed GCSK (Dhivehi: މުހައްމަދު ނަޝީދު; born 17 May 1967), also known as Anni (Dhivehi: އަންނި), is a Maldivian politician and activist who served as the fourth president of the Maldives from 2008 until his controversial resignation in 2012. A founding member of the Maldivian Democratic Party, he subsequently served as the 19th speaker of the People's Majlis from May 2019 until his resignation in November 2023. He is the first democratically elected president of the Maldives and the only president to resign from office. Born in Malé, Nasheed was educated overseas before returning to the Maldives and becoming involved in political activism. He was first elected to Parliament in 1999 but was later forced to leave office, and was arrested and imprisoned several times during his early career. His arrest in 2005 prompted civil unrest. In the first round of the 2008 presidential election, he won 25% of the votes and later defeated incumbent President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had governed the Maldives as president for 30 continuous years. As the President, Nasheed played a role in drawing international attention to the threat of climate change to the Maldives. On 7 February 2012, Nasheed resigned amidst a political crisis. Protests by the opposition had begun after Nasheed ordered the arrest of the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court Abdulla Mohamed, which were later joined by police forces who refused to carry out the order. Nasheed characterised the circumstances of his resignation as a coup d'état, and that he was forced out of office. His successor, Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik, disputed this, saying the process was constitutional, and created a Commission of National Inquiry to investigate. The Commission of National Inquiry, overseen by the United Nations and the Commonwealth of Nations, reported that there was no evidence to support Nasheed's version of events. Nasheed unsuccessfully ran for the presidency again in 2013. In March 2015, Nasheed was convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act of Maldives for ordering the Criminal Court Judge's arrest while president, and was sentenced to 13 years at Maafushi Prison. Amnesty International described the conviction as "politically motivated", and the United States Department of State expressed concern at "apparent lack of appropriate criminal procedures during the trial". In 2016, he was given asylum in the United Kingdom, where he had gone for medical treatment. In November 2018, the Supreme Court of the Maldives overturned his conviction. Nasheed renounced his plans to contest the 2018 presidential election, citing legal obstacles and criticising the Election Commission's decision to reject his victory in a party primary poll. After his childhood best friend, relative, and party's candidate Ibrahim Solih won the election, Nasheed returned to the Maldives, and won the seat for the Central Mahchangolhi constituency in parliamentary elections the following year, subsequently taking office as Speaker of Parliament. On 6 May 2021, an assassination attempt was carried out against Nasheed near his home while he was getting into his car. He sustained serious injuries after an IED bomb that was stuffed with bearing balls as shrapnel was detonated near his home. He was treated in an intensive care unit in Germany, after undergoing multiple emergency surgeries. Maldivian authorities suspect it to be a terrorist attack by religious extremists. Three suspects were arrested.
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Barry Hayles
Barrington Edward Hayles (born 17 May 1972) is a football coach and former player who played as a striker. Born in England, he was capped ten times by Jamaica at international level. Hayles began his career in non-League with Willesden Hawkeye and Stevenage Borough, before making more than 350 Football League appearances for Bristol Rovers, Fulham, Sheffield United, Millwall, Plymouth Argyle, Leicester City and Cheltenham Town. He played 215 games over six seasons at Fulham, including 75 in the Premier League and nine in European competition. Hayles returned to non-League in 2010, featuring for Truro City, St Albans City, Arlesey Town, Chesham United, Merstham and Windsor. During his time at Merstham, Hayles also served as the club's assistant manager. Hayles finally called time on his playing days in 2023, at the age of 51. In a career that spanned 34 years and fifteen clubs, he played over 1,160 competitive matches.
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Lisa Fonssagrives
Lisa Fonssagrives (born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone; 17 May 1911 – 4 February 1992) was a Swedish model, dancer, sculptor, and photographer. She is widely credited with having been one of the first supermodels.
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Teófilo Gutiérrez
Teófilo Antonio "Teo" Gutiérrez Roncancio (Spanish pronunciation: [teˈofilo ɣuˈtjeres]; born 17 May 1985) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Atlético Junior . He was a Colombian international and captained the country at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Brazil.
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David Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie
David George Coke Patrick Ogilvy, 13th Earl of Airlie, (17 May 1926 – 26 June 2023) was a Scottish landowner, soldier, banker and peer. Airlie served as Lord Chamberlain of the Household from 1984 until 1997, as well as in a number of honorary positions such as Chancellor of the Order of the Thistle and Lord Lieutenant of Angus. He was the brother-in-law of Princess Alexandra, The Honourable Lady Ogilvy.
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Joan Benham
Joan Benham (17 May 1918 – 13 June 1981) was an English actress best known for her portrayal of Lady Prudence Fairfax in the ITV period drama series Upstairs, Downstairs. She was born in London and was the first cousin of Hollywood actress Olive Sturgess.
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Branko Zebec
Branislav "Branko" Zebec (17 May 1929 – 26 September 1988) was a Croatian footballer and manager who played for Yugoslavia. In his heyday, Zebec fascinated the world with his performances at the World Cups in 1954 and 1958. With Partizan he won 3 Yugoslav Cups (1952, 1954, 1957). With Red Star Belgrade he won the national championship in 1960. As coach he led Hajduk Split, Bayern Munich and Hamburger SV to success. A highly versatile player noted for his physical abilities and understanding of the game, Zebec was world-class whether on the left wing or in the more defensive role of left fullback, although he was capable of playing almost every outfield position on the pitch. He was particularly well known for his pace, having been able to run 100 meters in 11 seconds with football boots.
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Pascual Pérez
Pascual Gross Pérez (May 17, 1957 – November 1, 2012) was a Dominican professional baseball player who pitched in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, Montreal Expos, and New York Yankees from 1980 to 1991. He was an MLB All-Star in 1983 with the Braves.
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Jon Koncak
Jon Francis Koncak (born May 17, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player. A 7 ft (2.1 m) center / power forward from Southern Methodist University (SMU), Koncak was selected with the fifth pick in the 1985 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks. Koncak spent ten seasons with the Hawks (1985–1995), mainly in a reserve role, then concluded his career with the Orlando Magic. He retired in 1996 with career totals of 3,520 points and 3,856 rebounds. Koncak received a six-year, $13 million contract from the Hawks in 1989 – an unprecedented total for a reserve. Since he was a restricted free agent at the time, the Atlanta Hawks matched this offer from the Detroit Pistons. As a result, he earned the derisive nickname Jon Contract. On February 23, 2008, SMU retired Koncak's jersey. Koncak is an Eagle Scout. Koncak also won a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics as a part of the US men's basketball team.
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Dick Gaughan
Richard Peter Gaughan (born 17 May 1948) is a Scottish singer-songwriter known for his social protest songs and contributions to Scotland's folk music tradition. He is regarded as one of the country's leading singer-songwriters.
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Napoleon Zervas
Napoleon Zervas (Greek: Ναπολέων Ζέρβας; May 17, 1891 – December 10, 1957) was a Hellenic Army officer and resistance leader during World War II. He organized and led the National Republican Greek League (EDES), the second most significant (after EAM), in terms of size and activity, resistance organization against the Axis Occupation of Greece.
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Lou DiBella
Louis John DiBella Jr. is an American boxing promoter, minor league baseball team owner and television/film producer.
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Sebastian Kneipp
Sebastian Kneipp (German pronunciation: [zeˈbasti̯a(ː)n ˈknaɪp]; 17 May 1821 – 17 June 1897) was a German Catholic priest and one of the forefathers of the naturopathic movement. He is most commonly associated with the "Kneipp Cure" form of hydrotherapy (often called "Kneipp therapy" or "Kneippism"), the application of water through various methods, temperatures, and pressures, which he claimed to have therapeutic or healing effects, thus building several hospitals in Bad Wörishofen. Although most commonly associated with one area of nature cure, Kneipp was the proponent of an entire system of healing, which rested on five main tenets: Hydrotherapy – the use of water to treat ailments Phytotherapy – the use of botanical medicines was another of Kneipp's specialties Exercise – promoting health of the body through movement Nutrition – a wholesome diet of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables with limited meat Balance – Kneipp believed that a healthy mind begets a healthy person
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Marcelinho Paraíba
Marcelo dos Santos (born 17 May 1975), commonly known as Marcelinho or Marcelinho Paraíba, is a Brazilian professional football coach and former player who played as an attacking midfielder. The suffix "Paraíba" refers to his home state in Brazil, distinguishing him from other footballers sharing the nickname. During his playing career, Marcelinho was widely regarded as a highly creative playmaker, recognized for his vision, dribbling skills, and set-piece ability. He spent his most notable years in the German Bundesliga, primarily with Hertha BSC, where he became a club icon and won two DFB-Ligapokal titles, before later captaining VfL Wolfsburg. At international level, he earned five caps and scored one goal for the Brazil national football team.
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Henri Barbusse
Henri Barbusse (French: [ɑ̃ʁi baʁbys]; 17 May 1873 – 30 August 1935) was a French novelist, short story writer, journalist, poet and political activist. He began his literary career in the 1890s as a Symbolist poet and continued as a neo-Naturalist novelist; in 1916, he published Under Fire, a novel about World War I based on his experience which is described as one of the earliest works of the Lost Generation movement or as the work which started it; the novel had a major impact on the later writers of the movement, namely on Ernest Hemingway and Erich Maria Remarque. Barbusse is considered one of the important French writers of 1910–1939 who mingled the war memories with moral and political meditations. Before World War I, Barbusse was a pacifist, but in 1914, he volunteered for wartime service and was awarded the Croix de guerre; during the war, he was influenced by the Communists and came to the belief that a Revolution against the imperialist governments would be the only quick way to end the war and to deal with militarism and reaction. In years following the war, his work acquired a definite political orientation; he became a member of the French Communist Party and an anti-fascist and anti-war activist. In the 1930s, he supported the Stalinist regime despite having a friendly relationship with Leon Trotsky in the middle of the 1920s and contributed to Joseph Stalin's personality cult by writing his biography which became a 'canonical' text for the French Stalinists but wasn't in line with the glorification of Stalin in the USSR. He died in 1935 and didn't see the events that followed, like the Moscow trials and the Nazi-Soviet pact. He was a lifelong friend of Albert Einstein.
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Martin Delrio
Martin Anton Delrio SJ (Latin: Martinus Antonius Delrio; Spanish: Martín Antonio del Río; French: Martin-Antoine del Rio; 17 May 1551 – 19 October 1608) was a Dutch Jesuit theologian. He studied at numerous institutions, receiving a master's degree in law from Salamanca in 1574. After a period of political service in the Spanish Netherlands, he became a Jesuit in 1580. He studied or taught at Jesuit colleges across Catholic Europe, including Bordeaux, Douai, Graz, Mainz, Leuven, and Salamanca. He was the friend of the Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius, a relative of Michel de Montaigne, and an enemy of the Protestant scholar Joseph Scaliger. He was the author of a large number of books, including classical commentaries and works of biblical exegesis. He remains, however, best known for his six-volume Magical Investigations (1599–1600), a work on magic, superstition, and witchcraft.
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Seth Warner
Seth Warner (May 17, 1743 [O.S. May 6, 1743] – December 26, 1784) was an American soldier. He was a Revolutionary War officer from Vermont who rose to the rank of Continental colonel and was often given the duties of a brigade commander. He is best known for his leadership in the capture of Fort Crown Point, the Battle of Longueuil, the siege of Quebec, the retreat from Canada, and the battles of Hubbardton and Bennington. Before the war, Warner was a captain in the Green Mountain Boys. He was outlawed by New York but never captured. In the final years of the war, Warner remained loyal to the United States while the independent state of Vermont negotiated separately with the British.
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Hazel R. O'Leary
Hazel Reid O'Leary (born May 17, 1937) is an American lawyer, politician, and university administrator who served as the 7th United States secretary of energy from 1993 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Leary was the first woman and first African American to hold that post. She also served as the 14th president of Fisk University from 2004 to 2013, a historically black college and her alma mater. O'Leary's tenure at Fisk came amid financial difficulty for the school, during which time she increased enrollment and contentiously used the school's art collection to raise funds. O'Leary received her bachelor's degree from Fisk before earning her Bachelor of Laws degree from Rutgers School of Law. O'Leary worked as a prosecutor in New Jersey and then in a private consulting/accounting firm before joining the Carter administration in the newly created Department of Energy. O'Leary returned to the private sector in 1981 but rejoined the government as secretary of energy under President Bill Clinton. During her tenure, she declassified documents detailing how the United States had conducted secret testing on the effects of radiation on unsuspecting American citizens. She also received criticism for excessive spending on international trips while in office.
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Christian Bolaños
Christian Bolaños Navarro (born 17 May 1984) is a Costa Rican former professional footballer who played as a right winger. After his international debut with the Costa Rica national team in 2005, Bolaños earned over 80 international caps and played at three FIFA World Cups. His brother Jonathan is also a footballer.
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Roy Bentley
Roy Thomas Frank Bentley (17 May 1924 – 20 April 2018) was an English football player and manager. A former forward, Bentley played 367 games for Chelsea and captained the club to their first League Championship in the 1954–55 season. He also won 12 caps for the England national side.
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Anna Vasa of Sweden
Anna Vasa of Sweden (also Anne, Polish: Anna Wazówna; 17 May 1568 – 26 February 1625) was a Swedish princess heavily involved in the politics of that country and of Poland. She was starosta of Brodnica and Golub. The youngest child of King John III of Sweden and Catherine Jagiellon, she was close to her brother Sigismund Vasa, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania (1587–1632) and King of Sweden (1592–1599). Raised a Catholic, Anna converted to Lutheranism in 1584. Though she had several suitors, she remained unmarried.
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Keith Hill
Keith John Hill (born 17 May 1969) is an English professional former footballer and football manager who was most recently manager of National League club Scunthorpe United. In a 16-year-long playing career, Hill was a centre back who represented Blackburn Rovers, Plymouth Argyle, Rochdale, Cheltenham Town, Wrexham and Morecambe. After retiring as a player, he went into coaching at Rochdale, and was twice the club's manager until sacked in March 2019. Following this, he endured a difficult spell as manager of hometown club Bolton Wanderers following their points deduction. He was appointed…
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A. J. Casson
Alfred Joseph Casson (May 17, 1898 – February 20, 1992) was a member of the Canadian group of artists known as the Group of Seven. He joined the group in 1926 at the invitation of Franklin Carmichael, replacing Frank Johnston. Casson is best known for his depictions in his signature limited palette of southern Ontario, and for being the youngest member of the Group of Seven.
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Dennis Brain
Dennis Brain (17 May 1921 – 1 September 1957) was a British horn player. From a musical family – his father and grandfather were horn players – he attended the Royal Academy of Music in London. During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force, playing in its band and orchestra. After the war, he was the principal horn of the Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, and played in chamber ensembles. Among the works written for Brain is Benjamin Britten's Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings (1944). Other composers who wrote for him include Malcolm Arnold, Lennox Berkeley,…
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Edvald Boasson Hagen
Edvald Boasson Hagen (born 17 May 1987) is a Norwegian former road racing cyclist, who competed as a professional from 2006 to 2024. He was ranked as no. 3 in the world by UCI as of 31 August 2009, when he was 22 years old. He is known as an all-rounder, having won the Norwegian National Road Race Championships in 2012, 2015 and 2016. He is also a ten-time winner of the Norwegian National Time Trial Championships. After retiring as a professional cyclist he became an architectural drafter.
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Tich Freeman
Alfred Percy "Tich" Freeman (17 May 1888 – 28 January 1965) was an English first-class cricketer. A leg spin bowler for Kent County Cricket Club and England, he is the only man to take 300 wickets in an English season and the second most prolific wicket-taker in first-class cricket history.
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David Cope
David Howell Cope (May 17, 1941 – May 4, 2025) was an American author, composer, scientist and Dickerson Professor of Music at UC Santa Cruz. His primary area of research involved artificial intelligence and music; he wrote programs and algorithms that can analyze existing music and create new compositions in the style of the original input music. He taught the groundbreaking summer workshop in Workshop in Algorithmic Computer Music (WACM) that was open to the public as well as a general education course entitled Artificial Intelligence and Music for enrolled UCSC students. Cope was also…
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Michael Beetham
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael James Beetham, (17 May 1923 – 24 October 2015) was a Second World War bomber pilot and a high-ranking commander in the Royal Air Force from the 1960s to the 1980s. As Chief of the Air Staff during the Falklands War, he was involved in the decision to send the Task Force to the South Atlantic. At the time of his death, Beetham was one of only six people holding his service's most senior rank and, excluding Prince Philip's honorary rank, he had the longest time in that rank, making him the senior Marshal of the Royal Air Force.
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David Jarolím
David Jarolím (Czech pronunciation: [ˈdavɪt ˈjaroliːm]; born 17 May 1979) is a Czech football manager and former player. A central midfielder by position, Jarolím was known for his stamina, passing and technical skill.
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Jacint Verdaguer
Jacint Verdaguer i Santaló (Catalan pronunciation: [ʒəˈsim bəɾðəˈɣej səntəl'o]; 17 May 1845 – 10 June 1902) was a Spanish writer and priest, regarded as one of the greatest poets of Catalan literature and a prominent literary figure of the Renaixença, a cultural revival movement of the late Romantic era. The bishop Josep Torras i Bages, one of the main figures of Catalan nationalism, called him the "Prince of Catalan poets". He was also known as mossèn (Father) Cinto Verdaguer, because of his career as a priest, and informally also simply "mossèn Cinto" (with Cinto being a short form of…
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Stratos Apostolakis
Stratos Apostolakis (Greek: Στράτος Αποστολάκης; born 17 May 1964), nicknamed The Turbo, is a Greek former professional footballer who played as a defender or a defensive midfielder.
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Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness
Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, (17 May 1718 – 16 May 1778), known before 1721 as Lord Darcy and Conyers, was a British diplomat and politician who served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department from 1754 to 1761.
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Zinka Milanov
Zinka Milanov (Croatian pronunciation: [zîːŋka milǎnoʋ]; May 17, 1906 – May 30, 1989) was a Croatian operatic dramatic soprano who had a major career centered on the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. After finishing her education in Zagreb, Milanov made her debut in 1927 in Ljubljana as Leonora in Giuseppe Verdi's Il Trovatore. From 1928 to 1936, she was the leading soprano of the Croatian National Theatre. In 1937, Milanov performed at the Metropolitan Opera for the first time, where she continued to sing until 1966. She also performed as a concert singer and was a noted vocal coach and…
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Jean Rédélé
Jean Rédélé (17 May 1922, Dieppe, Seine-Maritime – 10 August 2007 Paris), was an automotive pioneer, pilot and founder of the French automotive brand Alpine. With a HEC diploma, he was the youngest Renault dealer in France, with a dealership installed in Dieppe. Rédélé first started (1950) rallying Dieppe-Rouen with a 4 CV, because he considered the small French car had a great rallying potential. This first race was a first victory, and he decided to continue. After a failed Monte Carlo Rally Rédelé started racing in the French Alps. In the Alps he had his greatest victories. That's why his…
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Rodric Braithwaite
Sir Rodric Quentin Braithwaite, (born 17 May 1932) is a British former diplomat and author.
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Anna Brownell Jameson
Anna Brownell Jameson (17 May 1794 – 17 March 1860) was an Anglo-Irish art historian whose work spanned art and literary criticism, philosophy, travel writing, and feminism. She became very well known for her extensive writings. Jameson was connected to some of the most prominent names of the period including Joanna Baillie, Fanny Kemble, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning, Harriet Martineau, Ottilie von Goethe (the daughter-in-law of Goethe), Lady Byron, Harriet Hosmer, Ada Lovelace, Charles and Elizabeth Eastlake, and Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. She was also a pioneer of the…
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Engelbert II of Nassau
Engelbert II of Nassau, Engelbrecht in Dutch (17 May 1451 – 31 May 1504), was count of Nassau and Vianden and lord of Breda, Lek, Diest, Roosendaal, Nispen and Wouw. He was a soldier and courtier, for some time leader of the Privy council of the Duchy of Burgundy and a significant patron of the arts.
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Howard Hampton
Howard George Hampton (born May 17, 1952) is a politician who was a member of Provincial Parliament for the province of Ontario. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, from 1987 to 1999 in the electoral district of Rainy River, and from 1999 to 2011 in the redistributed electoral district of Kenora—Rainy River. A member of the Ontario New Democratic Party, he was also the party's leader from 1996 to 2009. Hampton retired from the legislature at the 2011 Ontario provincial election and subsequently joined Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP as a member of the law firm's corporate…
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Werner Egk
Werner Egk (German pronunciation: [ˈɛk], 17 May 1901 – 10 July 1983), born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer.
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Mose Masoe
Mose Masoe (born 17 May 1989) is a former Samoa international rugby league footballer who last played as a prop for Hull Kingston Rovers in the Super League. He previously played for the Sydney Roosters, Penrith Panthers in the NRL and was contracted to the St. George Illawarra Dragons, but did not feature in the first team due to serious injury. He played for St Helens in the Super League with whom he won the 2014 Super League Grand Final.
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Stefano della Bella
Stefano della Bella (18 May 1610 – 12 July 1664) was an Italian draughtsman and printmaker known for etchings of a great variety of subjects, including military and court scenes, landscapes, and lively genre scenes. He left 1052 prints, and several thousand drawings, but only one known painting. He was born and later died in Florence, Italy.
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Odd Hassel
Odd Hassel (17 May 1897 – 11 May 1981) was a Norwegian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate.
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Michael Roberts
Michael Roberts (born 17 May 1954) is a South African jockey currently a trainer in South Africa. He lives with his wife Verna and two daughters, Melanie and Carolyn. Roberts has had a successful career, winning many English and South African races multiple times. He was British flat racing Champion Jockey in 1992. His most famous equine partner was the double Eclipse Stakes winner, Mtoto.
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Harry Männil
Harry Männil (May 17, 1920 – January 11, 2010), also known as Harry Mannil Laul,[a] was an Estonian businessman, art collector, and cultural benefactor in several countries. Männil was born in Tallinn, Estonia. As a result of World War II he moved to Venezuela in 1946, where he lived for the rest of his life. He was a successful businessman and part owner of ACO Group, a large Venezuelan conglomerate. He formed his own company Grupo Oriand in 1994. At the time of the restoration of Estonian independence, Männil got involved in Estonian matters, actively interacting with politicians Vaino…
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Jien
Jien (慈円; 17 May 1155 in Kyoto – 28 October 1225 in Omi) was a Japanese poet, historian, and Buddhist monk.
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Hans Ruesch
Hans Ruesch (17 May 1913 – 27 August 2007) was a Swiss racing driver, a novelist, and an internationally prominent activist against animal experiments and vivisection. Ruesch has been described as a pioneer of the anti-vivisection movement.
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Ifeanyi Chiejine
Ifeanyichukwu Stephanie Chiejine (17 May 1983 – 21 August 2019) was a Nigerian football who played as a striker for the national women's team. She last played for SSVSM-Kairat Almaty in the Kazakhstani Championship. She had also played for FC Indiana in USA's W-League, KMF Kuopio and PK-35 Vantaa in Finland and Zvezda Perm in Russia.
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Martin Kukučín
Martin Kukučín (real name Matej Bencúr, 17 May 1860, Jasenová, – 21 May 1928, Pakrac) was a Slovak prose writer, dramatist and publicist. He was the most notable representative of Slovak literary realism, and is considered one of the founders of modern Slovak prose.
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Thomas McIlwraith
Sir Thomas McIlwraith (17 May 1835 – 17 July 1900) was the Premier of Queensland between 1879 and 1883, 1888, and in 1893. McIlwraith was a dominant figure of colonial politics in Queensland during the late 19th century and, in common with most politicians of his era, was an influential businessman, who combined his parliamentary career with a prosperous involvement in the pastoral industry.
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Edward Colman
Edward Colman or Coleman (17 May 1636 – 3 December 1678) was an English Catholic courtier under Charles II of England. He was hanged, drawn and quartered on a treason charge, having been implicated by Titus Oates in his false accusations concerning a Popish Plot. He is a Catholic martyr, beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.
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Robert N. Thompson
Robert Norman Thompson (May 17, 1914 – November 16, 1997) was a Canadian politician, chiropractor, and educator. He was born in Duluth, Minnesota, to Canadian parents and moved to Canada in 1918 with his family. Raised in Alberta, he graduated from the Palmer School of Chiropractic in 1939 and worked as a chiropractor and then as a teacher before serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.
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Newton Moore
Major General Sir Newton James Moore, (17 May 1870 – 28 October 1936) was an Australian politician, businessman and army officer. He served as the eighth Premier of Western Australia from 1906 to 1910 and, following service in the First World War, was a member of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1932. He was the father of Sir Rodney Moore.
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Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet
Sir John St Aubyn, 5th Baronet (17 May 1758 – 10 August 1839), was a British Member of Parliament, High Sheriff of Cornwall and Grand Master of the Freemasons. Born in London, he succeeded to the baronetcy on 12 October 1772, at which point he inherited Clowance, the family's estate near Crowan, Cornwall.
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Davor Džalto
Davor Džalto (Serbian Cyrillic: Давор Џалто; born 17 May 1980) is an artist, art historian, theologian and philosopher of Bosnian-Herzegovinian origin.
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Stephen Platten
Stephen George Platten (born 17 May 1947), is a retired Anglican prelate, the last to serve as diocesan Bishop of Wakefield in the Church of England. Consecrated as a bishop on 19 July 2003, he was installed at Wakefield Cathedral on 19 July 2003. Platten previously served as Dean of Norwich from 1995.
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Saul Adler
Saul Adler OBE FRS (Hebrew: שאול אדלר; May 17, 1895 – January 25, 1966) was an Israeli expert on parasitology.
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John Foster
John Norman Foster (born May 17, 1978) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and current coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers. After retiring as a player, Foster coached summer league and college baseball. From 2017 to 2024, Foster coached in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), for the CTBC Brothers. He currently serves as a minor league pitching rehab coordinator for the Athletics.
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Mark Connors
Mark Connors (born 17 May 1971, Brisbane) is an Australian rugby union footballer. He is currently the Queensland Reds third most capped player ever, playing 134 games for the side. He has played for Australia 20 times, including their victory in the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
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Virginie Loveling
Virginie (Marie) Loveling (17 May 1836 – 1 December 1923) was a Flemish author of poetry, novels, essays and children's stories. She also wrote under the pseudonym W. E. C. Walter. She did write sentimentally early in her career but her later novels dealt with difficult subjects directly.
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Karl Burman
Karl Burman sen. (17 May [O.S. 5 May] 1882 – 10 May 1965) was an Estonian architect and painter. Burman was born in Sumy, Russian Empire. His younger brother was artist Paul Burman. In 1900 he attended the Stroganov Art School in Moscow, and then between 1901 and 1902 he attended the Stieglitz Art School in St. Petersburg (now Saint Petersburg Art and Industry Academy). Then he studied architecture at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts throughout 1902–1909. He died in Tallinn, Estonia. Romantik Burman was an exhibition celebrating his work at the Museum of Estonian Architecture from 19 June…
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Marcelo Loffreda
Marcelo Loffreda (born May 17, 1959, in Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine former rugby union footballer and coach. Loffreda won 44 caps with one as captain, playing at centre for the Argentine rugby union side (los Pumas). He played much of his career outside the legendary Hugo Porta and scored 4 test tries. In 1994 he hung up his playing boots and became a coach. In April 2000, he was appointed coach of Argentina and steered them to series victories over France, Wales and Scotland, a draw with the British and Irish Lions, a win against England at Twickenham in November 2006 as well as…
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George Sheldon
George Herbert Sheldon (May 17, 1874 – November 25, 1907) was an American diver who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics and won the inaugural platform diving competition. Sheldon was an eye doctor from St. Louis, MO, who had studied at the Barnes Medical College in St. Louis, MO. Through most of his life he had suffered from a weak heart which would eventually result in his death. In the 1904 Olympics he won the gold medal in platform diving but faced controversy as his victory was contested by the Germans. The German competitors were more like stunt divers which was entertaining but on…
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Marie-Anne Desmarest
Marie-Anne Desmarest (May 17, 1904 – March 4, 1973) was a French writer. She was born Anne-Marie During in Mulhouse. She was married twice: first to Henri Desmarest and later to Roger Leroy. Desmarest wrote romance novels. She died in Issy-les-Moulineaux at the age of 68.
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Yelena Gorchakova
Yelena Yegorovna Gorchakova (Russian: Елена Егоровна Горчакова; 17 May 1933 – 27 January 2002) was a Russian javelin thrower who won bronze medals at the 1952 and 1964 Olympics. Her 1964 bronze was a disappointment as she set a world record in the qualification that remained unbeaten for eight years. During her long career Gorchakova had a fierce competition within the Soviet national team and won the national title only twice, in 1963 and 1965. As a result, despite being a world's top thrower she rarely competed internationally. Gorchakova won the javelin event at the 1961 Summer Universiade…
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Gio Nicola Buhagiar
Gio Nicola Buhagiar (Maltese: Ġannikol Buhagiar, 17 May 1698 – 21 March 1752) was a Maltese painter.
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Francesco Pasquale Ricci
Francesco Pasquale Ricci (May 17, 1732 – November 7, 1817), was an Italian composer and violinist. Ricci was born in Como. He traveled widely, and lived some time in Paris. Returning to Como, he became maestro di cappella at Como Cathedral in 1759. Six quintets of his were published in London in 1768 by Peter Welcker. Between 1764 and 1780 he was working in the Hague in the court orchestra of stadholder William V of Orange. There he wrote several works for the Prince and other members of the court. Ricci corrected the works of Josina van Boetzelaer, a surprising Dutch composer. He co-authored…
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Lise Lyng Falkenberg
Lise Lyng Falkenberg (born 17 May 1962) is a Danish writer of mostly fiction, biographies and works of literary studies. Falkenberg was born in Odense, Denmark. Since her first in 1983, a dozen of her books have been published as well as hundreds of articles, essays and reviews on movies, plays, literature, art and music. She has a PhD in literature and cultural studies and is currently living in the city of Odense, Denmark, where she works both as a writer and as an international freelance journalist. Since 2001 Falkenberg has written directly for the English-language market and since 2012…
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Ezra Otis Kendall
Ezra Otis Kendall (1818–1899) was an American professor, astronomer and mathematician. He was known for his work in uranography. Kendall was born on May 17, 1818, in Wilmington, Massachusetts to parents Ezra Kendall and Susanna Cook Walker. His mother was a descendant of Mayflower passengers Francis Cooke and Stephen Hopkins. In 1835, he moved to Philadelphia to study mathematics with Sears Cook Walker, his half-brother. In 1838, he became professor of mathematics and astronomy at Philadelphia's Central High School and director of the observatory. In 1842, he was elected a member of the…
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Marius Činikas
Marius Činikas (born 17 May 1986) is a Lithuanian futsal player and former footballer.
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Andreas Felix von Oefele
Andreas Felix von Oefele (17 May 1706 – 17 February 1780) was a German historian and librarian. Von Oefele was born in Munich, in the Electorate of Bavaria, the son of an innkeeper. He attended the Jesuit secondary school "Wilhelmsgymnasium" and continued his studies of Law, history and theology at the universities of Ingolstadt and Leuven. In 1723, he began his 10 volume work "Lebensgeschichten der gelehrtesten Männer Bayerns" (Life stories of the most learned men of Bavaria). In 1727, he became librarian of the German national Library in Leuven, in 1734, he was appointed educator of the…
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Léon Gérin
Léon Gérin (French pronunciation: [le.ɔ̃.ʒe.ʁɛ̃]; May 17, 1863 – January 15, 1951) was a Canadian lawyer, civil servant, and sociologist. Born in Quebec City, Canada East, the son of Antoine Gérin-Lajoie, Gérin studied at the Séminaire de Nicolet before receiving a law degree from Université Laval in 1884. In 1886, he went to Paris for a few months and became interested in sociology. Returning to Canada, he settled in Ottawa and worked for the federal government and the House of Commons of Canada. He wrote works on a variety of subjects including the history of French colonization of the…
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Louis Richardet
Louis Marcel Richardet (17 May 1864 – 14 January 1923 in Geneva) was a Swiss sports shooter who competed in the early 20th century. He participated in Shooting at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won two gold medals with the Military pistol and rifle teams for Switzerland.
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Carmen de Icaza
María Carmen de Icaza y de León, 8th Baroness of Claret (17 May 1899 – 16 March 1979) was a Spanish journalist and novelist from 1935–60. She enjoyed success with her 1936 novel, Cristina Guzmán, which was subsequently adapted for the stage, television and cinema. By 1945, she was a best-selling writer in Spain. Her father was Mexican writer and diplomat Francisco A. de Icaza.
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B.S. Chandrasekhar
Bhagwat Subramanya Chandrasekhar (informally Chandra; born 17 May 1945) is an Indian former cricketer who played as a leg spinner. Considered among the top echelon of leg spinners, Chandrasekhar along with E.A.S. Prasanna, Bishen Singh Bedi and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan constituted the Indian spin quartet that dominated spin bowling during the 1960s and 1970s. At a very young age, polio left his right arm withered. Chandrasekhar played 58 Test matches, capturing 242 wickets at an average of 29.74 in a career that spanned sixteen years. He is one of only two Test cricketers in history…
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Friedrich-Wilhelm Kiel
Friedrich-Wilhelm Kiel (17 May 1934 – 4 April 2022) was a German politician and member of the FDP. Kiel studied physics, mathematics, and sport at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and became a member of the FDP in 1964 whilst teaching at a gymnasium in Ettlingen, where he later became mayor (1966–1970). In 1970, Kiel became mayor of Pforzheim, until 1976, when he was elected to become mayor of Fellbach, a position he held until 2000. From 1992 until 2001, Kiel was also a member of the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg. For his services to the state, minister-president Erwin Teufel awarded him…
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Hugh Dykes, Baron Dykes
Hugh John Maxwell Dykes, Baron Dykes, (born 17 May 1939) is a British politician and member of the House of Lords. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1997, and later defected to the Liberal Democrats.
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Beñat Albizuri
Beñat Albizuri Aransolo (born May 17, 1981 in Berriz, Basque Country) is a Spanish former professional road bicycle racer, who rode professionally between 2006 and 2008, entirely for Euskaltel–Euskadi. He rode as a stagiaire for Euskaltel–Euskadi in the second half of the 2005 season, where his best result was a second place on a stage of the Vuelta a La Rioja. Albizuri's showings earned him a professional contract at Euskaltel–Euskadi for the 2006 season, but he was released at the end of the 2008 season.
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