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May Birthdays Through History

May Birthdays

  • 5/1/1218 :Rudolf I, of Hapsburg.
  • 5/1/1672 :Joseph Addison, English essayist.
  • 5/1/1769 :Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington. (4/29?)
  • 5/1/1830 :Mary Harris (Mother) Jones, American labor leader.
  • 5/1/1881 :Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher.
  • 5/1/1909 :Kate Smith (Kathryn Elizabeth Smith), singer.
  • 5/1/1916 :Glenn Ford, actor.
  • 5/1/1917 :John Beradino, actor.
  • 5/1/1918 :Jack Paar, TV personality.
  • 5/1/1919 :Dan O’Herlihy, actor.
  • 5/1/1923 :Joseph Heller, author.
  • 5/1/1924 :Terry Southern, author.
  • 5/1/1925 :Scott Carpenter, Mercury astronaut.
  • 5/1/1927 :Harry Belefonte.
  • 5/1/1929 :Sonny James (Jimmy Loden), singer.
  • 5/1/1930 :Little Walter (Marion Walter Jacobs).
  • 5/1/1939 :Judy Collins, singer.
  • 5/1/1940 :Bobby Ann Mason.
  • 5/1/1945 :Rita Coolidge, singer. (1944?)
  • 5/1/1952 :George Strait. (5/18?)
  • 5/1/1954 :Ray Parker Jr.
  • 5/1/1960 :Steve Cauthen, jockey.
  • 5/1/1961 :Charlie O’Brien.
  • 5/2/1729 :Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. (4/21?)
  • 5/2/1810 :Giocchino Vincenzo Pecci (Pope Leo XIII), 256th pope.
  • 5/2/1837 :General Henry M. Robert, author (“Robert’s Rules of Order”).
  • 5/2/1860 :Theodor Herzl, pioneer Zionist.
  • 5/2/1892 :Manfred von Richthofen, WWI flying ace.
  • 5/2/1895 :Lorenz Hart, composer.
  • 5/2/1903 :Dr. Benjamin Spock, child care specialist.
  • 5/2/1904 :Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby, singer-actor.
  • 5/2/1905 :Charlotte Armstrong, novelist.
  • 5/2/1921 :Satyajit Ray, director.
  • 5/2/1924 :Theodore Bikel, singer-actor.
  • 5/2/1932 :Bruce Glover, actor.
  • 5/2/1945 :Bianca Jagger, actress.
  • 5/2/1946 :Lesley Gore, singer.
  • 5/2/1949 :Larry Gatlin, singer.
  • 5/2/1953 :Jamaal Wilkes.
  • 5/3/1469 :Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher.
  • 5/3/1874 :Francois Coty, French perfumer.
  • 5/3/1898 :Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister.
  • 5/3/1901 :John Collier, short story writer.
  • 5/3/1906 :Mary Astor, actress.
  • 5/3/1907 :Earl Wilson, Broadway gossip columnist.
  • 5/3/1912 :Mary Sarton.
  • 5/3/1913 :Earl Blackwell, author-publisher.
  • 5/3/1913 :William Inge, American playwright (“Picnic”).
  • 5/3/1919 :Betty Comden, Broadway librettist.
  • 5/3/1919 :Pete Seeger, folk singer.
  • 5/3/1921 :Sugar Ray Robinson (Walker Smith), boxer. (1920?)
  • 5/3/1928 :James Brown, singer.
  • 5/3/1936 :Engelbert Humperdinck (Gerry Dorsey), singer.
  • 5/3/1937 :Frankie Valli, singer.
  • 5/3/1942 :David Roderick, corporation executive.
  • 5/3/1946 :Greg Gumbel, broadcaster.
  • 5/3/1947 :Doug Henning, magician.
  • 5/3/1951 :Christopher Cross, musician.
  • 5/3/1963 :Jeffrey John Hornacek, basketball player.
  • 5/3/1964 :Ron Hextall.
  • 5/4/1655 :Bartolommeo Cristofori, developer of the modern piano.
  • 5/4/1796 :Horace Mann, father of public education in the US.
  • 5/4/1820 :Julia Gardiner Tyler, second wife of John Tyler.
  • 5/4/1825 :Thomas Huxley, English biologist and agnostic.
  • 5/4/1826 :Frederick Church, US painter.
  • 5/4/1909 :Howard Da Silva, actor.
  • 5/4/1928 :Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt.
  • 5/4/1928 :Maynard Ferguson, Jazz musician.
  • 5/4/1929 :Audrey Hepburn, actress.
  • 5/4/1930 :Roberta Peters, opera singer.
  • 5/4/1941 :George F. Will, editor and columnist.
  • 5/4/1942 :Nicolas Ashford, singer and songwriter.
  • 5/4/1951 :Jackie Jackson (Sigmund Esco Jackson), singer.
  • 5/4/1959 :Randy Travis, country western musician.
  • 5/5/1813 :Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher.
  • 5/5/1818 :Karl Marx, German socialist.
  • 5/5/1830 :John Stetson, hat maker.
  • 5/5/1867 :Nelly Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane Seaman), journalist.
  • 5/5/1890 :Christopher Morley, author.
  • 5/5/1899 :Freeman Gosden, radio actor (Amos of “Amos and Andy”).
  • 5/5/1903 :James Beard, author.
  • 5/5/1913 :Tyrone Power, actor. (5/15?)
  • 5/5/1915 :Alice Faye (Ann Leppert), singer-actress (“State Fair”).
  • 5/5/1926 :Ann B. Davis, actress.
  • 5/5/1927 :Pat Carroll, actress.
  • 5/5/1938 :Michael Murphy, actor.
  • 5/5/1942 :Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh), singer and actress.
  • 5/5/1943 :Michael Palin, actor and comedian.
  • 5/5/1944 :Jean-Pierre Leaud, actor.
  • 5/5/1944 :Roger Rees, actor.
  • 5/5/1965 :Steve Yzerman.
  • 5/5/1973 :Tina Yothers, actress.
  • 5/5/1976 :Sage Stallone.
  • 5/6/1740 :John Penn, signer of the US Declaration of Independence.
  • 5/6/1758 :Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary.
  • 5/6/1856 :Robert E. Peary, Arctic explorer.
  • 5/6/1856 :Sigmund Freud, Austrian psychoanalyst.
  • 5/6/1861 :Rabindranath Tagore, Hindu poet and mystic.
  • 5/6/1879 :Max Marcin, playwright.
  • 5/6/1895 :Rodolpho Alfonzo Rafaello Pietro Filiberto Guglieimi Di Valentina
  • :D’Antonguolla (a.k.a. Rudolph Valentino), actor.
  • 5/6/1913 :Stewart Granger (James Stewart), actor.
  • 5/6/1914 :Randall Jarrell, author and poet.
  • 5/6/1915 :Orson Welles, actor-director.
  • 5/6/1915 :Theodore H. White, author.
  • 5/6/1931 :Willie Mays, baseball player.
  • 5/6/1934 :Richard C. Shelby, Alabama Senator.
  • 5/6/1939 :Margaret Drabble. (6/5?)
  • 5/6/1941 :Ghena Dimitrova.
  • 5/6/1945 :Bob Seger, musician.
  • 5/7/1574 :Innocent X, 236th Roman Catholic Pope.
  • 5/7/1774 :Sir Francis Beaufort, developer of Beaufort Scale.
  • 5/7/1812 :Robert Browning, English poet.
  • 5/7/1833 :Johannes Brahms, German composer.
  • 5/7/1840 :Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer.
  • 5/7/1892 :Archibald MacLeish, US poet.
  • 5/7/1901 :Gary Cooper (Frank James Cooper), actor.
  • 5/7/1909 :Edwin H. Land, inventor of the Polaroid camera.
  • 5/7/1919 :Eva (Evita) Peron, Argentine first lady.
  • 5/7/1922 :Darren McGavin, actor.
  • 5/7/1931 :Teresa Brewer, singer.
  • 5/7/1932 :Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico Senator.
  • 5/7/1933 :Johnny Unitas, football player.
  • 5/7/1954 :Amy Heckerling, director.
  • 5/7/1962 :Robbie Knievel.
  • 5/8/1828 :Jean Henri Dunant, Swiss founder of the Red Cross Society.
  • 5/8/1884 :Harry S Truman, 33rd US president.
  • 5/8/1893 :Francis DeSales Ouimet, golf enthusiast.
  • 5/8/1895 :Edmund Wilson.
  • 5/8/1911 :Robert Johnson, blues guitar legend.
  • 5/8/1926 :Sir David Attenborough, author and naturalist.
  • 5/8/1926 :Don Rickles, comedian.
  • 5/8/1932 :Sonny Liston, boxer.
  • 5/8/1936 :James R. Thompson, former Illinois Governor.
  • 5/8/1937 :Dennis DeConcini, Arizona Senator.
  • 5/8/1937 :Thomas Pynchon, writer.
  • 5/8/1940 :Eric Hilliard (“Ricky”) Nelson, actor-singer.
  • 5/8/1940 :Peter Benchley, author (“Jaws”).
  • 5/8/1942 :Angel Cordero Jr, jockey.
  • 5/8/1943 :Toni Tennille, singer.
  • 5/8/1951 :Philip Bailey.
  • 5/8/1959 :Ronnie (Ronald Mandel) Lott, football player.
  • 5/8/1964 :Melissa Gilbert-Brinkman, actress.
  • 5/9/1800 :John Brown, abolitionist.
  • 5/9/1843 :Belle Boyd, Confederate spy.
  • 5/9/1860 :Sir James M. Barrie, Scottish novelist (“Peter Pan”).
  • 5/9/1873 :Howard Carter, Egyptologist.
  • 5/9/1882 :Henry J. Kaiser, industrialist.
  • 5/9/1883 :Jose Orgeta y Gasset, Spanish philosopher.
  • 5/9/1910 :Barbara Woodhouse, dog trainer.
  • 5/9/1912 :Pedro Armendariz, actor.
  • 5/9/1918 :Mike Wallace, TV journalist.
  • 5/9/1924 :Hank Snow.
  • 5/9/1928 :Pancho Gonzalez.
  • 5/9/1932 :Gavin Lyall, Royal Air Force pilot turned thriller writer.
  • 5/9/1936 :Albert Finney, actor.
  • 5/9/1936 :Glenda Jackson, actress.
  • 5/9/1940 :James L. Brooks, producer and director.
  • 5/9/1942 :John D. Ashcroft, Governor of Missouri.
  • 5/9/1946 :Candice Bergen, actress.
  • 5/9/1949 :Billy Joel, singer-songwriter.
  • 5/9/1960 :Tony Gwynn, baseball player.
  • 5/10/1730:George Ross, signer of the US Declaration of Independence.
  • 5/10/1838:John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln. (8/26?)
  • 5/10/1886:Karl Barth, Swiss theologian.
  • 5/10/1888:Max Steiner, Hollywood film composer.
  • 5/10/1899:Dimitri Tiomkin, Hollywood film composer.
  • 5/10/1899:Fred Astaire (Frederick Austerlitz), actor-dancer.
  • 5/10/1902:David O. Selznik, movie producer.
  • 5/10/1908:Carl Albert, former Speaker of the US House of Representatives.
  • 5/10/1918:T. Berry Brazelton, pediatrician and author.
  • 5/10/1921:Nancy Walker (Anna Myrtle Swoyer), actress.
  • 5/10/1923:Ara Parseghian, football coach and sportscaster.
  • 5/10/1930:Pat Summerall, sportscaster. (1931?)
  • 5/10/1936:Gary Owens, actor.
  • 5/10/1941:Taurean Blacque, actor.
  • 5/10/1943:Richard G. Darman, Director of US Office of Management and Budget.
  • 5/10/1944:Judith Jamison, dancer and choreographer.
  • 5/10/1945:Dave Mason, musician.
  • 5/10/1946:Donovan, singer.
  • 5/10/1957:Phil Mahre, Olympic medalist skier.
  • 5/10/1957:Steve Mahre, Olympic medalist skier.
  • 5/10/1960:Bono, musician.
  • 5/10/1965:Rony F. Seikaly, basketball player.
  • 5/11/1852:Charles Warren Fairbanks, 26th US vice president.
  • 5/11/1854:Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of Linotype typsetting machine.
  • 5/11/1888:Irving Berlin (Israel Isidore Baline), composer.
  • 5/11/1892:Margaret Rutherford, actress (Miss Marple).
  • 5/11/1893:Martha Graham, dancer-choreographer.
  • 5/11/1904:Salvador Dali, artist.
  • 5/11/1912:Foster Brooks, actor and comedian.
  • 5/11/1920:Denver Pyle, actor.
  • 5/11/1927:Mort Sahl, actor-comedian.
  • 5/11/1930:Stanley Elkin, writer and university professor.
  • 5/11/1932:Valentino Garavani, Italian fashion designer.
  • 5/11/1933:Louis Farrakhan, Muslim minister.
  • 5/11/1934:James M. Jeffords, Vermont Senator.
  • 5/11/1935:Doug McClure, actor.
  • 5/11/1946:Robert Jarvik, artificial organ company executive and physician.
  • 5/11/1959:Martha Quinn, television host and actress.
  • 5/11/1963:Natashia Richardson, actress (“Gothic”).
  • 5/12/1812:Edward Lear, English painter and writer of nonsense poems.
  • 5/12/1820:Florence Nightingale, nurse and hospital reformer.
  • 5/12/1828:Dante Gabriel Rossetti, English poet-painter.
  • 5/12/1881:Achmed Abdullah ne Alexander Nicholayevitch Romanoff, adventure
  • :novelist.
  • 5/12/1907:Leslie Charteris (Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin), creator of Simon
  • :Templar (a.k.a. the Saint).
  • 5/12/1907:Katherine Hepburn, actress (“On Golden Pond”).
  • 5/12/1914:Howard K. Smith, journalist.
  • 5/12/1921:Farley Mowat.
  • 5/12/1924:Evan Mecham, former Arizona Governor.
  • 5/12/1925:John Simon, critic.
  • 5/12/1925:Yogi Berra, baseball player.
  • 5/12/1928:Manuel Lujan Jr, US Secretary of the Interior.
  • 5/12/1929:Burt Bacharach, composer.
  • 5/12/1929:Samuel Daniel Nujoma, President of Namibia.
  • 5/12/1936:Frank Stella, artist.
  • 5/12/1936:Tom Snyder, talk show host.
  • 5/12/1937:George Carlin, comedian.
  • 5/12/1939:Ron Ziegler, former White House press secretary.
  • 5/12/1948:Steve Winwood, musician.
  • 5/12/1950:Bruce Boxleitner, actor.
  • 5/12/1957:Louis Rodman Whitaker, baseball player.
  • 5/12/1959:Homer J. Simpson.
  • 5/12/1962:Emilio Estevez, actor.
  • 5/12/1966:Stephen Baldwin.
  • 5/12/1969:Kim Fields, actress.
  • 5/12/1973:MacKenzie Astin, actor.
  • 5/13/1842:Sir Arthur S. Sullivan, (Gilbert and Sullivan).
  • 5/13/1882:Georges Braque, French cubist painter.
  • 5/13/1907:Daphne Du Maurier, novelist (“The Birds”).
  • 5/13/1914:Joe Louis, heavyweight boxing champion.
  • 5/13/1926:Beatrice Arthur (Bernice Frankel), actress.
  • 5/13/1927:Clive Barnes, critic.
  • 5/13/1927:Herbert Ross, director.
  • 5/13/1940:Bruce Chatwin, British writer.
  • 5/13/1943:Mary Wells, singer.
  • 5/13/1949:Franklyn Ajaye, actor.
  • 5/13/1950:Peter Gabriel, singer.
  • 5/13/1950:Stevie Wonder (Steveland Morris Hardaway), singer.
  • 5/13/1961:Dennis Keith (Worm) Rodman, basketball player.
  • 5/13/1965:Chris Washburn.
  • 5/14/1265:Dante Alighiere, Italian poet (“The Divine Comedy”).
  • 5/14/1686:Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit, Prussian physicist (introduced the
  • :mercury thermometer).
  • 5/14/1727:Thomas Gainsborough, English portrait painter (“The Blue Boy”).
  • 5/14/1771:Robert Owen, founder of New Harmony, Indiana (Utopia).
  • 5/14/1885:Otto Klemperer, conductor.
  • 5/14/1925:Patrice Munsel, opera singer.
  • 5/14/1936:Bobby Darin, singer.
  • 5/14/1936:Richard John Neuhas, Lutheran pastor.
  • 5/14/1942:Byron Dorgan, North Dakota Senator.
  • 5/14/1943:Jack Bruce, musician.
  • 5/14/1944:Francesca Annis, actress.
  • 5/14/1944:George Lucas, film director.
  • 5/14/1951:Season Hubley, actress.
  • 5/14/1952:David Byrne, musician.
  • 5/14/1955:Jose Dennis Martinez, baseball player.
  • 5/14/1959:Mike Quick, football player.
  • 5/14/1964:Walter Berry, basketball player.
  • 5/14/1969:Danny Wood, vocalist.
  • 5/15/1773:Klemens Metternich, Austrian statesman.
  • 5/15/1856:Lyman Frank Baum, writer (“Wizard of Oz”).
  • 5/15/1859:Pierre Curie, French chemist.
  • 5/15/1860:Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, first wife of Woodrow Wilson.
  • 5/15/1862:Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian playwright and novelist.
  • 5/15/1890:Katherine Anne Porter, author.
  • 5/15/1902:Richard J. Daley, Chicago Mayor.
  • 5/15/1905:Joseph Cotton, actor.
  • 5/15/1909:James Mason, actor.
  • 5/15/1910:Constance Cummings, actress.
  • 5/15/1911:Max Frisch, literary figure.
  • 5/15/1914:Tyrone Power, actor. (5/5?)
  • 5/15/1918:Eddie Arnold, country singer.
  • 5/15/1923:Richard Avedon, photographer.
  • 5/15/1926:Anthony Shaffer, screenplay writer.
  • 5/15/1926:Peter Shaffer, playwright.
  • 5/15/1930:Jasper Johns, artist.
  • 5/15/1932:John Glen, film director.
  • 5/15/1936:Anna Maria Alberghetti, actress.
  • 5/15/1936:Paul Zindel, playwright.
  • 5/15/1937:Trini Lopez, singer.
  • 5/15/1953:George Brett, baseball player.
  • 5/15/1953:Mike Oldfield.
  • 5/15/1955:Lee Horsley, actor.
  • 5/15/1960:Joey Matthew Browner, football player.
  • 5/16/1801:William Henry Seward, former US Secretary of State.
  • 5/16/1804:Elizabeth Peabody.
  • 5/16/1824:Levi Parsons Morton, banker and 22nd US vice president.
  • 5/16/1831:David Hughes, inventor of the microphone.
  • 5/16/1905:Henry Jaynes Fonda, actor.
  • 5/16/1912:Studs Terkel (Louis Terkel), author and journalist.
  • 5/16/1913:Woody Herman, bandleader.
  • 5/16/1919:Liberace, entertainer.
  • 5/16/1928:Billy Martin, former New York Yankees manager.
  • 5/16/1929:Adrienne Rich.
  • 5/16/1931:Lowell P. Weiker, Jr, Connecticut Governor.
  • 5/16/1937:James Hunt Jr, North Carolina Governor.
  • 5/16/1937:Thomas Gifford, author.
  • 5/16/1937:William L. Armstrong, Colorado Senator. (3/16?)
  • 5/16/1940:Lainie Kazan, singer and actress.
  • 5/16/1943:Dan Coats, Indiana Senator.
  • 5/16/1952:Pierce Brosnan, actor (“Remington Steele”).
  • 5/16/1955:Debra Winger, actress.
  • 5/16/1955:Jack (John Scott) Morris, baseball player.
  • 5/16/1955:Olga Korbut, Soviet gymnast.
  • 5/16/1964:John Thomas Salley, basketball player.
  • 5/16/1966:Janet Jackson, singer.
  • 5/16/1969:Tracey Gold, actress.
  • 5/16/1970:Gabriela Sabatini, tennis player.
  • 5/16/1973:Tori Spelling.
  • 5/17/1444:Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter.
  • 5/17/1749:Edward Jenner, developer of the smallpox vaccine.
  • 5/17/1803:Robert Surtees, English writer. (1805?)
  • 5/17/1836:J. Lockyer.
  • 5/17/1860:Schuyler Wheeler, US inventor of the electric fan.
  • 5/17/1866:Erik Satie, French composer.
  • 5/17/1873:Dorothy Richardson.
  • 5/17/1900:Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iranian religious leader.
  • 5/17/1903:Cool Papa Bell, baseball player.
  • 5/17/1904:Jean Gabin, French actor.
  • 5/17/1911:Maureen O’Sullivan, actress.
  • 5/17/1912:Archibald Cox, lawyer and Watergate prosecutor.
  • 5/17/1918:Brigit Nilsson, opera singer.
  • 5/17/1936:Dennis Hopper, actor.
  • 5/17/1937:Hazel O’Leary, US Energy Secretary.
  • 5/17/1941:Ben Nelson, Nebraska governor.
  • 5/17/1950:Christian Lacroix, French couturier.
  • 5/17/1954:Kathleen Sullivan.
  • 5/17/1956:Bob Saget, actor and television host.
  • 5/17/1956:Sugar Ray Leonard (Ray Charles Leonard), boxer.
  • 5/17/1966:Daniel Ricardo Manning, basketball player.
  • 5/17/1970:Jordan Knight, vocalist.
  • 5/18/1872:Bertrand Russell.
  • 5/18/1897:Frank Capra, director.
  • 5/18/1902:Meredith Wilson.
  • 5/18/1912:Perry Como (Nick Perido), singer and actor.
  • 5/18/1912:Richard Brooks, director.
  • 5/18/1919:Margot Fonteyn (Margaret Hookman), ballerina.
  • 5/18/1920:Pope John Paul II (Karol Wojtyla).
  • 5/18/1921:Patrick Dennis, writer (“Auntie Mame”).
  • 5/18/1922:Bill Macey, actor.
  • 5/18/1924:Jack Whitaker, sportscaster.
  • 5/18/1930:Pernell Roberts, actor.
  • 5/18/1930:Warren Bruce Rudman, former New Hampshire Senator.
  • 5/18/1931:Robert Morse, actor.
  • 5/18/1934:Dwayne Hickman, actor and TV executive.
  • 5/18/1937:Brooks Robinson, baseball player.
  • 5/18/1946:Reggie Jackson, baseball player.
  • 5/18/1949:Rick Wakeman.
  • 5/18/1951:James Stephens, actor.
  • 5/18/1952:George Strait. (5/1?)
  • 5/18/1960:Yannick Noah, French tennis player.
  • 5/19/1800:Sarah Miriam Peale, US portrait painter.
  • 5/19/1879:Lady Nancy Astor, first seated woman member of British Parliament.
  • 5/19/1890:Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh), Vietnamese revolutionary.
  • 5/19/1925:Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), Black Muslim leader.
  • 5/19/1930:Lorraine Hansberry, playwright.
  • 5/19/1934:James Lehrer, journalist.
  • 5/19/1935:David Hartman, actor.
  • 5/19/1939:Francis R. Scobee, US astronaut.
  • 5/19/1940:Frank Lorenzo, airline company executive.
  • 5/19/1941:Nora Ephron, writer.
  • 5/19/1945:Peter Townshend, musician.
  • 5/19/1946:John Waihee, Hawaii governor.
  • 5/19/1952:Grace Jones, model and singer.
  • 5/19/1952:Joey Ramone, singer.
  • 5/19/1957:Bill Laimbeer Jr, basketball player.
  • 5/20/1768:Dolly (Dorothea) Dandridge Payne Todd Madison, wife of James
  • :Madison.
  • 5/20/1799:Honore de Balzac, French novelist.
  • 5/20/1806:John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist.
  • 5/20/1844:Henri Julien Felix Rousseau, French painter. (5/21?)
  • 5/20/1882:Sigrid Undset.
  • 5/20/1890:Beniamino Gigli, Italian tenor.
  • 5/20/1908:James Stewart, actor.
  • 5/20/1915:Moshe Dayan, Israeli military commander.
  • 5/20/1919:George Gobel, comedian.
  • 5/20/1929:David Hedison, actor.
  • 5/20/1933:Constance Towers, actress.
  • 5/20/1944:Joe Cocker, musician.
  • 5/20/1946:Cher (Cherilyn Sarkisian), singer-actress.
  • 5/20/1948:John R. McKernan Jr, Maine Governor.
  • 5/20/1958:Ronald Prescott Reagan, dancer.
  • 5/20/1959:Bronson Pinchot, actor.
  • 5/20/1965:Todd Stottlemyre.
  • 5/21/-427:Plato (Aristocles).
  • 5/21/1471:Albrecht Durer, German painter and engraver.
  • 5/21/1500:Hernando de Soto, explorer (first European to see Mississippi
  • :River).
  • 5/21/1527:Philip II, Spanish King who launched the Spanish Armada.
  • 5/21/1688:Alexander Pope, English poet and satirist.
  • 5/21/1780:Elizabeth Gurney Fry, English reformer.
  • 5/21/1844:Henri Rousseau, French primitive painter. (5/20?)
  • 5/21/1878:Glenn Hammond Curtiss, US inventor of the hydroplane.
  • 5/21/1898:Armand Hammer, industrialist.
  • 5/21/1904:”Fats” Waller, barrelhouse piano player.
  • 5/21/1909:Sister Maria Innocentia Hummel, artist who inspired Hummel
  • :figurines.
  • 5/21/1916:Harold Robins, author.
  • 5/21/1917:Raymond William Stacy Burr, actor.
  • 5/21/1921:Andrei Dmitriyevich Sakharov, Soviet physicist.
  • 5/21/1924:Peggy Cass, entertainer.
  • 5/21/1926:Rick Jason, actor.
  • 5/21/1926:Robert Creeley, author and poet.
  • 5/21/1939:Heinz Holliger, oboist and composer.
  • 5/21/1944:Janet Dailey.
  • 5/21/1948:Leo Sayer, singer.
  • 5/21/1952:Mr. T (Lawrence Tero or Tureaud), actor.
  • 5/21/1957:Judge Reinhold, actor.
  • 5/22/1813:Richard Wagner, German composer.
  • 5/22/1859:Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes.
  • 5/22/1902:Marcel Breuer, architect.
  • 5/22/1907:Sir Lawrence Olivier, actor.
  • 5/22/1922:Judith Crist, movie critic.
  • 5/22/1924:Charles Aznavour, French singer.
  • 5/22/1927:Michael Constantine, actor.
  • 5/22/1927:Peter Matthiessen.
  • 5/22/1928:T. Boone Pickens.
  • 5/22/1934:Peter Nero, composer.
  • 5/22/1938:Frank Converse, actor.
  • 5/22/1938:Richard Benjamin, actor.
  • 5/22/1938:Susan Strasberg, actress.
  • 5/22/1940:Bernard Shaw.
  • 5/22/1940:Michael Sarrazin, actor.
  • 5/22/1941:Paul Winfield, actor.
  • 5/22/1943:Tommy John, baseball player.
  • 5/23/1707:Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish father of modern systematic botany.
  • 5/23/1734:Friedrich Anton Mesmer, German physician and hypnotist.
  • 5/23/1810:Margaret Fuller (Sarah Margaret Fuller), social reformer.
  • 5/23/1824:General Ambrose Burnside, US Senator after whom sideburns were
  • :named.
  • 5/23/1883:Douglas Fairbanks Sr, actor.
  • 5/23/1908:Max Abramovitz, architect.
  • 5/23/1910:Artie Shaw, bandleader.
  • 5/23/1910:Margaret Wise Brown, children’s author (“Goodnight Moon”).
  • 5/23/1919:Betty Garrett, actress.
  • 5/23/1923:Alicia de Larrocha, pianist.
  • 5/23/1928:Rosemary Clooney, singer.
  • 5/23/1931:Barbara Barrie, actress.
  • 5/23/1933:Joan Collins, actress.
  • 5/23/1934:Robert Moog, inventor of the Moog Synthesizer.
  • 5/23/1935:Donald Paul Hodel, US Secretary of the Interior.
  • 5/23/1952:”Marvelous” Marvin Hagler, boxer.
  • 5/24/1794:William Whewell.
  • 5/24/1816:Emanuel Leutze, painter (“Washington Crossing the Delaware”).
  • 5/24/1819:Queen Victoria.
  • 5/24/1855:Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, English playwright (“The Second Mrs.
  • :Tanqueray”).
  • 5/24/1883:Elsa Maxwell, introducer of the “scavenger hunt.”
  • 5/24/1895:Samuel I. Newhouse, “America’s most profitable publisher”.
  • 5/24/1909:Wilbur Mills.
  • 5/24/1914:Lilli Palmer (Lilli Marie Peiser), actress.
  • 5/24/1918:Coleman Alexander Young, mayor of Detroit.
  • 5/24/1928:Roger Caras, nature writer.
  • 5/24/1934:Jane Margaret Burke Byrne, former Chicago mayor.
  • 5/24/1938:Tommy Chong, comedian (Cheech and Chong).
  • 5/24/1940:Joseph Brodsky.
  • 5/24/1941:Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman), singer.
  • 5/24/1943:Gary Burghoff, actor.
  • 5/24/1944:Frank Oz, puppeteer.
  • 5/24/1944:Patti LaBelle, singer.
  • 5/24/1945:Priscilla Beaulieu Presley, widow of Elvis Presley.
  • 5/24/1955:Rosanne Cash, singer.
  • 5/24/1963:Joe Dumars III, basketball player.
  • 5/25/1803:Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English author (“The Last Days of Pompeii”).
  • 5/25/1803:Ralph Waldo Emerson, US poet.
  • 5/25/1847:John Alexander Dowie, evangelist.
  • 5/25/1878:Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, “The King of Tap Dancers.”
  • 5/25/1886:Philip Murray, US labor leader and founder of CIO.
  • 5/25/1889:Igor Sikorsky, aeronautical engineer.
  • 5/25/1892:Josip Broz (a.k.a. Marshall Tito), Yugoslavian leader.
  • 5/25/1898:Bennett Cerf, humorist and publisher.
  • 5/25/1898:James Joseph (Gene) Tunney, heavyweight boxing champion.
  • 5/25/1908:Theodore Roethke.
  • 5/25/1918:Claude Akins, actor.
  • 5/25/1921:Hal David, lyricist.
  • 5/25/1923:John Weitz, fashion designer.
  • 5/25/1926:Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter.
  • 5/25/1927:Robert Ludlum, spy novelist.
  • 5/25/1929:Beverly Sills, opera star.
  • 5/25/1932:K.C. Jones, basketball coach.
  • 5/25/1934:Ron Nessen, former White House news secretary.
  • 5/25/1936:Tom T. Hall, country singer-songwriter.
  • 5/25/1938:Raymond Carver, US poet and short story writer.
  • 5/25/1939:Dixie Carter, actress.
  • 5/25/1943:Leslie Uggams, actress-singer.
  • 5/25/1947:Jessi Colter (Miriam Johnson), country singer. (1943?)
  • 5/25/1947:Karen Valentine, actress.
  • 5/25/1955:Connie Selleca, actress.
  • 5/26/1799:Alexander Pushkin, Russian author.
  • 5/26/1886:Al Jolson (Asa Yoelson), singer and actor.
  • 5/26/1907:John Wayne (Marion Michael Morrison), actor.
  • 5/26/1908:Robert Morley, actor.
  • 5/26/1909:Richard Maibaum, screenwriter.
  • 5/26/1913:Peter Cushing, actor.
  • 5/26/1920:Peggy Lee, singer.
  • 5/26/1923:James Arness, actor.
  • 5/26/1925:Alec McCowen, actor.
  • 5/26/1931:Jim Frey, baseball general manager.
  • 5/26/1939:Brent Musburger, sportscaster.
  • 5/26/1939:Teresa Stratas, opera singer.
  • 5/26/1947:Darrell Evans, basketball player.
  • 5/26/1948:Stevie Nicks, singer-songwriter.
  • 5/26/1949:Hank Williams Jr, singer.
  • 5/26/1949:Philip Michael Thomas, actor.
  • 5/26/1951:Sally Kristen Ride, First US woman in space.
  • 5/26/1955:Wesley Walker, football player.
  • 5/26/1956:Joe Penny, actor.
  • 5/26/1962:Genie Francis, actress.
  • 5/26/1966:Helena Bonham Carter, actress.
  • 5/26/1967:Frederik Andre Henrik Christian, crown prince of Denmark.
  • 5/27/1794:Cornelius Vanderbilt, financier.
  • 5/27/1818:Amelia Jenks Bloomer, social reformer for whom the female
  • :undergarment was named.
  • 5/27/1819:Julia Ward Howe, poet (lyrics to “The Battle Hymn of the
  • :Republic”).
  • 5/27/1837:”Wild Bill” Hickok, frontiersman.
  • 5/27/1867:(Enoch) Arnold Bennett, English novelist and playwrite.
  • 5/27/1878:Isadora Duncan, US interpretive dancer.
  • 5/27/1894:Dashiell Hammett, detective novelist.
  • 5/27/1907:Rachel (Louise) Carson, US author (“Silent Spring”).
  • 5/27/1911:Hubert Horatio Humphrey, 38th US vice president.
  • 5/27/1911:Vincent Price, actor.
  • 5/27/1912:John Cheever.
  • 5/27/1912:Sam Snead.
  • 5/27/1915:Herman Wouk, author.
  • 5/27/1918:Yasuhiro Nakasone, Japanese political leader.
  • 5/27/1922:Christopher Lee, actor.
  • 5/27/1923:Henry Kissinger, political scientist.
  • 5/27/1930:John Barth, author.
  • 5/27/1930:William Sessions, director US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
  • 5/27/1935:Lee Meriwether, actress.
  • 5/27/1936:Louis Gossett Jr, actor.
  • 5/27/1943:Bruce Weitz, actor.
  • 5/27/1944:Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Senator.
  • 5/27/1965:Pat Cash, tennis player.
  • 5/27/1965:Todd Bridges, actor.
  • 5/28/1738:Joseph Ignace Gillotin, French physician and promoter of the
  • :guillotine.
  • 5/28/1759:William Pitt, British statesman.
  • 5/28/1779:Thomas Moore, Irish poet.
  • 5/28/1807:Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, Swiss naturalist.
  • 5/28/1888:James Francis Thorpe, Olympic athlete.
  • 5/28/1908:Ian Lancaster Fleming, novelist (creator of James Bond).
  • 5/28/1912:Patrick White, Australian novelist (“The Eye of the Storm.”)
  • 5/28/1916:Walker Percy.
  • 5/28/1917:Barry Commoner, biologist and politician.
  • 5/28/1925:Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, singer.
  • 5/28/1931:Caroll Baker, actress.
  • 5/28/1934:Dionne quintuplets (Marie, Cecile, Yvonne, Emilie, and Annette).
  • 5/28/1938:Jerry West, Los Angeles Lakers General Manager.
  • 5/28/1944:Gladys Knight, singer.
  • 5/28/1944:Rudolph Giuliani, US Attorney for Southern District of New York.
  • 5/28/1947:Sandra Locke, actress.
  • 5/28/1957:Kirk Gibson, baseball player.
  • 5/28/1964:Armon Louis Gilliam, basketball player.
  • 5/29/1630:King Charles II.
  • 5/29/1736:Patrick Henry, US patriot.
  • 5/29/1826:Ebenezer Butterick, inventor of the tissue paper dress pattern.
  • 5/29/1874:Gilbert Keith Chesterton, English novelist.
  • 5/29/1880:Oswald Spengler, German historian.
  • 5/29/1897:Erich Wolfgang Korngold, movie composer.
  • 5/29/1898:Beatrice Lillie, actress.
  • 5/29/1903:Bob Hope (Leslie Townes Hope), comedian.
  • 5/29/1906:T.H. White, English novelist (“The Once and Future King”).
  • 5/29/1913:Tony Zale, boxer.
  • 5/29/1917:John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th US president.
  • 5/29/1921:Clifton James, actor.
  • 5/29/1928:Felix Rohatyn, investment banker.
  • 5/29/1928:George A. Sinner, North Dakota Governor.
  • 5/29/1932:Paul Ehrlich, population biologist.
  • 5/29/1938:Fay (Francis) Thomas Vincent Jr, baseball commissioner.
  • 5/29/1939:Al Unser Sr, auto racer.
  • 5/29/1944:Helmut Berger, actor.
  • 5/29/1948:Anthony Geary, actor.
  • 5/29/1958:Annette Bening, actress.
  • 5/29/1962:Eric Davis, baseball player.
  • 5/29/1963:Lisa Whelchel, actress.
  • 5/30/1903:Countee Cullen.
  • 5/30/1908:Melvin Jerome Blanc, voice of Bugs Bunny, et al.
  • 5/30/1909:Benny Goodman, bandleader.
  • 5/30/1926:Christine Jorgensen, pioneer transsexual.
  • 5/30/1927:Clint Walker, actor.
  • 5/30/1929:Michael Mellinger, actor.
  • 5/30/1936:Keir Dullea, actor.
  • 5/30/1936:Ruta Lee, actress.
  • 5/30/1939:Michael J. Pollard, actor.
  • 5/30/1940:Gale Sayers, football player.
  • 5/30/1964:Wynonna Judd (Christina Ciminella), country singer.
  • 5/31/1819:Walt Whitman, US poet.
  • 5/31/1857:Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (a.k.a. Pope Pius XI).
  • 5/31/1894:Fred Allen, radio humorist.
  • 5/31/1898:Norman Vincent Peale, clergyman-author.
  • 5/31/1908:Don Ameche (Dominic Felix Amici), actor.
  • 5/31/1923:Prince Rainier of Monaco.
  • 5/31/1930:Clint Eastwood, actor.
  • 5/31/1933:Shirley Verrett, opera singer.
  • 5/31/1938:Peter Yarrow, composer-singer.
  • 5/31/1939:John S. Herrington, US Secretary of Energy.
  • 5/31/1939:Terry Waite, Church of England special envoy.
  • 5/31/1941:Johnny Paycheck (Don Lytle), country singer.
  • 5/31/1943:Joe Namath, football player.
  • 5/31/1943:Sharon Gless, actress.
  • 5/31/1950:Gregory Harrison, actor.
  • 5/31/1950:Tom Berenger, actor.
  • 5/31/1960:Chris Elliott.
  • 5/31/1965:Christa Brooke Camille Shields, actress.