Anniversaries 12 December

Birth

Julien Offray de La Mettrie42

French physician and philosopher 1709–1751

Erasmus Darwin7

English physician, botanist; member of the Lunar Society 1731–1802

John Jay20

American politician and a founding father of the United Sta… 1745–1829

Thomas Hodgskin21

British writer 1787–1869

Gerald Griffin2

Irish novelist, poet and playwright 1803–1840

Gustave Flaubert98

French writer (1821–1880) 1821–1880

Edvard Munch29

Norwegian painter and printmaker 1863–1944

Paul Elmer More1

American journalist, critic, essayist and Christian apologi… 1864–1937

Артур Бризбейн1

1864–1936

Addison Mizner12

American architect 1872–1933

Gerd von Rundstedt13

German Field Marshal during World War II 1875–1953

Harry Warner1

Film studio executive 1881–1958

Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz7

Philosopher, logician 1890–1963

Minnie Evans7

American artist 1892–1987

Edward G. Robinson6

Romanian American actor 1893–1973

Lillian Smith (author)4

American author, social critic 1897–1966

Richard Hartshorne18

American Geographer 1899–1992

Howard Koch2

American screenwriter 1901–1995

Mulk Raj Anand5

Indian writer 1905–2004

Patrick O'Brian14

English novelist 1914–2000

Frank Sinatra19

American singer and film actor 1915–1998

Marion J. Levy Jr.3

American sociologist 1918–2002

Igor Ansoff8

American mathematician 1918–2001

Og Mandino38

American author 1923–1996

Ed Koch2

former mayor of New York City 1924–2013

Elizabeth Martinez15

American community organizer, activist, author, and educator 1925

Ahmad Shamlou2

Iranian Persian poet, writer, and journalist 1925–2000

Robert Noyce1

American businessman and engineer 1927–1990

John Osborne10

English playwright 1929–1994

Caldwell Esselstyn5

American physician, author and rower 1933

Michael S. Gazzaniga3

American neuroscientist 1939

S. Nambi Narayanan3

scientist 1941

E. Jean Carroll1

American journalist 1943

Steve Kagen6

American politician 1949

Eric Maskin5

American Nobel laureate in economics 1950

Rajinikanth32

Indian actor 1950

Bill Hybels74

American writer 1951

Steven Hawley1

American astronaut 1951

Mary Monroe1

American writer 1951

Helen Dunmore2

British novelist 1952–2017

Samuel Oton Sidin2

21st-century Indonesian Catholic bishop 1954

Susanna Tamaro2

Italian writer 1957

Sheila E.1

American singer and percussionist 1957

Pravin Togadia2

Indian oncologist, activist 1957

Scott Douglas4

American wheelchair tennis player 1963

Sophie Kinsella111

British writer 1969

Mayim Bialik2

American actress, neuroscientist 1975

Usama Mukwaya7

Ugandan screenwriter 1989

Chen Ruolin4

Chinese diver 1992

Angelo Vulpini9

Venezuelan recording artist 2003

Death

Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke10

English politician and Viscount 1678–1751

Alessandro Pepoli3

Italian writer 1757–1796

Robert Browning179

English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era 1812–1889

Andrew Taylor Still5

Founder of Osteopathic Medicine 1828–1917

William Sharp (writer)9

Scottish writer 1855–1905

Dora Read Goodale6

U.S. poet 1866–1953

Henrietta Swan Leavitt8

astronomer 1868–1921

Richard R. Wright Jr.6

1878–1967

Clementine Churchill2

wife of Sir Winston Churchill and a life peeress in her own… 1885–1977

William Rootes, 1st Baron Rootes1

British automobile pioneer 1894–1964

Tallulah Bankhead22

American actress 1902–1968

Raymond Radiguet3

French writer 1903–1923

Avery Dulles1

Catholic cardinal 1918–2008

Morris Udall4

American politician 1922–1998

Anne Baxter3

American actress 1923–1985

Heydar Aliyev4

Soviet and Azerbaijani politician 1923–2003

Joseph Heller132

American author 1923–1999

Lawton Chiles2

Chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging 1930–1998

Рой Смит1

1930–1998

Shirley Hazzard2

Australian-Anglo-American novelist, short story writer, mem… 1931–2016

Ivor Grattan-Guinness8

Historian of mathematics and logic 1941–2014