Anniversaries 15 January

Birth

Molière72

French playwright and actor 1622–1673

Algernon Sidney16

British politician and political theorist 1623–1683

Jacques Pierre Brissot2

French revolutionary 1754–1793

Franz Grillparzer9

austrian dramatic and writer 1791–1872

Pierre Joseph Proudhon40

French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and so… 1809–1865

Sarah Doudney4

English novelist and poet 1841–1926

Paul Lafargue5

French politician 1842–1911

Frederic G. Kenyon14

British palaeographer and biblical and classical scholar 1863–1952

Isa Boletini2

Kosovo Albanian guerilla leader 1864–1916

Gottfried de Purucker45

Author, Theosophist 1874–1942

Ibn Saud2

Founder of Saudi Arabia 1875–1953

Stringfellow Barr1

American writer 1897–1982

Goodman Ace2

Comedian, television writer and columnist 1899–1982

Nâzım Hikmet19

Turkish poet 1902–1963

Eddie DeLange1

American bandleader and lyricist 1904–1949

Edward Teller32

Hungarian-American nuclear physicist 1908–2003

Frank Westheimer2

American chemist 1912–2007

Etty Hillesum28

Jewish diarist 1914–1943

Beatrice Sparks16

American writer 1917–2012

Gamal Abdel Nasser15

second president of Egypt 1918–1970

Lee Teng-hui2

former President of Republic of China 1923

Ivor Cutler1

Scottish poet, humorist 1923–2006

Rafiq Nishonov2

Soviet politician 1926–2023

James G. March10

American sociologist 1928–2018

Martin Luther King, Jr.658

American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Ci… 1929–1968

John Naisbitt1

American business writer 1929

Ernest J. Gaines11

Novelist, short story writer, teacher 1933–2019

Robert Silverberg88

American speculative fiction writer and editor 1935

Captain Beefheart4

musician 1941–2010

Jenny Nimmo2

British author of children's books 1944

Muhammad Asadullah Al-Ghalib4

Bangladeshi academic 1948

Mike Gabbard1

Samoan American politician 1948

John Podesta4

Former White House Chief of Staff 1949

Joseph Nechvatal4

American artist 1951

Kent Hovind236

American young Earth creationist 1953

Mark Penn3

American political consultant 1954

Андреас Гурски1

German artist and photographer 1955

Christian Chelman1

magician 1957

Boris Tadić3

Serbian politician, President of Serbia 2004–2012 1958

Paul Antony Mullassery1

1960

Bruce Schneier24

American computer scientist 1963

Bernard Hopkins4

American boxer 1965

Giles Milton4

British writer and historian 1966

Raegan Butcher2

American actor and singer 1969

Josh Pate1

Screenwriter, director and producer 1970

Jonas Pate1

American screenwriter, director and producer 1970

Regina King5

actress 1971

Keiran Lee3

British pornographic film actor, director and producer 1984

Ben Shapiro16

American journalist and attorney 1984

Death

Joseph Hopkinson1

United States federal judge 1770–1842

Edward Everett12

American politician, orator, statesman 1794–1865

Friedrich von Waldersee2

Prussian general (1795-1864) 1795–1864

Fanny Kemble5

English actress and writer 1809–1893

Stephen F. Chadwick1

American politician 1825–1895

James Ryder Randall3

American journalist 1839–1908

Hermann Bahr1

austrian dramatic, publicist and writer 1863–1934

Rosa Luxemburg56

Polish Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolut… 1871–1919

Daisy Ashford15

English writer 1881–1972

Gulzarilal Nanda21

Prime Minister of India 1898–1998

Leopold Infeld2

Polish physicist 1898–1968

Charles W. Morris15

American philosopher 1903–1979

Sammy Cahn7

American lyricist, songwriter, musician 1913–1993

Doris Fisher3

American musician 1915–2003

Harriet Van Horne2

American journalist 1920–1998

Manuel Fraga Iribarne12

Spanish politician 1922–2012

Dolores O'Riordan8

Irish singer 1971–2018