Anniversaries 24 August

Birth

Bartolomé de las Casas21

Spanish Dominican friar, historian, and social reformer 1474–1566

John Taylor4

English poet of the 16th and 17th centuries 1578–1653

Robert Herrick34

17th-century English poet and cleric 1591–1674

Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon1

British countess 1707–1791

William Wilberforce17

English politician 1759–1833

Lyman Heath3

American musician 1804–1870

Theodore Parker31

abolitionist 1810–1860

Henry R. Towne10

American engineer 1844–1924

Max Beerbohm36

English writer 1872–1956

Nesta Helen Webster2

British far-right conspiracy theorist and author 1876–1960

Jean Rhys38

novelist from Dominica 1890–1979

Jorge Luis Borges213

Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator… 1899–1986

Fernand Braudel2

French historian and a leader of the Annales School 1902–1985

Graham Sutherland1

English artist 1903–1980

Milton Mayer12

American journalist 1908–1986

James Tiptree, Jr3

American science fiction writer 1915–1987

Avery Dulles1

Catholic cardinal 1918–2008

Howard Zinn69

author and historian 1922–2010

René Lévesque7

Quebec politician 1922–1987

Arthur Jensen11

professor of educational psychology 1923–2012

Guido Ceronetti2

Italian poet, writer, journalist and translator 1927–2018

Harry Markowitz4

American economist 1927

Yasser Arafat18

former Palestinian President, and Nobel Peace Prize recipie… 1929–2004

A. S. Byatt5

English fiction writer and critic 1936

Peter Celestine Elampassery2

Indian priest 1938–2015

Yehoshua Sobol1

Israeli dramatist 1939

Yaron London2

Israeli journalist, actor and songwriter 1940

Jim Horning2

computer scientist 1942–2013

Max Cleland1

American politician 1942

Christine Chubbuck1

American television news reporter 1944–1974

Paulo Coelho844

Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947

Sauli Niinistö3

12th president of Finland 1948

Jean-Michel Jarre2

French composer, performer and music producer 1948

Alexander McCall Smith55

British writer 1948

Andrew Fraknoi2

astronomer 1948

Orson Scott Card586

American science fiction novelist 1951

Mike Huckabee45

Arkansas politician 1955

Adam Gopnik26

American journalist 1956

Stephen Fry93

English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist 1957

Yan Lianke6

Chinese novelist and satirist 1958

Cal Ripken, Jr.1

American baseball player 1960

Hideo Kojima2

Japanese video game designer 1963

Dana Gould3

Comedian and comedy writer 1964

Dave Chappelle8

American comedian 1973

John Green103

American author and vlogger 1977

Death

Pliny the Elder31

Roman military commander and writer 23–79

Su Shi4

Chinese writer 1037–1101

Rose of Lima1

Peruvian colonist and Dominican saint 1586–1617

John Owen3

English theologian 1616–1683

George Lyttelton, 1st Baron Lyttelton8

British politician 1709–1773

Thomas Chatterton14

English poet, forger 1752–1770

Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot19

French physicist, the "father of thermodynamics" (1796–1832) 1796–1832

Rudolf Clausius6

German mathematical physicist 1822–1888

Luís Gama4

Brazilian lawyer, poet, abolitionist and journalist 1830–1882

Edward McKendree Bounds5

clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church South 1835–1913

Kate Douglas Wiggin4

American writer 1856–1923

Margaret Barber4

English Christian writer 1869–1901

John William Dunne3

British soldier, aeronautical engineer and philosopher 1875–1949

Henry J. Kaiser2

American industrialist 1882–1967

Scott Nearing5

American activist 1883–1983

Stella Wolfe Murray1

British journalist and writer 1886–1935

Ronald Knox12

English priest and theologian 1888–1957

Simone Weil193

French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist 1909–1943

Wilfred Thesiger55

British explorer 1910–2003

Hanna Reitsch1

German aviator 1912–1979

Bayard Rustin3

American civil rights activist and gay rights activist 1912–1987

Abdul Rahman Arif2

President and Prime Minister of Iraq 1916–2007

Sergei Akhromeyev5

Soviet marshal 1923–1991

Maurice Cowling8

historian 1926–2005

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross26

American psychiatrist 1926–2004

Аарон Руссо1

film producer 1943–2007

Arun Jaitley7

Indian politician 1952–2019