Anniversaries 28 December

Birth

Woodrow Wilson156

American politician, 28th president of the United States (i… 1856–1924

John J. Whitacre1

American politician 1860–1938

Arthur Stanley Eddington105

British astrophysicist 1882–1944

Vladimir Tatlin7

Russian artist 1885–1953

Viktor Lutze5

SA Stabschef 1890–1943

Carol Ryrie Brink2

American children's writer 1895–1981

Mortimer J. Adler31

American philosopher and educator 1902–2001

John Von Neumann19

Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath 1903–1957

George Bird Evans30

American writer 1906–1998

Sam Levenson11

American journalist 1911–1980

Stan Lee21

American comic book writer 1922–2018

Simon Raven1

British writer 1927–2001

Guy Debord29

French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker and founding mem… 1931–1994

Dhirubhai Ambani5

Indian business tycoon 1932–2002

Manuel Puig3

Argentine author and screenwriter 1932–1990

Nichelle Nichols2

American actress, singer and voice artist 1932

Roy Hattersley6

British Labour Party politician, published author and journ… 1932

Charles Portis24

American actor 1933

Alasdair Gray8

Scottish writer and artist 1934–2019

Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne2

Catholic cardinal 1943

Kary Mullis4

American biochemist 1944–2019

David Allen119

American productivity consultant and author 1945

Tim Johnson1

United States Senator from South Dakota 1946

Ma Anand Sheela4

former chief assistant for the Indian mystic Rajneesh 1949

Wendy Kaminer14

American lawyer 1949

Mark Mwandosya1

Tanzanian politician 1949

Ian Buruma4

Dutch writer and academic 1951

Arun Jaitley7

Indian politician 1952–2019

Trip Hawkins3

American businessman 1953

Denzel Washington8

actor, screenwriter, director, producer 1954

Liu Xiaobo18

Chinese literary critic, writer, professor, and human right… 1955–2017

Robert M. Edsel1

American art historian 1956

Gerald F. Davis2

American sociologist 1961

Michel Petrucciani1

French jazz pianist 1962–1999

David Krakauer3

scientist 1967

Linus Torvalds150

Finnish-American software engineer and hacker 1969

Milan Stipić1

Croatian Greek-Catholic bishop 1978

James Blake1

American tennis player 1979

Sienna Miller1

British-American actress 1981

Taryn Terrell1

American professional wrestler and model 1985

Salvador Sobral1

Portuguese singer 1989

Mackenzie Rosman1

American actress 1989

Lucky Gupta5

Internet celebrity 1998

Death

Bishr the Barefoot1

Muslim saint 769–841

Francis de Sales12

French bishop, saint, writer and Doctor of the Church j 1567–1622

Francesco Maria Grimaldi2

Italian physicist 1618–1663

Pierre Bayle3

French philosopher and writer 1647–1706

Emer de Vattel3

jurist from the Principality of Neuchâtel 1714–1767

Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay101

British historian and Whig politician 1800–1859

George Gissing18

English novelist 1857–1903

Robert Edouard Moritz2

German mathematician 1868–1940

Theodore Dreiser20

Novelist, journalist 1871–1945

Clarence Day6

American writer 1874–1935

Maurice Ravel3

French composer 1875–1937

John Howard Dellinger1

American engineer 1886–1962

Frank Chodorov44

American libertarian thinker 1887–1966

Bram van Velde97

Dutch painter 1895–1981

William L. Shirer35

American journalist 1904–1993

A. J. Liebling8

American journalist 1904–1963

John D. MacDonald39

writer from the United States 1916–1986

Sam Peckinpah2

American film director and screenwriter 1925–1984

Michio Kushi9

Japanese educator 1926–2014

Debbie Reynolds10

American actress, singer, and dancer 1932–2016

Susan Sontag168

American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist 1933–2004

Robert Rosen8

American theoretical biologist 1934–1998

Margrit Kennedy12

German architect 1939–2013

Amos Oz12

Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual 1939–2018

Sue Grafton28

American writer 1940–2017

Denis Dutton1

Professor and philosopher 1944–2010

Lemmy Kilmister11

British singer-songwriter 1945–2015