Anniversaries 31 December

Birth

Muhammad bin Qasim27

Umayyad general 695–715

Andreas Vesalius8

early anatomist 1514–1564

Horace Smith5

English poet and novelist 1779–1849

Richard Henry Horne7

English poet and critic 1802–1884

George Meade2

Union Army general 1815–1872

James Thomas Fields6

American writer and publisher 1817–1881

Alexander Smith14

Scottish poet and essayist 1829–1867

Henri Matisse60

French artist 1869–1954

Holbrook Jackson6

British journalist 1874–1948

Horacio Quiroga1

Uruguayan playwright, poet, and short story writer 1878–1937

George Marshall49

US military leader, Army Chief of Staff 1880–1959

Max Pechstein14

German artist 1881–1955

Carl Ludwig Siegel3

German mathematician 1896–1981

Jule Styne1

British-born American songwriter 1905–1994

Simon Wiesenthal3

Austrian Holocaust survivor noted for his work as a Nazi hu… 1908–2005

Dal Stivens1

Australian writer 1911–1997

Lynn Compton9

Easy Company soldier turned noted jurist 1921–2012

Theodoros Stamos1

American artist 1922–1997

Jeremy Bernstein3

American physicist 1929

Ameer Muhammad Akram Awan7

Pakistani Sufi leader 1934–2017

Anthony Hopkins3

Welsh stage and television actor 1937

Alex Ferguson6

Scottish footballer and manager 1941

John Denver8

American singer, songwriter, activist, and humanitarian 1943–1997

Ronald Kessler1

American journalist 1943

Connie Willis39

American science fiction writer 1945

Roy Porter6

British historian 1946–2002

Донна Саммер1

American singer and songwriter 1948–2012

Trevor Phillips2

British television producer 1953

Alex Salmond183

Scottish National Party politician and former First Ministe… 1954

Mohamed Ould Ghazouani1

Mauritanian former general and politician 1956

Val Kilmer1

American actor 1959

Phill Kline1

American politician 1959

Greta Christina1

American activist 1961

Jeff Flake25

American politician 1962

Johan Rockström2

Swedish hydrologist 1965

Nicholas Sparks646

American writer and novelist 1965

Junot Díaz75

Dominican-American writer 1968

Edite Tenjua1

São Tomé and Príncipe lawyer and businesswoman 1972

Priscilla Shirer2

American writer 1974

Donald Trump Jr.7

American businessman and son of U.S. President Donald Trump 1977

Psy7

South Korean singer 1977

Josh Hawley3

United States Senator from Missouri 1979

Jennifer Shahade7

chess player 1980

Edvin Kanka Cudic5

Human rights defender 1988

Death

Robert Boyle21

English natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and invent… 1627–1691

William Gifford2

English critic, editor and poet 1756–1826

Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin1

French politician 1807–1874

Samson Raphael Hirsch4

Jewish theologian, germany 19th century 1808–1888

James David Forbes2

Scottish physicist and glaciologist 1809–1868

Gustave Courbet30

French painter 1819–1877

Aleksis Kivi4

Finnish writer 1834–1872

Miguel de Unamuno199

19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher 1864–1936

Theodor Reik1

austrian-american psychoanalytist 1888–1969

Marshall McLuhan416

Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor … 1911–1980

Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi2

Indian islamic scholar 1913–1999

Thomas Watson, Jr.7

American businessman and diplomat 1914–1993

Sebastian de Grazia1

American writer 1917–2000

Gérard Debreu3

French economist and mathematician 1921–2004

Roy Amara

American researcher, scientist 1925–2007

George Michael Sinclair Kennedy1

British historian 1926–2014

Donald E. Westlake19

American novelist 1933–2008

Roberto Clemente170

Puerto Rican baseball player 1934–1972

Joan Micklin Silver3

American film director 1935–2020

Ricky Nelson1

American musician (1940-1985) 1940–1985

Rudy Giuliani29

American businessperson and politician, former mayor of New… 1944–2001

Penny Jordan1

British women's author 1946–2011

D.M. Turner5

American drug researcher 1962–1996

John Wycliffe6

English theologian and early dissident in the Roman Catholi…