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• 
  

• 
  2005 Cronulla riots
  The 2005 Cronulla riots were a series of sectarian clashes and mob violence originating in Cronulla, New South Wales, and spreading, over the next few nights, to additional Sydney suburbs.
  On 4 December 2005, a group of volunteer surf lifesavers was assaulted by a group of young men of Middle Eastern appearance, with several other violent assaults occurring over the next week. These incidents were widely reported and commented on in Sydney media. An initially peaceful crowd gathered in the morning of Sunday, 11 December 2005, and, by midday, approximately 5,000 people gathered at Cronulla beach to protest against a recent spate of violence against locals.
  However, fuelled by alcohol, the crowd turned to violence when a young man of "Middle Eastern appearance" was spotted on the beach. He was surrounded by a crowd outside a local hotel and attacked. Retaliatory riots also took place that night and on subsequent nights, resulting in extensive property damage and several more assaults, including one stabbing and even some attacks against ambulance and police officers.
  
  wn.com/2005_Cronulla_riots
• 
  Acre, Israel
  Acre (Hebrew: עַכּוֹ‎‎, Akko; Arabic: عكّا‎, ʻAkkā), is a city in the Western Galilee region of northern Israel at the northern extremity of Haifa Bay. Acre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites in the country.
  Historically, it was a strategic coastal link to the Levant. Acre is the holiest city of the Bahá'í Faith. In 2009, the population was 46,300. Acre is a mixed city, 72 percent Jewish and 28 percent Arab. The mayor is Shimon Lankri, who was re-elected in 2011.
  The source of the name Akko is unknown. The Egyptians used it as long ago as the second millennium BC, but as it appears in the hieroglyphics as merely two consonants, its pronunciation is unknown.
  In the Amarna letters, written in Akkadian, the letter "H" is used to signify the guttural Hebrew letters alef-heh-chet-ayin, and therefore it was possible to write the name of the city as if it were "Haca" or "Aca". Had the name not been preserved, we would not have been able to identify it with certainty with the name that appears in hieroglyphics. In Assyrian the name has been preserved with the spelling "AKK".
  
  wn.com/Acre,_Israel
• 
  Algiers
  Algiers (Arabic: الجزائر‎, al-Jazā’ir; Algerian Arabic: دزاير, Berber: Dzayer / ⴷⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000. An estimate puts the population at about 3,574,000 as of 2010.
  Called El-Behdja (البهجة) or alternatively Alger la Blanche ("Algiers the White") for the glistening white of its buildings as seen rising up from the sea, Algiers is situated on the west side of a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. The modern part of the city is built on the level ground by the seashore; the old part, the ancient city of the deys, climbs the steep hill behind the modern town and is crowned by the casbah or citadel, 122 metres (400 ft) above the sea. The casbah and the two quays form a triangle.
  The city name is derived (via French Alger and Catalan Alger) from the Arabic name الجزائر al-Jazā’ir, which translates as "The Islands", referring to the four islands which lay off the city's coast until becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-Jazā’ir is itself a truncated form of the city's older name جزائر بني مازغان Jazā’ir Banī Mazghannā, "The Islands of the Sons of Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi.
  
  wn.com/Algiers
• 
  Australia
  Australia ( /əˈstreɪljə/), officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent as well as the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area. Neighbouring countries include Indonesia, East Timor and Papua New Guinea to the north; the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia to the north-east; and New Zealand to the south-east.
  For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of roughly 250 language groups. After discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Great Britain in 1770 and settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales from 26 January 1788. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades; the continent was explored and an additional five self-governing Crown Colonies were established.
  
  wn.com/Australia
• 
  Buenos Aires
  Buenos Aires ( /ˈbweɪnəs ˈɛəriːz/ or /ˈaɪrɪs/,Spanish: [ˈbwenos ˈaiɾes]) is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after Greater Sao Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent. Greater Buenos Aires conurbation, which also includes several Buenos Aires Province districts, constitutes the third-largest conurbation in Latin America, with a population of around thirteen million.
  The city of Buenos Aires is not a part of Buenos Aires Province, nor is it the Province's capital, but an autonomous district. In 1880, after decades of political infighting, Buenos Aires was federalised and removed from Buenos Aires Province. The city limits were enlarged to include the towns of Belgrano and Flores (both are currently neighborhoods of the city). The 1994 constitutional amendment granted the city autonomy, hence its formal name: Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires (Autonomous City of Buenos Aires). Its citizens first elected a Chief of Government (i.e. Mayor) in 1996; before, the Mayor was directly appointed by the President of the Republic.
  
  wn.com/Buenos_Aires
• 
  Burkina Faso
  Burkina Faso (ⁱ/bərˌkiːnə ˈfɑːsoʊ/ bər-KEE-nə FAH-soh; French: [buʁkina faso]) – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest. The country's capital is Ouagadougou.
  Its size is 274,200 square kilometres (105,900 sq mi) with an estimated population of more than 15,757,000. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, it was renamed on 4 August 1984, by President Thomas Sankara, to mean "the land of upright people" in Mòoré and Dioula, the major native languages of the country. Figuratively, "Burkina" may be translated, "men of integrity", from the Mòoré language, and "Faso" means "fatherland" in Dioula. The inhabitants of Burkina Faso are known as Burkinabè ( /bərˈkiːnəbeɪ/ bər-KEE-nə-bay).
  Burkina Faso was populated between 14,000 and 5000 BC by hunter-gatherers in the country's northwestern region. Farm settlements appeared between 3600 and 2600 BC. What is now central Burkina Faso was principally composed of Mossi kingdoms. These Mossi Kingdoms would become a French protectorate in 1896. After gaining independence from France in 1960, the country underwent many governmental changes until arriving at its current form, a semi-presidential republic. The president is Blaise Compaoré.
  
  wn.com/Burkina_Faso
• 
  Canada
  Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
  The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
  
  wn.com/Canada
• 
  Chechnya
  
  
  The Chechen Republic ( /ˈtʃɛtʃɨn/; Russian: Чече́нская Респу́блика, Chechenskaya Respublika; Chechen: Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika), commonly referred to as Chechnya (/ˈtʃɛtʃniə/; Russian: Чечня́, Chechnya; Chechen: Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria (English: Land of Minerals), is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny. Population: 1,268,989 (2010 Census).
  After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was split into two: the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which sought independence. Following the First Chechen War with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Russian federal control was restored during the Second Chechen War. Since then there has been a systematic reconstruction and rebuilding process, though sporadic fighting continues in the mountains and southern regions of the republic.
  
  wn.com/Chechnya
• 
  China
  China (ⁱ/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
  The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
  
  wn.com/China
• 
  Cilmeri
  Cilmeri (sometimes given the anglicised spelling Cilmery) is a village in Powys, mid-Wales two and a half miles west of Builth Wells on the A483 to Llandovery. The village is served by Cilmeri railway station on the Heart of Wales Line. In the 2001 census, Cilmeri Community had a population of 438 and 191 households.
  The village is famous for being close to the spot where the last native Prince of Wales of direct descent, Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, was slain in a skirmish by soldiers in the service of Edward I of England, on 11 December 1282.
  A memorial stone to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd was erected on the site in 1956 and serves as the focal point for an annual day of remembrance on the anniversary of his death.
  Coordinates: 52°9′2.21″N 3°27′25.41″W / 52.1506139°N 3.4570583°W / 52.1506139; -3.4570583
  
  wn.com/Cilmeri
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  Constantinople
  Constantinople (Greek: Κωνσταντινούπολις, Konstantinoúpolis; Latin: Constantinopolis; Ottoman Turkish: قسطنطینیه, Qostantiniyye; and modern Turkish: İstanbul) was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, the Latin and the Ottoman Empires. It was founded in AD 330, at ancient Byzantium as the new capital of the Roman Empire by Constantine I, after whom it was named. The city was the largest and wealthiest European city of the Middle Ages, and shared the glories of the Byzantine Empire, which was eventually reduced to the city and its environs.
  Although besieged on numerous occasions by various peoples, it was taken only in 1204 by the army of the Fourth Crusade, in 1261 by Michael VIII, and in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. An inner wall was erected by Constantine I, and the city was surrounded by a triple wall of fortifications, begun during the 5th century by Theodosius II. The city was built on seven hills as well as on the Bosporus, and thus presented an impregnable fortress enclosing magnificent palaces, domes and towers. The Church of Hagia Sophia, the sacred palace of the emperors, the hippodrome, and the Golden Gate were among the largest of the many churches, public edifices, and monuments lining the arcaded avenues and squares.
  
  wn.com/Constantinople
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  Cronulla
  Cronulla is a beachside suburb, in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cronulla is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Sutherland Shire.
  Cronulla is located on a peninsula framed by Botany Bay to the north, Bate Bay to the east, Port Hacking to the south, and Gunnamatta Bay to the west. The neighbouring suburb of Woolooware lies to the west of Cronulla, and Burraneer lies to the southwest. The Kurnell peninsula, the site of the first landfall on the eastern coastline made by Lt. (later Captain) James Cook in 1770, is reached by driving northeast out of Cronulla on Captain Cook Drive.
  Cronulla is derived from kurranulla, meaning ‘‘place of the pink seashells’’ in the dialect of the area's Aboriginal inhabitants, the Gweagal, who were a clan of the Tharawal (or Dharawal) tribe of Indigenous Australians. They were the traditional custodians of the southern geographic areas of Sydney. The beaches were named by Surveyor Robert Dixon who surveyed here in 1827-28 and by 1840, the main beach was still known as Karranulla.
  
  wn.com/Cronulla
• December 2005
  Template:Portal:Current events/Month Inclusion Template:Portal:Current events/Events by month
  See: Wikipedia:News collections and sources.
  Coordinates: 6°13′S 29°36′E / 6.217°S 29.6°E / -6.217; 29.6
  
  wn.com/December_2005
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  Dominion of Canada
  Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km² (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
  The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.
  
  wn.com/Dominion_of_Canada
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  El Mozote massacre
  The El Mozote Massacre took place in and around the village of El Mozote, in Morazán department, El Salvador, on December 11, 1981, when Salvadoran armed forces killed at least 200 and up to 1000 civilians in an anti-guerrilla campaign during the Salvadoran Civil War.
  As news of the massacre slowly emerged, the Reagan administration in the United States attempted to dismiss it because of its reflection of the human rights abuses of the Salvadoran government, which the U.S. was supporting with large amounts of military aid.
  In December 2011, the El Salvador government apologized for the massacre.
  On the afternoon of December 10, 1981, units of the Salvadoran army's Atlacatl Battalion (named after an indigenous fighter who fought the Spanish in the 16th century) arrived at the remote village of El Mozote after a clash with guerrillas in the vicinity. The Atlacatl was a "Rapid Deployment Infantry Battalion" specially trained for counter-insurgency warfare. It was the first unit of its kind in the Salvadoran armed forces and was trained by United States military advisors. Its mission, Operación Rescate ("Operation Rescue"), was to eliminate the rebel presence in a small region of northern Morazán where the FMLN had a camp and a training center.
  
  wn.com/El_Mozote_massacre
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  El Salvador
  El Salvador ⁱ/ɛl ˈsælvədɔr/ (Spanish: República de El Salvador, literally 'Republic of The Savior') is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country as well as Central America. El Salvador borders the Pacific Ocean on the west, and the countries of Guatemala to the north and Honduras to the east. Its easternmost region lies on the coast of the Gulf of Fonseca, opposite Nicaragua. As of 2009, El Salvador had a population of approximately 5,744,113 people, composed predominantly of Mestizos.
  The colón was the official currency of El Salvador from 1892 to 2001, when it adopted the U.S. Dollar.
  In 2010 El Salvador ranked in the top 10 among Latin American countries in terms of the Human Development Index and in the top 3 in Central America (behind Costa Rica and Panama), due in part to ongoing rapid industrialization. In addition, tropical forests and overall forest cover has expanded by nearly 20 percent from the year 1992 to 2010. Making it one of the few countries experiencing reforestation.
  
  wn.com/El_Salvador
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  Empire of Brazil
  The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom Pedro I and his son Dom Pedro II, both members of the House of Braganza—a branch of the Capetian dynasty. A colony of the Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil became the seat of the Portuguese colonial Empire in 1808, when the Portuguese Prince regent, later King Dom João VI (John VI), fled from Napoleon I's invasion of Portugal and established himself and his government in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. João VI later returned to Portugal, leaving his eldest son and heir, Pedro, to rule Brazil as regent.
  
  wn.com/Empire_of_Brazil
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  England
  England ⁱ/ˈɪŋɡlənd/ is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, while the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separate it from continental Europe. Most of England comprises the central and southern part of the island of Great Britain in the North Atlantic. The country also includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
  The area now called England was first inhabited by modern humans during the Upper Palaeolithic period, but it takes its name from the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes who settled during the 5th and 6th centuries. England became a unified state in AD 927, and since the Age of Discovery, which began during the 15th century, has had a significant cultural and legal impact on the wider world. The English language, the Anglican Church, and English law—the basis for the common law legal systems of many other countries around the world—developed in England, and the country's parliamentary system of government has been widely adopted by other nations. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the world's first industrialised nation. England's Royal Society laid the foundations of modern experimental science.
  
  wn.com/England
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  Guangzhou
  Guangzhou (Chinese: 广州; Mandarin pronunciation: [kwɑ̀ŋʈʂóʊ̯]), known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about 120 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port. One of the five National Central Cities, it holds sub-provincial administrative status.
  Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and southern China's largest city. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 12.78 million. Some estimates place the population of the entire Pearl River Delta Mega City built up area as high as 40 million including Shenzhen (10.36 million), Dongguan (8.22 million) and most parts of Foshan (7.19 million), Jiangmen (4.45 million), Zhongshan (3.12 million) and a small part of Huizhou adjoining Dongguan and Shenzhen, with an area of about 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) (about the size of US state of New Jersey). In 2008 Guangzhou was identified as a Beta World City by the global city index produced by GaWC.
  
  wn.com/Guangzhou
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  Hemel Hempstead
  Coordinates: 51°45′09″N 0°28′09″W / 51.7526°N 0.4692°W / 51.7526; -0.4692
  Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, 24 miles (38.6 km) to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 (but now estimated at around 89,000 by Hertfordshire County Council).
  Developed after World War II as a new town, it has existed as a settlement since the 8th century and was granted its town charter by King Henry VIII in 1539. It is part of the district (and borough since 1984) of Dacorum and the Hemel Hempstead constituency.
  The settlement was called by the name Henamsted or Hean-Hempsted, i.e. High Hempstead, in Anglo-Saxon times and in William the Conqueror's time by the name of Hemel-Amstede. The name is referred to in the Domesday Book as "Hamelamesede", but in later centuries it became Hamelhamsted. In Old English, "-stead" or "-stede" simply meant a place, such as the site of a building or pasture, as in clearing in the woods, and this suffix is used in the names of other English places such as Hamstead and Berkhamsted.
  
  wn.com/Hemel_Hempstead
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  Irish Free State
  The Irish Free State (Irish: Saorstát Éireann) (6 December 1922–1937) was the state established as a dominion under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand. On the day the Irish Free State was established, it comprised the entire island of Ireland, but Northern Ireland almost immediately exercised its right under the treaty to remove itself from the new state. The Irish Free State effectively replaced both the self-proclaimed Irish Republic (founded 21 January 1919) and the Provisional Government of Southern Ireland. W. T. Cosgrave, the first President of the Irish Free State had led both of these "governments" since August 1922.
  The Irish Free State came to an end in 1937, when the citizens voted by referendum to replace the 1922 constitution. It was succeeded by the sovereign, modern state of the Republic of Ireland.
  The Easter Rising of 1916, and in particular the decision of the British military authorities to execute many of its leaders after courts martial, generated sympathy for the republican cause in Ireland. Republicans and some independent Nationalists who led opposition to the idea of compulsory military service for Irish men in the conscription crisis of early 1918. The Irish Parliamentary Party, who supported the Allied cause in World War I in response to the passing of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1914 was discredited by the crisis. In the December 1918 general election, a large majority of Irish seats in the Westminster parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland were won by Sinn Féin, with 73 of 105 constituencies returning Sinn Féin members. Sinn Féin was a previously non-violent separatist party founded by Arthur Griffith in 1905. Under Éamon de Valera's leadership from 1917, it had campaigned aggressively for an Irish republic.
  
  wn.com/Irish_Free_State
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  Israel
  Coordinates: 31°N 35°E / 31°N 35°E / 31; 35
  Israel, officially the State of Israel ( /ˈɪzriːəl/ or  /ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל‎, Medīnat Yisrā'el, IPA: [me̞diˈnät jisʁäˈʔe̞l] ( listen); Arabic: دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل‎, Dawlat Isrāʼīl, IPA: [dawlat ʔisraːˈʔiːl]), is a parliamentary republic in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea to the south, and it contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel is defined as a Jewish and Democratic State in its Basic Laws and is the world's only Jewish-majority state.
  Following the adoption of a resolution by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption and implementation of the United Nations plan to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. Portions of these territories, including east Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel, but the border with the neighboring West Bank has not yet been permanently defined.^{[neutrality is disputed]} Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have so far not resulted in peace.
  
  wn.com/Israel
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  Jerusalem
  Jerusalem ( /dʒəˈruːsələm/; Hebrew: יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‎‎ Yerushaláyim   ; Arabic: القُدس‎ al-Quds    and/or أورشليم Ûrshalîm) is the capital of Israel, though not internationally recognized as such, and one of the oldest cities in the world. It is located in the Judean Mountains, between the Mediterranean Sea and the northern edge of the Dead Sea. If the area and population of East Jerusalem is included, it is Israel's largest city in both population and area, with a population of 801,000 residents over an area of 125.1 km² (48.3 sq mi). Jerusalem is also a holy city to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
  During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times. The oldest part of the city was settled in the 4th millennium BCE. In 1538, walls were built around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today those walls define the Old City, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Modern Jerusalem has grown far beyond its boundaries.
  
  wn.com/Jerusalem
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  Kiribati
  Kiribati ([kɪribas] KIRR-i-bas or ˌkɪrəˈbɑdi;Gilbertese: [ˈkiɾibas]), officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean. The permanent population is just over 100,000 (2011), and the island nation is composed of 32 atolls and one raised coral island, dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres, (1,351,000 square miles) straddling the equator, and bordering the International Date Line at its easternmost point.
  The name Kiribati is the local pronunciation of "Gilberts", derived from the main island chain, the Gilbert Islands. The capital of South Tarawa consists of a number of islets connected through a series of causeways, located in the Tarawa archipelago. Kiribati became independent from the United Kingdom in 1979. It is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the IMF and the World Bank, and became a full member of the United Nations in 1999.
  Kiribati was named in French by captains Krusenstern and Louis Isidore Duperrey "îles Gilbert", Gilbert Islands, after the British Captain Thomas Gilbert, who sighted the islands in 1788. The current name, Kiribati, is an adaptation of "Gilberts", from the former European name the "Gilbert Islands". Although the indigenous Gilbertese language name for the Gilbert Islands proper is Tungaru, the new state chose the name "Kiribati", the Gilbertese rendition of "Gilberts", as an equivalent of the former colony to acknowledge the inclusion of islands which were never considered part of the Gilberts chain.
  
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  Kuala Lumpur
  Kuala Lumpur is the federal capital and most populous city in Malaysia. The city covers an area of 243 km² (94 sq mi) and has an estimated population of 1.6 million as of 2012.Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million. It is among the fastest growing metropolitan regions in the country, in terms of population and economy.
  Kuala Lumpur is the seat of the Parliament of Malaysia. The city was once home to the executive and judicial branches of the federal government, but they were moved to Putrajaya in early 1999. Some sections of the judiciary still remains in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The official residence of the Malaysian King, the Istana Negara, is also situated in Kuala Lumpur. Rated as an alpha world city, Kuala Lumpur is the cultural, financial and economic centre of Malaysia due to its position as the capital as well as being a key city. Kuala Lumpur was ranked 48th among global cities by Foreign Policy's 2010 Global Cities Index and was ranked 67th among global cities for economic and social innovation by the 2thinknow Innovation Cities Index in 2010.
  
  wn.com/Kuala_Lumpur
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  Lebanon
  Lebanon (ⁱ/ˈlɛbənɒn/ or /ˈlɛbənən/; Arabic: لبنان‎ Libnān or Lubnān, Lebanese Arabic: [lɪbˈneːn]), officially the Lebanese Republic (Arabic: الجمهورية اللبنانية‎ al-Jumhūrīyah al-Libnānīyah, Lebanese Arabic: [elˈʒʊmhuːɾɪjje l.ˈlɪbneːnɪjje]), is a country in the East Mediterranean. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east, and Israel to the south. Lebanon's location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland has dictated its rich history, and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity.
  The earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than 7,000 years—predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Phoenicians, a maritime culture that flourished for nearly 2,500 years (3000–539 BC). Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, the five provinces that comprise modern Lebanon were mandated to France. The French expanded the borders of Mount Lebanon, which was mostly populated by Maronite Catholics and Druze, to include more Muslims. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, and established a unique political system, known as confessionalism, a power-sharing mechanism based on religious communities – Bechara El Khoury who became independent Lebanon's first President and Riad El-Solh, who became Lebanon's first prime minister, are considered the founders of the modern Republic of Lebanon and are national heroes for having led the country's independence. French troops withdrew from Lebanon in 1946.
  
  wn.com/Lebanon
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  Malaysia
  Malaysia (ⁱ/məˈleɪʒə/ mə-LAY-zhə or ⁱ/məˈleɪsiə/ mə-LAY-see-ə) is a federal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia. It consists of thirteen states and three federal territories and has a total landmass of 329,847 square kilometres (127,350 sq mi) separated by the South China Sea into two similarly sized regions, Peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. Land borders are shared with Thailand, Indonesia, and Brunei, and maritime borders exist with Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. In 2010 the population exceeded 27.5 million, with over 20 million living on the Peninsula.
  Malaysia has its origins in the Malay Kingdoms present in the area which, from the 18th century, became subject to the British Empire. The first British territories were known as the Straits Settlements, whose establishment was followed by the Malay kingdoms becoming British protectorates. The territories on Peninsular Malaysia were first unified as the Malayan Union in 1946. Malaya was restructured as the Federation of Malaya in 1948, and achieved independence on 31 August 1957. Malaya united with Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore on 16 September 1963, with si being added to give the new country the name Malaysia. However, less than two years later in 1965, Singapore was expelled from the federation. Since independence, Malaysia has had one of the best economic records in Asia, with GDP growing an average 6.5% for almost 50 years. The economy has traditionally been fuelled by its natural resources, but is expanding in the sectors of science, tourism, commerce and medical tourism.
  
  wn.com/Malaysia
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  Mexico
  Mexico (ⁱ/ˈmɛksɨkoʊ/; Spanish: México, IPA: [ˈmexiko] ( listen)), officially the United Mexican States (Spanish:  Estados Unidos Mexicanos (help·info)), is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States of America; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth largest country in the Americas by total area and the thirteenth largest independent nation in the world. With an estimated population of over 113 million, it is the eleventh most populous country and the most populous Spanish-speaking country. Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
  In Pre-Columbian Mexico many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory from its base in México-Tenochtitlan, which was administered as the Viceroyalty of New Spain. This territory would eventually become Mexico as the colony's independence was recognized in 1821. The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, the Mexican-American War and territorial cession to the United States, a civil war, two empires and a domestic dictatorship. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country's current political system. Elections held in July 2000 marked the first time that an opposition party won the presidency from the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
  
  wn.com/Mexico
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  Michoacán
  Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (Spanish pronunciation: [mitʃoaˈkan ðe oˈkampo]), officially Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo (Spanish: Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia (formerly called Valladolid). The city was named after José María Morelos, hero of the Mexican War of Independence.
  Michoacán is located in Western Mexico. It is bordered by the states of Colima and Jalisco to the northwest, Guanajuato and Querétaro to the north, México to the east, Guerrero to the southeast. To the southwest, Michoacán has a stretch of coastline on the Pacific Ocean.
  The name Michoacán is from Nahuatl: Michhuahkan from michhuah (“possessor of fish”) and -kan (place of) and means "place of the fishermen" referring to those who fish on Lake Pátzcuaro. In pre-Hispanic times, the area was the home of the P'urhépecha (Tarascan) Empire, which rivaled the Aztec Empire at the time of Spanish encounter. After the Spanish conquest, the empire became a separate province which became smaller over the colonial period. The state and several of its residents played a major role in the Mexican War of Independence. Today, the state is still home to a large population of P'urhépecha people as well as Otomi and Nahua. The economy is based on agriculture, fishing, mining and some industry. The major tourism draw for the state is the Lake Pátzcuaro-Tzintzuntzan-Quiroga area, which was the center of the P'urhépecha empire.
  
  wn.com/Michoacán
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  Montana
  Montana (ⁱ/mɒnˈtænə/) is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges that are part of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name, derived from the Spanish word montaña (mountain). Montana has several nicknames, none official, including: "Big Sky Country" and "The Treasure State", and slogans that include "Land of the Shining Mountains" and more recently, "The Last Best Place". Montana is the 4th-most extensive, but the 7th-least populous and the 3rd-least densely populated of the 50 United States. The economy is primarily based on services, with ranching, wheat farming, oil and coal mining in the east, and lumber, tourism, and hard rock mining in the west. Millions of tourists annually visit Glacier National Park, the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and three of the five entrances to Yellowstone National Park.
  
  wn.com/Montana
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  Nazi Germany
  The Third Reich, also Nazi Germany, is the common name for Germany when it was a totalitarian state ruled by Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP). On 30 January 1933 Hitler became chancellor of Germany, quickly eliminating all opposition to rule as sole leader. The state idolized Hitler as its Führer ("leader"), centralizing all power in his hands. Historians have emphasized the hypnotic effect of his rhetoric on large audiences, and of his eyes in small groups. Kessel writes, "Overwhelmingly...Germans speak with mystification of Hitler's 'hypnotic' appeal..." Under the "leader principle", the Führer's word was above all other laws. Top officials reported to Hitler and followed his policies, but they had considerable autonomy. The government was not a coordinated, cooperating body, but rather a collection of factions struggling to amass power and curry favor with the Führer. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazi government restored prosperity and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy of free-market and central-planning practices. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of the Autobahns. The return to prosperity gave the regime enormous popularity; the suppression of all opposition made Hitler's rule mostly unchallenged.
  
  wn.com/Nazi_Germany
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  Nobel Peace Prize
  The Nobel Peace Prize (Norwegian and Swedish: Nobels fredspris) is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Chemistry, Physics, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature. It is awarded to those who have "done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
  Per Alfred Nobel's will, the recipient is selected by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, a 5-member committee appointed by the Parliament of Norway. Since 1990, the prize is awarded in Oslo City Hall on 10 December each year. The prize was formerly awarded in the Atrium of the University of Oslo Faculty of Law (1947–89), the Norwegian Nobel Institute (1905–46) and the Parliament (1901–04).
  According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."
  
  wn.com/Nobel_Peace_Prize
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  Pampanga
  Pampanga (PSGC: 035400000; ISO: PH-PAM; Kapampangan: Lalawigan ning Pampanga; Filipino: Lalawigan ng Pampanga) is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Luzon region. Its capital is the City of San Fernando, Pampanga. Pampanga is bordered by the provinces of Bataan and Zambales to the west, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija to the north, and Bulacan to the southeast. Pampanga also lies on the northern shore of Manila Bay. Angeles City, although within the geography of Pampanga, is classified as a first-class, highly urbanized city and has a government independent of Pampanga.
  The name "La Pampanga" was given by the Spaniards who found the early natives living near the river banks. It also served as the capital of the archipelago for two years from 1762-1764 during the British invasion of Manila. However, history shows evidence of the province of Pampanga itself being a descendant of what was known back then as the Kingdom of Tondo, or the Luzon Empire. The word pampang, from which the province's name originates, means river bank. Its creation in 1571 makes it the first Spanish province in the Philippines. The Province of Pampanga is the culinary capital of the Philippines.
  
  wn.com/Pampanga
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  Paraguay
  Paraguay (ⁱ/ˈpɛərəɡwaɪ/, PAIR-ə-gwy), officially the Republic of Paraguay (Spanish: República del Paraguay [reˈpuβlika ðel paɾaˈɣwai], Guaraní: Tetã Paraguái [teˈtã paɾaˈɣwaj]), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south. Due to its central location in South America, it is sometimes referred to as Corazón de América, or the Heart of America.
  The Guaraní have been living in Paraguay since before the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century, when Paraguay became part of the Spanish colonial empire. Following independence from Spain in 1811, Paraguay was ruled by a series of dictators who followed isolationist and protectionist policies. This development was truncated by the disastrous Paraguayan War (1864–1870) in which the country lost 60% to 70% of its population and large amounts of territory. During a large part of the 20th century, Paraguay was ruled by Alfredo Stroessner, who led one of South America's longest lived military dictatorships. In 1989 Stroessner was toppled and free elections were celebrated in 1993. In 1994 Paraguay joined Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay to found Mercosur.
  
  wn.com/Paraguay
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  Russia
  Russia ⁱ/ˈrʌʃə/ or /ˈrʊʃə/ (Russian: Россия, tr. Rossiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijə] ( listen)), also officially known as the Russian Federation (Russian: Российская Федерация, tr. Rossiyskaya Federatsiya; IPA: [rɐˈsʲijskəjə fʲɪdʲɪˈratsɨjə] ( listen)), is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (both via Kaliningrad Oblast), Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea. It also has maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk, and the US state of Alaska by the Bering Strait. At 17,075,400 square kilometres (6,592,800 sq mi), Russia is the largest country in the world, covering more than one eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area. Russia is also the eighth most populous nation with 143 million people. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones and incorporating a wide range of environments and landforms. Russia has the world's largest reserves of mineral and energy resources and is the largest producer of oil and natural gas globally. Russia has the world's largest forest reserves and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of the world's fresh water.
  
  wn.com/Russia
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  Sydney
  Sydney ( /sɪdni/) is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is classified as an Alpha+ World City indicating its influence in the region and throughout the world.
  Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people. Inhabitants of Sydney are called Sydneysiders, comprising a cosmopolitan and international population.
  The site of the first British colony in Australia, Sydney was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Arthur Phillip, commodore of the First Fleet as a penal colony. The city is built on hills surrounding Port Jackson which is commonly known as Sydney Harbour, where the iconic Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge feature prominently. The hinterland of the metropolitan area is surrounded by national parks, and the coastal regions feature many bays, rivers, inlets and beaches including the famous Bondi Beach and Manly Beach. Within the city are many notable parks, including Hyde Park and the Royal Botanic Gardens.
  
  wn.com/Sydney
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  Tehran, Iran
  Tehran ( pronunciation (help·info)) (Persian: تهران‎ Tehrān; pronounced [tehˈɾɒːn]), sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, the largest city in Western Asia, one of the largest in Southern Asia, and the 19th-largest city globally.
  In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to mass-migration of people from all around Iran. The city is home to many historic mosques, churches, synagogues and Zoroastrian fire temples. Contemporary Tehran is a modern city featuring many structures, of which the Azadi (Freedom) Tower and the Milad Tower have come to be symbols of Tehran itself. In 2008 Tehran was the least expensive capital in the world and the second-least expensive city globally based on the cost-of-living index presenting the best value for money in the world. Globally it stands 19th by city population, 56th by the size of its GDP and 29th by the population of its metropolitan area. Throughout Iran's history, the capital city has been relocated many times, with Tehran being the 32nd national capital of Iran. Persian is the city's native tongue, with roughly 98% of the population able to speak and understand it. The majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as Persians. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Tehran was called Ray (which in the Avesta occurs in the form of Ragha)^{[citation needed]}.
  
  wn.com/Tehran,_Iran
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  Tokyo
  Tokyo (東京, Tōkyō^?, "Eastern Capital") [toːkʲoː], English /ˈtoʊki.oʊ/; officially Tokyo Metropolis (東京都, Tōkyō-to^?), is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of the world. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family. Tokyo is in the Kantō region on the southeastern side of the main island Honshu and includes the Izu Islands and Ogasawara Islands. Tokyo Metropolis was formed in 1943 from the merger of the former Tokyo Prefecture (東京府, Tōkyō-fu^?) and the city of Tokyo (東京市, Tōkyō-shi^?).
  The Tokyo Metropolitan government administers the 23 special wards of Tokyo (each governed as a city), which cover the area that was the city of Tokyo, as well as 39 municipalities in the western part of the prefecture and the two outlying island chains. The population of the special wards is over 8 million people, with the total population of the prefecture exceeding 13 million. The prefecture is part of the world's most populous metropolitan area with upwards of 35 million people and the world's largest urban agglomeration economy with a GDP of US$1.479 trillion at purchasing power parity in 2008, ahead of New York City metropolitan area, which ranks second on the list. The city hosts 47 of the Fortune Global 500 companies, the highest amount of any city.
  
  wn.com/Tokyo
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  Tom Hayden
  Thomas Emmet "Tom" Hayden (born December 11, 1939) is an American social and political activist, author, and politician, who is director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver City, California. Best known for his leadership role in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s, Hayden is the former husband of actress Jane Fonda and the father of their son, actor Troy Garity.
  Tom Hayden was born in Detroit, Michigan, to parents of Irish descent. He graduated from Dondero High School in Royal Oak, Michigan, class of 1956. He later attended the University of Michigan, where he was editor of the Michigan Daily and, disenchanted by the anti-radicalism of existing groups like the National Student Association (later revealed to be a CIA front), was one of the founders of the influential New Left student activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Hayden became one of the most prominent figures in the Sixties New Left movement and one of the most visible and outspoken opponents of the War in Vietnam.
  
  wn.com/Tom_Hayden
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  United States
  The United States of America (commonly abbreviated to the United States, the U.S., the USA, America, and the States) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west, across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Pacific and Caribbean.
  At 3.79 million square miles (9.83 million km²) and with over 312 million people, the United States is the third or fourth largest country by total area, and the third largest by both land area and population. It is one of the world's most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, the product of large-scale immigration from many countries. The U.S. economy is the world's largest national economy, with an estimated 2011 GDP of $15.1 trillion (22% of nominal global GDP and over 19% of global GDP at purchasing-power parity). Per capita income is the world's sixth-highest.
  
  wn.com/United_States
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  Wales
  Wales ⁱ/ˈweɪlz/ (Welsh: Cymru;Welsh pronunciation: [ˈkəm.rɨ] ( listen)) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain,bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km² (8,023 sq mi). Wales has over 1,200 km (750 mi) of coastline, including its offshore islands; the largest, Anglesey (Ynys Môn), is also the largest island in the Irish Sea. Wales is largely mountainous, with its highest peaks in the north and central areas, especially in Snowdonia (Eryri), which contains Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), its highest summit.
  During the Iron Age and early medieval period, Wales was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. A distinct Welsh national identity emerged in the centuries after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales is regarded as one of the modern Celtic nations today. Gruffydd ap Llywelyn was recognised as King of Wales in 1057. Llywelyn ap Gruffydd's death in 1282 marked the completion of Edward I of England's conquest of Wales. The castles and town walls erected to ensure its permanence are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Owain Glyndŵr briefly restored independence to what was to become modern Wales, in the early 15th century. Wales was subsequently annexed by England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 since when, excluding those matters now devolved to Wales, English law has been the legal system of Wales and England. Distinctive Welsh politics developed in the 19th century. Welsh Liberalism, exemplified in the early 20th century by Lloyd George, was displaced by the growth of socialism and the Labour Party. Welsh national feeling grew over the century; Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and The Welsh Language Society in 1962. The National Assembly for Wales, created in 1999 following a referendum, holds responsibility for a range of devolved policy matters.
  
  wn.com/Wales

• Aaron Feuerstein
  Aaron Feuerstein (born December 11, 1925) was the third-generation owner and CEO of Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
  When the Malden Mills factory burnt down on December 11, 1995, Feuerstein decided not only to use his insurance money to rebuild it, but to also pay the salaries of all the now-unemployed workers while it was being rebuilt. Feuerstein spent millions keeping all 3,000 employees on the payroll with full benefits for 6 months. By going against common CEO business practices, especially at a time when most companies were downsizing and moving overseas, he achieved a small degree of fame.
  Feuerstein claimed that he couldn't have taken another course of action due to his study of the Talmud and the lessons he learnt there:
  It would cost Aaron Feuerstein $25,000,000, his CEO position, and a November 2001 filing of chapter 11 bankruptcy to 'do the right thing'. The company achieved solvency again with the help of creditor generosity and government subsidies. Malden Mills later garnered some lucrative Department of Defense (DOD) contracts for 'smart' products that interweave fiber optic cabling, electronic biosensors, and USB ports into polar fleece fabric. Malden Mills was awarded a $16 million dollar DOD contract in 2006. In January 2007, however, Malden Mills filed for bankruptcy again and ended production in July. The company's underfunded (by 49%) pension was abandoned due to sale of corporate assets.
  
  wn.com/Aaron_Feuerstein
• Ahmadou Kourouma
  Ahmadou Kourouma (November 24, 1927 Boundiali – December 11, 2003 Lyon) was an Ivorian novelist.
  The eldest son of a distinguished Malinké family, Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Côte d'Ivoire. Raised by his uncle, he initially pursued studies in Bamako, Mali. From 1950 to 1954, when his country was still under French colonial control, he participated in French military campaigns in Indochina, after which he journeyed to France to study mathematics in Lyon.
  Kourouma returned to his native Côte d'Ivoire after it won its independence in 1960, yet he quickly found himself questioning the government of Félix Houphouët-Boigny. After brief imprisonment, Kourouma spent several years in exile, first in Algeria (1964–1969), then in Cameroon (1974–1984) and Togo (1984–1994), before finally returning to live in Côte d'Ivoire.
  Determined to speak out against the betrayal of legitimate African aspirations at the dawn of independence, Kourouma was drawn into an experiment in fiction. His first novel, Les soleils des indépendances (The Suns of Independence, 1970) contains a critical treatment of post-colonial governments in Africa. Twenty years later, his second book Monnè, outrages et défis, a history of a century of colonialism, was published. In 1998, he published En attendant le vote des bêtes sauvages, (translated as Waiting for the Wild Beasts to Vote), a satire of post colonial Africa in the style of Voltaire in which a griot recounts the story of a tribal hunter's transformation into a dictator, inspired by president Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo. In 2000, he published Allah n'est pas obligé (translated as Allah is Not Obliged), a tale of an orphan who becomes a child soldier when traveling to visit his aunt in Liberia.
  
  wn.com/Ahmadou_Kourouma
• Al-Afdal Shahanshah
  al-Malik al-Afdal ibn Badr al-Jamali Shahanshah (1066 – December 11, 1121) (Arabic: الأفضل شاهنشاه بن بدر الجمالي‎) was a vizier of the Fatimid caliphs of Egypt.
  He was born in Acre, the son of Badr al-Jamali, an Armenian who became Muslim. Badr was vizier for the Fatimids in Cairo from 1074 until his death in 1094, when al-Afdal succeeded him. Caliph Ma'ad al-Mustansir Billah died soon afterwards, and al-Afdal appointed as caliph al-Musta'li, a child, instead of al-Mustali's much older brother Nizar. Nizar revolted and was defeated in 1095; his supporters, led by Hassan-i-Sabah, fled east, where Hassan established the Ismaili community, sometimes erroneously called the Hashshashin, or Assassins.
  At this time Fatimid power in Palestine had been reduced by the arrival of the Seljuk Turks. In 1097 he captured Tyre from the Seljuks, and in 1098 he took Jerusalem, expelling its Ortoqid governor Ilghazi in place of a Fatimid. Al-Afdal restored most of Palestine to Fatimid control, at least temporarily.
  
  wn.com/Al-Afdal_Shahanshah
• Aladár Kovácsi
  Aladár Kovácsi (December 11, 1932 – April 8, 2010) was a Hungarian modern pentathlete and Olympic champion.
  Kovácsi received a gold medal in modern pentathlon at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki with the Hungarian team.
  
  wn.com/Aladár_Kovácsi
• Alessandro Melli
  Alessandro Melli (born 11 December 1969 in Agrigento, Sicily) is an Italian retired footballer who played as a striker.
  Melli's father was a professional footballer, playing as a centre forward for Parma AC, and the son followed in his footsteps. He made his Parma debut aged 17, and was part of the team that was promoted from the third to the top level.
  After a loan spell at Modena F.C. that was cut short when he fell out with coach Paolo Ferrari, Melli returned to Parma, quickly establishing himself in Parma's first team in the early 1990s, in what was a golden period for the club. As part of that ducali squad, he won an Italian Cup in 1991–92, and a UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in the following season (in the final of which he scored), being part of an attacking line-up that featured also Faustino Asprilla, Tomas Brolin and Gianfranco Zola.
  Melli left Parma in 1994, spending six months each at U.C. Sampdoria and A.C. Milan (who swapped Ruud Gullit for him), before returning to the Ennio Tardini after one year away. This lasted two years, but he did not manage to recapture his old form, and was later transferred to Serie B side Perugia Calcio in 1997, where he immediately won promotion to the first division. He left Perugia in 2000, and ended his career with a season spell at A.C. Ancona.
  
  wn.com/Alessandro_Melli
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  Amon Göth
   Amon Leopold Goeth (help·info) (represented in German as Göth) (11 December 1908 – 13 September 1946; pronounced [ˈɡøːt]) was an SS Hauptsturmführer (Captain) and the commandant of the Nazi concentration camp in Płaszów in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He was tried as a war criminal after the war. After the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland at Kraków found him guilty of murdering tens of thousands of people, he was executed by hanging not far from the former site of the Płaszów camp. The film Schindler's List memorably depicts his occasional practice shooting camp internees for sport.
  Goeth was born in Vienna, then the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to a family in the book publishing industry. Goeth joined a Nazi youth group at the age of 17, moved to a nationalist paramilitary group at the age of 19, and by the age of 22, became a member of the Austrian branch of the Nazi Party. In September 1930, he was assigned the Party Number 510,764. Göth simultaneously joined the Austrian SS and was appointed an SS-Mann with the SS Number 43,673.
  
  wn.com/Amon_Göth
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  Andrew Lansley
  Andrew David Lansley, CBE, MP (born 11 December 1956) is a British politician who has been the Secretary of State for Health since 2010, the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) for South Cambridgeshire since the 1997 general election, and was the Shadow Secretary of State for Health from June 2004 until becoming Secretary of State for Health in May 2010. Lansley's Health and Social Care Act 2012 is one of the most controversial plans of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, resulting in strong opposition from both the Royal College of Nursing and British Medical Association.
  Born in Hornchurch, Essex, Lansley was educated at Brentwood School and the University of Exeter, gaining a BA in politics. During his time at Exeter University, Lansley was elected as President of the Guild of Students (Student Union), as a Broad Left candidate. His father, Thomas, worked in a pathology laboratory and was co-founder of the Council for Professions Supplementary to Medicine and chair of the Institute of Medical Laboratory Scientists.
  
  wn.com/Andrew_Lansley
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  André Lichnerowicz
  André Lichnerowicz (January 21, 1915 – December 11, 1998) was a noted French differential geometer and mathematical physicist of Polish descent.
  His grandfather fought in Polish resistance against the Prussians. Forced to flee Poland in 1860, he finally settled in France, where he married a woman from Auvergne. Lichnerowicz's father held agrégation in classics, while his mother, a descendant of paper makers, was one of the first women to earn the agrégation in mathematics. André attended the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, gaining aggregation in 1936. After two years, he entered the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) as one of the first researchers recruited by this institution.
  Lichnerowicz studied differential geometry under Élie Cartan. His doctoral dissertation, completed in 1939 under the supervision of Georges Darmois, concerned what are now called the Lichnerowicz matching conditions in general relativity.
  His academic career began under the cloud of German occupation, during World War II. He taught at the University of Strasbourg, which was moved to Clermont Ferrand and only returned to Strasbourg in 1945, where he taught until 1949. From 1949-1952 he taught at the University of Paris. In 1952 he was appointed to the Collège de France, where he taught until his retirement in 1986. He was made a member of the Académie des Sciences in 1963.
  
  wn.com/André_Lichnerowicz
• Anne Heywood
  Anne Heywood (born 11 December 1932) is a British film actress. Born as Violet Pretty in Handsworth, Birmingham, England, she won the Miss Great Britain title under her real name in 1950, At one time she was the personal assistant of Radio's Talent Spotter Carroll Levis, a show which toured the countries main Theatres throughout Great Britain. Later she also attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She began acting in films in the early 1950s, first in supporting roles but gradually evolving into a leading lady.
  One of her more prominent film roles was in a film adaptation of a D. H. Lawrence novel, The Fox, co-starring Sandy Dennis, made in 1967, which caused controversy at the time due to its lesbian themes. In the 1970s, she appeared in several giallo-type thrillers made in Italy.
  Her career declined in the 1980s. Her penultimate role was on the United States television series The Equalizer, which starred actor Edward Woodward, in 1988 as Manon Brevard Marcel. The following year she appeared in a television movie, Memories of Manon, based on this same character. After this role she retired. She resides in California.
  
  wn.com/Anne_Heywood
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  Annie Jump Cannon
  Annie Jump Cannon (December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of the Harvard Classification Scheme, which was the first serious attempt to organize and classify stars based on their temperatures.
  The daughter of shipbuilder and state senator Wilson Lee Cannon and his second wife, Mary Elizabeth Jump, Cannon grew up in Dover, Delaware. Cannon's mother had a childhood interest in star-gazing, and she passed that interest along to her daughter. She had four older step-siblings from her father's first marriage, as well as two brothers, Robert and Wilson. Cannon never married but was happy to be an aunt to her brother's children.
  At Wilmington Conference Academy, Cannon was a promising student, particularly in mathematics. In 1880 Cannon was sent to Wellesley College in Massachusetts, one of the top academic schools for women in the U.S. The cold winter climate in the area led to repeated infections, and in one Cannon was stricken with scarlet fever. As a result, Cannon became almost completely deaf.
  
  wn.com/Annie_Jump_Cannon
• Arthur Lydiard
  Arthur Leslie Lydiard, ONZ, OBE, (6 July 1917 – 11 December 2004) was a New Zealand runner and athletics coach. He has been lauded as one of the outstanding athletics coaches of all time and is credited with popularizing the sport of running and making it commonplace across the sporting world. His training methods are based on a strong endurance base and periodisation.
  Lydiard competed in the Men's Marathon at the 1950 British Empire Games in Auckland, coming thirteenth with a time of 2h:54m:51.6s.
  Lydiard presided over New Zealand's golden era in world track and field during the 1960s sending Murray Halberg, Peter Snell and Barry Magee to the podium at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Under Lydiard's tutelage Snell went on to double-gold at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Athletes subsequently coached by him or influenced by his coaching methods included such luminaries as Rod Dixon, John Walker, Dick Quax and Dick Tayler.
  He was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1962 and in 1990 was made an Additional Member of the Order of New Zealand. He also became a life member of Athletics New Zealand in 2003.
  
  wn.com/Arthur_Lydiard
• Arthur Mullard
  Arthur Ernest Mullard, original surname Mullord (c. 19 September 1910 – 11 December 1995) was an English comedy actor.
  Mullard was born in a humble background in Islington, London, started work at 14 as a butcher's assistant, and joined the Army at 18. It was in the army that he began boxing, becoming champion of his regiment. When he left the Army after three years he had a short stint at boxing professionally. This ended after 20 fights over three years, following a knock-out from which he lost his memory.
  Following the end of the Second World War in 1945 he sought work as a stuntman at Pinewood and Ealing film studios, from which he drifted into uncredited bit-parts in British films such as Oliver Twist (1948), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and The Ladykillers (1955).
  Mullard's face and cockney accent lent itself to a certain character, and he graduated to more visible roles in comedy films and on television. It was on television that Mullard made a name for himself, first as a straight man for Tony Hancock, Frankie Howerd and Benny Hill, then in The Arthur Askey Show. It was the London Weekend Television series Romany Jones, first aired in 1973, which give Mullard his highest profile, playing Wally Briggs, a crafty caravan-dweller.
  
  wn.com/Arthur_Mullard
• Artur Lundkvist
  Artur Lundkvist (3 March 1906 in Perstorp Municipality, Skåne County – 11 December 1991 in Solna, Stockholm County) was a Swedish writer, poet and literary critic. He was a member of the Swedish Academy from 1968.
  He wrote around 80 books, and his works have been translated into some 30 languages. Lundkvist published a number of poems, including Om natten (In The Night). He is also noted for having translated many works from Spanish and French into Swedish. Several authors he translated were later awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
  He married the poet Maria Wine in 1936.
  During the Cold War, Lundkvist was an adherent of the so called "third stance" (Swedish: tredje ståndpunkten) in Swedish public debate, which advocated a neutral stance in the conflict between the two superpowers. Despite this, he served on the board of the pro-communist Sweden-GDR Association. He was also a member of the Swedish Peace Committee, the Swedish section of the World Peace Council. In 1958 he was awarded the Lenin Peace Prize from the Soviet Union.
  
  wn.com/Artur_Lundkvist
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  Arya (actor)
  Arya (born as Jamshad on 11 December 1980) is an Indian film actor who mainly appears in Tamil films. He is best known for his roles in the films Pattiyal (2006), Naan Kadavul (2009), Arinthum Ariyamalum, Madrasapattinam (2010), Boss Engira Bhaskaran (2010) & Vettai (2012).
  Arya was born on 11 December 1980 in Trikarpur, Kerala, India into a Malayali Muslim Dhobi family. He has a younger brother, named Sathya and Razi, who is studying. He graduated with an engineering degree from Crescent Engineering College, based at Vandalur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He did his schooling in SBOA Matriculation and Higher Secondary School, Chennai.
  
  wn.com/Arya_(actor)
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  Ben Browder
  Robert Benedic "Ben" Browder (born December 11, 1962) is an American actor and writer, best known for his roles as John Crichton in Farscape and Cameron Mitchell in Stargate SG-1.
  Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Browder grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina. His parents were race car owners and operators. He attended Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina and graduated with a degree in psychology. He was a star player on the Furman football team. Browder met his wife, actress Francesca Buller, while studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
  Browder appeared as a recurring guest on the U.S. television show Party of Five as Sam Brody in its 3rd season in 1997. Browder and Buller moved with their two children to Australia during the production of Farscape (1999–2003), on which Browder starred as American astronaut John Crichton. Buller played several guest roles on the show. The two returned to the United States in 2003 following the cancellation of Farscape. He has received two Saturn Awards for Best Actor In A Television Role for his acting in Farscape. He appeared in the 2004 movie A Killer Within, co-starring C. Thomas Howell and Sean Young. Also in 2004, he portrayed fellow actor Lee Majors in the made-for-TV film Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Charlie's Angels.
  
  wn.com/Ben_Browder
• Ben Shephard
  Benjamin Peter "Ben" Shephard, also known as "Sheps" (born Wednesday 11 December 1974) is an English television presenter who currently works for Sky Sports. His most recognised work is with the now defunct breakfast station GMTV as well as various roles within ITV.
  Shephard attended Chigwell School in Essex, and went on to achieve a 2:1 BA Hons degree from the University of Birmingham in Dance, Drama & Theatre Arts. A West Ham United supporter, he has also received honours in both rugby and football.
  On 30 June 2010, he announced his departure from GMTV two months earlier than planned in order to spend time with his family and do some charity work across Britain On 27 July, he announced he is signing a new contract with Sky Sports. He will work on live football and co-present Goals On Sunday in a deal worth a reported £495,000 a year On 30 July, he presented his final GMTV show. On 8 August 2010, he started doing work for Sky Sports on the show Goals on Sunday whilst doing a number of new projects with ITV.
  
  wn.com/Ben_Shephard
• Bess Armstrong
  Elizabeth Key "Bess" Armstrong (born December 11, 1953) is an American film and television actress.
  Armstrong was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Louise Allen (née Parlange), who taught at Bryn Mawr, and Alexander Armstrong, an English teacher at the Gilman School. She attended the Bryn Mawr School for Girls and Brown University, from which she graduated with degrees in Latin and Theater (studying acting with Jim Barnhill and John Emigh). While at Bryn Mawr and Brown, Armstrong appeared in over one hundred stage plays.
  Armstrong's professional acting career began in 1975 with the Off-Off Broadway debut, Harmony House. Then, in 1977, Armstrong made her television debut as Julia Peters on the CBS sitcom, On Our Own. In 1978 Armstrong starred opposite Richard Thomas in her first TV-movie Getting Married.
  Armstrong continued to make several films for both the big and small screens in the 1980s, among them High Road to China opposite Tom Selleck; Jaws 3-D with Dennis Quaid; Alan Alda's The Four Seasons; the TV miniseries Lace; and Nothing in Common, starring Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason.
  
  wn.com/Bess_Armstrong
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  Betsy Blair
  Betsy Blair (December 11, 1923 – March 13, 2009) was an American actress of film and stage, long based in London.
  Blair pursued a career in entertainment from the age of eight, and as a child worked as an amateur dancer, performed on radio, and worked as a model, before joining the chorus of Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe in 1940. There she met Gene Kelly; they were married the following year, when she was seventeen years old, they divorced sixteen years later in 1957.
  After work in the theatre, Blair began her film career playing supporting roles in films such as A Double Life (1947) and Another Part of the Forest (1948). Her interest in Marxism led to an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee and Blair was blacklisted for some time, but resumed her career with a critically acclaimed performance in Marty (1955), winning a BAFTA Award and a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
  She continued her career with regular theatre, film and television work until the mid 1990s.
  
  wn.com/Betsy_Blair
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  Bettie Page
  Bettie Mae Page (April 22, 1923 Nashville, Tennessee – December 11, 2008) was an American model who became famous in the 1950s for her fetish modeling and pin-up photos. She has often been called the "Queen of Pinups". Her look, including her jet black hair, blue eyes and trademark bangs, has influenced many artists.
  She was "Miss January 1955", one of the earliest Playmates of the Month for Playboy magazine. "I think that she was a remarkable lady, an iconic figure in pop culture who influenced sexuality, taste in fashion, someone who had a tremendous impact on our society,"Playboy founder Hugh Hefner told the Associated Press.
  In 1959, she converted to born-again Christianity, and later worked for Billy Graham. Her later life was marked by depression, violent mood swings and several years in a state psychiatric hospital. After years of obscurity, she experienced a resurgence of popularity in the 1980s.
  Page was the second of six children born to Walter Roy Page and Edna Mae Pirtle. At a young age, Page had to face the responsibilities of caring for her younger siblings. Her parents divorced when she was 10 years old. (In the 1930 Census, a few weeks before Bettie's 7th birthday, her mother Edna Pirtle Page was already listed as being divorced.^{[citation needed]} After her father, whom Page would accuse of molesting her starting at age 13, was imprisoned, Page and her two sisters lived in an orphanage for a year.^{[citation needed]} During this time, Page's mother worked two jobs, one as a hairdresser during the day and washing laundry at night.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Bettie_Page
• Big Mama Thornton
  Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton (December 11, 1926 – July 25, 1984) was an American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter. She was the first to record the hit song "Hound Dog" in 1952. The song was #1 on the Billboard R&B charts for seven weeks in 1953. The B-side was "They Call Me Big Mama," and the single sold almost two million copies. Three years later, Elvis Presley recorded his version, based on a version performed by Freddie Bell and the Bellboys. In a similar occurrence, she wrote and recorded "Ball 'n' Chain," which became a hit for her.Janis Joplin later recorded "Ball and Chain," and was a huge success in the late 1960s.
  Thornton was born in Montgomery, Alabama, United States. Her introduction to music started in a Baptist church, where her father was a minister and her mother a church singer. She and her six siblings began to sing at very early ages. Thornton left Montgomery at age 14 in 1941, following her mother's death. She joined Sammy Green's Georgia-based Hot Harlem Revue. Her seven-year tenure with them gave her valuable singing and stage experience, and enabled her^[vague] to tour the South. In 1948, she settled in Houston, Texas, where she hoped to further her career as a singer She was also a self-taught drummer and harmonica player, and frequently played each instrument onstage.
  
  wn.com/Big_Mama_Thornton
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  Bill W.
  William Griffith Wilson (November 26, 1895 – January 24, 1971), also known as Bill Wilson or Bill W., was the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), an international mutual aid fellowship with over two million members belonging to 100,800 groups of alcoholics helping other alcoholics achieve and maintain sobriety. Following AA's Twelfth Tradition of anonymity, Wilson is commonly known as "Bill W." or "Bill." After Wilson's death in 1971 his full name was included in obituaries.
  Wilson's lifelong sobriety began December 11, 1934. Wilson suffered from episodes of depression, the most serious of these between 1944 and 1955. In 1955 Wilson turned over control of AA to a board of trustees. Wilson died of emphysema complicated by pneumonia in 1971. In 1999 Time Magazine listed Wilson in the top 20 of the Time 100: Heroes and Icons of the 20th century.
  Wilson was born on November 26, 1895, in East Dorset, Vermont, at his parents' home and business, the Mount Aeolus Inn and Tavern. His paternal grandfather, William Wilson was an alcoholic who never drank after a conversion experience on Mount Aeolus. Both of Wilson's parents abandoned their child (his father never returned from a purported business trip, and his mother left to study osteopathic medicine). Bill and his sister were cared for by their maternal grandparents, Fayette Griffith and Ella Griffith, in their house. As a teen, Wilson showed determination, once spending months designing and carving a working boomerang. After initial difficulties, Wilson became the school's football team's captain and the principal violinist of its orchestra. Wilson also underwent a serious depression at the age of seventeen following the death of his first love, Bertha Bamford, from complications of surgery.
  
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  Boris Yeltsin
  Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (Russian: Бори́с Никола́евич Е́льцин; IPA: [bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn] ( listen); 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was the President of Russia, serving from 1991 to 1999.
  Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet. On 12 June 1991 he was elected by popular vote to the newly created post of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR), at that time one of the 15 constituent republics of the Soviet Union. He won 57% of the vote in a six-candidate contest and became the second democratically elected leader of Russia in history. Upon the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev and the final dissolution of the Soviet Union on 25 December 1991, Yeltsin remained in office as the President of the Russian Federation, the USSR's successor state. Yeltsin was reelected in the 1996 election; in the second round of the election Yeltsin defeated Gennady Zyuganov from the revived Communist Party by a margin of 13%. However, Yeltsin never recovered his early popularity after a series of economic and political crises in Russia in the 1990s.
  
  wn.com/Boris_Yeltsin
• Brad Bryant
  Bradley Dub Bryant (born December 11, 1954) is an American professional golfer.
  Bryant was born in Amarillo, Texas, the son of a Southern Baptist pastor. He moved with his family to Alamagordo, New Mexico during his youth. Bryant attended the University of New Mexico for three years, but turned professional and qualified for the PGA Tour in 1976, a year before his scheduled graduation.
  Bryant's only win on the PGA Tour came at the age of forty at the 1995 Walt Disney World/Oldsmobile Classic. After reaching the age of 50, Bryant began play on the Champions Tour, where he won for the first time at the 2006 Toshiba Classic and followed up later the same year by winning the Regions Charity Classic. He lost to Jay Haas in a playoff for the 2006 Senior PGA Championship. His best year in professional golf was 2007, when he finished third on the Champions Tour money list and fourth in the Charles Schwab Cup race; that year was highlighted by his victory at the U.S. Senior Open.
  Bryant's younger brother Bart has also won on the PGA Tour.
  
  wn.com/Brad_Bryant
• Carlo Ponti
  Carlo Ponti (11 December 1912 – 10 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with over 140 production credits, and the husband of Italian movie star Sophia Loren.
  Ponti was born in Magenta, Lombardy and studied law at the University of Milan. He joined his father's law firm in Milan and became involved in the film business through negotiating contracts. Ponti attempted to establish a film industry in Milan in 1940 and produced Mario Soldati's Piccolo Mondo Antico there, starring Alida Valli, in her first notable role. The film dealt with the Italian struggle against the Austrians for the inclusion of northeastern Italy into the Kingdom of Italy during the Risorgimento. The film was successful, because it was easy to see "the Austrians as Germans" during World War II. As a result, he was briefly jailed for undermining relations with Nazi Germany.
  Ponti accepted an offer from Lux Film in Rome in 1941, where he produced a series of commercially successful films featuring the comedian Totò. In 1954 he had his greatest artistic success with the production of Federico Fellini's La strada. However, Fellini denied Ponti's role in its success and said that "La Strada was made in spite of Ponti and De Laurentiis". He produced Visconti's Boccaccio '70 in 1962, Marriage Italian Style in 1964, and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in 1965. He produced his most popular and financially successful film, David Lean's Doctor Zhivago in 1965. He subsequently produced three notable films with Michelangelo Antonioni, Blowup in 1966, Zabriskie Point in 1970 and The Passenger in 1974.
  
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  Carlos Gardel
  Carlos Gardel (11 December 1890 – 24 June 1935) was a singer, songwriter and actor, and is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of tango. The unerring musicality of Gardel's baritone voice and the dramatic phrasing of his lyrics made miniature masterpieces of his hundreds of three-minute tango recordings. Together with lyricist and long-time collaborator Alfredo Le Pera, Gardel wrote several classic tangos.
  Gardel died in an airplane crash at the height of his career, becoming an archetypal tragic hero mourned throughout Latin America. For many, Gardel embodies the soul of the tango style. He is commonly referred to as "Carlitos", "El Zorzal" (The Song Thrush), "The King of Tango", "El Mago" (The Magician) and "El Mudo" (The Mute).
  Gardel was born to an unmarried woman, laundress Berthe Gardes; the baby registered under the name Charles Romuald Gardes in Toulouse, France, on 11 December 1890, although many Uruguayans argue that he was born earlier in Tacuarembó, Uruguay. The father of the baby boy is unknown. His mother traveled from France to the Rio de la Plata area because of the Tierra del Fuego gold rush. Gardel lived in Argentina from the age of two, and three decades later he acquired Argentine citizenship in 1923. He grew up in the Abasto neighborhood of Buenos Aires. He attended Pio IX Industrial high-school located in the Almagro neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
  
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  Charles de Gaulle
  Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (/ˈtʃɑrlz/ or /ˈʃɑrl dəˈɡɔːl/; French: [ʃaʁl də ɡol] ( listen); 22 November 1890 – 9 November 1970) was a French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces during World War II. He later founded the French Fifth Republic in 1958 and served as its first President from 1959 to 1969.
  A veteran of World War I, in the 1920s and 1930s de Gaulle came to the fore as a proponent of mobile armoured divisions, which he considered would become central in modern warfare. During World War II, he earned the rank of brigadier general (retained throughout his life), leading one of the few successful armoured counter-attacks during the 1940 Battle of France in May in Montcornet, and then briefly served in the French government as France was falling. De Gaulle was the most senior French military officer to reject the June 1940 armistice to Nazi Germany right from the outset.
  He escaped to Britain and gave a famous radio address, broadcast by the BBC on 18 June 1940, exhorting the French people to resist Nazi Germany and organised the Free French Forces with exiled French officers in Britain. As the war progressed de Gaulle gradually gained control of all French colonies except Indochina most of which had at first been controlled by the pro-German Vichy regime. Despite earning a reputation for being a difficult man to do business with, by the time of the Allied invasion of France in 1944 he was heading what amounted to a French government in exile, but although he insisted that France be treated as a great independent power by the other Allies, the Americans in particular remained deeply suspicious of his motives. De Gaulle became prime minister in the French Provisional Government, resigning in 1946 because of political conflicts.
  
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  Charles Fabry
  Maurice Paul Auguste Charles Fabry FRS (11 June 1867, Marseille – 11 December 1945, Paris) was a French physicist.
  Fabry graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris and received his doctorate from the University of Paris in 1892, for his work on interference fringes, which established him as an authority in the field of optics and spectroscopy. In 1904, he was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Marseille, where he spent 26 years.
  He and Henri Buisson discovered the ozone layer in 1913. In optics, he discovered an explanation for the phenomenon of interference fringes. Together with his colleague Alfred Pérot he invented the Fabry–Pérot interferometer.
  In 1921, Fabry was appointed Professor of General Physics at the Sorbonne and the first director of the new Institute of Optics. In 1926 he also became professor at the École Polytechnique. He was the first general director of the Institut d'optique théorique et appliquée and director of "grande école" École supérieure d'optique (SupOptique).
  
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• Charles Émile Picard
  Charles Émile Picard FRS (French pronunciation: [ʃaʁl emil pikaʁ]; 24 July 1856 – 11 December 1941) was a French mathematician. He was elected the fifteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie Française in 1924.
  Picard's mathematical papers, textbooks, and many popular writings exhibit an extraordinary range of interests, as well as an impressive mastery of the mathematics of his time. Modern students of complex variables are probably familiar with two of his named theorems. His lesser theorem states that every nonconstant entire function takes every value in the complex plane, with perhaps one exception. His greater theorem states that an analytic function with an essential singularity takes every value infinitely often, with perhaps one exception, in any neighborhood of the singularity. He also made important contributions in the theory of differential equations, including work on Picard–Vessiot theory, Painlevé transcendents and his introduction of a kind of symmetry group for a linear differential equation, the Picard group. In connection with his work on function theory, he was one of the first mathematicians to use the emerging ideas of algebraic topology. In addition to his path-breaking theoretical work, Picard also made important contributions to applied mathematics, including the theories of telegraphy and elasticity. His collected papers run to four volumes.
  
  wn.com/Charles_Émile_Picard
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  Che Guevara
  Ernesto "Che" Guevara (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈtʃe ɣeˈβaɾa]; June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.
  As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht, Granma, with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.
  
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  Chechnya
  
  
  The Chechen Republic ( /ˈtʃɛtʃɨn/; Russian: Чече́нская Респу́блика, Chechenskaya Respublika; Chechen: Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika), commonly referred to as Chechnya (/ˈtʃɛtʃniə/; Russian: Чечня́, Chechnya; Chechen: Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria (English: Land of Minerals), is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny. Population: 1,268,989 (2010 Census).
  After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was split into two: the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which sought independence. Following the First Chechen War with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Russian federal control was restored during the Second Chechen War. Since then there has been a systematic reconstruction and rebuilding process, though sporadic fighting continues in the mountains and southern regions of the republic.
  
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  China
  China (ⁱ/ˈtʃaɪnə/; Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; see also Names of China), officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is the world's most-populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion. Covering approximately 9.6 million square kilometres, the East Asian state is the world's second-largest country by land area, and the third- or fourth-largest in total area, depending on the definition of total area.
  The People's Republic of China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four directly controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). Its capital city is Beijing. The PRC also claims Taiwan—which is controlled by the Republic of China (ROC), a separate political entity—as its 23rd province, a claim controversial due to the complex political status of Taiwan and the unresolved Chinese Civil War. The PRC government denies the legitimacy of the ROC.
  
  wn.com/China
• Christian Lous Lange
  Christian Lous Lange (17 September 1869 – 11 December 1938) was a Norwegian historian, teacher, and political scientist. He was one of the world's foremost exponents of the theory and practice of internationalism.
  He was born in Stavanger; his father was a military engineer. He graduated from secondary school in 1887 and proceeded to travel and study history, English, and French at the University of Oslo, from which he received the cand. philol. degree in 1893. He taught at secondary schools for many years and eventually returned to the University of Oslo to receive a doctorate.
  In 1899, he had his first official role in the internationalist movement when he was appointed secretary of the committee organizing an Oslo conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, an organization dedicated to fostering discussion between parliamentarians of different countries. The next year, he was made secretary of the Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament and, although he gave up the position in 1909, he would play a key role in the early days of the Norwegian Nobel Institute. During this time he was the Norwegian technical delegate to the Second Hague Peace Conference.
  
  wn.com/Christian_Lous_Lange
• Christian Sackewitz
  Christian Sackewitz (born 11 December 1955 in Göttingen) is a former professional German footballer.
  Sackewitz made 134 Fußball-Bundesliga appearances during his footballing career, and was the 1979–80 2. Fußball-Bundesliga top scorer, with 35 goals in 36 games.
  
  
  
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• Christie Hennessy
  Christie Hennessy (born as Edward Christopher Ross) (19 November 1945 – 11 December 2007) was an Irish folk singer-songwriter.
  Hennessy was born in Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. His first guitar was made, especially for him, from a tea chest when he was six years old by his friend Jerry Quirke. He left school at the age of eleven and a half.
  His first job was as a messenger boy, and it was then that he discovered that it was important to be able to read. He was unable to read or write due to severe dyslexia, but still enjoyed his library of books. He later worked at building sites in London.
  In 1972 he released his first record, The Green Album, on Westwood, a small label. With scant publicity or promotion, the album made little impact and only 500 copies of the record were pressed. Hennessy returned to labouring on building sites in the UK and did not release another album for twenty years. When he did, his 1992 release The Rehearsal outsold U2 in Ireland, eventually attaining triple platinum status. His following albums, A Year in the Life and Box also sold extremely well in Ireland.
  
  wn.com/Christie_Hennessy
• Christina Onassis
  Christina Onassis (Greek: Χριστίνα Ωνάση) (December 11, 1950 – November 19, 1988) was a shipping magnate and the daughter of Aristotle Onassis and Athina Livanos.
  Born in New York City, Onassis lost her entire immediate family within a period of 29 months. Her brother Alexander died in a plane crash in 1973 and her mother committed suicide in 1974. Her father's health had started to deteriorate after Alexander's death and he died in 1975. Alexander was the focus of her father's attention as his successor until his death, after which her father considered her his successor and began training her in the business operations of the Onassis business empire. She became very involved in the business operations of the Onassis shipping empire and successfully ran the business after her father's death.
  Onassis was married four times, all ending in divorces. Her first three husbands were southern California real estate developer Joseph Bolker (whom Christina was pressured by her father to divorce), Alexandros Andreadis and Sergei Kauzov. Her final marriage to Thierry Roussel produced her only child, daughter Athina Roussel. This marriage ended in divorce as well.
  
  wn.com/Christina_Onassis
• Chus Lampreave
  Chus Lampreave (Madrid, December 11, 1930) is a Spanish actress.
  She started in movies in 1958, but she became internationally known thanks to her roles in films by Pedro Almodóvar, where she plays old ladies with maternal or pastoral traits.
  
  
  
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• Clifton Geathers
  Clifton Geathers (born December 11, 1987 in Georgetown, South Carolina) is a defensive end for the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. He attended and played football at the University of South Carolina, but left at the end of his junior year.
  Clifton's brother, Robert Geathers Jr., is a defensive end for the Cincinnati Bengals, his uncle Jumpy Geathers played defensive end in the NFL for 13 years and his father Robert Geathers Sr., was a third-round pick in the 1981 NFL Draft, but an inury ended his career. His younger brother, Kwame Geathers, is currently a nose tackle for the Georgia Bulldogs football team. His cousin Clayton Geathers plays defensive back for the University of Central Florida.
  After playing at Carvers Bay High School, Geathers attended the University of South Carolina, becoming a starter at defensive end as a junior and leaving school before his senior year.
  Geathers was drafted by the Cleveland Browns in the 6th round of the 2010 NFL draft. He was released in their final cuts.
  
  wn.com/Clifton_Geathers
• Clinton Adams
  Clinton Adams (December 11, 1918 – May 13, 2002) was an American artist and art historian.
  Adams was born in Glendale, California. He worked in the art department of the University of California, Los Angeles, but eventually left to serve in the military. He returned to UCLA in 1946. From 1961 to 1976, he was the Dean of the University of New Mexico.
  As a painter, Adams worked in several mediums, including oil, acrylic, watercolor painting, and egg tempera. He also produced lithographs, and was the co-author of The Tamarind Book of Lithography (1971), an important description of the process. Among his other writings is American Lithographers, a history of the art in the United States.
  Adams received the Governor's Award for "Outstanding Contributions to the Arts of New Mexico" in 1985, and in 1993 he became a member of the National Academy of Design. He died of liver cancer on May 13, 2002, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
  
  
  
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• Cosy Sheridan
  Cosy Sheridan (born December 11, 1964 in Concord, New Hampshire) is an American folk singer/songwriter. Sheridan graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. Her songs cover political topics such as AIDS, prostitution, women's body image, and environmentalism, as well as tending toward the humorous: her song Turboyeast, about vaginal yeast infections, was featured on the Dr. Demento radio program. She lives in Moab, Utah.
  Her album, Live At Cedarhouse, was recorded in April 2006 at Cedarhouse Sound in North Sutton, New Hampshire, where she had recorded four previous albums. This album is a blend of audience favorites and new songs. The last track has a variety of outtakes and a live version of "Turboyeast."
  
  
  
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  Daniel Alfredsson
  Daniel Alfredsson (born 11 December 1972) is a Swedish professional ice hockey player. He is the captain of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is considered a leader by example and has been compared to former Detroit Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman in his value to the Senators. A right winger with the Senators, Alfredsson usually plays on the first line, which was formerly nicknamed the 'CASH' or 'Pizza' line with centre Jason Spezza and left winger Dany Heatley, before Heatley's trade to the San Jose Sharks. He has traditionally been the fourth forward on the ice in the role of pointman on Ottawa's powerplay. He is one of the league's top two-way players, and he holds the Senators' franchise records for goals (404), assists (655), and points (1059) with 1100 games played. He has played for Sweden internationally thirteen times, including the 2006 gold medal winning Olympic squad. He was the 75th player to reach 1,000 career points in the NHL, scoring three goals in a win over the Buffalo Sabres on 22 October 2010.
  
  wn.com/Daniel_Alfredsson
• Daniel the Stylite
  Saint Daniel the Stylite (c. 409 – 493) is a saint of the Eastern Orthodox, and Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic Churches. He was born in a village by the name of Maratha in upper Mesopotamia near Samosata, in today what is now a region of Turkey. He entered a monastery at the age of twelve and lived there until he was thirty-eight. During a voyage he made with his abbot to Antioch, he passed by Tellnesin and received the benediction and encouragement of St. Simeon Stylites. Then he visited the holy places, stayed in various convents, and retired in 451 into the ruins of a pagan temple.
  He established his pillar four miles north of Constantinople. The owner of the soil where he placed his pillar, who had not been consulted, appealed to the emperor and the patriarch Gennadius of Constantinople. Gennadius proposed to dislodge him, but in some way was deterred. Gennadius ordained him a priest against his will, standing at the foot of his pillar. When the ceremony was over the patriarch administered the Eucharist by means of a ladder, which Daniel had ordered to be brought. Gennadius then received the Eucharist from Daniel. Daniel lived on the pillar for 33 years. By continually standing, his feet were covered with sores and ulcers: the winds of Thrace sometimes stripped him of his scanty clothing.
  
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  David Brewster
  Sir David Brewster KH PRSE FRS FSA(Scot) FSSA MICE (11 December 1781 – 10 February 1868) was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.
  David Brewster was born at the Canongate in Jedburgh, Roxburghshire to Margaret Key (1753–1790) and James Brewster (c. 1735–1815), the rector of Jedburgh Grammar School and a teacher of high reputation. David was the third of six children, two daughters and four sons: James (1777–1847), minister at Craig, Ferryden; David; David; George (1784–1855), minister at Scoonie, Fife; and Patrick (1788–1859), minister at the abbey church, Paisley.
  At the age of 12, David was sent to the University of Edinburgh (graduating MA in 1800), being intended for the clergy. He was licensed a minister of the Church of Scotland, but only preached from the pulpit on one occasion. He had already shown a strong inclination for natural science, and this had been fostered by his intimacy with a "self-taught philosopher, astronomer and mathematician," as Sir Walter Scott called him, of great local fame—James Veitch of Inchbonny—a man who was particularly skillful in making telescopes.
  
  wn.com/David_Brewster
• David Lewis (actor)
  David Lewis (October 19, 1916 – December 11, 2000) was an American actor, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is best known for playing Edward Quartermaine from 1978 to 1993 on the American soap opera General Hospital.
  He was a pioneering actor in the medium of television, his first televised role occurring in 1949 on the show Captain Video and His Video Rangers. He appeared in multiple episodes of Perry Mason, and went on to appear in several episodes of the 1960s Batman television series as Warden Crichton. In 1978, he joined the cast of General Hospital in the role of Edward Quartermaine, for which he won a Daytime Emmy Award for Supporting Actor in 1982.
  He died in Woodland Hills, California, after a long illness.
  
  
  
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  David Schools
  Dave Schools (born December 11, 1964) is the bassist for the band Widespread Panic ("Panic"), and comes from Richmond, Virginia. In addition to playing with Panic, he has had numerous side projects with Jerry Joseph, The Stockholm Syndrome, J Mascis and the Fog, Slang, and Acetate. Schools has also played bass with Gov't Mule.
  Schools joined the Mickey Hart Band, led by Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, as the bass player for their tour during November and December 2011.
  Schools attended the Collegiate School in Richmond, where there is a scholarship in his name for aspiring musicians. He went on to attend the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia. Schools' enrollment at UGA was brief as he dropped out to pursue musical interests.
  Schools plays Modulus Quantum 6 basses equipped with GHS custom sets of strings, through Ampeg cabinets, and a Demeter preamp and compressor/limiter. One thing that sets him apart from other bass players is his utilization of effects. He uses a Boomerang phrase sampler, a Moogerfooger low-pass filter with expression pedal, Boss DM 3 analog delay, Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth, Ernie Ball VP and other various effects. Schools also owns one of the late John Entwistle's bass guitars.
  
  wn.com/David_Schools
• Dick Hoerner
  Lester Junior "Dick" Hoerner (July 25, 1922 – December 11, 2010) was an American football player. He played fullback for the University of Iowa in 1942 and 1946 and for the Los Angeles Rams from 1947 to 1951. He helped lead the Rams to three consecutive National Football League championship games from 1949 to 1951, played for the 1951 Los Angeles Rams team that won the 1951 NFL Championship Game, and was selected to play in the inaugural 1951 Pro Bowl. He was the Rams' all-time leading rusher at the end of his playing career with the team. He concluded his professional football career as a member of the Dallas Texans in 1952.
  A native of Dubuque, Iowa, Hoerner was a state track champion while attending Dubuque High School. He also led Dubuque to Mississippi Valley Conference championships in 1939 and 1940 and was twice selected as an All-Iowa player. He enrolled at the University of Iowa in 1941 and played for the Iowa Hawkeyes football team as a sophomore in 1942. He ran 88 yards for a touchdown against Fritz Crisler's 1942 Michigan Wolverines. In May 1943, Hoerner was inducted into the U.S. Army. After missing three years due to war-time service, including service overseas in the field artillery, Hoerner returned to the Iowa Hawkeyes football team in 1946.
  
  wn.com/Dick_Hoerner
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  Dilip Kumar
  Dilip Kumar, born Muhammad Yusuf Khan on 11 December 1922, is an Indian actor and a former Member of Parliament. He is commonly known as "Tragedy King", and is described as "the ultimate method actor" by Satyajit Ray.
  Starting his career with Jwar Bhata in 1944, Kumar's career has spanned five decades and over 60 films. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest actors in the history of Hindi cinema. Kumar was the first actor to receive a Filmfare Best Actor Award and holds the record for the most number of Filmfare Awards won for that category with Shahrukh Khan; eight wins. He starred in films of a variety of genres such as the romantic Andaz (1949), the swashbuckling Aan (1952), the dramatic Devdas (1955), the comical Azaad (1955), the historical Mughal-e-Azam (1960) and the social Ganga Jamuna (1961).
  In 1976, Kumar took a five-year break from film performances. In 1981, he returned with a character role in the film Kranti and continued his career playing central character roles in films such as Shakti (1982), Karma (1986) and Saudagar (1991). His last film was Qila in 1998. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 1991 and the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 1994 for his contributions towards Indian cinema. Dilip Kumar has acted with actress Vyjayanthimala the most, where they both had acted seven films together including the former's home production Gunga Jumna resulting great on-screen chemistry and alleged affair between them.
  
  wn.com/Dilip_Kumar
• DJ Yella
  Antoine Carraby (born December 11, 1967), better known by his stage name DJ Yella, is an American DJ, music producer, film director and pornographer from Compton, California. He was a member of the World Class Wreckin' Cru along with Dr. Dre. He later became a founding member of the pioneering gangsta rap group N.W.A (composed of Yella, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Eazy-E). Along with Dre, he produced Eazy-E's debut album Eazy-Duz-It and all three N.W.A albums, translating into millions of sales. He co-produced the platinum-selling debut albums of J.J. Fad and Michel'le with Dre and contributed to The D.O.C.'s 1989 album No One Can Do It Better (also produced by Dre). Jerry Heller witnessed Dre and Yella's work together and wrote in 2006 of an almost eerie understanding between the pair, as they crafted high quality beats and productions with almost no words or full sentences needing to be spoken.^{[citation needed]}
  Yella remained close to Eazy and stayed on production duties at Ruthless Records after the acrimonious break up of N.W.A. He produced J.J. Fad's second album Not Just a Fad (1990), Yomo & Maulkie's album Are U Xperienced? (1991), two tracks from Eazy-E's It's On (Dr. Dre) 187^um Killa (1993), the gold-selling hit single Foe tha Love of $ from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony's Creepin on ah Come Up E.P., Menajahtwa's album Cha-licious, and tracks from H.W.A.'s Az Much Ass Azz U Want E.P. (all three from 1994), and oversaw Eazy's final album in 1995 after his sudden AIDS-related death.
  
  wn.com/DJ_Yella
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  Doc Blanchard
  Felix Anthony "Doc" Blanchard (December 11, 1924 – April 19, 2009) is best known as the college football player who became the first ever junior to win the Heisman Trophy, Maxwell Award and was the first ever football player to win the James E. Sullivan Award, all in 1945. He played football for the United States Military Academy at West Point. Because his father was a doctor, Felix Blanchard was nicknamed "Little Doc" as a boy. After football, he served in the United States Air Force from 1947 until 1971 when he retired with the rank of Colonel.
  Blanchard was born on December 11, 1924 in McColl, South Carolina His father was a doctor and had played college football at Tulane University and Wake Forest University. The Blanchards moved from McColl, South Carolina to Dexter, Iowa in 1929. The Blanchards then moved to Bishopville, South Carolina two years later. Blanchard, nicknamed "Little Doc" due to his father's occupation, attended high school at Saint Stanislaus College in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. He led the school's football team, the Rockachaws, to an undefeated season during his senior year in 1941. Blanchard was recruited to play college football by Army, Fordham University and the University of Notre Dame, among others. Blanchard said in 1985 that he had been contacted about going to West Point when he was in high school. He said, "At that point in time, I really wasn’t interested. Academically, I never was too hot, so I never had any idea I would pass the entrance examination and go to West Point."
  
  wn.com/Doc_Blanchard
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  Donna Mills
  Donna Mills (born December 11, 1940 [although some sources say 1942 or 1943]) is an American actress, most well known for her role as Abby Fairgate Cunningham Ewing Sumner on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing.
  Born as Donna Jean Miller in Chicago, Illinois, she attended Garvey Elementary School and Taft High school. After being double-promoted at Garvey, she graduated from Taft at an early age. From there, Mills attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was a member of Delta Gamma sorority. She completed one year of course work and left to pursue an acting career. She gained some early stage experience in the late 1950s.
  Mills began her acting career on television with a guest role on the CBS daytime soap opera The Secret Storm in 1966. Following this she gained a regular role as ex-nun Laura Donnelly on the soap Love is a Many Splendored Thing, which she played from 1967 to 1970. Mills appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy, Don't Drink the Water, as the Sultan of Bashir's wife.
  
  wn.com/Donna_Mills
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  Dámaso Pérez Prado
  Dámaso Pérez Prado (December 11, 1916 – September 14, 1989) was a Cuban bandleader, musician (singer, organist and pianist), and composer. He is often referred to as the "King of the Mambo".
  His orchestra was the most popular in mambo. His son, Pérez Prado, Jr., continues to direct the Pérez Prado Orchestra in Mexico City to this day.
  Perez was born in Matanzas, Cuba, his mother was a school teacher, his father a newspaper man. He studied classical piano in his early childhood, and later played organ and piano in local clubs. For a time, he was pianist and arranger for the Sonora Matancera, Cuba's best-known musical group. He also worked with casino orchestras in Havana for most of the 1940s, and gained a reputation for being an imaginative (his solo playing style predated bebop by at least five years), loud player.^{[citation needed]} He was nicknamed "El Cara de Foca" ("Seal Face") by his peers at the time.
  In 1948 he moved to Mexico to form his own band and record for RCA Victor. He quickly specialized in mambos, an upbeat adaptation of the Cuban danzón. Perez's mambos stood out among the competition, with their fiery brass riffs and strong saxophone counterpoints, and most of all, Pérez's trademark grunts (he actually says "¡Dilo!", or "Say it!", in many of the perceived grunts). In 1950 arranger Sonny Burke heard "Que rico el mambo" while on vacation in Mexico and recorded it back in the United States as "Mambo Jambo". The single was a hit, which caused Perez to launch a US tour. His appearances in 1951 were sell-outs and he began recording US releases for RCA Victor.
  
  wn.com/Dámaso_Pérez_Prado
• Eddie Chapman
  Edward Arnold "Eddie" Chapman (16 November 1914 – 11 December 1997) was an English pre-war criminal and wartime spy. During the Second World War he offered his services to Nazi Germany as a spy and a traitor and subsequently became a British double agent. His British Secret Service handlers code named him 'Zigzag' in acknowledgement of his rather erratic personal history. He had a number of criminal aliases known by the British police, amongst them Edward Edwards, Arnold Thompson and Edward Simpson. His German codename was Fritz Graumann or, later, after endearing himself to his German cronies, its diminutive form of Fritzchen.
  Chapman was born in Burnopfield, County Durham, England. After serving with the Coldstream Guards in the 1930s, Chapman deserted and became a safecracker with London West End gangs, spending several stretches in jail for these crimes. The gangs utilized gelignite to gain entry to safes, leading Chapman and his associates to be known as the "Jelly Gang." He had affairs with a number of women on the fringes of London high society and then allegedly blackmailed them with photographs taken by an accomplice.
  
  wn.com/Eddie_Chapman
• Edmund Curll
  Edmund Curll (c. 1675 – 11 December 1747) was an English bookseller and publisher. His name has become synonymous, through the attacks on him by Alexander Pope, with unscrupulous publication and publicity. Curll rose from poverty to wealth through his publishing, and he did this by approaching book printing in a mercenary and unscrupulous manner. By cashing in on scandals, publishing pornography, offering up patent medicine, using all publicity as good publicity, he managed a small empire of printing houses. He would publish high and low quality writing alike, so long as it sold. He was born in the West Country, and his late and incomplete recollections (in The Curliad) say that his father was a tradesman. He was an apprentice to a London bookseller in 1698 when he began his career.
  At the end of his seven year apprenticeship, he began selling books at auction. His master, Richard Smith, went bankrupt in 1708, and Curll took over his shop at that point. His early practice was to work in conjunction with other booksellers to write, publish, and sell pamphlets and books and to exploit any furore to produce "accounts" and arguments. For example, in 1712 the witch trial of Jane Wenham had the public's interest, and one partner wrote a pamphlet exonerating her, while another condemned her, and both pamphlets were sold at all three shops. He also manufactured a set group of newspaper quarrels between the various "authors" for and against Mrs. Wenham to get free advertising.
  
  wn.com/Edmund_Curll
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  Elliott Carter
  Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (born December 11, 1908) is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music. His compositions, which have been performed all over the world, include orchestral and chamber music as well as solo instrumental and vocal works.
  He has been extremely productive in his later years, publishing more than 40 works between the ages of 90 and 100, and over 14 more since he turned 100 in 2008.
  Carter's father, Elliott Carter Sr., was a businessman and his mother was the former Florence Chambers. The family was well-to-do. As a teenager, he developed an interest in music and was encouraged in this regard by the composer Charles Ives (who sold insurance to his family). In 1924, a galvanized 15-year-old Carter was in the audience when Pierre Monteux conducted the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the New York première of The Rite of Spring, according to a 2008 report. Carter was again in attendance (see below) at Carnegie Hall, on the occasion of his 100th birthday in 2008, when the orchestra, now under the baton of James Levine, again performed the Stravinsky piece as part of its tribute to Carter. Although Carter majored in English at Harvard College, he also studied music there and at the nearby Longy School of Music. His professors included Walter Piston and Gustav Holst. He sang with the Harvard Glee Club. He did graduate work in music at Harvard, from which he received a Master's degree in music in 1932. He then went to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger (as did many other American composers). Carter worked with Mlle Boulanger from 1932–35 and in 1935 he received a doctorate in music (D Mus) from the Ecole Normale in Paris. Later in 1935, he returned to the US where he wrote music for the Ballet Caravan.
  
  wn.com/Elliott_Carter
• Elmer Vasko
  Elmer "Moose" Vasko (December 11, 1935 in Duparquet, Quebec – October 30, 1998) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played 13 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Chicago Black Hawks and Minnesota North Stars and won the Stanley Cup in 1961.
  He was one of the few players of Slovak descent in the NHL's younger years. Vasko also never lost any of his teeth during his NHL career, despite the lack of mouthguards or helmets in his playing days.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Elmer_Vasko
• Elvira Popescu
  Elvira Popescu (Romanian pronunciation: [elˈvira poˈpesku]; in French, Elvire Popesco; May 10, 1894 – December 11, 1993) was a Romanian-born French stage and movie actress and theatre director.
  Born in Bucharest, Popescu studied drama at the Conservatorul de Artă Dramatică, under the guidance of Constantin Nottara and Aristizza Romanescu. She made her debut at the National Theatre Bucharest at age 16. In 1912, she played herself in the movie Independenţa României, directed by Aristide Demetriade. In 1919 she became artistic director of the Excelsior Theatre. In 1921, Popescu started Teatrul Mic, which she managed in parallel with the Excelsior. In 1923, she starred in the movie Ţigăncuşa de la iatac, directed by Alfred Halm.
  At the urging of Louis Verneuil, the French playwright, Popescu moved in 1924 to Paris. Under Verneuil's direction, she played the leading role in Ma Cousine de Varsovie, at the Théâtre de la Michodière. She also played in Tovaritch (1933), La Machine infernale (1954), Nina (1949), and La Mamma (1957). Later on, she was director of Théâtre de Paris (1956–1965), and Théâtre Marigny (1965–1978). At age 84, she played again in La Mamma.
  
  wn.com/Elvira_Popescu
• Emanuele d'Astorga
  Emanuele d'Astorga (20 March 1680 – 21 August 1736, by some reports) was an Italian composer known mainly for his Stabat Mater.
  He was born 20 mars, 1680 in Augusta, Sicily. No authentic account of Astorga's life can be successfully constructed from the obscure and confusing evidence that has been until now handed down, although historians have not failed to indulge many pleasant conjectures. According to some of these, his father, a baron of Sicily, took an active part in the attempt to throw off the Spanish yoke, but was betrayed by his own soldiers and publicly executed. His wife and son were compelled to be spectators of his fate; and such was the effect upon them that his mother died on the spot, and Emanuele fell into a state of gloomy despondency, which threatened to deprive him of reason. By the kindness of the Princess of Ursini, the unfortunate young man was placed in a convent at Astorga, in León, where he completed a musical education which is said to have been begun in Palermo under Francesco Scarlatti. Here he recovered his health, and his admirable musical talents were cultivated under the best masters. On the details of this account no reliance can safely be placed, nor is there any certainty that in 1703, he entered the service of the duke of Parma.
  
  wn.com/Emanuele_d'Astorga
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  Enrico Macias
  Gaston Ghrenassia, known by his stage name Enrico Macias, (born 11 December 1938 in Constantine, then in French Algeria) is an Algerian French Pied noir singer and musician. He is popular throughout the world and has travelled extensively for fifty years, from the early 1960s to the present.
  He was born to a Jewish family in Constantine, Algeria, and played the guitar from childhood. His father, Sylvain Ghrenassia (1914–2004), was a violinist in an orchestra that played primarily maalouf, Andalo-Arabic music. Gaston started playing with the Cheikh Raymond Leyris Orchestra at 15.
  He pursued a career as a school teacher, but continued practicing the guitar. In 1961, the Algerian War of Independence was raging, and the situation became untenable for the Jewish and European residents of Constantine. Of immense effect on Gaston Ghrenassia was the assassination in 1961 of his father-in-law and musician Cheikh Raymond Leyris by the National Liberation Front (FLN). Gaston left Algeria with his wife, Suzy, on 29 July 1961, eleven months before the end of the Algerian War of Independence, and went into exile in mainland France. He has not been permitted to return to Algeria ever since.He was a member of a militia as part of the french army during the Algerian War of Independence which committed crimes.
  
  wn.com/Enrico_Macias
• Enrique Bermúdez
  Enrique Bermúdez Varela (December 11, 1932 – February 16, 1991) was a Nicaraguan who founded and commanded the Nicaraguan Contras. In this capacity, he became a central global figure in one of the most prominent conflicts of the Cold War.
  Bermúdez founded the largest Contra army in the war against Nicaragua's Marxist Sandinista government, which was supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba. From 1979 until the end of the military conflict in 1990, Bermudez was the Contras' top military commander. In addition to being responsible for all of the Contras' military operations, Bermúdez ultimately helped manage the Contras' transition to an opposition political party in the early 1990s, after the Sandinistas' ultimately yielded to demands for elections in the country.
  On February 16, 1991, Bermudez was assassinated in Managua.
  Bermúdez was born on December 11, 1932 in León, Nicaragua, the son of a mechanical engineer and a domestic servant. After graduating from the military academy in 1952, he took a commission in the engineer corps of the Nicaraguan Guardia Nacional. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel under former Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza Debayle, and was serving as military attaché to the United States at the time of the 1979 revolution in Nicaragua by the Sandinistas.
  
  wn.com/Enrique_Bermúdez
• Fabrizio Ravanelli
  Fabrizio Ravanelli (Italian pronunciation: [faˈbrittsjo ravaˈnɛlli]; born December 11, 1968) is a Italian former international footballer, who won five titles with Juventus, including a Serie A championship in 1995 and a Champions League title in 1996.
  Ravanelli was born in Perugia. He started and finished his playing career in the local team Perugia Calcio. Other notable career stops were Juventus and Marseille. In all, during his career he played with twelve clubs from four countries; his native Italy, England, France and Scotland. He earned 22 caps for the Italian national team.
  Ravanelli currently works as a youth manager with Juventus.
  Known as the "White Feather" in recognition of his prematurely whitened hair, he was one of Europe's top goalscorers in the mid 1990s. Playing for Juventus, Ravanelli won one Serie A title (1994–95), one Coppa Italia (1994–95), one Supercoppa Italiana (1995), one Champions League (1995–96), where he scored in the final against Ajax, and one UEFA Cup (1992–93). On 27 September 1994, he memorably scored all five goals for Juventus against CSKA Sofia in a 5–1 win. In the 1996 UEFA Champions League Final, he put Juventus 1–0 up. Ajax subsequently equalised, but Juventus still won the game through penalty shootout.
  
  wn.com/Fabrizio_Ravanelli
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  Fiorello La Guardia
  Fiorello Henry LaGuardia ( /fiəˈrɛloʊ ləˈɡwɑrdiə/; born Fiorello Enrico La Guardia; December 11, 1882 – September 20, 1947) was Mayor of New York for three terms from 1934 to 1945 as a Republican. Previously he was elected to Congress in 1916 and 1918, and again from 1922 through 1930. Irascible, energetic and charismatic, he craved publicity and is acclaimed as one of the three or four greatest mayors in American history. Only five feet tall, he was called "the Little Flower" (Fiorello is Italian for "little flower").
  LaGuardia, a Republican who appealed across party lines, was very popular in New York during the 1930s. As a New Dealer, he supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, and in turn Roosevelt heavily funded the city and cut off patronage from LaGuardia's foes. La Guardia revitalized New York City and restored public faith in City Hall. He unified the transit system; directed the building of low-cost public housing, public playgrounds, and parks; constructed airports; reorganized the police force; defeated the powerful Tammany Hall political machine; and reestablished merit employment in place of patronage jobs.
  
  wn.com/Fiorello_La_Guardia
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  Francesco Algarotti
  Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was "one of the first Esprits cavaliers of the age," a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and music and a friend of most of the leading authors of his times: Voltaire, Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis and the atheïst Julien Offray de La Mettrie.
  Algarotti was born in Venice as the son of a rich merchant. His father and uncle were art collectors. Unlike his older brother Bonomo he did not step into the company, but decided to become an author. Francesco studied natural sciences and mathematics in Bologna under Francesco Maria Zanotti and in 1728 he experimented with optics. (Zanotti became a life long friend.) He travelled in the North of Italy, but moved to Florence, and Rome. At age of twenty, he went to Cirey and Paris, where he became friendly with Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet. Two years later he was in London, where he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. He became embroiled in a lively bisexual love-triangle with the politician John Hervey, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Algarotti left for Italy and finished his Neutonianismo per le dame ("Newtonism for Ladies"), a work on optics (1737), dedicated to Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle. Algarotti had made acquaintance with Antiochus Kantemir. In Summer 1739 he left with Lord Baltimore from Sheerness to Newcastle upon Tyne. Because of a heavy storm the ship went to Harlingen. Returning from Saint Petersburg, they visited Frederick the Great in Rheinsberg. Algarotti had obligations and came back the year after. Algarotti went with Frederick to Königsberg where he was crowned.
  
  wn.com/Francesco_Algarotti
• Frank Tarrant
  Frank Tarrant (in full Francis Alfred Tarrant (Melbourne, Australia, 11 December 1880 – 29 January 1951 in Melbourne) was an Australian all-rounder who played with great success for Middlesex in the County Championship in the years before World War I.
  His record is sufficient to establish Tarrant as one of the best cricketers never to play a Test match, though he could never be considered after his move to Middlesex in 1903 according to the rules of the time, for he moved back and forth to play occasionally with Victoria.
  Tarrant first played for Victoria in 1898/1899, and met with little success either as a batsman or a bowler then or in 1900/1901.
  However, he moved to England in 1903 to join the Lord's ground staff and played a number of matches for the MCC whilse qualifying for Middlesex. In these, he showed himself developing into a left-arm spinner of above average pace but with nothing beyond steadiness when pitches did not help him. In 1904, he showed development as a solid right-handed batsman, and in 1905, when fully qualified, he was a valuable aid to Middlesex. his superb batting on a difficult pitch to draw the game with Essex at Leyton showed he was a player of exceptional resolution during the most difficult crisis.
  
  wn.com/Frank_Tarrant
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  G. A. Kulkarni
  G. A. Kulkarni or simply "GA" (Marathi: जी. ए. कुलकर्णी "जीए"), was a legendary Marathi writer of short stories.
  GA grew up in Belgaum. After earning his masters degree, he taught English at JSS College in Dharwad for about 30 years. He had very strong liking for Dharwad and Belgaum. For medical treatment of his eyes, he reluctantly moved to Pune in 1985. A major road in the Kothrud area of Pune, where GA lived for couple of years before his death, has been named after him.
  GA, who bought new strength and vitality to the Marathi short story, is admittedly the most distinguished exponent of that genre. A contemporary of Gangadhar Gadgil, Arvind Gokhale and Vyankatesh Madgulkar, he did not subscribe to the cause of modernism in literature. He charted his own separate course and cultivated new acuity and taste for a class of faithful readers.
  GA created a world of his own in his short stories where his characters are in pursuit of the unknowable destiny. A dark mode reflects the inscrutable ways in which destiny shadows his characters. His use of symbolism, allegory and irony provides his stories a unique texture and ethos. His world encompasses a wide diversity of locales, situations, characters and experiences; yet, in his earlier stories, it is demarcated by the region bordering Maharashtra and Karnataka. The mythic, allegorical experiences make it difficult to sort out the realities from the dreams, themes, and meditations. Yet, it is possible for the reader to identify with is characters, places, and experiences because of his keen observation of human, animal, and social worlds in their beauty and deformity.
  
  wn.com/G._A._Kulkarni
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  Gary Dourdan
  Gary Dourdan (born December 11, 1966) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Warrick Brown on the television series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
  Dourdan was born Gary Robert Durdin in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Sandy, a teacher and fashion designer, and Robert Durdin, an entrepreneur and agent for jazz musicians. Dourdan is the second youngest of five children. When he was 6 years old, his older brother Darryl was murdered while on vacation in Haiti; the case remains unsolved. He moved with his family to Willingboro, New Jersey when he was in his youth. At this time his interests included acting, music, and martial arts. Later Dourdan moved to New York City and worked as a doorman at a rehearsal studio, where he met some of Manhattan's promising young artists.
  Dourdan played in several bands in New York City in the early 1990s and acted in regional theatre around the tristate area. He received his first break when Debbie Allen cast him as Shazza Zulu on A Different World, based on a tape of him in an avant-garde play. In 1996, Dourdan appeared in the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman episode "Never On Sunday", where he played an assistant. In 1997, Dourdan played the character Christie, the first mate, crack-shot, and second in command of the spaceship Betty, in the film Alien Resurrection. He also appears in the films Playing God and Thursday, and on television starred in the Dick Wolf production Swift Justice and played a recurring role on the Showtime series Soul Food until he nabbed the part of Warrick Brown on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In 2007, he played the character Cameron, the boyfriend of Rowena Price (played by Halle Berry), in the film Perfect Stranger.
  
  wn.com/Gary_Dourdan
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  George Mason
  George Mason IV (December 11, 1725 – October 7, 1792) was an American Patriot, statesman and a delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. Along with James Madison, he is called the "Father of the Bill of Rights." For these reasons he is considered one of the "Founding Fathers" of the United States.
  Like anti-federalist Patrick Henry, Mason was a leader of those who pressed for the addition of explicit States rights and individual rights to the U.S. Constitution as a balance to the increased federal powers, and did not sign the document in part because it lacked such a statement. His efforts eventually succeeded in convincing the Federalists to add the first ten amendments of the Constitution. These amendments, collectively known as the Bill of Rights, were based on the earlier Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason had drafted in 1776.
  On the nagging issue of slavery, Mason walked a fine line. Although a slaveholder himself, he found slavery repugnant for a variety of reasons. He wanted to ban further importation of slaves from Africa and prevent slavery from spreading to more states. However, he did not want the new federal government to attempt to ban slavery where it already existed, because he anticipated that such an act would be difficult and controversial.
  
  wn.com/George_Mason
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  Georgi Plekhanov
  Georgi Valentinovich Plekhanov (Russian: Гео́ргий Валенти́нович Плеха́нов) (November 29, 1856 – May 30, 1918) was a Russian revolutionary and a Marxist theoretician. He was a founder of the Social-Democratic movement in Russia and was one of the first Russians to identify himself as "Marxist." Facing political persecution, Plekhanov emigrated to Switzerland in 1880, where he continued in his political activity attempting to overthrow the Tsarist regime in Russia. During World War I Plekhanov rallied to the cause of the Entente powers against Germany and he returned home to Russia following the 1917 February Revolution. Plekhanov was hostile to the Bolshevik party headed by Vladimir Lenin, however, and was an opponent of the Soviet regime which came to power in the autumn of 1917. He died the following year. Despite his vigorous and outspoken opposition to Lenin's political party in 1917, Plekhanov was held in high esteem by the Russian Communist Party following his death as a founding father of Russian Marxism and a philosophical thinker.
  
  wn.com/Georgi_Plekhanov
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  Gerben de Knegt
  Gerben de Knegt (born December 11, 1975) is a professional cyclo-cross cyclist and mountain biker from the Netherlands. He was born in Tilburg, Noord-Brabant.
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/Gerben_de_Knegt
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  Giannis Ragousis
  Giannis Ragousis (Greek: Γιάννης Ραγκούσης, born in 11 December 1965) is a Greek economist and politician of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement. He is currently the Alternate Minister for National Defence.
  Ginnis Ragousis graduated from the Department of Financial Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a major in Economics. He completed his studies with a Master's degree in Financial Development from the University of Sussex, U.K.. Giannis Ragousis is fluent in English.
  Giannis Ragousis, was a member of the Rectors Council, as well as the F.E.A.P.TH. from 1986, until 1989. From 1991 to 1993 he was the Secretary of PA.S.P., the youth division of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), as well as a member of the Central Council of the National Students Union of Greece (E.F.E.E.).
  Giannis Ragousis was a member of the Central Committee of PASOK from 1994 until 1996. In 2003, he was elected Mayor of Paros, a post he held until 2007.
  He was first elected to the Hellenic Parliament on 16 September 2007, having been appointed party spokesman on 15 August.
  
  wn.com/Giannis_Ragousis
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  Gilbert Roland
  Gilbert Roland (December 11, 1905 – May 15, 1994) was a Mexican-born American film actor.
  He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was picked at random for a role as an extra. He chose his screen name by combining the names of his favorite actors, John Gilbert and Ruth Roland. He was often cast in the typical "Latin Lover" role.
  Roland's first major role was in the collegiate comedy The Plastic Age (1925) together with Clara Bow, to whom he became engaged. In 1927, he played Armand in Camille opposite Norma Talmadge, whom he was romantically involved with, and they starred together in several productions. Roland later appeared in Spanish language adaptations of American films, in romantic lead roles.
  Beginning in the 1940s, critics began to take notice of his acting and he was praised for his supporting roles in John Huston's We Were Strangers (1949), The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), Thunder Bay (1953), and Cheyenne Autumn (1964). He also appeared in a series of films in the mid 1940s as the popular character "The Cisco Kid". He played Hugo, the agnostic (and totally fictional) friend of the three shepherd children in The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima, based on the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima in 1917. In 1953 he starred in the epic Beneath the 12-Mile Reef as Greek-American sponge diver Mike Petrakis. His last film appearance was in the 1982 western Barbarosa.
  
  wn.com/Gilbert_Roland
• Grace Paley
  Grace Paley (December 11, 1922 – August 22, 2007) was an American-Jewish short story writer, poet, and political activist.
  Grace Paley (née Goodside) was born in the Bronx to Isaac and Manya Ridnyik Goodside, who anglicized the family name from Gutseit on immigrating from Ukraine. Her father was a doctor. The family spoke Russian and Yiddish along with English. The youngest of the three Goodside children (sixteen and fourteen years younger than brother and sister Victor and Jeanne, respectively), Paley was a tomboy as a child.
  In 1938 and 1939, Paley attended Hunter College, then, briefly The New School, but never received a degree. In the early 1940s, Paley studied with W. H. Auden at the New School for Social Research. Auden's social concern and his heavy use of irony is often cited as an important influence on her early work, particularly her poetry. On June 20, 1942, Grace Goodside married cinematographer Jess Paley, and had two children, Nora (1949-) and Danny (1951-). They later divorced. In 1972 Paley married fellow poet (and author of the Nghsi-Altai series) Robert Nichols.
  
  wn.com/Grace_Paley
• Grigoris Bithikotsis
  Grigoris Bithikotsis (Greek Γρηγόρης Μπιθικώτσης [ɣriˈɣoris biθiˈkotsis]; December 11, 1922 - April 7, 2005) was a popular Greek folk singer/songwriter with a career spanning five decades.
  Bithikotsis was born in Peristeri, Athens, in 1922 to a poor family. He became interested in music at an early age, and acquired a bouzouki as soon as he was able. At first, he had to hide the instrument at a friend's house and practice in secret, as his father disapproved of the new rembetiko style that had captured his son's interest.
  He met composer Mikis Theodorakis in 1959 and the two collaborated producing folk songs. Bithikotsis composed over 80 songs, including: Stu Belami to ouzeri and Toy Votanikou o magas. He possessed a rich singing voice with which he performed his own compositions and those of Theodorakis, who frequently chose his friend Grigoris to perform his masterpieces. The two contributed greatly to the then-emerging laika style of Greek music.
  A leftist, he was exiled to the island of Makronisos in the 1950s during the reign of King Paul.
  
  wn.com/Grigoris_Bithikotsis
• 
  Guangzhou
  Guangzhou (Chinese: 广州; Mandarin pronunciation: [kwɑ̀ŋʈʂóʊ̯]), known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about 120 km (75 mi) north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port. One of the five National Central Cities, it holds sub-provincial administrative status.
  Guangzhou is the third largest city in China and southern China's largest city. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 12.78 million. Some estimates place the population of the entire Pearl River Delta Mega City built up area as high as 40 million including Shenzhen (10.36 million), Dongguan (8.22 million) and most parts of Foshan (7.19 million), Jiangmen (4.45 million), Zhongshan (3.12 million) and a small part of Huizhou adjoining Dongguan and Shenzhen, with an area of about 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) (about the size of US state of New Jersey). In 2008 Guangzhou was identified as a Beta World City by the global city index produced by GaWC.
  
  wn.com/Guangzhou
• 
  Hailee Steinfeld
  Hailee Steinfeld (born December 11, 1996) is an American actress. She rose to fame for her portrayal as Mattie Ross in the 2010 film True Grit, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
  Steinfeld was born in Tarzana, Los Angeles, the daughter of Cheri (née Domasin), an interior designer, and Peter Steinfeld, a personal fitness trainer. She has an older brother, Griffin, and her uncle is fitness trainer Jake Steinfeld. Her father is Jewish and her maternal grandfather is Filipino. Steinfeld was raised in Agoura Hills and later in Thousand Oaks, California, attending Ascension Lutheran School, Conejo Elementary, and Colina Middle School. She has been home-schooled since 2008.
  Steinfeld began acting at the age of eight, initially appearing in several short films to gain experience. She played the role of Talia Alden in the award-winning short film, She's a Fox. She eventually made appearances in several commercials and a few guest-starring television roles.
  
  wn.com/Hailee_Steinfeld
• Hamish Blake
  Hamish Donald Blake (born 11 December 1981) is a Gold Logie Award winning Australian comedian, actor, and author from Melbourne, Australia. Since 2003, he has worked with Andy Lee as part of the comedy duo Hamish and Andy. The pair have performed live and on television and radio, most notably with their drive-time radio program Hamish & Andy. As a solo performer, Blake has appeared on various Australian television programs, including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival's televised 2008 Great Debate, and has been a regular guest on Spicks and Specks, Rove and Thank God You're Here. In April 2012, Blake and co-star Andy Lee won a Logie Award for their television program Hamish and Andy's Gap Year. Individually, Blake also won the Gold Logie for "Most Popular Personality on Television".
  Blake grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Waverley. He is a middle child; his older brother, Lachlan, is a solicitor and his sister, Sophie, has completed an arts degree. His parents, Noel and Kerry, separated when Blake was 17, with his father eventually remarrying. As a child, Blake says he was a fan of British comedy such as Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Blackadder; as a teenager he "worshipped" comedians Tony Martin and Mick Molloy. Blake was a member of the National Boys Choir of Australia during the late 1980s. He attended school at Caulfield Grammar School and later at St Leonard's College, graduating in 1999.
  
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• 
  Hector Berlioz
  Hector Berlioz (pronounced: [ɛktɔʁ bɛʁˈljoːz]; 11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem). Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a conductor, he performed several concerts with more than 1,000 musicians. He also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the further development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many others.
  Hector Berlioz was born in France at La Côte-Saint-André in the département of Isère, near Grenoble. His father, a respected provincial physician and scholar, was responsible for much of the young Berlioz's education. His father, Louis-Joseph Berlioz, was an atheist, with a liberal outlook; his mother, Marie-Antoinette, was an orthodox Roman Catholic. He had five siblings in all, three of whom did not survive to adulthood. The other two, Nanci and Adèle, remained close to Berlioz throughout his life.
  
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• 
  Innokenty Annensky
  Innokentiy Fyodorovich Annensky (Russian: Инноке́нтий Фёдорович А́нненский [] ( listen)) (September 1, 1855 N.S. Omsk–December 13, 1909 N.S. Saint Petersburg) was a poet, critic and translator, representative of the first wave of Russian Symbolism. Sometimes cited as a Slavic counterpart to the poètes maudits, Annensky managed to render into Russian the essential intonations of Baudelaire and Verlaine, while the subtle music, ominous allusions, arcane vocabulary, the spell of minutely changing colours and odours were all his own. His influence on the first post-Symbolist generation of poets (Akhmatova, Gumilyov, Mandelshtam) was paramount.
  Annensky was born into the family of a public official in Omsk on September 1 N.S. 1855. In 1860, while still a child, he was taken to Saint Petersburg. Innokenty lost his parents early on, and was raised in the family of his older brother, Nikolai Annensky, a prominent Narodnik and political activist.
  In 1879, Innokenty graduated from the philological department of St. Petersburg University, where he concentrated on Historical-comparative linguistics. He became a teacher, and taught classical languages and ancient literature studies in a gymnasium in Tsarskoe Selo. He served as the Director of this school from 1886 until his death in 1909. Anna Akhmatova graduated from this school, and called Annensky "my only teacher," as did Nikolai Gumilev, who called him "the last of Tsarskoe Selo's swans."
  
  wn.com/Innokenty_Annensky
• Isabella Hofmann
  Isabella Hofmann (born December 11, 1958) is an American actress, born in Chicago, Illinois. She is best known for her lead role on Homicide: Life on the Street as Lt. / Capt. / Det. Megan Russert and supporting roles on JAG as Meredith Cavanaugh, Dear John as Kate McCarron, and on Beggars and Choosers as Cecile Malone.
  Hofmann performed with the comedy troupe The Second City before breaking into television in 1986. She attended Columbia College Chicago.
  Among her various television credits are Meredith Cavanaugh on JAG, Kate McCarron on the NBC sitcom Dear John, Lt. Megan Russert in the crime drama Homicide: Life on the Street, and Cecile Malone on the Showtime comedy Beggars and Choosers.
  She played "Annie" in the 1990 movie Tripwire.
  Hoffman was involved with Homicide co-star Daniel Baldwin for many years. She and Baldwin have a son, Atticus, who was born on July 13, 1996.
  She graduated from East Troy High School in East Troy, Wisconsin in 1975.
  She has appeared twice so far in the seventh season of TV series Criminal Minds as David Rossi's first ex-wife.
  
  wn.com/Isabella_Hofmann
• 
  Ivan Cankar
  Ivan Cankar ( pronunciation (help·info)) (10 May 1876 – 11 December 1918) was a Slovene writer, playwright, essayist, poet and political activist. Together with Oton Župančič, Dragotin Kette, and Josip Murn, he is considered as the beginner of modernism in Slovene literature. He is regarded as the greatest writer in the Slovene language, and has sometimes been compared to Franz Kafka and James Joyce.
  Ivan Cankar was born in the Carniolan town of Vrhnika near Ljubljana. He was one of the many children of a poor artisan who emigrated to the United States shortly after Ivan's birth. He was raised by his mother, with whom he established a close, but ambivalent relationship. The figure of a self-sacrificing and submissively repressive mother would later become one of the most recognizable features of Cankar's prose. After finishing grammar school in his hometown, he studied at the Technical High School (Realka) in Ljubljana.
  During this period, he started writing literature, mostly poetry, under the influence of Romantic and post-Romantic poets such as France Prešeren, Heinrich Heine, Simon Jenko and Simon Gregorčič. In 1893, he discovered the epic poetry of Anton Aškerc, which had a huge influence on the development of his style and ideals. Under Aškerc's influence, Cankar rejected the sentimental post-Romantic poetry and embraced literary realism and national liberalism.
  
  wn.com/Ivan_Cankar
• J. Frank Wilson
  J. Frank Wilson (December 11, 1941 – October 4, 1991) was an American singer, the lead vocalist of J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers.
  Wilson joined the Cavaliers after his discharge from Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas in 1962.
  The Cavaliers' first chart hit was "Last Kiss", a song written by Wayne Cochran, who had based the song on a car accident in Barnesville, Georgia, near where he lived.
  The song, while only garnering minor success for Wayne Cochran & The C.C. Riders, found major success for the Cavaliers. "Last Kiss" became a hit in June 1964, it reached the Top 10 in October of that year, eventually reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
  In October 1964, the British music magazine NME reported that Wilson had himself been involved in an auto accident near Memphis, Tennessee, in which his 27-year-old record producer, Sonley Rouch, was killed, and Wilson was seriously injured.
  While J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers recorded many more songs, and "Last Kiss" was subsequently covered successfully by Wednesday and Pearl Jam, the band charted with only one other song, "Hey, Little One", which reached #85.
  
  wn.com/J._Frank_Wilson
• J. P. Parisé
  Jean-Paul Joseph-Louis "Jeep" Parisé (born December 11, 1941) is a retired professional ice hockey left winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL), most notably for the Minnesota North Stars and the New York Islanders.
  Parisé was signed by the Boston Bruins at 16, after a scout saw Parisé score four goals and two assists in a playoff-clinching game, and was assigned in to the Bruins' junior league club, the Niagara Falls Flyers of the Ontario Hockey Association. On the Flyers, he played for former NHL player and future Bruins general manager Hap Emms. While he was not a promising scorer in juniors, he learned to play a diligent two-way game and became noted as a skilled penalty killer. He turned pro the following season and, in the days of the Original Six when big league jobs were few, spent most of the next five seasons in the Bruins' farm system. He started to find his scoring touch in 1964 with the Minneapolis Bruins of the Central Professional Hockey League, scoring 63 points in 72 games, and was named a Second Team league All-Star with the Bruins' Oklahoma City Blazers affiliate in 1966.
  
  wn.com/J._P._Parisé
• James J. Gibson
  James Jerome Gibson (January 27, 1904–December 11, 1979), was an American psychologist, born in McConnelsville, Ohio, who received his Ph.D. from Princeton University's Department of Psychology, and is considered one of the most important 20th century psychologists in the field of visual perception. In his classic work The Perception of the Visual World (1950) he rejected the then fashionable theory of behaviorism for a view based on his own experimental work, which pioneered the idea that animals 'sampled' information from the 'ambient' outside world. He studied the concept of optical flow (later published as part of his theory of affordance). According to Gibson, one determines the optical flow (which can be described as the apparent flow of the movement of objects in the visual field relative to the observer) using the pattern of light on the retina. The term 'affordance' refers to the opportunities for action provided by a particular object or environment. This concept has been extremely influential in the field of design and ergonomics: see for example the work of Donald Norman who worked with Gibson, and has adapted many of his ideas for his own theories.
  
  wn.com/James_J._Gibson
• 
  Javier Saviola
  Javier Pedro Saviola Fernández (born 11 December 1981) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for S.L. Benfica in Portugal, as a striker.
  Known for his speed, he represented both FC Barcelona and Real Madrid during his career (amongst others), and was named, as the youngest player, to Pelé's FIFA 100 list of the 125 greatest living footballers. Due to his Spanish ancestors, he also holds Spanish nationality since 2004.
  An Argentine international in the 2000s, Saviola represented the country at the 2006 World Cup and the 2004 Copa América.
  Nicknamed El Conejo (The Rabbit), Buenos Aires-born Saviola made his debut for Club Atlético River Plate at the age of 16, and went on to be a prolific goalscorer for the club.
  He helped River to the 1999 Apertura and 2000 Clausura championships, and earned the 1999 South American Footballer of the Year award. Still only 18, he gained a reputation as a phenomenal prospect.
  In 2001, aged 19, Saviola moved abroad to play for FC Barcelona in a £15 million transfer. He obtained Spanish citizenship shortly after, thereby not being restricted by the Spanish league maximum on the number of non-European Union citizens allowed in each club. Under coach Louis van Gaal, he scored 17 goals in his first season, finishing third best scorer in La Liga.
  
  wn.com/Javier_Saviola
• 
  Jean Marais
  Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ maʁɛ]; 11 December 1913 – 8 November 1998), was a French actor and director.
  A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover and a lifelong friend, most famously Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orphée (1949). Marais played over 100 roles in film and on television, and also was known for work in other areas of artistic expression, such as writing, painting and sculpture.
  In the 1950s, Marais became a star of swashbuckling pictures, enjoying great box office popularity in France. He performed his own stunts. In the 1960s, he played the famed villain of the Fantômas trilogy. After 1970, Marais's on-screen performances became few and far between, as he preferred concentrating on his stage work. He kept performing on stage until his eighties, also working as a sculptor. In 1985, he was the head of the jury at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival.
  He was featured in the 1995 documentary "Screening at the Majestic", which is included on the 2003 DVD release of the restored print of Beauty and the Beast. Marais appears on the cover sleeve of The Smiths single This Charming Man.
  
  wn.com/Jean_Marais
• Jeff McComsey
  Jeff McComsey was born on December 11, 1981. He is an American illustrator and author of graphic novels, animations, and video game art. His most notable works include American Terror, a graphic novel series published through Alterna Comics and the self published work FUBAR. The film rights to his work entitled "American Terror" are represented exclusively and worldwide by WBMT Literary, Film and Television. Jeff McComsey was the first client ever signed by the agency.
  
  
  
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• 
  Jermaine Jackson
  Jermaine LaJuane Jackson (also known as Mohammad Abdul Aziz) (born December 11, 1954) is an American singer, bassist, composer, a member of The Jackson 5 and occasional film director. He also produced and recorded duets with American singer Whitney Houston in her early years as a recording artist and was also a producer for Bobby DeBarge's band Switch.
  Jackson is the fourth child of Joseph and Katherine Jackson, born in Gary, Indiana after his brother Tito Jackson. His brothers and sisters are Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy and Janet. He was raised as a Jehovah's Witness by his devout mother (though he later converted to Islam in 1989 after a trip to Bahrain). Jermaine was the original lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the Jackson Brothers—an earlier incarnation of The Jackson Five—until 1968, when younger brother Michael began assisting with lead vocals. He remained the lead vocalist with Michael for many years. Jackson graduated from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California in 1973.
  
  wn.com/Jermaine_Jackson
• 
  Jim Bottomley
  James Leroy Bottomley (April 23, 1900 – December 11, 1959) was born in Oglesby, Illinois and grew up in Nokomis, Illinois. Nicknamed "Sunny Jim" because of his cheerful disposition, he was a left-handed Major League Baseball player. He also served as player-manager for the St. Louis Browns in 1937.
  As a first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals (1922–1932), Cincinnati Reds (1933–1935) and St. Louis Browns (1936–1937), Bottomley was noted for his upbeat demeanor and ability to drive in runs. He had over 100 RBIs in each season from 1924 to 1929.
  Bottomley's best season came in 1928, when he hit .325 with 31 home runs and 136 RBIs. He also became the second Major League player in history to join the 20–20–20 club. That year, he won the National League Most Valuable Player award and led the Cardinals to the World Series, where they lost to the New York Yankees. He was the first player to win an MVP award after beginning his career in his team's farm system.
  He set the Major League record for RBIs in a single game, with 12, on September 16, 1924 (since tied by Mark Whiten). Bottomley also holds the single-season record for most unassisted double plays by a first baseman, with eight. "Sunny" is also known as the only man to be sued for hitting a home run when a fan was hit by the ball when he was not looking.
  
  wn.com/Jim_Bottomley
• Jim Harrison
  James "Jim" Harrison (born December 11, 1937) is an American author known for his poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and writings about food. He has been called "a force of nature", and his work has been compared to that of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Harrison's characters tend to be rural by birth and to have retained some qualities of their agrarian pioneer heritage by dint of their intelligence and some formal education. They attune themselves to both the natural and the civilized world, surrounded by excesses but determined to live their lives as well as possible.
  Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers.
  He became blind in one eye after a childhood accident ("My left eye is blind and jogs like/a milky sparrow in its socket"). When he was 21 his father and sister died in an automobile accident. He was educated at Michigan State University where he received his B.A. (1960) and M.A. (1964) in comparative literature. In 1959, he married Linda King, with whom he has two daughters. After a short stint as assistant professor of English at State University of New York, Stony Brook (1965–66), he became a full-time writer. His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 1968, and 1969), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969–70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2007).
  
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• 
  John Kerry
  John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior United States Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to then President George W. Bush.
  The son of an Army Air Corps serviceman, Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado. He attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and went on to graduate from Yale University class of 1966, where he majored in political science. He enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966 and, during 1968-1969, served a four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service he was awarded several combat medals that include the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesperson and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam war. During that period, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of "war crimes".
  
  wn.com/John_Kerry
• John Labatt
  John Labatt (11 December 1838 – 27 April 1915) was a Canadian businessman and brewer.
  Labatt was born in Westminster Township, near London, Ontario, Upper Canada, and was the third son of John Kinder Labatt who came from Ireland and was the founder of the Labatt Brewing Company. He attended Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, graduating in 1896.
  When the elder Labatt died in 1866, John assumed control of the company. Under his supervision, it grew to be the largest brewery in Canada. Following his death, the company was controlled by a trust operated by his nine children, although his sons John Sackville Labatt and Hugh Francis Labatt assumed managerial control.
  Labatt died in 1915.
  
  wn.com/John_Labatt
• John Lammers
  John Lammers (born January 29, 1986) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward who currently plays in the Czech Extraliga with HC Plzeň 1929. He was selected by the Dallas Stars in the 3rd round (86th overall) of the 2004 NHL Entry Draft.
  
  
  
  wn.com/John_Lammers
• John Mark Karr
  Alexis Valoran Reich (born December 11, 1964) is an American trans woman formerly known as John Mark Karr who in 2006 falsely confessed to the unsolved murder of six-year-old JonBenét Ramsey. She has, on other occasions, faced a number of other criminal charges.
  Reich was born in Conyers, Georgia and spent her early childhood in Atlanta. Her father, Wexford Karr had married Patricia Elaine Adcock (John's mother) on August 21, 1958, when he was 37 and she was 18. Wexford filed for divorce in 1973, saying the marriage was "irretrievably broken," and that Reich and her older brother, Michael, were in his custody. Soon after, Wexford Karr, then 52 years old, married 29-year-old Susan Simpson, his neighbor in the same apartment complex. His marriage with Simpson ended in divorce six months later.
  A family friend, George McCrary, has said that Reich's mother believed her child was possessed by demons. Reich's mother allegedly built a pyre of kindling around her child then attempted to burn the then infant alive. Adcock was committed to the Central State Hospital, a mental hospital in Milledgeville, Georgia, and later lived in a group home, according to her stepmother Shirley Adcock.
  
  wn.com/John_Mark_Karr
• 
  John Patrick Foley
  John Patrick Foley (November 11, 1935 – December 11, 2011) was an American Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. From 2007 until 2011, he was Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, an order of knighthood under papal protection, having previously served as President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications from 1984 to 2007. He was elevated to the cardinalate in 2007. He provided the commentary for the American television viewers of the Christmas Midnight Mass from St Peter's Basilica, Rome. However, in 2009, he retired from that role after 25 years. The commentary has been taken over by Monsignor Thomas Powers of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Connecticut, an official in the Congregation for Bishops.
  Pope Benedict XVI, accepted Cardinal Foley's resignation as Grand Master on Thursday, February 24, 2011, due to age (on November 11, 2010, the Cardinal had turned 75, the age at which all bishops must write a letter to the Pope formally offering to resign) and because of ill health (the Cardinal was diagnosed in September 2009 with leukemia and anemia). He had led the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for 23 years, from 1984 to June 2007, when he was appointed Grand Master, and had been a consultor or member of many Curial departments. At one time he was editor of The Catholic Standard and Times, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. He had met with Pope Benedict XVI on February 10, two days after submitting his resignation letter to the Vatican Secretary of State.
  
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  John Wyer
  John Wyer (11 December 1909, Kidderminster, England – 1989, Scottsdale, Arizona, U.S.) was an English automobile racing engineer and team manager. He is mainly associated with cars running in the lightblue and orange livery of his longtime sponsorship partner Gulf Oil.
  As team manager and team owner, Wyer won the 24 Hours of Le Mans several times. His first victory came in the 1959 edition, in his tenth anniversary as Aston Martin team manager, helping Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori win with the DBR1. The team also won the 1000km Nürburgring in three consecutive years.
  In 1963 he left Aston Martin for Ford Advanced Vehicles (FAV) In 1964. After dismal results with the GT40's in their first two years, mainly dealing with reliability due to mechanical failure, the Ford GT40 program was handed over to Holman Moody and Carroll Shelby to compete against Ferrari, with the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans victory being the most famous, as well as 1967. While factory support from Ford backed Carroll Shelby and Holman moody with the MkII and MK IV chassis, John Wyer continued competing with The GT40 MKI, as well as experimenting with their own inhouse built cars, known as Mirage M1, M2, and M3.
  
  wn.com/John_Wyer
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  Jon Brion
  Jon Brion (born December 11, 1963) is an American rock and pop multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, composer and record producer.
  Brion was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. He came from a musical family; his mother, LaRue, was an administrative assistant and singer, and his father, Keith Brion, was a band director at Yale. His brother and sister became a composer/arranger and a violinist, respectively. Brion had difficulties at Hamden High School and at the age of 17 left education, opting instead to play music professionally. From 1980-85 Jon was part of the band The Excerpts, along with Stephen Harris, Dean Falcone, Jim Balga, Bobby Butcher & Spike Priggen.
  In the early 1980s, Brion and musician/producer Bill Murphy began a writing collaboration in New Haven, Connecticut. They eventually enlisted bassist Don "Riff" Fertman and together formed The Bats, (not to be confused with the New Zealand group of the same name). The Bats released a single, "Popgun" and one album How Pop Can You Get?, on Gustav records in 1982. The recordings had much critical acclaim, but little commercial success, and the trio eventually disbanded.
  
  wn.com/Jon_Brion
• Jon Garrison
  Jon Garrison (né Jon Long, in Higginsville, Missouri, on December 11, 1944) is a successful American operatic tenor who has been performing in locations around the world since 1965. He first appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in 1974, in a secondary role in the company premiere of Death in Venice, which featured Sir Peter Pears. At that theatre, he has since been seen in Gianni Schicchi (as Rinuccio, 1975), Don Pasquale (as Ernesto, directed by John Dexter, 1979), Fidelio (as Jaquino, with Jon Vickers as Florestan, 1980), Wozzeck (as Andres, opposite Anja Silja, 1980), Don Giovanni (as Don Ottavio, 1994), Die Fledermaus (as Alfred, 1995), etc.
  Garrison has also appeared at the New York City Opera, debuting as Admète in Alceste, in 1982. It was from that theatre that his performances in La rondine (1985) and Die Zauberföte (1987) were televised via PBS. He has sung with companies throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, including Robert Wilson's Stuttgart production of Alceste, with Dunja Vejzovic in the name part. The tenor was also heard in the world premieres of Weisgall's The Gardens of Adonis and Reise's Rasputin. In 1996, at the English National Opera, the tenor sang the difficult part of Descartes in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten.
  
  wn.com/Jon_Garrison
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  Josip Plemelj
  Josip Plemelj (December 11, 1873 – May 22, 1967) was a Slovene mathematician, whose main contributions were to the theory of analytic functions and the application of integral equations to potential theory. He was the first chancellor of the University of Ljubljana.
  Plemelj was born in the village of Bled near Bled Castle in Austria-Hungary (now Slovenia); he died in Ljubljana, Yugoslavia (now Slovenia). His father, Urban, a carpenter and crofter, died when Josip was only a year old. His mother Marija, née Mrak, found bringing up the family alone very hard, but she was able to send her son to school in Ljubljana where Plemelj studied from 1886 to 1894. Due to a bench threwn into Tivoli Pond by him or his friends, he could not attend the school after he finished the fourth class and had to pass the final exam privately. After leaving and obtaining the necessary examination results he went to Vienna in 1894 where he had applied to Faculty of Arts to study mathematics, physics and astronomy. His professors in Vienna were von Escherich for mathematical analysis, Gegenbauer and Mertens for arithmetic and algebra, Weiss for astronomy, Stefan's student Boltzmann for physics.
  
  wn.com/Josip_Plemelj
• 
  José Luis Cuciuffo
  José Luis Cuciuffo (1 February 1961 – 11 December 2004) was a defender in the starting XI of 1986 FIFA World Cup-winning Argentine national team. He was fatally wounded in the stomach while out hunting in the southern Buenos Aires province, near the Bahía San Blas bay. He was a centre back who was often found upfield using his technique well.
  El Cuchu started his professional career at Chaco For Ever, but also played in Argentine Talleres de Córdoba, Vélez Sársfield, Boca Juniors and Belgrano de Córdoba. He also played in the French league with Nîmes Olympique.
  
  
  
  wn.com/José_Luis_Cuciuffo
• Juan E. Méndez
  Juan E. Mendez was born on December 11, 1944 in Argentina.
  In 1970, he received his law degree from Stella Maris University in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
  Early in his career, he became involved in representing political prisoners. As a result, he was arrested by the Argentinean military dictatorship and subjected to torture and administrative detention for 18 months. During this period, Amnesty International adopted him as a “Prisoner of Conscience,” and in 1977, he was expelled from the country and moved to the United States.
  Subsequently, Mendez worked for the Catholic Church in Aurora, Illinois, protecting the rights of migrant workers. In 1978 he joined the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under the Law in Washington, D.C., and in 1982, he launched Human Rights Watch’s (HRW) Americas Program. He continued to work at HRW for 15 years, becoming their general counsel in 1994. He is also a visiting scholar at American University Washington College of Law's Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
  
  wn.com/Juan_E._Méndez
• 
  Julian the Apostate
  Julian (Latin: Flavius Claudius Julianus Augustus, Greek: Φλάβιος Κλαύδιος Ἰουλιανός Αὔγουστος; 331/332  – 26 June 363), commonly known as Julian the Apostate, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer.
  A member of the Constantinian dynasty, he was made Caesar over the western provinces, by Constantius II in 355, where he campaigned successfully against the Alamanni and Franks. Most notable was his crushing victory over the Alamanni in 357 at the Battle of Argentoratum - despite being outnumbered. In 360 he was acclaimed Augustus by his soldiers, sparking a civil war between Julian and Constantius. However, Constantius died before the two could face each other in battle, naming Julian as his rightful successor. In 363, Julian embarked on an ambitious campaign against the Sassanid Empire. Though initially successful, Julian was mortally wounded in battle and died shortly after.
  Julian was a man of unusually complex character: he was "the military commander, the theosophist, the social reformer, and the man of letters". He was the last non-Christian ruler of the Roman Empire and it was his desire to bring the Empire back to its ancient Roman values in order to save it from dissolution. He purged the top-heavy state bureaucracy and attempted to revive traditional Roman religious practices at the cost of Christianity. His rejection of Christianity in favour of Neoplatonic paganism caused him to be called Julian the Apostate (Ἀποστάτης or Παραβάτης "Transgressor") by the church. He was the last emperor of the Constantinian dynasty, the empire's first Christian dynasty.
  
  wn.com/Julian_the_Apostate
• 
  Julio de Caro
  Julio de Caro (December 11, 1899 – March 11, 1980) was an Argentine composer, musician and conductor prominent in the Tango genre.
  His father opened a conservatory in the San Telmo district, in 1913, soon becoming one of the city's best known sources for music, instruments, parts, and lessons. He and his brother, Francisco, were both taught the piano and violin, respectively; though their father ultimately granted them their wish to exchange instruments (a third brother, Emilio, learned the violin). Against his father's wishes, Julio obtained a spot as a second violinist at the Lorea Theatre for a 1915 performance of a zarzuela. Despite his father's punishment and objections, the brothers began attending Buenos Aires' popular tango recitals. Some of these early influences included bandleaders Eduardo Arolas, Juan Carlos Cobián, and Roberto Firpo.
  At his friends' prompting, de Caro rose to the stage during a tango performance at the Palais de Glace, an elegant multi-purpose venue, in 1917. Granted an instrument by Firpo's violinist, de Caro's performance eleicited a standing ovation, as well as Eduardo Arolas' offer for a permanent spot in his orchestra. The elder de Caro (who disdained popular music generally) resisted it, and the talented young musician resorted to stealth to join Arolas' orchestra, for which he wrote his first tango, Mon beguin.
  
  wn.com/Julio_de_Caro
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  June
  
  
  June (ⁱ/dʒuːn/ joon) is the sixth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and one of the four months with a length of 30 days. Ovid provides two etymologies for June's name in his poem concerning the months entitled the Fasti. The first is that the month is named after the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter and equivalent to the Greek goddess Hera, the second is that the name comes from the Latin word iuniores, meaning "younger ones," as opposed to maiores ("elders") for which the preceding month May may be named (Fasti VI.1–88). See: Months in various calendars also called the season of the unicorn.
  In both common and leap years, no other month begins on the same day of the week as June. This month and May are the only two months that have this property. June ends on the same day of the week as March every year.
  June is the month with the longest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.
  June in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to December in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.
  
  wn.com/June
• 
  Justin Currie
  Justin Robert Currie (born 11 December 1964 in Glasgow, Scotland) is a Scottish singer and songwriter, best known as the founding member of the band Del Amitri and, along with Iain Harvie, is one of only two members of the group to be present throughout its entire existence.
  Justin Currie established the band Del Amitri while still at school in the early 1980s, after putting up a sign in a music shop asking for other people who could play instruments to get in contact with him. As well as being the lead singer and chief songwriter of the band, Currie also plays bass with them.
  As a songwriter, he co-wrote many of the Del Amitri tracks with Harvie, but some of their most successful songs have been tracks penned solely by Currie. These include "Nothing Ever Happens", "Always the Last to Know" and "Roll to Me".
  Although there have been no official reports of Del Amitri splitting up, the band were dropped by record company Mercury in 2002 after a perceived lack of success for their album of that year, Can You Do Me Good?. Since then Currie has been working on several other critically acclaimed^{[citation needed]} projects.
  
  wn.com/Justin_Currie
• 
  Kamehameha V
  Kamehameha V (1830–1872), born as Lot Kapuāiwa, reigned as monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1863 to 1872. His motto was "Onipa`a": immovable, firm, steadfast or determined; he worked diligently for his people and kingdom and was described as the last great traditional chief. His full Hawaiian name prior to his succession was Lota Liholiho Kapuāiwa Kalanimakua Kalanikupuapaikalaninui Aliʻiolani Kalani-a-Kekūanaōʻa.
  He was born and given the name Lot Kapuāiwa December 11, 1830. His mother was Elizabeth Kīnaʻu and father was Mataio Kekūanāoʻa. His siblings included David Kamehameha, Moses Kekūāiwa, Alexander Liholiho, and Victoria Kamāmalu.Kapu āiwa means mysterious kapu or sacred one protected by supernatural powers. He was adopted using the ancient Hawaiian tradition called hānai by Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena, but she died in 1836. He was then adopted by his grandmother Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and step-grandfather High Chief Ulumāheihei Hoapili. His childhood was pretty rough. He felt that his hānai parents treated him as a stranger in their house and he felt the adoption had deprived him the love of his mother. Throughout his life he would have a deep dislike for this tradition as it could be later seen by his anger at his half-sister Ruth Keelikolani giving away her second son Keolaokalani to Bernice Pauahi Bishop.
  
  wn.com/Kamehameha_V
• Lani Brockman
  Lani Brockman (born on December 11, 1956 in Seattle) is an American theater actress and director. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Studio East.
  Lani was born in Seattle and grew up in Hawaii. After working as an actress, and later as director of youth programs for Northwest Actors Studio, she founded Studio East in Kirkland, Washington in 1992.
  In partnership with Susan Bardsley, Lani formed Dementia Unlimited to write original musical adaptations for young audiences. Titles include "3 Little Pigs", "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", "The Ugly Duckling", "Jack and the Beanstalk", "Little Red Riding Hood", "Hansel and Gretel", "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears", "Rumplestiltskin", "Cinderella", "The Emperor's New Clothes", and "Frog Prince". All these shows have been performed by StoryBook Theater.
  Lani and Susan also wrote the original musical "'Twas the Night" which has been performed since 2001 as an annual holiday show at Studio East.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Lani_Brockman
• 
  Leighton Baines
  Leighton John Baines (born 11 December 1984) is an English footballer who plays for Everton and the England national football team.
  He started his career with Wigan Athletic, with whom he won the Second Division in the 2002–03 season and was a runner-up in the 2004–05 Championship and the 2006 Football League Cup Final. He joined Everton in 2007, helping them reach the 2009 FA Cup Final. He has played for England at under-21 and senior levels.
  Baines began his career as a left-winger at the Liverpool Centre of Excellence. He also represented the Merseyside boys team, but his career went no further at Liverpool. After interest from Wolverhampton Wanderers he joined Wigan Athletic.
  Baines made his debut for Wigan Athletic in 2002, and was a member of the team that won the Second Division in the 2002–03 season. He was a regular in the first-team when Wigan earned promotion to the Premier League in 2004–05. That season saw Baines score his first goal for the club, a long-range shot against Ipswich Town.
  
  wn.com/Leighton_Baines
• 
  Leon Lai
  Leon Lai is a Hong Kong-based actor and Cantopop singer. The media refer to Aaron Kwok, Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings (四大天王). He uses the stage name "Li Ming" or "Lai Ming" which literally means "dawn."
  Lai was born in Beijing, China as Lai Chit (黎捷) with Meixian, Guangdong ancestry. His family was originally from Meixian. His parents divorced when he was four. He migrated with his Malaysian Chinese father, Lai Xinsheng to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution in China. At the age of 15, he attended Kingsway Princeton College in the United Kingdom and returned to Hong Kong at the age of eighteen in 1984.
  Lai initially worked as a salesperson for a mobile phone company. After being awarded second-runner-up in the 1986 5th New Talent Singing Awards, Lai received vocal coaching from Dai Si Zong (戴思聰). In the same year he also obtained an artist contract from Capital Artists. Lai did not release any albums for four years. As a result, his teacher, Dai, arranged to have him signed a contract with Polygram, later known as Universal Music.
  
  wn.com/Leon_Lai
• Leslie Comrie
  Leslie John Comrie FRS (15 August 1893 – 11 December 1950) was an astronomer and a pioneer in mechanical computation.
  Leslie John Comrie was born in Pukekohe (south of Auckland), New Zealand, on 15 August 1893. He attended Auckland University College (part of the University of New Zealand) from 1912 to 1916, graduating with BA and MA degrees with Honours in Chemistry. During World War I, despite severe deafness, he saw action in France with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and lost his left leg in February 1918 to a British shell. While convalescing he started using a mechanical calculator and went on to modify commercial calculators for specific projects.
  Comrie was the first director (1920–1922) of the Computing Section of the British Astronomical Association. In 1923 he received a PhD from St John's College of the University of Cambridge. He traveled to the USA to teach at Swarthmore College and then Northwestern University in 1924 where he pioneered the teaching of numerical analysis. He returned to England to join HM Nautical Almanac Office at the Royal Greenwich Observatory where he became deputy superintendent in 1926.
  
  wn.com/Leslie_Comrie
• Lisa Ortiz
  Lisa Ortiz (born December 11, 1974) is an American theatre and voice actress, best known for her roles in English anime adaptations. She is perhaps best known for the roles of the high-elf Deedlit in Record of Lodoss War, Lina Inverse in Slayers, and Tony Tony Chopper in One Piece. Her extensive résumé also includes the role of Amy Rose in Sonic X, and Serenity Wheeler in Yu-Gi-Oh!. She has voiced Amy Rose in the Sonic the Hedgehog series of video games from Shadow the Hedgehog to 2010, as the successor to voice actress Jennifer Douillard, who voiced the character from Sonic Adventure to Sonic Advance 3. Living in New York City and frequently meeting people who speak other languages, Ortiz helps in creating the dialect voices for which she is well recognized. Ortiz holds a BFA in theatre from Hofstra University. She is at NYAV Post, 4Kids Entertainment, Funimation Entertainment, TAJ Productions, and DuArt Film and Video.
  Since the early 90's, Ortiz has made her only live TV series appearance in Hillside.
  
  wn.com/Lisa_Ortiz
• Liz Smith (actress)
  Liz Smith, MBE (born 11 December 1921) is a British actress, best known for her role as Bette and Aunt Belle in 2point 4 children Norma Speakman in the BBC comedy The Royle Family which starred Ricky Tomlinson and Sue Johnston. She also had a role in The Vicar of Dibley in 1994 to 1996.
  Liz Smith was born Betty Gleadle in the Crosby area of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire in 1921. When she was two years old, her mother died in childbirth. Her father walked out of her life shortly afterwards, when his new wife did not wish him to have any contact with his previous life. She was brought up by her widowed grandmother. During the Second World War, she served in the Women's Royal Naval Service of the Royal Navy.
  In 1945 she married Jack Thomas, whom she met while on service in India. They had two children, but then they divorced in 1959 and Smith brought up her son and daughter on her own. She has described this as an extremely difficult period in her life, as she struggled against financial difficulties and social disapproval of single mothers.
  
  wn.com/Liz_Smith_(actress)
• 
  Llywelyn II
  Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf ("Llywelyn, Our Last Leader") (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282), sometimes rendered as Llywelyn II, was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England.
  Llywelyn was the second of the four sons of Gruffydd, the eldest son of Llywelyn the Great, and Senena ferch Rhodri. The eldest was Owain Goch ap Gruffydd and Llywelyn had two younger brothers, Dafydd ap Gruffydd and Rhodri ap Gruffydd. Llywelyn is thought to have been born around 1222 or 1223. He is first heard of holding lands in the Vale of Clwyd around 1244. Following his grandfather's death in 1240, Llywelyn's uncle, Dafydd ap Llywelyn, succeeded him as ruler of Gwynedd. Llywelyn's father, Gruffydd, and his brother, Owain, were initially kept prisoner by Dafydd, then transferred into the custody of King Henry III of England. Gruffydd died in 1244, from a fall while trying to escape from his cell at the top of the Tower of London. The window from which he attempted to escape the Tower was bricked up and can still be seen to this day.
  
  wn.com/Llywelyn_II
• 
  Llywelyn the Last
  Llywelyn ap Gruffydd or Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf ("Llywelyn, Our Last Leader") (c. 1223 – 11 December 1282), sometimes rendered as Llywelyn II, was the last prince of an independent Wales before its conquest by Edward I of England.
  Llywelyn was the second of the four sons of Gruffydd, the eldest son of Llywelyn the Great, and Senena ferch Rhodri. The eldest was Owain Goch ap Gruffydd and Llywelyn had two younger brothers, Dafydd ap Gruffydd and Rhodri ap Gruffydd. Llywelyn is thought to have been born around 1222 or 1223. He is first heard of holding lands in the Vale of Clwyd around 1244. Following his grandfather's death in 1240, Llywelyn's uncle, Dafydd ap Llywelyn, succeeded him as ruler of Gwynedd. Llywelyn's father, Gruffydd, and his brother, Owain, were initially kept prisoner by Dafydd, then transferred into the custody of King Henry III of England. Gruffydd died in 1244, from a fall while trying to escape from his cell at the top of the Tower of London. The window from which he attempted to escape the Tower was bricked up and can still be seen to this day.
  
  wn.com/Llywelyn_the_Last
• 
  Louis XVI of France
  Louis XVI (23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793.
  Succeeding Louis XV, his unpopular grandfather, Louis XVI was well aware of the growing discontent of the French population against the absolute monarchy. The first part of his reign is marked by his attempts to reform the kingdom in accordance with the Enlightenment ideals (abolition of torture, abolition of the serfdom, tolerance towards Jews and Protestants, abolition of the Taille etc.). However, Louis XVI failed to impose his will, as his reforms stumbled on the hostility of the nobles.
  Louis XVI actively supported the Americans, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The example of the American Revolution and the financial crisis which followed France's involvement in the war were two of the many contributing factors to the French Revolution, which broke out in 1789.
  
  wn.com/Louis_XVI_of_France
• Louise Dahl-Wolfe
  Louise Emma Augusta Dahl (November 19, 1895 – December 11, 1989) was a noted American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for Harper's Bazaar, in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland.
  Dahl was born in San Francisco, California to Norwegian immigrant parents. In 1914 she began her studies at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) where she stayed for six years. She studied design, decoration and architecture at Columbia University, New York in 1923. In 1928 she married the sculptor Meyer Wolfe, who constructed the backgrounds of many of her photos.
  Dahl-Wolfe was known for taking photographs outdoors, with natural light in distant locations from South America to Africa in what became known as "environmental" fashion photography. She preferred portraiture to fashion photography. Notable portraits include: Mae West, Cecil Beaton, Eudora Welty, W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Orson Welles, Carson McCullers, Edward Hopper, Colette and Josephine Baker. She is known for her role in the discovery of a teenage Lauren Bacall who she photographed for the March 1943 cover of Harper's Bazaar. She was a great influence on photographers Irving Penn and Richard Avedon. One of her assistants was fashion and celebrity photographer, Milton H. Greene.
  
  wn.com/Louise_Dahl-Wolfe
• Lynda Day George
  For other entertainers with similar names, see Linda George (disambiguation).
  Lynda Day George (born December 11, 1944, San Marcos, Texas) is an American television and film actress whose career spanned three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s. She was a cast member on Mission: Impossible (1971–1973), as well as being the wife of actor Christopher George.
  Originally known as Lynda Day, her career began with guest roles on many television series of the 1960s including Route 66, Flipper, The Green Hornet, Mannix, The Fugitive, The Virginian and Bonanza. She had her first major role in a short-lived 1970 television series, The Silent Force, and later starred in the television pilot for Cannon in 1971. That same year, she was cast as Lisa Casey in the critically acclaimed series Mission: Impossible, a role for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1972 and an Emmy Award in 1973. During the show's last season, she missed 7 episodes because of her maternity leave, hence, she was temporarily replaced by Barbara Anderson.
  
  wn.com/Lynda_Day_George
• Lynn Strait
  James Lynn Strait (August 7, 1968 – December 11, 1998) was the lead singer and lyricist for the rock band Snot. He died in a car accident on December 11, 1998 at the age of 30.
  Strait was born in New York, but moved to Santa Barbara as a teen and immediately embraced the SoCal punk scene. Prior to his work with Snot, Strait had never sung in a band. "I always wanted to because it seemed like a lot of fun. But I wasn't into what most bands were playing".^{[citation needed]} Starting from scratch was an advantage for Strait: "There's nobody to emulate. I won't say what I do is groundbreaking, but some of it is original; there are weird patterns in my vocals, because I got to make up my style as I went along".^{[citation needed]}
  Strait also served as the band's lyricist and appeared as a guest on Tura Satana's song 'Down', a duet with friend Tairrie B on Manhole/Tura Satana's first album. Landing a record contract was a dream come true for some of his mates, but Strait was underwhelmed by the development. His response: "Yeah, now I can order cheese on my Whopper".^{[citation needed]} While his bandmates were signing the contracts, Strait was completing a month long sentence in County Jail, where he had spent a year in the early 1990s.
  
  wn.com/Lynn_Strait
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  M.S. Subbulakshmi
  Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi (Tamil: மதுரை சண்முகவடிவு சுப்புலட்சுமி, Madhurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi ^? 16 September 1916 – 11 December 2004), also known as M.S., was a renowned Carnatic vocalist. She was the first musician ever to be awarded the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor. She is the first Indian musician to receive the Ramon Magsaysay award, Asia's highest civilian award, in 1974 with the citation reading "Exacting purists acknowledge Srimati M. S. Subbulakshmi as the leading exponent of classical and semi-classical songs in the Karnataka tradition of South India."
  Subbulakshmi (Kunjamma to her family) was born in Madurai, Madras Presidency, India to veena player Shanmukavadiver Ammal and Subramania Iyer. Her grandmother Akkammal was a violinist.
  She started learning Carnatic music at an early age and trained in Carnatic music under the tutelage of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and subsequently in Hindustani music under Pandit Narayanrao Vyas. She also learned Sanskrit and Telugu under Dr. Nedunuri Krishnamurthy.
  
  wn.com/M.S._Subbulakshmi
• 
  Maarten Lafeber
  Maarten Lafeber (born 11 December 1974) is a Dutch professional golfer who won the Dutch, Swiss and Spanish amateur championships before turning professional in 1997.
  Lafeber was born in Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant. He earned a European Tour card at the first attempt, but lost it at the end of 1998. After spending time on the second tier Challenge Tour, where he won the 1999 Tusker Kenya Open, he regained his place on the main tour for the 2000 season. In 2003 he became the first home player to win the KLM (Dutch) Open since Joop Rühl 1947, and that remains his only win on the European Tour.
  Lafeber sold shares in himself to finance his career, and bought the shareholders out at a profit of 85 per cent at the end of the 2004 season.
  DNP = Did not play
  CUT = missed the half-way cut
  "T" indicates a tie for a place
  Yellow background for top-10
  Amateur
  Professional
  
  wn.com/Maarten_Lafeber
• Maddie Blaustein
  Madeleine Joan Blaustein (commonly credited as Maddie Blaustein, formerly credited as Addie Blaustein) (born Adam Blaustein October 9, 1960 – December 11, 2008) was an American voice actress. Blaustein was the second oldest of five children and was born in Long Island, New York, United States, on October 9, 1960.
  Blaustein was, until her death, the voice of Sartorius in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. She was also most known as the voices of Meowth in Pokémon (Episodes 29-Season 8) and Solomon Muto (Sugoroku Mutou) from Yu-Gi-Oh! second series anime. She was also Chef Kawasaki from Kirby: Right Back At Ya!, Doctor Kureha in One Piece, and Arngrim, Lawfer, and Lezard in Valkyrie Profile. She was also a comic book writer and artist, having worked for both Marvel Comics and Milestone Comics, and an animation director. Later, she served as Creative Director for the Weekly World News. Video game localization coordinator and translator Jeremy Blaustein is her brother.
  She provided the voice of Margarete in the English version of the PlayStation 2 game Shadow Hearts. Most notable is her great variety of voices. In Valkyrie Profile, for example, she was able to perform a very "tough", deep masculine voice (Arngrim), as well as a high-class one (Lawfer) and a suitable and somewhat androgynous voice of a mad scientist/sorcerer (Lezard Valeth). In Shadow Hearts, Margarete is voiced in a deep, feminine, and seductive style. During the 2004 Democratic Party primaries, she appeared as Sméagol on the Mike Malloy Show, announcing a satirical presidential bid. She was also the third English-speaking voice actor for E-123 Omega of the Sonic the Hedgehog series.
  
  wn.com/Maddie_Blaustein
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  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Persian: محمود احمدی‌نژاد‎, Mahmūd Ahmadinezhād [mæhˈmuːd(-e) æhmædiːneˈʒɒːd] ( listen),English: /ɑːkməˈdɪnɨʒɒd/; born 28 October 1956) is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country. An engineer and teacher from a poor background, Ahmadinejad joined the Office for Strengthening Unity after the Islamic Revolution. Appointed a provincial governor, he was removed after the election of President Mohammad Khatami and returned to teaching. Tehran's council elected him mayor in 2003. He took a religious hard line, reversing reforms of previous moderate mayors. His 2005 presidential campaign, supported by the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, garnered 62% of the runoff election votes, and he became President on 3 August 2005. His second presidency term ends on August 3, 2013. He is not eligible to run for another term under the current Iranian constitution.
  
  wn.com/Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad
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  Maila Nurmi
  Maila Nurmi (December 11, 1922 – January 10, 2008) was a Finnish-American actress who created the campy 1950s character Vampira. She portrayed Vampira as TV's first horror host and in the Ed Wood cult film Plan 9 from Outer Space. She also appeared in the 1959 movie The Beat Generation as Vampira.
  Born as Maila Elizabeth Syrjäniemi, she claimed to be the niece of the Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi, who began setting long-distance running world records in 1921, the year before her birth. She moved to the United States with her family when she was two years old and grew up in Ashtabula, Ohio, home to the largest Finnish-American community in the state. She and her family lived in Ashtabula until 1939, when they moved to Oregon.
  She graduated from high school in Astoria, Oregon, before arriving in Los Angeles. She modeled for Alberto Vargas, Bernard of Hollywood and Man Ray, gaining a foothold in the film industry with an uncredited role in Victor Saville's 1947 film, If Winter Comes.
  She reportedly was fired by Mae West^{[citation needed]} from the cast of West's Broadway play Catherine Was Great in 1944 because West feared that she was being upstaged. On Broadway, she gained much attention after appearing in the horror-themed midnight show Spook Scandals, in which she screamed, fainted, lay in a coffin and seductively lurked about a mock cemetery. She also worked as a showgirl for the Earl Carroll Theatre and as a high-kicking chorus line dancer at the Florentine Gardens along with stripper Lili St. Cyr. In the 1950s she supported herself mainly by posing for pin-up photos in men's magazines such as Famous Models, Gala and Glamorous Models. Before landing her role as 'Vampira', she was working as a hat-check girl in a cloakroom on Hollywood's Sunset Strip.
  
  wn.com/Maila_Nurmi
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  Manoel de Oliveira
  Manoel Cândido Pinto de Oliveira, GCSE (Portuguese pronunciation: [mɐnuˈɛɫ doliˈvɐjɾɐ]; born December 11, 1908) is a Portuguese film director born in Cedofeita, Porto. He began working on films in the late 1920s, but did not receive international recognition until the early 1970s. Since the late 1980s he has been one of the most prolific working film directors and continues to make an average of one film per year past the age of 100. In March 2008 he was reported to be the oldest active film director in the world, and is possibly the second oldest film director ever after George Abbott. He is also the only filmmaker whose active career has spanned from the silent era to the digital age. Among his numerous awards are two Career Golden Lions from the Venice Film Festival.
  Manoel de Oliveira was born in Porto, Portugal, on December 11, 1908, to Francisco José de Oliveira and Cândida Ferreira Pinto. His family were wealthy industrialists and agricultural landowners. His father owned a dry-goods factory, produced the first electric light bulbs in Portugal and built an electric energy plant before he died in 1932. Oliveira was educated at the Colegio Universal in Porto before attending a Jesuit boarding school in Galicia, Spain. As a teenager his goal was to become an actor. At 17, he joined his brothers as an executive in his father's factories, where he remained for the majority of his adult life when not making films. In a 1981 Sight and Sound article, John Gillett describes Oliveira as having "spent most of his life in business...making films only when circumstances allowed."
  
  wn.com/Manoel_de_Oliveira
• Manuel Cardoso
  Manuel Cardoso (baptized 11 December 1566 – 24 November 1650) was a Portuguese composer and organist. With Duarte Lobo and John IV of Portugal, he represented the "golden age" of Portuguese polyphony.
  Cardoso is not known to be related to an older contemporary composer of the same name; the precentor Manuel Cardoso, who published a book of Latin passions in Leiria in 1575.
  Cardoso was born in Fronteira, near Portalegre, most likely in 1566. He attended the Colégio dos Moços do Coro, a choir school associated with the Évora cathedral, studying with Manuel Mendes and Cosme Delgado. In 1588 he joined the Carmelite order, taking his vows in 1589. In the early 1620s he was resident at the ducal household of Vila Viçosa, where he was befriended by the Duke of Barcelos—later to become King John IV. For most of his career he was the resident composer and organist at the Carmelite Convento do Carmo in Lisbon.
  Cardoso's works are models of Palestrinian polyphony, and are written in a refined, precise style which completely ignores the development of the Baroque idiom elsewhere in Europe. His style has much in common with Tomás Luis de Victoria, in its careful treatment of dissonance, occasional polychoral writing, and frequent cross-relations, which were curiously common among both Iberian and English composers of the time. Three books of masses survive; many of the works are based on motets written by King John IV himself, and others are based on motets by Palestrina. Cardoso was widely published, often with the help of King John IV to defray costs. Many of his works—especially the elaborate polychoral compositions, which probably were the most progressive—were destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake and fire of 1755.
  
  wn.com/Manuel_Cardoso
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  Marathi people
  The Marathi people or Maharashtrians (Marathi: मराठी माणसं or महाराष्ट्रीय) are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. Their language Marathi is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages. Although their history goes back more than a millennium, the community came to prominence when Maratha warriors under Shivaji established the Maratha Empire in 1674. If regarded as a single ethnic group, the Marathi constitute the 17th largest ethnic group.
  The term 'Marathi people' is derived from the language commonly spoken by this ethnicity, i.e. Marathi.
  The term Maratha or its plural Marathe was used between the 17th and 19th centuries, coinciding with the existence of the Maratha Empire. However, at the beginning of 20th century, due to the efforts of Shahu Maharaj of Kolhapur, the peasant Indo-Aryan Kshatriya Marathi class called Kunbi started using the word Maratha to describe themselves. The current usage of the term Maratha applies mainly to the former Indo-Aryan Kshatriya Kunbi caste as well as the 96 clan upper caste Maratha group and not to the wider Marathi community.
  
  wn.com/Marathi_people
• Marco Pierre White
  Marco Pierre White (born 11 December 1961) is a British celebrity chef, restaurateur and television personality. He is noted for his contributions to contemporary international cuisine, and his exceptional culinary skills.
  White has been dubbed the first celebrity chef, the enfant terrible of the UK restaurant scene and the Godfather of modern cooking. White was, at the time, the youngest chef ever to have been awarded three Michelin stars. He has trained chefs such as Gordon Ramsay.
  Marco Pierre White was the third of four boys born to Italian mother Maria-Rosa Gallina, who had come to Britain to learn English, and chef Frank White, who had struck up a conversation with Maria at the Griffin Hotel in Leeds while he was playing cards.
  After marrying in 1954, they lived in a council house in East Leeds, and had sons Graham (1955), Clive (1957) (also a chef) and Marco. Six years later, Maria gave birth to a fourth son, Craig Simon. Two days afterwards, she collapsed and was taken back to St James's University Hospital, Leeds, where she died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 38.
  
  wn.com/Marco_Pierre_White
• Marge (cartoonist)
  Marjorie Henderson Buell (December 11, 1904–May 30, 1993) was an American cartoonist who worked under the pen name Marge. She was best known as the creator of Little Lulu.
  Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Buell was 16 when her first cartoon was published. In 1925, she created her first syndicated comic strip, The Boy Friend, which ran through 1926. Marge was friends with Oz author Ruth Plumly Thompson and illustrated her fantasy novel King Kojo (1933).
  Hired by The Saturday Evening Post in 1934, her first Little Lulu drawing appeared on the back page of that weekly in 1935. Little Lulu replaced Carl Anderson's Henry, which had been picked up for distribution by King Features Syndicate. Little Lulu was created as a result of Anderson's success, as noted by Schlesinger Library curator Kathryn Allamong Jacob:
  In 1935, she married C. Addison Buell. The couple had two sons, Fred and Larry, and lived in Malvern, Pennsylvania.
  The Little Lulu panel continued to run weekly in The Saturday Evening Post until December 30, 1944. Buell retained the rights, unusual for the time. In 1950, Little Lulu became a daily syndicated comic strip. Buell marketed Little Lulu widely throughout the 1940s. The character appeared in comic books, animated cartoons, greeting cards and more. Little Lulu comic books, popular internationally, were translated into Arabic, Dutch, Finnish, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and Greek.
  
  wn.com/Marge_(cartoonist)
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  Marie Windsor
  Marie Windsor (December 11, 1919 - December 10, 2000). Born as Emily Marie Bertelson in Marysvale, Piute County, Utah, Windsor was an actress known as "The Queen of the Bs" because she appeared in so many B-movies and film noirs.
  Windsor, a former Miss Utah, trained for the stage under Maria Ouspenskaya, and after several years as a telephone operator, a stage and radio actress, and a bit and extra player in films, she began playing feature and lead parts in 1947.
  The 5'9" actress's first memorable role was opposite John Garfield in Force of Evil playing seductress Edna Tucker. Windsor also had large roles in film noirs including The Sniper, The Narrow Margin, City That Never Sleeps, and Stanley Kubrick's heist movie The Killing playing Elisha Cook Jr.'s scheming wife.
  Later she moved on to television, appearing on such shows as Maverick (in episodes "The Quick and the Dead" with James Garner and "Epitaph for a Gambler" with Jack Kelly), Bat Masterson (in "The Fighter") opposite Gene Barry, The Incredible Hulk, General Hospital, Murder, She Wrote, Rawhide ("Incident on the Edge of Madness"), and Salem's Lot. She was one of the 500 stars nominated to become one of the 50 greatest American screen legends as part of the American Film Institute's 100 years. Windsor was politically conservative, a member of the Screen Actors Guild and was supportive of The Motion Picture and Television Fund.
  
  wn.com/Marie_Windsor
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  Mario Been
  Mario Been (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmaː.ri.ˌjoʊ̯ ˈbeɪ̯n], born 11 December 1963 in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland) is a former football professional and football manager from the Netherlands, who is currently the head coach of Genk since 30 August 2011.
  He is nicknamed "Mariodona", after Diego Maradona and his first name.
  As a football midfielder himself, Been played for Feyenoord Rotterdam, Pisa Calcio, Roda JC, SC Heerenveen, FC Tirol Innsbruck, and Excelsior Rotterdam. Been played his last competitive match on 17 September 1995 when HFC Haarlem defeated Excelsior Rotterdam (4–0).
  Been only played one official international match for the Netherlands, against Austria on 14 November 1984 as substitute for Ton Lokhoff in the 73rd minute.
  Been started his coaching career as assistant manager to Bert van Marwijk at Feyenoord in 2000. He held this position until the summer of 2004 when Bert van Marwijk choose to leave Feyenoord and head to Germany to manage Borussia Dortmund. Been headed across Rotterdam to join Feyenoord's sister club Excelsior in 2005 and in his sole season in-charge of the club got them promoted from the Eerste Divisie to the Eredivisie. Along the way his team played attractive football and eventually finished 7 points clear of second placed VVV Venlo.
  
  wn.com/Mario_Been
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  Mark Streit
  Mark Streit (born December 11, 1977) is a Swiss professional ice hockey defenceman for the New York Islanders of the National Hockey League (NHL). He is the captain of both the Islanders and the Swiss national team. He is presently one of eight players in the NHL from Switzerland (the others are his Islander teammate Nino Niederreiter, goaltender Jonas Hiller, Sven Baertschi, defensemen Raphael Diaz, Luca Sbisa, Yannick Weber and Roman Josi).^{[citation needed]} Streit is one of the few swingmen in the NHL who is able to play both as a defenceman and as a forward. He was featured on the front cover of the Swiss versions of the NHL series of hockey games, from NHL 08 to NHL 11 and was replaced by Jonas Hiller for NHL 12.
  Streit began his career in the Swiss Nationalliga A with HC Fribourg-Gottéron in 1995–96 as an 18-year-old. The following year, he transferred to HC Davos and improved to a 25-point campaign in 44 games in 1998–99, his third season with the team.
  Garnering attention from North America, but undrafted by an NHL team, he bounced around the minor leagues in 1999–00, playing the majority of the season with the Springfield Falcons of the AHL.
  
  wn.com/Mark_Streit
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  Mark Tobey
  Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American abstract expressionist painter, born in Centerville, Wisconsin. Widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe, Tobey is the most noted among the "mystical painters of the Northwest." Senior in age and experience, Tobey had a strong influence on the others. Friend and mentor, Tobey shared their interest in philosophy and Eastern religions. Along with Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves, and William Cumming, Tobey was a founder of the Northwest School.
  Tobey was the youngest of four children born to George Tobey, a carpenter and house builder, and Emma Cleveland Tobey—his mother was over 40 when Tobey was born. The Tobeys were devout Congregationalists. Tobey's father carved animals of red stone and sometimes drew animals for the young Tobey to cut out with scissors. In 1893, his family settled in Chicago. As a youth, Tobey studied art for a brief period at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1906 to 1908, but like the others of the Northwest School, Tobey was mostly self-taught.
  
  wn.com/Mark_Tobey
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  Max Baucus
  Max Sieben Baucus (born December 11, 1941) is the senior United States Senator from Montana and a member of the Democratic Party. First elected to the Senate in 1978, he is the longest-serving Senator from Montana, and the fifth longest-serving U.S. Senator in office.
  As the current chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, Baucus has played an influential role in the debate over health care reform in the United States. He is also chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, and a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry and Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and is chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
  Before his election to the Senate, Baucus was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1978, representing Montana's (now defunct) 1st congressional district. He previously served in the Montana House of Representatives from 1973 to 1974.
  On August 9, 2011, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed Baucus to the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
  
  wn.com/Max_Baucus
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  Max Born
  Max Born (11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British physicist and mathematician who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics and supervised the work of a number of notable physicists in the 1920s and 30s. Born won the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics (shared with Walther Bothe).
  Max was born on 11 December 1882 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), which at Born's birth was in the Prussian Province of Silesia in the German Empire, to a family of Jewish descent. He was one of two children born to Gustav Born, (b. 22 April 1850, Kempen, d. 6 July 1900, Breslau), an anatomist and embryologist, and Margarethe ('Gretchen') Kauffmann (b. 22 January 1856, Tannhausen, d. 29 August 1886, Breslau), from a Silesian family of industrialists.
  Gustav and Gretchen married on 7 May 1881. She died when Max was four years old, on 29 August 1886.
  Max had a sister Käthe (b. 5 March 1884), and a half-brother Wolfgang (b. 21 October 1892) from his father's second marriage (m. 13 September 1891) with Bertha Lipstein.
  
  wn.com/Max_Born
• Michael Robbins
  Michael Anthony Robbins (14 November 1930 – 11 December 1992, Caterham in Surrey) was a British actor known for his television work, including his role as Arthur Rudge in sitcom On the Buses (1969-72).
  Born in London, Robbins was a bank clerk who became an actor after appearing in amateur dramatic performances in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, where he and his family lived at the time. Robbins made his television debut as the cockney soldier in Roll-on Bloomin' Death. Primarily a comedy actor, he is best remembered for the role of Arthur Rudge, the persistently sarcastic husband of Olive (Anna Karen), in the popular sitcom On the Buses (1969–73). Robbins and Karen provided the secondary comic storyline to Reg Varney's comedy capers at the bus depot. Robbins also appeared in the series film spin-offs, On the Buses, Mutiny on the Buses, and Holiday on the Buses. His other comedy credits include non-recurring roles in Man About the House, The Good Life, One Foot in the Grave, The New Statesman, George and Mildred, The Pink Panther Strikes Again and You Rang, M'Lord?. He appeared as a rather humorously portrayed police sergeant in the TV adaptation of Brendon Chase.
  
  wn.com/Michael_Robbins
• Michel Courtemanche
  Michel Courtemanche (born December 11, 1964 in Laval, Quebec, Canada) is a Québécois comedian and actor. He has drawn hundreds of thousands to his one-man shows in Quebec, France, Belgium and Switzerland.
  His debut one-man show, A New Comic is Born, ran for more than five hundred performances and earned him two Felix nominations. It was first performed in Montreal in 1989. His second, The New Adventures of Michel Courtemanche, first performed in 1992, filled theatres in both North America and Europe and spawned his second international hit video (1993).
  Courtemanche has internationally sold out enormous houses usually reserved for rock stars (although such shows are quite commonplace for comedians in Quebec). He has even inspired a popular one-of-a-kind hardcover comic book. He has starred in Québécois films La Nuit de Noces and Karmina 2, and on the Secret Adventures of Jules Verne television series, on the Sci Fi Channel (United States).
  His style of comedy can be best summed up as mime combined with sound effects, as he is most often seen interacting with invisible objects or even people and using his voice to complete the scene. He is also particularly good at making remarkable grimaces.
  
  wn.com/Michel_Courtemanche
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  Mo'Nique
  Monique Angela Hicks (née Imes) (born December 11, 1967), known professionally as Mo'Nique, is an American comedienne and actress. Mo'Nique rose to fame in the UPN series The Parkers while making a name as a stand-up comedian hosting a variety of venues, including Showtime at the Apollo. Mo'Nique transitioned to film with roles in such films as Phat Girlz, and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins.
  In 2009, she received critical praise for her villainous role in the film Precious. For this performance, she has won numerous awards including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a BAFTA Award. She won almost 30 awards for her performance. She is the sixteenth African American actress to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the fourth to win. Overall, Mo'Nique is the twelfth individual African-American to win an Oscar for acting; and the seventh winner during the decade of the 2000s. She hosted The Mo'Nique Show, a late-night talk show that premiered in 2009 on BET. On July 28, 2011, BET announced that The Mo'Nique Show would not be picked up for another season.
  
  wn.com/Mo'Nique
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  Mos Def
  Dante Terrell Smith (born December 11, 1973) is an American actor and MC, known by the stage names Mos Def ( /ˌmoʊsˈdɛf/) and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which released the album Black Star in 1998. He was a major force in late 1990s underground hip hop while with Rawkus Records. As a solo artist he has released the albums Black on Both Sides in 1999, The New Danger in 2004, True Magic in 2006, and The Ecstatic in 2009.
  Although he was initially recognized for his musical output, since the early 2000s, Mos Def's screen work has established him as one of only a handful of rappers who has garnered critical acclaim for his acting work. He is well known for his portrayal of Brother Sam in the American drama series Dexter. Mos Def has also been active in several social and political causes.
  He was born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman. He was raised by his mother in Brooklyn; his father lived in New Jersey. While his father was initially a member of the Nation of Islam and later an active member in the community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who merged into mainstream Islam from the Nation, Mos Def was not exposed to Islam until the age of 13. At 19, he took his shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. He is friends with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.
  
  wn.com/Mos_Def
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  Musidora
  Musidora (23 February 1889 – 11 December 1957) was the stage name of Jeanne Roques, a popular French silent film actress. She became famous for her vamp roles in such film serials as Les Vampires and Judex, in which she developed a persona comparable to that of Theda Bara. In addition to acting she directed and wrote many of her films.
  Born Jeanne Roques in Paris, France and raised by a feminist mother and socialist father, Musidora began her career in the arts at an early age, writing her first novel at the age of fifteen and acting on the stage with the likes of Colette, one of her life-long friends. During the very early years of French cinema Musidora began a professional collaboration with the highly successful French film director Louis Feuillade. But her first movie was Les miseres de l'aiguille , directed by Raphael Clamour in January 1914.
  Adopting the moniker of Musidora (Greek for "gift of the muses") and affecting a unique vamp persona that would be popularized in the United States of America by actress Theda Bara at about the same time, Musidora soon found a foothold in the nascent medium of moving pictures. With her heavily kohled dark eyes, somewhat sinister make-up, pale skin and exotic wardrobes, Musidora quickly became a highly popular and instantly recognizable presence of European cinema.
  
  wn.com/Musidora
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  Naguib Mahfouz
  Naguib Mahfouz (Arabic: نجيب محفوظ‎ Nagīb Maḥfūẓ, IPA: [næˈɡiːb mɑħˈfuːzˤ]; 11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie scripts, and five plays over a 70-year career. Many of his works have been made into Egyptian and foreign films.
  Born to a lower middle-class Muslim family in the Gamaleyya quarter of Cairo, Mahfouz was named after Professor Naguib Pasha Mahfouz (1882–1974), the renowned Coptic physician who delivered him. Mahfouz was the seventh and the youngest child in a family that had five boys and two girls. The family lived in two popular districts of the town, in el-Gamaleyya, from where they moved in 1924 to el-Abbaseyya, then a new Cairo suburb; both provided the backdrop for many of Mahfouz's writings. His father, whom Mahfouz described as having been "old-fashioned", was a civil servant, and Mahfouz eventually followed in his footsteps. In his childhood Mahfouz read extensively. His mother often took him to museums and Egyptian history later became a major theme in many of his books.
  
  wn.com/Naguib_Mahfouz
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  Natalia Gordienko
  Natalia Gordienko, sometimes spelled as Natalia Gordienco, (Ukrainian: Наталя Гордієнко born December 11, 1987 in Chişinău) is a professional dancer and singer of Ukrainian ancestry from Moldova.
  Natalia Gordienco was born in 1987 to a family of architects in Chişinău. She attended high school through the 12th form, majoring in mathematics, biology and chemistry. She sang in her school choir. She also graduated from her piano studies at music school and danced in the school's dance ensemble for 10 years. At the age of 15, she began participating in song competitions. She won three national and six international contests.
  Since 2005, Natalia Gordienco has been the singer with the band Millennium. In 2005, in the national selection for the Calea Victoriei, Millennium came third. Millennium with Natalia Gordienco were invited to participate in the Golden Stag international competition in Romania in 2005
  On May 20, 2006, she performed alongside Arsenium and Connect-R in the song Loca (Crazy) at Eurovision Song Contest 2006 for Moldova. She ended up 20th out of 24, yet she managed to place ahead of internationally known Spanish act Las Ketchup.
  
  wn.com/Natalia_Gordienko
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  Nele Karajlić
  Nenad Janković, known as Nele Karajlić (born on December 11, 1962), is a Bosnian Serb rock and roll musician, composer, actor and television director living and working in Belgrade, Republic of Serbia.
  One of the founders of New Primitivism movement in Sarajevo, he's a singer and co-author of the Zabranjeno pušenje's songs. He also co-created and participated in TV shows Top lista nadrealista and Složna braća. During the Bosnian War Nele moved to Belgrade, Serbia where he formed one of two factions of Zabranjeno pušenje, (later renamed to "No Smoking Orchestra").
  Karajlić was born Nenad Janković into a middle class family hailing from Kladovo in Serbia, his father Srđan Janković was a linguist and professor of Oriental sciences at University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Philosophy. In his youth, Nenad was a mischievous kid with short attention span.
  Following in his father's footsteps, Nenad also studied Orientalism at the same school where his father taught. However, as his music and TV career took off, the studies were no longer a priority and he never finished them.
  
  wn.com/Nele_Karajlić
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  Nikephoros II Phokas
  Nikephoros II Phokas (Latinized: Nicephorus II Phocas) (Νικηφόρος Β΄ Φωκᾶς, Nikēphoros II Phōkas) (c. 912 – 10–11 December 969) was a Byzantine Emperor (963–969) whose brilliant military exploits contributed to the resurgence of Byzantine Empire in the tenth century.
  Nikephoros Phokas was born in about 912 and belonged to a Cappadocian family which had produced several distinguished generals, including Nikephoros' father (Bardas Phokas), brother (Leo Phokas), and grandfather (Nikephoros Phokas the Elder), who had all served as commanders of the field army (domestikos tōn scholōn). His mother, whose name is unknown, was a member of another powerful Anatolian clan, the Maleinoi.
  Nikephoros joined the army at an early age. He was appointed the military governor of the Anatolikon Theme in 945 under Emperor Constantine VII. When his father, Bardas was wounded in battle in 953, Nikephoros was promoted to supreme commander on the eastern frontier. In the war with the Abbasid Caliphate under Al-Muti, Nikephoros began with a severe defeat in 954, from which he recovered in the following years by victories in Syria, starting in 957.
  
  wn.com/Nikephoros_II_Phokas
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  Nikki Benz
  Nikki Benz (born December 11, 1981) is the stage name of a Canadianpornographic actress and Penthouse Pet who was selected as the 2011 Pet of the Year. Benz resides in Los Angeles, California, USA.
  Nikki Benz entered the adult film industry by contacting an adult film director shortly before her 21st birthday. She signed with Pleasure Productions in January 2003 and made her first on-screen sex scene in Strap On Sally 20 with Gina Lynn, and her first boy-girl scene with Ben English in The Sweetest Thing. After completing her contract, Benz moved to Los Angeles and signed with Jill Kelly Productions in September 2004. Benz signed a contract with TeraVision in September 2005.
  Benz has been featured in many popular adult magazines including Penthouse, High Society, Genesis, Fox, OUI, Cheri, Hustler, Club and Club International. She is the Penthouse Pet of the Month for April 2010, and was also the magazine's cover girl and feature in the May 2008 issue. Benz was named Penthouse Pet of the Year 2011.
  
  wn.com/Nikki_Benz
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  Nikki Sixx
  Nikki Sixx (born Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna, Jr. on December 11, 1958) is an American musician, songwriter, author, fashion designer, radio host, and photographer, best known as the co-founder and bassist of the band Mötley Crüe. Prior to forming Mötley Crüe, Sixx was a member of Sister before going on to form London with his Sister band mate Lizzie Grey. In 2000 he formed side project group 58 with Dave Darling, Steve Gibb and Bucket Baker issuing one album, titled Diet for a New America, the same year while in 2002 he formed the hard rock supergroup Brides of Destruction with L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns. Formed in 2006, initially to record an audio accompaniment to Sixx's autobiography The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, his side band Sixx:A.M. features songwriter and producer and vocalist James Michael and guitarist DJ Ashba.
  Sixx has also worked with a number of artists and groups, co-writing and/or producing songs, such as Sex Pistols's guitarist Steve Jones,Lita Ford,Alice Cooper,Meat Loaf,Marion Raven,Drowning Pool,Saliva and The Last Vegas among others.
  
  wn.com/Nikki_Sixx
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  Nino Frassica
  Antonio "Nino" Frassica (born December 11, 1950) is an Italian actor.
  Born in Messina, he debuted for Italian television with Renzo Arbore's Quelli della notte (1985), in which he played a semi-illiterate friar. Later, again under Arbore, he was given a major role in the also surreal and successful Indietro tutta! of 1987.
  Frassica has subsequently featured in numerous comic movies, Il Bi e il Ba (1986), and TV shows for Italian television. He plays Lt. Cecchini on the Italian TV series Don Matteo.
  
  wn.com/Nino_Frassica
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  Noel Rosa
  Noel de Medeiros Rosa (December 11, 1910 - May 4, 1937) was a Brazilian songwriter, singer, and guitar/banjo player. One of the greatest names in Brazilian popular music, Noel gave a new twist to samba, combining its Afro-Brazilian roots with a more urban, witty language and making it a vehicle for ironic social commentary.
  Noel Rosa was born in Rio de Janeiro into a middle-class family of the Vila Isabel neighbourhood. An accident with a forceps at his birth caused the disfigured chin that would haunt him all his short life. He learned to play the bandolim while still a teenager, and soon moved on to the guitar. Although Noel started medicine studies, he gave most of his attention to music and would spend whole nights in bars drinking and playing with other samba musicians. Together with Braguinha and Almirante he formed the musical group "Bando de Tangarás". Soon he started composing sambas, and had his breakthrough with "Com que roupa?", one of the biggest hits of 1931 and the first in a string of memorable compositions. Noel was a good friend of Cartola, who have received and trated him after some drinking nights several times in his house on the Mangueira's slum.
  
  wn.com/Noel_Rosa
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  Ogedei Khan
  Ögedei Khan, born Ögedei (also Ogodei, Mongolian: ᠦᠭᠦᠳᠡᠢ, c. 1186 – December 11, 1241) was the third son of Genghis Khan and second Great Khan (Khagan) of the Mongol Empire by succeeding his father. He continued the expansion of the empire that his father had begun, and was a world figure when the Mongol Empire reached its farthest extent west and south during the invasions of Europe and Asia. Like all of Genghis' primary sons, he participated extensively in conquests in China, Iran and Central Asia. He was given temple name (Chinese: 元太宗; pinyin: Yuán Tàizōng; Wade–Giles: T'ai-Tsung) later by Kublai Khan who founded the Yuan Dynasty.
  Ögedei was the third son of Genghis Khan and Börte Ujin. He participated in the turbulent events of his father's rise. When he was 17 years old, Genghis Khan experienced the disastrous defeat of Khalakhaljid Sands against the army of Jamukha. Ögedei was heavily wounded and lost on the battlefield. His father's adopted brother and companion Borokhula rescued him. Although already married, in 1204 his father gave him Toregene, the wife of a defeated Merkit chief. The addition of such a wife was not uncommon in steppe culture.
  
  wn.com/Ogedei_Khan
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  Olive Schreiner
  Olive Schreiner (24 March 1855 – 11 December 1920) was a South African author, anti-war campaigner and intellectual. She is best remembered today for her novel The Story of an African Farm which has been highly acclaimed ever since its first publication in 1883 for the bold manner in which it dealt with some of the burning issues of the day, including agnosticism, existential independence, individualism and the professional aspirations of women; as well as its portrayal of the elemental nature of life on the colonial frontier. In more recent studies she has also been foregrounded as an apologist for those sidelined by the forces of British Imperialism, such as the Afrikaners, and later other South African groups like Blacks, Jews and Indians - to name but a few. Although she showed interest in socialism, pacifism, vegetarianism and feminism amongst other things, her true views escape restrictive categorisations. Her published works and other surviving writings promote implicit values like moderation, friendship and understanding amongst all peoples, avoiding the pitfalls of political radicalism which she consciously eschewed. Although she may be called a lifelong freethinker in terms of her Victorian background - as opposed to mainstream Christianity - she always remained true to the spirit of the Christian Bible and developed a secular version of the worldview of her missionary parents.
  
  wn.com/Olive_Schreiner
• Oskar Seidlin
  Oskar Seidlin (February 17, 1911 – December 11, 1984); German-born American literary scholar, poet, and writer of children’s stories. He is also said to have co‑authored several detective novels or Kriminalromane in collaboration with Dieter Cunz and Richard Plant (1910–1998, his lover) under the collective pen‑name of Stefan Brockhoff.
  
  wn.com/Oskar_Seidlin
• Pablo Pérez Companc
  Pablo Pérez Companc (born December 11, 1982) is an Argentine racing driver from Buenos Aires.
  He began his racing career in Canadian Formula Ford 2000 in 2000. In 2001 and 2002 he drove in the Argentine Formula Renault Championship. From 2004 to 2005 Pérez competed in Formula Three Sudamericana. In 2004 he drove for PropCar Racing and finished 13th in points and in 2005 he drove for Nasr-Castroneves Racing and captured his first win and finished 9th in points. 2006 saw him move to GT 2000, an Argentine sports car series. where he won all three races he contested.
  Pablo signed with Chip Ganassi Racing for 2007 in the Indy Pro Series. In his first race for the team at Homestead-Miami Speedway he made contact with Sean Guthrie's car on lap 47. His car launched over Guthrie and into the catch fence where the footbox of his car was sheared off, resulting in what an observer termed as "gruesome" injuries to his feet and legs. He underwent extensive surgery on both legs below the knees. He was able to attend activities at Indy in May, 2007, albeit confined to a wheel chair. The following year he had recovered and returned to GT 2000 where he won two of the four races he contested. He followed that up with winning the 2009 championship, capturing victories in 8 of the ten races. However, 2010 was less successful as he only won once and finished 11th in the championship. He continues to drive in GT 2000 in 2011.
  
  wn.com/Pablo_Pérez_Companc
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  Paul Greengard
  Paul Greengard (born December 11, 1925) is an American neuroscientist best known for his work on the molecular and cellular function of neurons. In 2000, Greengard, Arvid Carlsson and Eric Kandel were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system. He is currently Vincent Astor Professor at Rockefeller University, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Cure Alzheimer's Fund.
  Greengard's research has focused on events inside the neuron caused by neurotransmitters. Specifically, Greengard and his fellow researchers studied the behavior of second messenger cascades that transform the docking of a neurotransmitter with a receptor into permanent changes in the neuron. In a series of experiments, Greengard and his colleagues showed that when dopamine interacts with a receptor on the cell membrane of a neuron, it causes an increase in cyclic AMP inside the cell. This increase of cyclic AMP, in turn activates a protein called protein kinase A, which turns the function other proteins on or off by adding phosphate groups in a reaction known as phosphorylation. The proteins activated by phosphorylation can then perform a number of changes in the cell: transcribing DNA to make new proteins, moving more receptors to the synapse (and thus increasing the neuron's sensitivity), or moving ion channels to the cell surface (and thus increasing the cell's excitability). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2000 "for showing how neurotransmitters act on the cell and can activate a central molecule known as DARPP-32".
  
  wn.com/Paul_Greengard
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  Paul Haslinger
  Paul Haslinger (born 11 December 1962) is an Austrian-born composer and musician currently based in Los Angeles, California.
  Haslinger was born in Linz, Upper Austria, Austria. After studying classical music in Vienna, Austria, Haslinger joined the German electronic music group, Tangerine Dream in 1986. During the following 5 years he recorded a total of 15 albums with the group, participated in 4 international tours and collaborated on a number of soundtracks, including Miracle Mile, Near Dark, and Shy People. The soundtrack album for the Miramar film release Canyon Dreams by director Jan Nickman, earned Haslinger his first Grammy nomination in 1991.
  Haslinger decided to leave the group and move to Los Angeles in 1992. The Blue Room project, in collaboration with Peter Baumann, was recorded but never released on Private Music. Subsequently, Haslinger set up his own studio operation in West Hollywood, California, named The Assembly Room, and released 3 solo albums, Future Primitive (1994), World Without Rules (1996), and Score (1999).
  
  wn.com/Paul_Haslinger
• Paul Medhurst
  Paul Medhurst (born 11 December 1981) is a former professional Australian rules football who played for the Fremantle Football Club and the Collingwood Football Club.
  In his 2008 season, he was selected in the All-Australian team and his other career highlights include leading the goalkicking at Fremantle in successive seasons.
  He began his senior footballing with West Australian Football League (WAFL), where he played for the Claremont Football Club and won the Bernie Naylor Medal in 2001 for the most goals in the league.
  Medhurst was originally selected by the Fremantle Football Club with a 4th round selection in the 2001 AFL Draft. However he was traded to Collingwood in 2007 as part of the deal that sent Chris Tarrant to Fremantle.
  Medhurst made a successful debut in round 1, 2002 in a Western Derby against the West Coast Eagles, kicking three goals and earning an AFL Rising Star nomination. At the end of 2002, he won the Beacon Award as the best young player on the Fremantle team. He was Fremantle's leading goalkicker in 2003 and 2004, kicking 50 and 41 goals respectively, including nine against Brisbane in 2004 and seven against Carlton in 2003. His 166 career goals for Fremantle is the club's equal-fourth highest tally.
  
  wn.com/Paul_Medhurst
• Percy Kilbride
  Percy W. Kilbride (July 16, 1888 – December 11, 1964) was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.
  Kilbride began working in the theater at the age of 12^{[citation needed]} and eventually left to become an actor on Broadway. He first played an 18th-century French dandy in A Tale of Two Cities. His film debut was as "Jakey" in the Pre-Code Carole Lombard film, White Woman (1933). He left Broadway for good in 1942, when Jack Benny insisted that Kilbride reprise his Broadway role in the film version of George Washington Slept Here. According to Benny, Percy Kilbride was the same character offscreen and on: quiet and friendly but principled, refusing to be paid more or less than what he considered a fair salary. Kilbride followed up the Benny film with a featured role in the Olsen and Johnson comedy Crazy House. In 1945, he appeared in The Southerner.
  In 1947, he and Marjorie Main appeared in The Egg and I, starring Fred MacMurray and Claudette Colbert as a sophisticated couple taking on farm life. Main and Kilbride were featured as folksy neighbors Ma and Pa Kettle, and audience response prompted the popular Ma and Pa Kettle series. Pa Kettle became Kilbride's most famous role: the gentle-spirited Pa seldom raised his voice, and was always ready to help friends — by borrowing from other friends, or assigning any kind of labor to his Indian friends Geoduck and Crowbar.
  
  wn.com/Percy_Kilbride
• Peter Bagge
  Peter Bagge (pronounced /bæg/, as in 'Plastic Bag') (born December 11, 1957 in Peekskill, New York) is an American cartoonist. He is the creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop, Apocalypse Nerd and Other Lives. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth. He won a two Harvey Awards in 1991, one for best cartoonist and one for his work on Hate. In recent years Bagge has expressed his libertarian views in features for Reason.
  Part of a family of five kids, Bagge grew up in the New York City suburbs. Bagge's father was in the military and Bagge has talked about how his Catholic household was the scene of "lots of drunken fights about money. We were the weirdo outcast kids of the neighborhood. I couldn't get away fast enough." Moving to New York City in the mid-1970s, Bagge briefly attended the School of Visual Arts before dropping out to work on Punk Magazine.
  Other cartoonists associated with Punk were John Holmstrom, Ken Weiner, and Bruce Carleton; and Bagge worked on his cartooning with them and also J.D. King and Kaz. During this period, the young cartoonists also were the beneficiaries of "useful advice" from Art Spiegelman.
  
  wn.com/Peter_Bagge
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  Philip III of Spain
  Philip III of Spain (Spanish: Felipe III, Portuguese: Filipe II; 14 April 1578 – 31 March 1621), also known as Philip the Pious, was the King of Castile, Aragon, and Portugal. He was also king of Naples and Sicily as Philip II. Born in Madrid, the son of Philip II of Spain and his fourth wife (and niece) Anna, daughter of the Emperor Maximilian II and Maria of Spain, he married Margaret of Austria, sister of Emperor Ferdinand II, and like her husband, a member of the House of Habsburg.
  Although considered to be a congenial and pious ruler, Philip's political reputation has been negative – an 'undistinguished and insignificant man,' a 'miserable monarch,' whose 'only virtue appeared to reside in a total absence of vice,' to quote three major historians of the period. In particular, Philip's reliance on his corrupt chief minister the Duke of Lerma drew much criticism at the time and afterwards. For many, the decline of Spain can be dated to the economic difficulties that set in during the early years of his reign. Nonetheless, as the ruler of the Spanish Empire at its height, and as the king who achieved a temporary peace with the Dutch (1609–21) and brought Spain into the Thirty Years War (1618–48) through an initially extremely successful campaign within the Holy Roman Empire, Philip's reign remains a critical period in Spanish history.
  
  wn.com/Philip_III_of_Spain
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  Piet Ooms
  Pieter ("Piet") Lodewijk Ooms (December 11, 1884 in Amsterdam – February 14, 1961 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch freestyle swimmer and water polo player who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics.
  He participated in the 1500 metre freestyle competition, but he was eliminated in the first round.
  Also he was part of the Dutch water polo team, which finished fourth in the 1908 tournament.
  
  wn.com/Piet_Ooms
• Pietro Accolti
  Pietro Accolti (15 March 1455 – 11 December 1532), known as the "cardinal of Ancona", was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal. He was born in Florence, the son of Benedetto Accolti sr, and died at Rome (Ciaconi, Vitae Pontificum, 1677, iii. 295).
  He was abbreviator under Pope Leo X, and in that capacity drew up in 1520 the bull against Martin Luther (L. Cardella, Memorie Storiche de' Cardinali, 1793, iii. 450).
  He was made Bishop of Ancona in 1505, and, in 1511, cardinal-priest by Pope Julius II with the title of Sant'Eusebio. Accolti opted as cardinal-bishop in 1523 to the title of Albano, and later was Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina (1524) and lately in the same year Cardinal Bishop of Sabina-Poggio Mirteto. He also held as administrator the sees of Cadiz, Maillezais, Arras and Cremona, and was made Archbishop of Ravenna (1524) by Pope Clement VII.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Pietro_Accolti
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  Pope Damasus I
  Pope Saint Damasus I ( /ˈdæməsəs/ DAM-əs-əs) was the bishop of Rome from 366 to 384.
  He was born around 305, probably near the city of Idanha-a-Velha (in Lusitania, Hispania), in what is present-day Portugal, then part of the Western Roman Empire. His life coincided with the rise of Emperor Constantine I and the reunion and re-division of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, which is associated with the widespread legitimization of Christianity and the later adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman state.
  Damasus is known to have been raised in the service of the Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls in Rome, and following the death of Pope Liberius, he succeeded to the papacy amidst factional violence. A group of Damasus' supporters, previously loyal to his opponent Felix, attacked and killed rivals loyal to Liberius' deacon Ursinus in a riot that required the intervention of Emperor Valentinian I to quell.
  Damasus faced accusations of murder and adultery (despite having not been married) in his early years as pope. The neutrality of these claims have come into question with some suggesting that the accusations were motivated by the schismatic conflict with the supporters of Arianism. His personal problems were contrasted with his religious accomplishments, which included restoring Saint Lawrence outside the Walls, encouraging his personal secretary Saint Jerome in his Vulgate translation of the Bible, and presiding over the Council of Rome in 382, which set down the canon of Scripture. He also did much to encourage the veneration of the Christian martyrs.
  
  wn.com/Pope_Damasus_I
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  Pope Leo X
  Pope Leo X (11 December 1475 – 1 December 1521), born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, was the Pope from 1513 to his death in 1521. He was the last non-priest (only a deacon) to be elected Pope. He is known for granting indulgences for those who donated to reconstruct St. Peter's Basilica and his challenging of Martin Luther's 95 Theses. He was the second son of Lorenzo de' Medici, the most famous ruler of the Florentine Republic, and Clarice Orsini. His cousin, Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, would later succeed him as Pope Clement VII (1523–34).
  Giovanni di Lorenzo de Medici was born in Italy, the second son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, head of the Florentine Republic, and Clarice Orsini.
  From an very early age, he was destined for an ecclesiastical career. He received the tonsure at the age of seven and was soon loaded with rich benefices and preferments. His father prevailed on his relative Innocent VIII to name him cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica on 8 March 1489, although he was not allowed to wear the insignia or share in the deliberations of the college until three years later. Meanwhile he received a distinguished education at Lorenzo's brilliant humanistic court under such men as Angelo Poliziano, Pico della Mirandola, Marsilio Ficino and Bernardo Dovizio Bibbiena. From 1489 to 1491 he studied theology and canon law at Pisa under Filippo Decio and Bartolomeo Sozzini.
  
  wn.com/Pope_Leo_X
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  Pranab Mukherjee
  Pranab Kumar Mukherjee (born 11 December 1935, Mirati; West Bengal, India) is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current 15th Lok Sabha.
  Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India, World Trade Organization, and heads the Group of Ministers Committee on the Dabhol dispute. He is a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC).
  His father Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee was a member of AICC, and West Bengal Legislative Council (1952–64), and President, District Congress Committee, Birbhum (WB). He attended the Suri Vidyasagar College, Suri (Birbhum), then affiliated with the University of Calcutta.
  He holds a Master of Arts degrees in History and Political Science & has a degree in law from the University of Calcutta. He has been an advocate and a college teacher in his long public career.^{[citation needed]} In 2011 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by University of Wolverhampton.
  
  wn.com/Pranab_Mukherjee
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  Qian Xuesen
  Qian Xuesen (simplified Chinese: 钱学森; traditional Chinese: 錢學森; pinyin: Qián Xuésēn; Wade–Giles: Ch'ien Hsüeh-sên) (11 December 1911 – 31 October 2009) was a scientist who made important contributions to the missile and space programs of both the United States and People's Republic of China. Historical documents in the U. S. commonly refer to him with the earlier family-name last spelling, Hsue-Shen Tsien or H.S. Tsien.
  During the 1940s Qian was one of the founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology. During the Second Red Scare of the 1950s, the United States government accused Qian of having communist sympathies, and he was stripped of his security clearance in 1950. Qian then decided to return to China, but instead was detained at Terminal Island near Los Angeles. After spending 5 years under virtual house arrest, Qian was released in 1955, in exchange for the repatriation of American pilots captured during the Korean War. Notified by U.S. authorities that he was free to go, Qian immediately arranged his departure, leaving for China in September 1955, on the passenger liner SS President Cleveland of American President Lines, via Hong Kong. He returned to lead the Chinese rocket program, and became known as the "Father of Chinese Rocketry" (or "King of Rocketry").
  
  wn.com/Qian_Xuesen
• Rachel Portman
  Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman,OBE (born 11 December 1960) is a British composer, best known for her film work. She was the first female composer to win an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Score (for Emma in 1996). (Previously, female songwriters Barbra Streisand, in 1977, Buffy Sainte-Marie, in 1983, and Carly Simon, in 1989, each won Oscars, but in the category of Best Original Song).
  Portman was born on 11 December 1960 in Haslemere, England, the daughter of Penelope (née Mowat) and Berkeley Charles Portman. She was educated at Charterhouse School and Worcester College, Oxford.
  Portman was nominated for an Academy Award for her scores for The Cider House Rules in 1999 and Chocolat in 2000. She has also composed the scores for dozens of other feature films, as well as an unused score for the film Dangerous Beauty (George Fenton replaced her, but some of her material still remains in the film). For television, she composed the score for all thirteen episodes of Jim Henson's The Storyteller, and two episodes of The Jim Henson Hour ("Monster Maker" and "Living with Dinosaurs").
  
  wn.com/Rachel_Portman
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  Red Guards (China)
  Red Guards (simplified Chinese: 红卫兵; traditional Chinese: 紅衛兵; pinyin: Hóng Wèibīng) were a mass paramilitary social movement of young people in the People's Republic of China (PRC), who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.
  According to a Red Guard leader, the movement's aims were as follows:
  The first students to call themselves "Red Guards" in China were a group of students at the Tsinghua University Middle School who used the name Red Guards to sign two big-character posters issued on May 25 and June 2 of 1966. The students believed that the criticism of the play Hai Rui Dismissed from Office was a political issue and needed greater attention. The group of students, led by Zhang Chengzhi at Tsinghua University Middle School and Nie Yuanzi at Peking University, originally wrote the posters as a constructive criticism of Tsinghua University and Peking University's administration, which were accused of harboring "intellectual elitism" and "bourgeois" tendencies. However, they were denounced as "counter-revolutionaries" and "radicals" by the school administration and fellow students, and were forced to secretly meet amongst the ruins of the Old Summer Palace. Nevertheless, Chairman Mao Zedong ordered that the manifesto of the Red Guards be broadcast on national radio and published in the People's Daily newspaper. This action gave the Red Guards political legitimacy, and student groups quickly began to appear across China.
  
  wn.com/Red_Guards_(China)
• Reg Livermore
  Reginald Dawson Livermore AO (born 11 December 1938) is an Australian actor, singer, theatrical performer and television presenter.
  From a young age, Livermore demonstrated an interest in the performing arts. Regular outings to see pantomimes at the famous Tivoli Theatre Sydney indicated the sort of productions he enjoyed, and hinted at the direction his career would eventually take. At the age of 13 he started hiring local halls to stage performances of his own pantomimes in aid of local charities, his casts made up of coerced neighborhood children and school friends. As the size of the venues increased so did the expenses. Having hit his straps early on and fired with a strong sense of his own destiny he hired the Mosman Town Hall in 1955 and again in 1956 to stage Snow White, and then Mother Goose. More money was taken at the box office but profits were small. The young actor-manager began to appreciate the hit and miss nature of show business.
  During his last years at school he worked hard at the drama club and worked nights at the Independent Theatre where he’d been attending acting classes, and as the opportunities presented themselves appeared in Toad of the Hall, The Glass Slipper, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night's Dream; his mind was on everything but scholastics and wisely he chose to leave school early rather than suffer humiliation at the hands of any examiner. More plays for the Independent followed, and in 1957, after a successful audition for well-known Phillip Street Theatre his professional career was underway.
  
  wn.com/Reg_Livermore
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  Rey Mysterio, Jr.
  Rey Gutierrez Mysterio Jr. (born December 11, 1974) is a Mexican American professional wrestler in World Wrestling Entertainment currently wrestling on the RAW Brand. In WWE, Gutierrez was trained by his uncle Rey Misterio, Sr. and wrestled early on in Mexico where he learned the Lucha Libre high flying style that has been his trademark.
  Gutierrez originally worked for Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA) in Mexico, from 1992 to 1995. He wrestled in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) from 1995 to 1996 and World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from 1996 to 2001, as Rey Misterio, Jr./Rey Mysterio, Jr. but dropped the "Junior" from his name when he began working for WWE in 2002.
  Mysterio is known for having a high flying style, which helped kick-start the cruiserweight wrestling revolution in the United States in the late 1990s during his time in WCW. In WCW he won the WCW World Tag Team Championship three times, and the WCW Cruiserweight Tag Team Championship once with Billy Kidman as part of the Filthy Animals. In WWE, Mysterio is a three time world champion having held the World Heavyweight Championship twice, the WWE Championship once and is currently listed as the lightest world champion in WWE history. He has also held the WWE Tag Team Championship a record-tying four times, and the WWE Intercontinental Championship twice. He also held the WCW/WWE Cruiserweight Championship a record eight times (five times in WCW, three in WWE). All totaled, he has won 21 titles between WWE and WCW. Mysterio was the 21st person to win the WWE Triple Crown Championship, and was the winner of the 2006 Royal Rumble.
  
  wn.com/Rey_Mysterio,_Jr.
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  Rhoma Irama
  Raden Irama (born December 11, 1946, in Tasikmalaya, West Java), most commonly known as Rhoma Irama, is an Indonesian dangdut musician and occasional actor. During the height of his stardom in the 1970s, he became the self-proclaimed Raja Dangdut (King of Dangdut) with his group Soneta.
  Prior to his a pilgrimage to Mecca, he was known as Oma Irama. He is a member of aristocrat class of Sundanese from both his father, Raden Burdah Anggawirya, and mother, R.H. Tuti Juariah.
  Oma Irama's first bands were known as Tornado and Gayhand, and covered Western rock and roll music of Paul Anka, Andy Williams, and The Beatles.
  In the late 1960s Oma Irama, sang orkes Melayu and also some pop Indonesia. In 1968 he joined the group Orkes Melayu Purnama in 1968. This group pioneered elements of the dangdut style within orkes Melayu music - the drum was changed to double drum, the electric guitar's role was expanded, and the suling, or bamboo flute, adopted a style reminiscent of Bollywood music. He also recorded pop Indonesia music during this period with the Zaenal Combo and Galaksi, while the album 'Ingkar Janji' was recorded in 1969 with Orkes Melayu Chandraleka.
  
  wn.com/Rhoma_Irama
• Ria Stalman
  Maria ("Ria") Geertruida Stalman (born 11 December 1951 in Delft, Zuid-Holland, The Netherlands) is a retired discus thrower from the Netherlands, who won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, United States. This earned her the Dutch Sportswoman of the year award the same year.
  Her personal best throw was 71.22 metres, achieved in July 1984. That still is the Dutch record.
  Stalman went to Arizona State University where she was on the track and field team.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/Ria_Stalman
• 
  Richard Brocklesby
  Richard Brocklesby (August 11, 1722 – December 11, 1797), an English physician, was born at Minehead, Somerset.
  He was educated at Ballitore, in Ireland, where Edmund Burke was one of his school fellows, studied medicine at Edinburgh, and finally graduated at Leiden in 1745. He succeeded John Pringle as Surgeon General of the British Army in 1758, and served in Germany during part of the Seven Years' War, and on his return settled down to practice in London. In 1764 he published Œconomical and Medical Observations, which contained suggestions for improving the hygiene of army hospitals. In his latter years he withdrew altogether into private life.
  The circle of his friends included some of the most distinguished literary men of the age. He was warmly attached to Dr. Samuel Johnson, to whom about 1784 he offered an annuity of £100 for life, and whom he attended on his deathbed, while in 1788 he presented Burke, of whom he was an intimate friend, with £1000, and offered to repeat the gift every year "until your merit is rewarded as it ought to be at court." He died on the 11th of December 1797, leaving his house and part of his fortune to his grandnephew, Dr. Thomas Young.
  
  wn.com/Richard_Brocklesby
• Richard Sagrits
  Richard Sagrits (December 19, 1910 — December 11, 1968) was an Estonian painter.
  Sagrits (with Elmar Kits and Evald Okas) was an author (1947) of the ceiling painting (tempera) of the Estonian National Opera in the style of Socialist Realism.
  His works can be seen in the Karepa Kalame Farm Museum, Karepa, Vihula Parish, Lääne-Viru County, Estonia.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Richard_Sagrits
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  Rita Moreno
  Rita Moreno (born December 11, 1931) is a Puerto Rican singer, dancer and actress. She is the only Hispanic and one of the few performers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony, and was the second Puerto Rican to win an Academy Award.
  Moreno was born Rosa Dolores Alverío in Humacao, Puerto Rico, to Rosa María, a seamstress, and Paco Alverío, a farmer. She moved with her mother to New York City at the age of five, and took the surname of her stepfather, Edward Moreno.
  She began her first dancing lessons soon after arriving in New York from a friend of her mother, a Spanish dancer called Paco Cansino, who was the uncle of Rita Hayworth. When she was 11 years old, she lent her voice to Spanish language versions of American films.
  She had her first Broadway role — as "Angelina" in Skydrift — by the time she was 13, which caught the attention of Hollywood talent scouts. She appeared in small roles in The Toast of New Orleans and Singin' in the Rain, in which she played Zelda Zanners.
  
  wn.com/Rita_Moreno
• Robert de Ros
  Sir Robert de Ros, or de Roos of Helmsley, (ca. 1170/1172 – 1227), was the grandfather and ancestor of the Barons Ros of Helmsley that was created by writ in 1264. In 1215, Ros joined the confederation of the barons at Stamford. He was one of the twenty-five barons to guarantee the observance of the Magna Carta, signed by King John on 15 Jun 1215.
  He was the son of Everard de Ros, Baron of Helmsley and Roese Trussebut, daughter of William Trussebut of Warter. In 1191, aged fourteen, he paid a thousand marks fine for livery of his lands to King Richard I of England. In 1197, while serving King Richard in Normandy, he was arrested for an unspecified offence, and was committed to the custody of Hugh de Chaumont, but Chaumont entrusted his prisoner to William de Spiney, who allowed him to escape from the castle of Bonville, England. King Richard thereupon hanged Spiney and collected a fine of twelve hundred marks from Ros' guardian as the price of his continued freedom.
  When King John came to the throne, he gave Ros the barony of his great-grandmother's father, Walter d'Espec. Soon afterwards he was deputed one of those to escort William the Lion, his father-in-law, into England, to swear fealty to King John. Some years later, Robert de Ros assumed the habit of a monk, whereupon the custody of all his lands and Castle Werke (Wark), in Northumberland, were committed to Philip d'Ulcote, but he soon returned and about a year later he was High Sheriff of Cumberland.
  
  wn.com/Robert_de_Ros
• Robert Henriques
  Robert David Quixano Henriques (11 December 1905 - 22 January 1967) was a British writer, broadcaster and farmer. He gained modest renown for two award-winning novels and two biographies of Jewish business tycoons, published during the middle part of the 20th century.
  Robert Henriques was born in 1905 to one of the oldest Jewish families in Britain. He was educated at Lockers Park School, Rugby, and New College, Oxford. He joined the Royal Artillery in 1926, and served as a gunner officer in Egypt and the Sudan. A riding accident put him in hospital and caused him to take retirement in 1933.
  His book No Arms, No Armour (1939) came out to considerable critical praise. Much of the novel was autobiographical.
  When World War II broke out, Henriques was an officer in the Territorial Army. He was immediately called up, and he served with distinction through the war, first in the Royal Artillery, then with the newly-formed Commandos, and finally at the headquarters of Combined Operations. During the course of the war, Henriques rose to the rank of Colonel.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Henriques
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  Robert Q. Lewis
  Robert Q. Lewis (April 25, 1920 – December 11, 1991) was an American radio and television personality, game show host, and actor. Lewis added the middle initial "Q." to his name accidentally on the air in 1942, when he responded to a reference to radio comedian F. Chase Taylor's character, Colonel Lemuel Q. Stoopnagle, by saying, "and this is Robert Q. Lewis."^{[citation needed]} He subsequently decided to retain the initial, telling interviewers that it stood for "Quizzical."
  Lewis is perhaps best known for his game show participation, having been the first host of The Name's the Same, and regularly appearing on other Goodson-Todman panel shows. He also hosted and appeared on a multitude of television shows of the 1940s through the 1970s. His most distinguishing feature was his horn-rimmed glasses, to the point that the title card for his second Robert Q. Lewis Show featured a pair of such glasses as a logo, and they were mentioned in the title of his lecture. As a frequent guest panelist on What's My Line?, Lewis's blindfold featured a sketched pair of glasses.
  
  wn.com/Robert_Q._Lewis
• Ron Carey (actor)
  Ron Carey (December 11, 1935 – January 16, 2007) was an American film and television actor. The 5-foot 4-inch actor was best known for playing cocky Officer Carl Levitt on TV's Barney Miller, in which he was almost always surrounded by male actors (and sometimes female guest stars) who stood at least 4" taller. The series' stars (Hal Linden, Max Gail, Abe Vigoda, Ron Glass) all stood six feet or more. Carey appeared in the recurring role through almost the entire series.
  Carey was born Ronald Joseph Cicenia in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Fanny and John Cicenia, and was raised in an Italian American Catholic family. Carey did stand-up comedy in the 1960s, after earning a bachelor's degree in communications from Seton Hall University in 1956. His comedy centered mostly around Catholicism and his childhood of being the undersized but quick-witted kid on the block. His break came in 1966 when he appeared on The Merv Griffin Show and in 1967 he released a comedy album entitled The Slightly Irreverent Comedy of Ron Carey.
  
  wn.com/Ron_Carey_(actor)
• 
  Ronald Dworkin
  Ronald Myles Dworkin, FBA (born December 11, 1931) is an American philosopher and scholar of constitutional law. He is Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law and Philosophy at New York University and Emeritus Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London, and has taught previously at Yale Law School and the University of Oxford. An influential contributor to both philosophy of law and political philosophy, Dworkin received the 2007 Holberg International Memorial Prize in the Humanities for "his pioneering scholarly work" of "worldwide impact." According to a survey in The Journal of Legal Studies, Dworkin was the second most-cited American legal scholar of the twentieth century.
  His theory of law as integrity, in which judges interpret the law in terms of consistent and communal moral principles, especially justice and fairness, is amongst the most influential contemporary theories about the nature of law. He advocates a "moral reading" of the United States Constitution, and an interpretivist approach to law and morality. He is a frequent commentator on contemporary political and legal issues, particularly those concerning the Supreme Court of the United States, often in the pages of The New York Review of Books.
  
  wn.com/Ronald_Dworkin
• Ronald McKie
  Ronald Cecil Hamlyn McKie (11 December 1909 – 2 May 1991) was an Australian novelist. He was born in 1909 in Toowoomba, Queensland. After receiving his education at the Brisbane Grammar School and the University of Queensland, he worked as a journalist on newspapers in Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and China. He served in the AIF during World War II from 1942–1943, following which he served as war correspondent for several Australian and UK newspapers. After the war he worked for the "Sydney Daily Telegraph".
  Novels
  Autobiography
  Non-fiction
  
  
  
  
  
  wn.com/Ronald_McKie
• 
  Ronald Skirth
  John Ronald Skirth (11 December 1897–1977) served in the Royal Garrison Artillery during the First World War. His experiences during the Battle of Messines and the Battle of Passchendaele led him to resolve not to take human life, and for the rest of his army service he made deliberate errors in targeting calculations to try to ensure the guns of his battery missed their aiming point on the first attempt, giving the enemy a chance to evacuate. Many years later, after retiring from a career as a teacher, he wrote a memoir of his years in the army, describing his disillusionment with the conduct of the war and his conversion to pacifism. In 2010 the memoir was published as The Reluctant Tommy, edited by Duncan Barrett.
  Skirth was born in Chelmsford and grew up in Bexhill-on-Sea. In the First World War, having volunteered for the British Army under the Derby Scheme, and having requested that the process be expedited, he was called up in October 1916, two months before his 19th birthday. He became a Battery Commander's Assistant in the Royal Garrison Artillery, responsible for making the calculations necessary to target the large guns of a field battery. When he argued with a superior officer over whether to use a French church for target practice he was demoted in rank from Corporal to Bombardier.
  
  wn.com/Ronald_Skirth
• 
  Salvadoran Civil War
  The Salvadoran Civil War (1980–1992) was a conflict in El Salvador between the military-led government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), a coalition or 'umbrella organization' of five left-wing guerrilla groups. Significant tensions and violence already existed in the 1970s, before the full-fledged official outbreak of the civil war—which lasted for twelve years. El Salvador's Civil War was the second longest civil war in Latin America after the Guatemalan Civil War.
  The conflict ended in the early 1990s. An unknown number of people disappeared, and more than 75,000 were killed.
  
  wn.com/Salvadoran_Civil_War
• Sam Cooke
  Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and influence on the modern world of music. His contribution in pioneering soul music led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and popularized the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown.
  Cooke had 29 top-40 hits in the U.S. between 1957 and 1964. Major hits like "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", and "Twistin' the Night Away" are some of his most popular songs. Cooke was also among the first modern black performers and composers to attend to the business side of his musical career. He founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as a singer and composer. He also took an active part in the American Civil Rights Movement.
  
  wn.com/Sam_Cooke
• 
  Sami Al-Jaber
  Sami Abdullah Al-Jaber (Arabic: سامي الجابر‎; born 11 December 1972) is a retired football striker from Saudi Arabia well known as playing the majority of his career with Al-Hilal. He is his country's second highest international goalscorer and has appeared in four different World Cup Finals, and scored three goals in 1994 and 1998, and against Tunisia in 2006.
  Al-Jaber is often cited as Al-Hilal's most famous player, after spending nearly 20 years with the club. He joined the club aged 15 and during two decades as a senior player, helped them to win 6 league titles, 6 Crown Prince Cups and 2 Asian Champions League titles among other honours. He was also top goalscorer in the Saudi Premier League twice (in 1989–90 and 1992–93).
  On 21 January 2008, Al-Hilal held a testimonial for Al-Jaber against English Premier League club Manchester United. Al Jaber scored a penalty en route to a 3–2 victory over the visitors in his last game for the club.
  </gallery>
  On 22 August 2000, English First Division side Wolverhampton Wanderers agreed terms to sign Al-Jaber after impressing Wolves' boss Colin Lee in a trial. The deal consisted of an initial five-month loan period with the option to buy for a reported £1.2 million at its conclusion and made him the first Saudi player to play in England.
  
  wn.com/Sami_Al-Jaber
• 
  Santiago Creel
  Santiago Creel Miranda (born on 11 December 1954 in Mexico City) is a Mexican senator representing the right-of-center National Action Party who served as Secretary of the Interior in the cabinet of President Vicente Fox.
  His campaign describes his background as that of a lawyer, father, and husband, as well as of a Party loyalist. Descendant of the Creel-Terrazas family, son of René Creel Luján, one of the founders of the National Action Party, Santiago Creel has extensive connections within the PAN. In 2008 he admitted that he is the father of actress Edith González's daughter, Constanza. Another of his daughters, María Creel Garza Ríos, declared that she has joined his 2012 campaign for the PAN Presidential Nomination.
  Creel received a bachelor's degree in Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and subsequently did graduate work at Georgetown University and earned a master's degree at the University of Michigan.
  His career highlights include running for Head of Government of the Federal District in 2000 (a race he narrowly lost to Andrés Manuel López Obrador). He was later appointed to the cabinet by President Vicente Fox to serve as Secretary of the Interior, a position he held from December 2000 to June 2005.
  
  wn.com/Santiago_Creel
• Sean Grande
  Sean David Grande (b. December 11, 1969, New York City) is an American television and radio sportscaster. Grande provides play-by-play coverage alongside analyst Cedric Maxwell for all Boston Celtics games. The duo is known as “Grande and Max.” As of the 2008-2009 season, only legendary Celtic voices Johnny Most and Mike Gorman have called more Celtics games than Grande. Sean called his 1,000th NBA game on December 2, 2009 when the Boston Celtics beat the San Antonio Spurs in San Antonio.
  His broadcast career included a seven-year stint at WEEI (1991–1998), the final three as Sports Director. The versatile Grande has called WNBA basketball for the Minnesota Lynx (1999–2001) and Connecticut Sun (2006–2007), MFS Pro Tennis, Providence Bruins hockey, Harvard basketball and even Major League Soccer. He co-hosted the 1998 NCAA Hockey Selection show on ESPN2 and served three years as host of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on NHL Radio. In 2005, he became a regular host of Fox Sports Net’s Sports Tonight.
  
  wn.com/Sean_Grande
• Shareef Abdur-Rahim
  Shareef Abdur-Rahim (born December 11, 1976) is a retired American professional basketball player and current assistant general manager for the Sacramento Kings. He last played for the Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). On the basketball court, he played both forward or center positions. Abdur-Rahim was a standout player during his high school days. He left University of California, Berkeley after one year to enter the 1996 NBA Draft.
  In his early NBA career, Abdur-Rahim was the star of the Vancouver Grizzlies franchise for five seasons. He was traded by the Grizzlies in 2001 and then played for the Atlanta Hawks and Portland Trail Blazers before joining his last team, the Sacramento Kings. Nicknamed "Reef", Abdur-Rahim was named an NBA All-Star in the 2001–02 season. He also played on the United States men's national basketball team that won the gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Prior to joining the Kings, despite the fact that he achieved solid statistics throughout his career, Abdur-Rahim held the NBA record for most number of games played without making a playoff appearance. Following persistent injuries to his right knee, Abdur-Rahim announced his retirement from basketball on September 22, 2008.
  
  wn.com/Shareef_Abdur-Rahim
• Shelby Holliday
  Shelby Holliday is an American broadcast journalist currently employed by Channel One News. Prior to joining Channel One, Holliday worked as a reporter and producer for the college news network UWIRE where she covered business and political news and contributed to Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network.
  Holliday covered the 2008 presidential primaries, the 2008 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, and the 2008 presidential election alongside Fox News. She co-hosted the Fox News Strategy Room during the 2008 conventions, and she uncovered cases of suspected voter fraud in Ohio during the 2008 presidential election. Holliday also provided live coverage of election night for Fox Business Network in 2008, and a number of her stories have appeared on Fox Business Network's morning show Money For Breakfast. In addition to her television appearances, Holliday has also written print articles for FOXNews.com and UWIRE.com. While in college, Holliday was interviewed by USA Today about her video reports on the 2007 San Diego wildfires.
  
  wn.com/Shelby_Holliday
• Spyros Vrontaras
  Spyros Vrontaras (Greek: Σπύρος Βρονταράς; born 11 December 1984), is a Greek football goalkeeper.
  Born in Thessaloniki, Vrontaras began playing football for Panthrakikos F.C.
  
  wn.com/Spyros_Vrontaras
• Stamatis Spanoudakis
  Stamatis Spanoudakis - Σταμάτης Σπανουδάκης (born December 11, 1948 (age 61) in Athens, Greece) is a Greek classical and new age composer. Early on he studied classical guitar. He went through a pop music phase, but then continued classical studies at the Würzburg State Conservatory with Bertold Hummel and later in Athens with Konstantinos Kydoniatis. Later on he took up Byzantine music.
  (translated in English from a text offered by the composer himself)
  He was born in Athens, Greece. At a very early age, music became the most important part of his life. As a child, he first studied Classical Music (guitar and theory) with professor Haralampos Ekmektsoglou. Then, as a teenager in the 1960s and the 1970s, he played bass guitar and keyboards in a number of bands in Athens, Paris and finally, London, where he lived for a number of years and recorded his first albums.
  After that, Classical music won him over again, so he decided to return to his studies of composition, at first in Wurzburg, Germany, with professor Bertold Hummel and then back in Athens with professor Konstantinos Kydoniatis.
  
  wn.com/Stamatis_Spanoudakis
• Stu Jackson
  Stuart Wayne "Stu" Jackson (born December 11, 1955 in Reading, Pennsylvania) is an American former head coach and current executive in the National Basketball Association. He has coached two different NBA teams: the New York Knicks in 1990 and 1991, and the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997; he also has served as the Grizzlies' general manager. He is noted for his famous quote when he was confronted about being the one who brought the Vancouver Grizzlies franchise down, "IT'S NOT MY FAULT!"
  Jackson worked as an associate coach and head recruiting coordinator under Rick Pitino at Providence College from 1985–87. He also worked as an assistant coach at Washington State from 1983 to 1985 and at the University of Oregon from 1981 through 1983.
  He was head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers in the 1992–1993 and 1993–1994 seasons.
  As of June 2007, he is the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the NBA, a league official whose duties include penalizing players for on-court misconduct.
  Jackson was the center of controversy for his handling of suspensions related to several incidents in the fourth game of the Phoenix Suns/San Antonio Spurs series in the 2007 NBA Playoffs. [2] [3]
  
  wn.com/Stu_Jackson
• 
  Subramanya Bharathy
  Chinnaswami Subramanya Bharathi (Tamil: சின்னசுவாமி சுப்பிரமணிய பாரதி) (December 11, 1882 – September 11, 1921) was a Tamil writer, poet, journalist, Indian independence activist and social reformer from Tamil Nadu, India. Popularly known as Mahakavi Bharathiyar (Tamil: மகாகவி பாரதியார்), he is a pioneer of modern Tamil poetry.
  Born in Ettayapuram in 1882, Subramanya Bharathi studied in Tinnevely and worked as a journalist with many newspapers, notable among them being the Swadesamitran and India. Bharathi was also an active member of the Indian National Congress. In 1908, an arrest warrant was issued against Bharathi by the government of British India for his revolutionary activities forcing him to flee to Pondicherry where he lived till 1918.
  Bharathi is considered to be one of the greatest Tamil poets of the modern era. Most of his works were on religious, political and social themes. Songs penned by Bharathi have been widely used in Tamil films and Carnatic Music concert platforms.
  Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathiyar was born to Chinnasami Subramanya Iyer and Elakumi Ammaal as "Subbayya" on December 11, 1882 in the Tamil village of Ettayapuram. He was educated at a local high school called "The M.D.T. Hindu College" in Tirunelveli. From a very young age he learnt music and at 11nd songs. It was here that he was conferred the title of "Bharathi" ("one blessed by Saraswati, the goddess of learning).
  
  wn.com/Subramanya_Bharathy
• 
  Taku Yamasaki
  Taku Yamasaki (山崎 拓, Yamasaki Taku^?, December 11, 1936) is a Japanese politician, a member of the House of Representatives of Japan. Born in Dalian, Manchukuo, he is a graduate of Waseda University. He worked at Bridgestone.
  He lost his vision in one eye in childhood.
  As a Diet member, he served as Minister of Construction, and Director General of the Defense Agency. He was a member of YKK with Kōichi Katō and Jun'ichirō Koizumi. Yamasaki was also the leader of a small faction that bore his name. In November 2000, along with Kōichi Katō, Yamasaki was heavily involved in the failed intraparty coup against Prime Minister Yoshirō Mori. He became Secretary-General of the Liberal Democratic Party in 2001, and the Vice-President of the LDP in 2003.
  In the 2003 election Yamasaki was defeated by Jun'ichirō Koga of the Democratic Party. He subsequently resigned from the vice-presidency of the LDP and took on the role of a political advisor.
  In 2005, re-elected to the House of Representatives by-election on Fukuoka Prefecture 2nd Electoral District and Chiefship, Special Committee on Postal Privatization.
  
  wn.com/Taku_Yamasaki
• 
  Teri Garr
  Terry Ann "Teri" Garr (born December 11, 1947) is an American film , theatre and television actress and dancer best known for her roles in Young Frankenstein, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Tootsie, Mr. Mom. After Hours, One From the Heart and Friends.
  Garr was born in Lakewood, Ohio in 1947. Her father, Eddie Garr (born Edward Leo Gonnoud), was a vaudeville performer, comedian and actor whose career peaked when he briefly took over the lead role in the Broadway drama Tobacco Road. Her mother, Phyllis Lind (née Emma Schmotzer), was a dancer, a Rockette, wardrobe mistress, and model. Her father was of Irish descent and her maternal grandparents were Austrian immigrants.
  Early in her career, she was credited, variously, as Terri Garr, Terry Garr, Teri Hope, or Terry Carr. Garr's movie debut was as an extra in 1963's A Swingin' Affair. At the end of her senior year, Garr auditioned for the cast of the Los Angeles Road Company production of West Side Story, where she met one of the most important people in her early career, David Winters, who became her friend, her dance teacher, and her mentor and cast her in many of his early movies and projects.
  
  wn.com/Teri_Garr
• Thomas McGuane
  Thomas Francis McGuane III (born December 11, 1939) is an American author. His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors.
  McGuane was born in Wyandotte, Michigan, the son of upwardly mobile Irish Catholic parents who moved to the Midwest from Massachusetts. His primary education included boarding school at Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, from which he graduated in 1958, but also included work on a ranch in Wyoming, ubiquitous fishing and hunting, and a difficult relationship with his alcoholic father that would later shadow much of his fiction. McGuane prefers to consider his roots matrilineal, on which side he is descended from a rich storytelling clan.
  He envisioned himself as a writer from a very young age, admiring what he perceived as the adventurous life of a writer as much as the prospect of writing. When he was ten years old, he got into a physical altercation with a friend over differing descriptions of a sunset. He began a serious devotion to writing by the age of 16.
  
  wn.com/Thomas_McGuane
• 
  Tim Southee
  Timothy Grant Southee (born 11 December 1988) is a New Zealand cricketer. He is a right-arm fast-medium bowler and hard-hitting lower order batsman. He was one New Zealand's youngest cricketers, debuting at 19 years old. He plays for Northern Districts in the State Championship and Northland in the Hawke Cup.
  He was the third-highest wicket-taker at the 2011 ICC World Cup.
  Southee was born in Whangarei, New Zealand, and grew up in Northland. He was educated at Whangarei Boys' High School and made his first-class debut for Northern Districts on 19 February 2007 at the age of eighteen, having already played an Under-19 ICC World Cup for New Zealand. He lives on a sheep farm in Whangarei with his family.
  Southee played under-19 cricket for New Zealand from 2006-2009. His under-19 career included 13 one-day matches - 10 at ICC Under-19 World Cups - and a drawn three-match Youth Test series against India in early 2007. His last youth appearance was at the 2008 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup, where he was player of the tournament.
  
  wn.com/Tim_Southee
• 
  Tom Hayden
  Thomas Emmet "Tom" Hayden (born December 11, 1939) is an American social and political activist, author, and politician, who is director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Culver City, California. Best known for his leadership role in the anti-war and civil rights movements of the 1960s, Hayden is the former husband of actress Jane Fonda and the father of their son, actor Troy Garity.
  Tom Hayden was born in Detroit, Michigan, to parents of Irish descent. He graduated from Dondero High School in Royal Oak, Michigan, class of 1956. He later attended the University of Michigan, where he was editor of the Michigan Daily and, disenchanted by the anti-radicalism of existing groups like the National Student Association (later revealed to be a CIA front), was one of the founders of the influential New Left student activist group Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Hayden became one of the most prominent figures in the Sixties New Left movement and one of the most visible and outspoken opponents of the War in Vietnam.
  
  wn.com/Tom_Hayden
• Tomoka Kurotani
  Kurotani Tomoka (黒谷友香; born 11 December 1975 in Sakai, Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese actress. She starred as the femme fatale female ninja Kagero in Shinobi Heart Under Blade.
  
  
  
  wn.com/Tomoka_Kurotani
• Val Guest
  Val Guest (11 December 1911 – 10 May 2006) was a British film director, best known for his science-fiction films for Hammer Film Productions in the 1950s, but who also enjoyed a long, varied and active career in the film industry from the early 1930s up until the early 1980s.
  He was born Valmond Maurice Grossmann in London, England, and educated at Seaford College. Guest's initial career was as an actor, appearing in various productions in London theatres. He also appeared in a few early sound film roles, before he gave up an acting career and moved into writing. For a time in the early 1930s he was the London correspondent for the Hollywood Reporter trade paper, before he began working on film screenplays for Gainsborough Pictures, his first being No Monkey Business in 1935.
  He wrote screenplays for the rest of the decade, including working on scripts for Will Hay, as well as some film scores, before in the early 1940s becoming a director, with his debut feature in this role being Miss London Ltd. in 1943. He went on to direct, produce and script a huge number of films over the following forty years, with perhaps his best known work being on the first two Hammer Films Quatermass science-fiction adaptations in the 1950s: The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) and Quatermass 2 (1957). He also directed the cult science-fiction films The Abominable Snowman (1957) and The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) (which won him a BAFTA Award with Wolf Mankowitz for Best Screenplay). He also directed and wrote the screenplay for When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1970).
  
  wn.com/Val_Guest
• 
  Victor McLaglen
  Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was an English boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor. Towards the end of his life he was naturalised as a U.S. citizen.
  McLaglen was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. His father, later a bishop of the Free Protestant Episcopal Church of England, moved the family to South Africa when McLaglen was a child. He had eight brothers and a sister. Four of his brothers also became actors: Arthur (1888–1972), an actor and sculptor, and Clifford (1892–1978), Cyril (1899–1987) and Kenneth (circa 1901-1979). Other siblings included Frederick (b. circa 1882), Sydney (b. circa 1884), Lewis (b. circa 1889), and a sister, Lily (b. circa 1893). Another brother, Leopold McLaglen, who appeared in one film, gained notoriety prior to World War I as a showman and self-proclaimed World Jujutsu Champion, who authored a book on the subject.
  He left home at fourteen to join the British Army with the intention of fighting in the Second Boer War. However, much to his chagrin, he was stationed at Windsor Castle with the Life Guards and was later forced to leave the army when his true age was discovered.
  
  wn.com/Victor_McLaglen
• Vincent du Vigneaud
  Vincent du Vigneaud (May 18, 1901 – December 11, 1978) was an American biochemist. He won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1955 for the isolation, structural identification, and total synthesis of the cyclic peptide, oxytocin.
  du Vigneaud was graduated from Schurz High School in 1918. He began studying chemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was influenced by lectures of Carl Shipp Marvel. After receiving his M.S. in 1924 he joined DuPont.
  He married Zella Zon Ford on June 12, 1924. Restarting his academic career in 1925, he joined the group of John R. Murlin at the University of Rochester for his Ph.D thesis. He was graduated in 1927 with his work, The Sulfur in Insulin.
  After several post-doctoral positions with John Jacob Abel at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Max Bergmann at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Leather Research in Dresden, and others, he became professor at the University of Illinois.
  He next went to George Washington University Medical School in Washington, D.C. in 1932 and to Cornell Medical College in New York City in 1938, where he stayed until his emeritation in 1967. Following that retirement, he held a position at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
  
  wn.com/Vincent_du_Vigneaud
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  Viswanathan Anand
  Viswanathan Anand (Tamil: விசுவநாதன் ஆனந்த், IPA: [ʋiʃʋəˈn̪aːt̪ən ˈaːnən̪d̪]; born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess Grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. Anand has won the World Chess Championship five times (2000, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012), and has been the undisputed World Champion since 2007. Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1988. He was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honor. In 2007, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award in Indian history.
  He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002, at a time when the world title was split. He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. He then successfully defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov and in the World Chess Championship 2012 against Boris Gelfand. As the reigning champion, he will face the winner of the upcoming Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2013.
  
  wn.com/Viswanathan_Anand
• William Milligan
  William Milligan (15 March 1821 – 11 December 1892) was a renowned Scottish theologian. He studied at the University of Halle in Germany, and eventually became a professor at the University of Aberdeen. He is best known for his commentary on the Revelation of St. John. He also wrote two other well-known books that are classics: The Resurrection of our Lord and The Ascension of our Lord.
  His son George Milligan was also a Biblical scholar.
  
  
  
  wn.com/William_Milligan
• Willie McGinest
  William Lee "Willie" McGinest, Jr. (born December 11, 1971) is a retired American football linebacker in the National Football League.
  The second of three children, McGinest attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School, where he garnered all-state honors in football and basketball. In football, he earned All-American recognition from Super Prep, Blue Chip and Tom Lemming magazines and was selected to several all-star teams, earning all-city, all-state, and all-region honors as a linebacker in 1989. He totaled 107 tackles, including 18 sacks, two fumble recoveries, four passes defensed, including an interception, and blocked four kicks as a senior. In 2009, McGinest was elected to Poly's Football Hall of Fame. [2] On the court, he earned Long Beach Press-Telegram "Best in the West," All-CIF Southern Section and all-league honors while averaging 14 points per game during the 1989-90 season.
  From 1990 to 1993, McGinest played football at the University of Southern California. He wore number 55. McGinest earned all-conference honors three straight years and All-American acclaim. During his senior year, he was a Lombardi Award finalist, and earned All-American and All-Pac-10 conference honors. He started every game at weakside defensive end for the Trojans. McGinest finished his collegiate career with 193 tackles (134 solos), 29 sacks (171 yards), 48 tackles for loss (238 yards) and 26 passes batted away. McGinest received a degree in public administration from USC in 1994.
  
  wn.com/Willie_McGinest
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  Willie Rushton
  William George Rushton, commonly known as Willie Rushton (18 August 1937 – 11 December 1996) was an English cartoonist, satirist, comedian, actor and performer who co-founded the Private Eye satirical magazine.
  William George Rushton was born 18 August 1937 in the family home at Scarsdale Villas, Kensington, London (which 24 years later was to also be the editorial birthplace of Private Eye). He began attending Shrewsbury School in 1950, where he met his future Private Eye colleagues Richard Ingrams, Paul Foot and Christopher Booker. His distinctive character and tastes were already forming, as he introduced his friends to P. G. Wodehouse, the humorous columnist Beachcomber, and the records of ex-Footlights’ revue star Jack Hulbert. He gave a memorable performance as Lord Loam in The Admirable Crichton. He was becoming an accomplished illustrator, and his cartoons appeared in the school’s official magazine, The Salopian. He also contributed to the satirical rag, The Wallopian with Ingrams, Foot, Booker mocking school spirit, traditions and the masters. It was during this period that the term "pseud" was coined. The expression was given wider currency by Private Eye and is still in use as an insult against pseudo-intellectuals.
  
  wn.com/Willie_Rushton
• 
  Yehuda Leib Maimon
  Yehuda Leib Maimon (Hebrew: יהודה לייב מימון‎, born Yehuda Leib Fishman on 11 December 1875, died 10 July 1962, also known as Yehuda Leib Hacohen Maimon) was an Israeli rabbi, politician and leader of the religious Zionism movement, originating from Bessarabia.
  Born in 1875 in Mărculeşti, Bessarabia (then part of the Russian Empire, now in Moldova), Maimon studied in a number of yeshivot and received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein, the author of the Aruch HaShulchan. He was one of the founders of the Mizrachi movement in 1902. By this time Maimon had moved to the Russian Empire, where he was arrested several times for Zionist activity. He was a delegate to the ninth Zionist Congress in 1909, and attended every one until Israeli independence in 1948.^{[citation needed]}
  In 1913 Maimon moved to Palestine (then part of the Ottoman Empire), but was expelled during the First World War. He moved to the United States, where he organised the Mizrachi movement. After returning to Mandate Palestine (now under British control) in 1919, Maimon became leader of Mizrachi in the country and together with Abraham Isaac Kook he helped establish the Chief Rabbinate. He was elected to the board of the Jewish Agency in 1935, but was imprisoned by the British in Latrun in 1946.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Yehuda_Leib_Maimon
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  Zacky Vengeance
  Zachary James Baker, (born December 11, 1981) better known by his stage name Zacky Vengeance, is the rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist for the American metal/rock band Avenged Sevenfold.
  Baker attended Huntington Beach High School, and formed Avenged Sevenfold there with M. Shadows and The Rev. Before Avenged Sevenfold, he was in a punk band called MPA*, which stands for Mad Porno Action. He implied that they were not successful. Baker came up with his stage name "Zacky Vengeance" because he wanted to get back at all the people from his youth who doubted his potential. He also came up with Jonathan Seward's stage name "Johnny Christ," saying it suited him. Vengeance was also responsible for the creation of the initialism "A7X".
  Despite playing the guitar left handed, Vengeance recalls the first guitar he learned to play on was actually a right-handed his parents had bought him for his thirteenth birthday. He learned by playing upside-down, watching his favorite bands and other people he knew who played, and practiced as much as he could. He would also read each edition of Guitar World cover to cover, learning the tabs of the songs published there and watching the professionals perform them until he could play them.^{[citation needed]}
  
  wn.com/Zacky_Vengeance