Born on March 17?

Katie Ledecky

Record-breaking American swimmer with multiple Olympic gold medals

Did you know? She is the first female swimmer to win the same individual event at four consecutive Olympic Games, dominated by her success in the 800-metre freestyle.

Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky ( lə-DEK-ee; born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive swimmer. She is the most decorated female swimmer in history and the most decorated American woman in Olympic history, with a total of 14 Olympic medals, including nine golds.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Mledecky · CC0

John Boyega

British actor known for playing Finn in the Star Wars films

Did you know? He was a primary school classmate of Damilola Taylor and was one of the last people to see him before his death.

John Adedayo Bamidele Adegboyega (born 17 March 1992), known professionally as John Boyega, is an English actor and producer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0

Saina Nehwal

Indian badminton player who became the world number one

Did you know? She made history as the first Indian badminton player to win a medal at the Olympic Games.

Saina Nehwal (born 17 March 1990) is a former Indian badminton player. A former world no.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Shinji Kagawa

Japanese footballer who played for Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United

Did you know? He was the first Japanese player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League during a match against Norwich City.

Shinji Kagawa (Japanese: 香川 真司, Kagawa Shinji; born 17 March 1989) is a Japanese professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for J1 League club Cerezo Osaka. He is widely regarded as one of the best Japanese players of all time.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Кагава Синдзи · CC BY-SA 3.0

Rob Kardashian

Robert Arthur Kardashian (born March 17, 1987) is an American television personality. He is known for appearing on Keeping Up with the Kardashians, a reality television series that centers on his family, as well as its spin-offs.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Bryan Dechart

Bryan Patrick Dechart ( DEH-kart) (born March 17, 1987) is an American actor and Twitch streamer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Quantic Dream · CC BY 3.0

Edin Džeko

Bosnian striker who is his country's all-time record goalscorer

Did you know? He is the first player to score fifty goals in three of the five major European football leagues.

Edin Džeko (Bosnian pronunciation:; born 17 March 1986) is a Bosnian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Bundesliga club Schalke 04. Nicknamed the "Bosnian Diamond" (Bosnian: Bosanski dijamant) or simply the "Diamond" (Dijamant), he is widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Ailura · CC BY-SA 3.0 at

Raul Meireles

Portuguese midfielder who won the Champions League with Chelsea

Did you know? He has a passion for fashion and once launched his own clothing line in collaboration with a boutique in Porto.

Raul José Trindade Meireles (Portuguese pronunciation:; born 17 March 1983) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: БОГДАН ЗАЯЦ · CC BY-SA 3.0

Steven Pienaar

South African footballer who played for Everton and Tottenham Hotspur

Did you know? He overcame a difficult childhood in a Johannesburg township to represent South Africa at two World Cup tournaments.

Steven Jerome Pienaar (Afrikaans pronunciation:; born 17 March 1982) is a South African former professional footballer and current coach of the U14 team of Sharjah FC in the United Arab Emirates. He hails from Westbury, a suburb in Johannesburg's Westrand.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Nick · CC BY 2.0

Stormy Daniels

American adult film actress and director

Did you know? She once ran for the United States Senate in her home state of Louisiana as a challenge to the incumbent Republican.

Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford (born Stephanie A. Gregory; March 17, 1979), known professionally as Stormy Daniels, is an American pornographic film actress, director and former stripper.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Toglenn · CC BY-SA 4.0

Puneeth Rajkumar

Dr. Puneeth Rajkumar (17 March 1975 – October 29, 2021), affectionately known as Appu, was an Indian actor, playback singer, film producer, television presenter and philanthropist who worked in Kannada cinema.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Jerry "Woody" from Edmonton, Canada · CC BY-SA 2.0

Frode Johnsen

Frode Johnsen (born 17 March 1974) is a Norwegian former professional footballer who played for Odd and Rosenborg in the Tippeligaen and for Nagoya Grampus and Shimizu S-Pulse in Japan. He played in several positions, but was preferred as a striker or midfielder.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Løken · CC BY-SA 4.0

Mia Hamm

American footballer considered one of the greatest female players ever

Did you know? She held the world record for the most international goals scored by any player, male or female, for over a decade.

Mariel Margaret "Mia" Hamm (born March 17, 1972) is an American former professional soccer player who played as a forward and midfielder for the United States national team from 1987 to 2004. She competed in four editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup, winning in 1991 and 1999.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Rob Poetsch on Flickr; cropped by Blackcat · CC BY-SA 2.0

Rob Lowe

American actor known for St Elmo's Fire and The West Wing

Did you know? He has been completely deaf in his right ear since infancy, likely due to an undiagnosed viral infection.

Robert Hepler Lowe (born March 17, 1964) is an American actor, filmmaker, and entertainment host.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: David Shankbone · CC BY 3.0

Kalpana Chawla

First Indian-born woman to travel into space

Did you know? A hill on the planet Mars was named after her following the tragic Columbia space shuttle mission.

Kalpana Chawla (March 17, 1962 – February 1, 2003) was an Indian-born American astronaut, aerospace engineer, and pilot who was the first woman of Indian heritage to fly into space. Chawla participated in two spaceflights, STS-87 and STS-107, in 1997 and 2003, respectively.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: NASA · Public domain

Gary Sinise

American actor famous for playing Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump

Did you know? He founded a charitable foundation that builds specially adapted smart homes for severely wounded military veterans.

Gary Alan Sinise (born March 17, 1955) is an American retired actor, director, musician, and activist. He has won a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and three Actor Awards, and has been nominated for an Academy Award.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley · Public domain

Kurt Russell

American actor who starred in Escape from New York and The Thing

Did you know? He played professional baseball for several years in the minor leagues before a shoulder injury forced him to return to acting full-time.

Kurt Vogel Russell (born March 17, 1951) is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor before transitioning to leading roles as an adult in various genres such as action adventures, science-fiction, westerns, romance films, comedic films, and family dramas.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gage Skidmore · CC BY-SA 3.0

William Gibson

Science fiction writer who pioneered the cyberpunk subgenre

Did you know? He is credited with coining the term cyberspace in a short story written years before the internet became popular.

William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American and Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk, a category from which he has repeatedly distanced himself.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gonzo Bonzo · CC BY-SA 2.0

Giovanni Trapattoni

One of the most successful football managers in Italian history

Did you know? He is one of only a few coaches to have won league titles in four different European countries: Italy, Germany, Portugal and Austria.

Giovanni Trapattoni (Italian pronunciation:; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap", is an Italian former football manager and player, considered the most successful club coach in Italian football.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Michael Kranewitter · CC BY-SA 3.0 at

Rudolf Nureyev

Influential Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer

Did you know? He made international headlines in 1961 when he defected from the Soviet Union at a Paris airport during a tour.

Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (17 March 1938 – 6 January 1993) was a Soviet-born ballet dancer and choreographer. Nureyev is widely regarded as the preeminent male ballet dancer of the 20th century, as well as one of the greatest ballet dancers of all time.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Allan Warren · CC BY-SA 3.0

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Founding leader and first President of independent Bangladesh

Did you know? In his home country, he is widely revered as the Father of the Nation and is officially known as Bangabandhu.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975) was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist, and diarist who was the founding president of Bangladesh.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Prime Minister's Office of Bangladesh · Public domain

Nat King Cole

American jazz pianist and influential pop singer

Did you know? He was the first African American man to host his own nationally broadcast variety show on television.

Nathaniel Adams Coles (March 17, 1919 – February 15, 1965), known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American singer, jazz pianist, and actor.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: William P. Gottlieb · Public domain

Lavrentiy Beria

Long-serving head of the Soviet secret police under Joseph Stalin

Did you know? He played a pivotal role in the Soviet atomic bomb project, overseeing the intelligence and resources needed for its development.

Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (29 March 1899 – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph Stalin's secret police chiefs, serving as head of the NKVD from 1938 to 1945 during the country's involvement in the Second World War.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Unknown, presumed official · Public domain

Walter Rudolf Hess

Nobel Prize-winning physiologist who mapped the brain's internal organ control

Did you know? He shared the Nobel Prize with Egas Moniz, the developer of the controversial lobotomy procedure.

Walter Rudolf Hess (17 March 1881 – 12 August 1973) was a Swiss physiologist who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949 for mapping the areas of the brain involved in the control of internal organs. He shared the prize with Egas Moniz.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Nobel Foundation · Public domain