Born on October 10?

Xherdan Shaqiri

Swiss international footballer who played for Liverpool and Bayern Munich

Did you know? Known for his immense strength and stocky build, he has won league titles in three different countries and two Champions League medals.

Xherdan Shaqiri (Albanian pronunciation:; born 10 October 1991) is a professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Swiss Super League club Basel. Born in Kosovo, he represented the Switzerland national team.

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Ezequiel Garay

Argentine footballer who won gold at the 2008 Olympics

Did you know? He was part of the Argentina team that reached the final of the 2014 World Cup, playing every minute of the knockout stages.

Ezequiel Marcelo Garay González (Spanish pronunciation:; born 10 October 1986) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a central defender.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Marina Diamandis

Welsh singer-songwriter who records as Marina, known for witty, theatrical pop albums such as The Family Jewels and Electra Heart

Did you know? Her stage name originally referred to her fans, whom she called her diamonds.

Marina Lambrini Diamandis (born 10 October 1985), professionally known under the mononym Marina and previously by the stage name Marina and the Diamonds, is a Welsh singer, songwriter, poet and record producer of Greek ancestry.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Pavel Durov

Tech entrepreneur and founder of the Telegram messaging app

Did you know? He is often called the Russian Mark Zuckerberg for creating VKontakte, the most popular social network in his home country.

Pavel Valeryevich Durov (Russian: Павел Валерьевич Дуров; born 10 October 1984) is a technology entrepreneur who is best known as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Telegram. Durov was born in the Soviet Union, and he co-founded the social networking site VKontakte (VK) in 2006.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Gavin Newsom

Governor of California and former Mayor of San Francisco

Did you know? Before entering politics, he co-founded a successful wine shop called PlumpJack, which eventually expanded into a multi-million dollar hospitality business.

Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 2019 as the 49th lieutenant governor of California and from 2004 to 2011 as the 42nd mayor of San Francisco.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Carolyn Bertozzi

Nobel Prize-winning chemist who pioneered the field of bioorthogonal chemistry

Did you know? In her youth, she played keyboards in a band with future Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.

Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi (born October 10, 1966) is an American chemist and Nobel laureate, known for her wide-ranging work spanning both chemistry and biology.

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Rekhā

Indian film actress known for her prolific career in Bollywood

Did you know? She began acting as a child to support her family and eventually became a leading fashion icon in India.

Bhanurekha Ganesan (pronounced; born 10 October 1954), better known by her mononymous stage name Rekha, is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Hindi films.

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Naoto Kan

Former Prime Minister of Japan during the 2011 nuclear disaster

Did you know? A man of many talents, he once patented a machine designed to calculate complex scores in the game of mahjong.

Naoto Kan (菅 直人, Kan Naoto; born 10 October 1946) is a Japanese former politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan and President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) from June 2010 to September 2011.

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Charles Dance

British actor known for playing Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones

Did you know? He was once considered as a potential successor to Roger Moore for the role of James Bond.

Walter Charles Dance (born 10 October 1946) is an English actor. He is known for playing intimidating, authoritarian characters and villains.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Ken Saro-Wiwa

Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995) was a Nigerian writer, teacher, television producer, and social rights activist.

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Gerhard Ertl

Nobel Prize-winning physicist known for his work on surface chemistry

Did you know? His research helped explain how the ozone layer is depleted and how fuel cells produce energy without pollution.

Gerhard Ertl (German pronunciation:; born 10 October 1936) is a German physicist and a Professor emeritus at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin, Germany.

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Harold Pinter

English playwright of The Birthday Party and The Homecoming, famous for menacing pauses, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature

Did you know? He was a passionate cricket enthusiast and served as the chairman of the Gaieties Cricket Club for many years.

Harold Pinter (10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was an English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A recipient of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, Pinter was one of the most influential modern dramatists of British theatre with a writing career that spanned more than 50 years.

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Yves Chauvin

Nobel Prize-winning chemist who developed methods for organic synthesis

Did you know? He was famously modest about his achievements and initially attempted to refuse the Nobel Prize when he was awarded it in 2005.

Yves Chauvin (French:; 10 October 1930 – 27 January 2015) was a French chemist and Nobel Prize laureate. He was honorary research director at the Institut français du pétrole and a member of the French Academy of Sciences.

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Thelonious Monk

Influential American jazz pianist and composer

Did you know? He remains the second-most-recorded jazz composer in history, with only Duke Ellington having more of his works recorded by other musicians.

Thelonious Sphere Monk ( October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer.

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Claude Simon

Nobel Prize-winning French novelist associated with the Nouveau Roman movement

Did you know? His writing was heavily influenced by his time as a cavalryman, having witnessed the collapse of the French army in 1940.

Claude Eugène Henri Simon (French:; 10 October 1913 – 6 July 2005) was a French novelist and recipient of the 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature.

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Ilya Frank

Soviet physicist and Nobel Prize winner for explaining Cherenkov radiation

Did you know? During the Second World War, he temporarily shifted his focus from physics to work on improving the accuracy of naval mines.

Ilya Mikhailovich Frank (Russian: Илья Михайлович Франк; 23 October 1908 – 22 June 1990) was a Soviet physicist who received the 1958 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with Pavel Cherenkov and Igor Tamm, also of the Soviet Union. He received the award for his work in explaining the phenomenon of Cherenkov radiation.

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Mercè Rodoreda

Influential Catalan novelist who wrote the book In Diamond Square

Did you know? Her most famous novel was translated into more than thirty languages and is considered a masterpiece of post-war literature.

Mercè Rodoreda i Gurguí (Catalan pronunciation:; 10 October 1908 – 13 April 1983) was a Catalan novelist, who wrote in the Catalan language.

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Alberto Giacometti

Swiss sculptor known for his elongated and spindly human figures

Did you know? He once appeared on the 100-franc Swiss banknote and spent much of his career working in a tiny, cluttered studio.

Alberto Giacometti (US also, Italian:; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced by artistic styles such as Cubism and Surrealism.

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Helen Hayes

Celebrated actress who was the first woman to achieve EGOT status

Did you know? A theatre on Broadway was renamed in her honour while she was still alive, a rare tribute for a performer.

Helen Hayes MacArthur (née Brown; October 10, 1900 – March 17, 1993) was an American actress. Often referred to as the "First Lady of American Theatre", she was the second person and first woman to win the EGOT (an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony Award), and the first person to win the Triple Crown of Acting.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Alexander Alekhine

Fourth World Chess Champion known for his imaginative attacking style

Did you know? He is the only world chess champion to have died while still holding the title, passing away in a hotel room in Portugal.

Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine (31 October 1892 – March 24, 1946) was a Russian and French chess player and the fourth World Chess Champion, a title he held for two reigns. By the age of 22, Alekhine was already among the strongest chess players in the world.

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Fridtjof Nansen

Norwegian explorer who crossed Greenland and drifted in the Arctic ice, then won the Nobel Peace Prize for helping refugees

Did you know? He created the Nansen passport, which enabled thousands of stateless people and refugees to travel across borders after the First World War.

Fridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen (Norwegian:; 10 October 1861 – 13 May 1930) was a Norwegian polymath and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He gained prominence at various points in his life as an explorer, a scientist, a diplomat, a humanitarian, and the co-founder of the Fatherland League.

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Aleksis Kivi

Author of the first major novel written in the Finnish language

Did you know? Despite his current status as a national icon, he died in poverty at the age of thirty-eight after receiving harsh critical reviews.

Aleksis Kivi (Finnish pronunciation:; born Alexis Stenvall; 10 October 1834 – 31 December 1872) was a Finnish writer who wrote the first significant novel in the Finnish language, Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers), published in 1870. He is also known for his 1864 play, Nummisuutarit (Heath Cobblers).

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Isabella II of Spain

Queen of Spain and the country's only female regnant

Did you know? She ascended the throne as an infant, leading to a series of civil wars over her right to rule.

Isabella II (Spanish: Isabel II, María Isabel Luisa de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias; 10 October 1830 – 9 April 1904) was Queen of Spain from 1833 until her deposition in 1868. She is the only queen regnant in the history of unified Spain.

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Paul Kruger

State President of the South African Republic during the Boer War

Did you know? He was a legendary hunter in his youth and once had to amputate his own thumb after a hunting accident involving a rifle.

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (Afrikaans pronunciation:; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and State President of the South African Republic (or Transvaal) from 1883 to 1900.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0