1783 – Maria Benitez, Puerto Rican poet.
1830 – Emily Dickinson, beloved and prolific American poet, most of whose work was not discovered until after her death.
1891 – Nelly Sachs, Nobel Prize-winning Jewish German poet and playwright who escaped to Sweden to avoid being sent to a forced-labor camp; in her work, she gave voice to the suffering of the Jewish people under the Nazi regime.
1925 – Carolyn Kizer, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet of the American Northwest.
1933 – Philip Craig, American author known for his Martha’s Vineyard mysteries.
1956 – Jacquelyn Mitchard, American journalist and bestselling author of adult and YA books; her novel The Deep End of the Ocean was named one of the ten most influential books of the past 25 years.
1958 – Cornelia Funke, U.S.-based German author of children’s and YA fiction, best known for her “Inkheart” trilogy.
1960 – Kenneth Branagh, Northern Irish actor, director, and screenwriter, best known for his Shakespeare adaptations (and his role as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in the Harry Potter films); he was nominated for an Oscar for his Hamlet screenplay.
