1865 – Rudyard Kipling, Nobel Prize-winning English author best known for his tales of India.
1897 – Alfredo Bracchi, Italian lyricist and scriptwriter..
1910 – Paul Bowles, American expatriate composer and author.
1922 – Jane Langton, American children’s writer, whose book The Fledgling was a Newbery Honor book.
1923 – Sara Lidman, one of the most important Swedish novelists of the 20th century; her works focused on political subjects, with a socialist tendency.
1943 – Julia Briggs, British biographer, writer, and professor.
1946 – Patti Smith, American singer-songwriter and poet; influential member of the early New York punk scene.
1947 – James Kahn, American writer best known for his novelizations of films.
1950 – Lewis Shiner, American writer of science fiction, cyberpunk, and fantasy.
1952 – Melissa Fay Greene, American author of nonfiction books.
1961 – Douglas Coupland, Canadian novelist.
1961 – Sean Hannity, American conservative political commentator.
1963 – Chandler Burr, American journalist, author, and museum curator.
1966 – Akosua Gyamama Busia, Ghanaian actress, screenwriter, novelist, film director, and songwriter; she is best known for playing the sister of Whoopi Goldberg’s character in the film, The Color Purple.
