22 August: today's birthdays

  • Ray Bradbury - American  science fiction writer. He wrote the novels Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles
  • Henri Cartier-Bresson - French photographer
  • Claude Debussy - Claude Debussy was a French composer who was very influential at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s. He is often labelled as the first impressionist composer, borrowing the terminology from the 19th century style of French painting, although Debussy himself refused and detested the label.
    Debussy's full name was Achille Claude Debussy and he used different variations of his name throughout his life. He began his career by using Achille-Claude (in its hyphenated version) to sound more prestigious and occasionally split his surname into de Bussy. However, he then reverted to signing off only as Claude Debussy.
    The correct pronunciation of Claude Debussy in French is Klod Deh-boo-see. The "o" sound in -Klod is a closed sound and it is pronounced similarly to the "o" in the word "story". The "e" in Debussy is rather complicated to transcribe without IPA because while it is an "e" sound, it also sounds similar to a "uh" sound. 
  • Deng Xiao Ping - Chinese politician
  • Howie Dorough - American musician
  • Samuel Pierpont Langley - American astronomer, physicist, inventor and aviation pioneer
  • Lewis Libby - American politician
  • Luis Diego López Breijo - Uruguayan soccer player
  • Lautaro Martínez - Dutch professional footballer, born Lautaro Javier Martínez
  • Annie Proulx - Canadian-born American writer
  • Leni Riefenstahl - German photographer and film director
  • Rodrigo Santoro - Brazilian actor
  • Karlheinz Stockhausen - German composer
  • Benoît Violier - French-born Swiss. He was the owner of the three Michelin star Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville
  • Rudolf von Jhering - German jurist
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