12 July: today's birthdays

• Claude Bernard - French physiologist
• Eugène Boudin - French painter
• Tod Browning - American actor and film director
• Alain Cuny - French actor
• Kirsten Flagstad - Norwegian soprano
• Stefan George - German poet
• Monte Hellman - American film director and producer
• Max Jacob - French poet, painter, writer and critic
• Lionel Jospin - French politician
• Amedeo Modigliani - Italian painter and sculptor. He had a long and deep love relationship with French artist Jeanne Hébuterne
• Pablo Neruda - Pen name of Chilean poet Ricardo Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971.
• Ricardo Neftalí Reyes Basoalto - Chilean poet best known as Pablo Neruda, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971
• Henry David Thoreau - American writer and philosopher
• Oswald Mathias Ungers - German architect
• Malala Yousafzai - Malala Yousafzai is Pakistani student and activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, which she shared with Kailash Satyarthi. Malala Yousafzai, who is often only referred to as Malala won the Nobel prize at the age of 17, making her the youngest Nobel Prize recipient.
  In 2008, at the age of 11 Malala began writing anonymously on the BBC Urdu blog about the growing Taliban control in the Swat District of Pakistan, especially regarding the increasing prohibitions to the rights of girls and women.
  Because of her activism, there was an attempt on Malala's life in 2012 by the Taliban, where she was shot but survived.
  Nonetheless, Malala Yousafzai has continued with her activism, especially in favour of the rights to female education.
  The correct pronunciation of Malala Yousafzai is mah-lah-lah yoo-zahf-SAI.
  Malala is pronounced as it appears phonetically. The stress in her last name, Yousafzai, is pronounced on the last syllable, -SAI. The "s" in the second syllable is pronounced as a "z" and the "z" in the last syllable is pronounced as an "s".