21 June: today's birthdays

  • Claude Auchinleck - English Commander-in-Chief in World War II. The Scottish family name is hard to pronounce
  • Zuzana Čaputová - Slovak politician, lawyer and activist, born Zuzana Strapáková. She is the first woman to be elected President of Slovakia 
  • Mickey Levy - Israeli politician, born Michael Levy, is the Knesset’s new speaker.
  • Juliette Lewis - American actress and musician. She starred in Cape Fear, directed by Martin Scorsese, and in the film Natural Born Killers
  • Enzo Maiorca - Italian free. He broke several times the world record
  • Ian McEwan - English author. He wrote Enduring Love and Atonement, both adapted into award-winning films
  • Pier Luigi Nervi - Italian engineer. He worked with internationally acclaimed architects such as Le Corbusier e Louis Kahn
  • Michel François Platini - Former French soccer player and manager. He is the 6th President of UEFA
  • Jean-Paul Sartre - Jean-Paul Sartre was a French writer, philosopher, and literary critic. He is most known for being one of the key figures in the philosophy of existentialism.
    He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964, but refused it on the grounds that a writer must not become an institution.
    Sartre was married to fellow existentialist philospher and feminist social critic Simone de Beauvoir.
    The correct French pronunciation of Jean-Paul Sartre can be phonetically transcribed as Szahn-Pohl Sahr-truh. 
    The Sz sound at the beginning of his name has the same sound as the "s" in the word vision. In French, Paul is pronounced like an abbreviated version of the same name in English. His last name, Sartre, is often the most mispronounced part of his name, with English speakers, especially American speakers, omitting to pronounce the -re sound. The second "R" contains the gargling French "R", but to approach the correct pronunciation it is sufficient to emit an "ru" sound, like the beginning of the word "rug".
  • Yingluck Shinawatra - Thai politician
  • Edward Snowden - American former contractor for the National Security Agency
  • ​Frank Vogel - Frank Paul Vogel is a basketball coach who is currently Head Coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA. He is the former coach of the Indiana Pacers, with which he reached the Conference Finals.
  • Lana Wachowski - American film director and screenwriter, born Laurence "Larry" Wachowski, sister of Andy Wachowski
  • Larry Wachowski - American film director, writer and producer
  • Michelle Wolf - American comedian and writer
  • Adam Zagajewski - Polish poet and writer
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