Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer, b. 1473. Copernicus revolutionized astronomy by placing the sun instead of the earth at the center of our planetary system.
David Garrick, actor, playwright, theatre manager, b.1717. Garrick was, by all acconts, an extraordinary Shakespearean actor. He is buried in Westminster Abbey, and there is a statue of him there with these lines underneath it:

To paint fair nature by divine command,
Her magic pencil in her glowing hand,
A Shakespear rose: then, to expand his fame,
Wide o’er this breathing world, a Garrick came.
Though sunk in death the forms the Poet drew,
The actor’s genius bade them breath anew;
Though, like the bard himself, in night they lay,
Immortal Garrick call’d them back to day;
And till Eternity with pow’r sublime
Shall mark the moral hour of hoary Time,
Shakespear and Garrick like twin-stars shall shine,
And earth irradiate with a beam divine.

Can you imagine what it would be like to be paired with Shakespeare himself as a “twin star”? Garrick must have been some actor. It’s a pity that the art of stage actors (and singers) doesn’t last past their deaths.

Louis Slobodkin, sculptor and Caldecott Award winning illustrator and author of children’s books, b. 1903. Mr. Slobodkin was a sculptor until his late 30’s when he began illustrating the books of his friend, Eleanor Estes. He illustrated several of her Moffat books and also my favorite, The Hundred Dresses. (If you want to teach children about compassion without preaching at them, read The Hundred Dresses.) He won the Caldecot Award for his illustrations of James Thurber’s story, Many Moons about a sick princess who asks to have the moon to make her well.