Born in 1947 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, American basketball player and coach.

“I think that the good and the great are only separated by the willingness to sacrifice.”

Also: Charlie Chaplin

Born in 1904 – Arshile Gorky, Armenian-American painter and illustrator.

Above: Portrait of Myself and My Imaginary Wife, 1934

Also: Leonardo da Vinci

Born in 1722 – Christopher Smart, English actor, playwright, and poet.

From Jubilate Agno, 1758-1763:

Born in 1873 – Kanzan Shimomura, Japanese painter.

Above: Yoroboshi, 1915

Born in 1830 – Eadweard Muybridge, English photographer and cinematographer.

Above: Woman in dress dancing (1887)

Born in 1871 – Clarence Hudson White, American photographer.

Above: The Orchard, 1902

Also: Terry Porter

Born in 1506 – Francis Xavier, Spanish missionary and saint.

“With humility, all things are obtained; by force, nothing.”

Above: A 17th-century Japanese depiction of St. Francis Xavier.

Born in 1826 – Gustave Moreau, French painter and academic.

Above: Pietà (1854)

Born in 1732 – Jean-Honoré Fragonard, French painter.

Above: The Swing, 1767

Also: Peter Greenaway

Born in 1932 – Andrei Tarkovsky, Russian filmmaker.

Above: Anatoly Solonitsyn in Tarkovsky’s 1966 film, Andrei Rublev.

Previously: Tarkovsky, here and here.