1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English romantic poet who is considered one of the finest lyric and epic poets in the English language; he was married to novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, who is best known as the author of Frankenstein.

1839 - Walter Horatio Pater, English essayist, literary and art critic, fiction writer, and humanist whose advocacy of "art for art's sake" became a key doctrine of the Aestheticism movement.

1841 - William Henry Hudson (known in Argentina as Guillermo Enrique Hudson), Argentine author, naturalist, and ornithologist.

1859 - Knut Hamsun, Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian novelist.

1869 - Evelyn Sharp, English writer, journalist, novelist, autobiographer, children's writer, and a key activist for women's suffrage who was twice imprisoned.

1894 - Narayan Sitaram Phadke, Indian Marathi writer, editor, and professor; he wrote in his native Marathi as well as English.

1904 - Witold Marian Gombrowicz, Polish novelist, short-story writer, and playwright whose works are characterized by deep psychological analysis, satire, existentialism, and anti-nationalist thought.

1909 - Manuel Méndez Ballester, Puerto Rican writer, broadcaster, journalist, and teacher.

1912 - Virgilio Piñera, Cuban novelist, short-story writer, poet, playwright, essayist, and translator.

1913 - Robert Hayden, essayist, educator, and the first African-American U.S Poet Laureate.

1913 - María de Montserrat Albareda, pen name of María de Montserrat Albareda Roca, a Uruguayan writer, poet, novelist, short-story writer, and playwright who was a member of the Generación del 45 cultural and literary movement.

1913 - Noboru Nakamura, Oscar-nominate Japanese film director and screenwriter.

1916 - Orlando Marques de Almeida Mendes, award-winning Mozambican biologist, botanist, and writer.

1920 - Helen Thomas, American author and news service reporter, opinion columnist, and "Dean of the White House Press Corps."

1922 - Anbara Salam Khalidi, Lebanese author, poet, translator, and feminist who significantly contributed to the emancipation of Arab women.

1922 - Asbjørn Øksendal, Norwegian novelist and nonfiction writer who wrote novels about the Viking age and nonfiction books about the occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany.

1926 - Ayin Hillel, pen name of Hillel Omer, award-winning Israeli poet and children's author.

1926 - Catherine Paysan, pen name of Annie Hausen, award-winning French novelist, poet, screenwriter, short-story writer, autobiographer, playwright, and educator.

1934 - Liv Holtskog, Norwegian fruit farmer and poet whose poetry contains motifs from nature, biblical themes, and allusions to fairy tales; several of her poems are used as songs, and some have been performed as choral works.

1937 - María Esther Vázquez, Argentine writer, biographer, and journalist who is best known as a collaborator with and biographer of Jorge Luis Borges and Victoria Ocampo.

1940 - Michèle Desbordes, award-winning French writer, poet, novelist, short-story writer, and library curator and director.

1944 - Teodomiro Alberto Azevedo Leite de Vasconcelos, Portuguese-born Mozambican journalist, writer, teacher, and political commentator.

1951 - Stephen Kinzer, American author, journalist, academic, and New York Times foreign correspondent.

1951 - Chang Yui-tan, Taiwanese writer, editor, and museum curator.

1955 - Dagoberto Valdés Hernández, award-winning Cuban writer, journalist, magazine editor and founder, and Catholic intellectual.

1958 - Liao Yiwu, Chinese author, poet, musician, and journalist who has been imprisoned and had his work banned on mainland China for his criticism of China's communist government; several of his books are collections of interviews with ordinary people from the lower rungs of Chinese society.

1959 - Blanca Andreu, award-winning Spanish poet whose work is characterized by a search for truth and spiritual meaning and sometimes features dreamlike imagery, fragmented syntax, and highly challenging use of language.

1960 - Keka Ferdousi, Bangladeshi television chef and writer.

1960 - Joby Warrick, multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author; he writes for the Washington Post on the Middle East, diplomacy, and national security.

1961 - Andreas Findig, German author and science-fiction writer.

1961 - Barack Obama, 44th U.S. President and the first African-American to hold the office; he has also written several books.

1963 - Shishir Bhattacharja, Bangladeshi linguist, writer, columnist, translator, and French professor who is the Director of the Institute of Modern Languages at the University of Dhaka.; an ardent advocate and promoter of the Bengali language, he has written extensively on the use of Bengali in Bangladesh.

1964 - Emanuela Abbadessa, award-winning Italian writer, musicologist, music historian, and educator.

1965 - Dennis Lehane, American author of popular novels; several of his books have been adapted for film.

1969 - Jojo Moyes, award-winning English journalist, screenwriter, author, and romance novelist.

1972 - Øyvind Vågnes, award-winning Norwegian novelist, nonfiction writer, magazine editor, and researcher; among his non-fiction works are Zaprudered : the Kennedy Assassination Film in Visual Culture.

1977 - Yuuko Kohara, Japanese manga artist and writer.

1978 - Lehua M. Taitano, Micronesian Chamoru poet from the Mariana Islands who is also an interdisciplinary artist and educator.

1986 - Nikhil Sachan, bestselling Indian novelist, short-story writer, and columnist.

1987 - Nadia Bulkin, Indonesian-born American political scientist and author of short stories, mostly in the horror genre.