Portal:Biography/Selected anniversaries/August 24

Births

 * 1707 - Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, English Evangelical Revivalist (d. 1791)
 * 1759 - William Wilberforce, English abolitionist (d. 1833)
 * 1787 - James Weddell, Antarctica explorer (d. 1834)
 * 1817 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
 * 1872 - Max Beerbohm, British caricaturist (d. 1956)
 * 1899 - Jorge Luis Borges, Argentine writer (d. 1986)
 * 1927 - Harry Markowitz, American economist, Nobel laureate (d. 2023)
 * 1929 - Yasser Arafat, (pictured) Palestinian leader (d. 2004)
 * 1937 - Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, Nigerian politician (d. 1998)
 * 1947 - Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author
 * 1948 - Jean-Michel Jarre, French musician
 * 1957 - Stephen Fry, English comedian and actor
 * 2003 - Alexandre Coste, son of Albert II, Prince of Monaco

Deaths

 * 79 - Pliny the Elder, Roman writer and naturalist (b. AD 23)
 * 1572 - Gaspard II de Coligny, French Huguenot leader (b. 1519)
 * 1680 - Thomas Blood, Irish-born thief of the British crown jewels (b. 1618)
 * 1831 - August von Gneisenau, Prussian field marshal (b. 1760)
 * 2003 - Sir Wilfred Thesiger, British explorer (b. 1910)