Famous April Birthdays a to z

Loretta Lynn is a singer-songwriter known for "Coal Miner's Daughter," among many other country songs. A film about her by the same name was a critical hit.

Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan political and environmental activist and her country's assistant minister of environment, natural resources and wildlife.

Andie MacDowell is an American actress and model notable for her roles in Sex, Lies and Videotape, Short Cuts, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Groundhog Day.

Shirley MacLaine is one of Hollywood's legendary leading ladies, known for a vast span of films that include The Apartment, Sweet Charity and Terms of Endearment.

Liberal political journalist Rachel Maddow is known for hosting the MSNBC TV show The Rachel Maddow Show, as well as an Air America radio show of the same name.

Bernard Madoff was a stockbrocker who ran his multibillion-dollar firm as a grand scale Ponzi scheme. He is currently serving a 150-year prison sentence.

Actor Lee Majors achieved stardom through a variety of popular TV series, including The Big Valley, The Fall Guy and The Six Million Dollar Man.

Bernard Malamud was an American writer known for his novels and short stories of the Jewish-American life in the first half of the 20th century.

Jayne Mansfield was an American actress best known for her bombshell curves and roles in films during the 1950s and '60s.

Although she had roles in the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Social Network, Rooney Mara gained mainstream success when she played heroine Lisbeth Salander in the American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011). 

Marilu Henner is best known for her acting careerin film and TV, particularly the series Taxi.

Stephen Marley is the third child of legendary reggae artist Bob Marley who has won five Grammys for his music.

Mary II served as queen of England, Scotland and Ireland (1689–94), and was the wife of King William III.

U.S. Psychologist Abraham Maslow was a practitioner of humanistic psychology. He is known for his theory of “self-actualization.”

Master P is a rapper and hip-hop mogul who founded No Limit Records.

James McAvoy is a Scottish actor best known for his roles in The Last King of Scotland (2006), Atonement (2007) and X-Men: First Class (2011).

Actress Nancy McKeon played Jo on the long-running 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in American history. He was executed for his crimes.

Actor Christopher Meloni starred as Detective Elliot Stabler in the hit television crime drama Law & Order: SVU for twelve seasons from 1999 to 2011.

Anthony Michael Hall is a film and TV actor known for his roles in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and The Dead Zone.

James Mill was a Scottish historian, economist, and philosopher. He supported the radical philosophical belief called Utilitarianism.

Spike Milligan was an Irish writer and comedian best known for his work on The Goon Show.

As a child star, film and television actress Hayley Mills won an Oscar for her title role in the Disney movie Pollyanna, and went on to star in The Parent Trap.

Catalan painter Joan Miró combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy to create his lithographs, murals, tapestries, and sculptures for public spaces.

Fashion designer Issey Miyake used new technology to create innovative textiles with both Eastern and Western influences for his clothing line, Pleats Please.

The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe is known for his "Monroe Doctrine," disallowing further European colonization in the Americas.

Actress Elizabeth Montgomery made magic on TV's top-rated sitcom Bewitched from 1964 to 1972.

British actor and comedian Dudley Moore starred in funny films such as Bedazzled (1967), 10 (1979), and Arthur (1981).

Mandy Moore is a singer and actress known for her pop albums and films such as A Walk to Remember.

J.P. Morgan founded the banking company J.P. Morgan & Co., one of the leading financial firms in the country, in 1871.

Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad is a professor, author and media commentator who is executive director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Actor and comedian Eddie Murphy began doing stand-up as a teenager. He became a popular Saturday Night Live cast member and starred in several box-office hits.

American radio and television news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow gave eyewitness reports of WWII for CBS and helped develop journalism for mass media.

French artist Nadar was a caricaturist and photographer who became famous for his portrait studio and the images snapped from his giant hot air balloon.

Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon I, was emperor of France from 1852 to 1870. His downfall came during the Franco-Prussian War, when his efforts to defeat Otto Von Bismarck ended in his capture.

Craig T. Nelson is an actor known for his roles on the TV series Coach, and in films like Poltergeist and The Incredibles.

Willie Nelson is a country singer and songwriter best known for hit songs including “Crazy” and “On the Road Again.”

Eliot Ness was a law enforcement official in Chicago, best known for his efforts to enforce Prohibition as head of "The Untouchables."

With a handful of hits to his credit, singer Wayne Newton has spent more than five decades as one of Las Vegas's most popular entertainers.

Terry Nichols was one of the conspirators of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

Jack Nicholson is one of the most prominent American motion-picture actors of his generation, noted for his versatile portrayals of unconventional outsiders

Cynthia Nixon is an Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress best known for her role as Miranda Hobbes on the television and film series Sex and the City.

Tanzanian statesman and president Julius Kambarage was premier when Tanganyika was granted internal self-government, and was made president on independence.

Comedian and writer Conan O'Brien rose to fame as the host of the talk show Late Night and later the Tonight Show and Conan.

Business leader and entrepreneur Kevin O'Connor is a co-founder and the CEO of the internet advertising technology company DoubleClick.

Ryan O’Neal is an Oscar-nominated actor known for films like Love Story, What’s Up, Doc?, Barry Lyndon and The Main Event.

Actor Ed O'Neill is best known as the dad in TV sitcoms like Married... with Children and Modern Family.

John Oates teamed up with fellow musician Daryl Hall to form the mega-hit duo Hall & Oates, known for songs like "Kiss on My List," "One on One" and "Out of Touch."

Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, regent of Yugoslavia following Alexander I's assassination, was deposed by a Serbian military coup after the signing of the Tripartite Pact.

Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted helped design many U.S. public parks. His first project was Central Park in New York City.

Jan Hendrik Oort was a Dutch astronomer who confirmed that the Milky Way rotates in its own plane around the center of the galaxy.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for leading the Manhattan Project, the program that developed the first nuclear weapon during World War II.

Singer-songwriter Roy Orbison wrote romantic 1960s pop ballads like "Oh, Pretty Woman." In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Mary White Ovington was a civil rights activist and one of the white reformers who helped found the NAACP.

American actor Al Pacino has kept moviegoers riveted since the 1970s, with roles in movies like The Godfather, Serpico and Scent of a Woman.

Bettie Page was a Playboy pin-up model and sex symbol of the 1950s. Her straight black bangs and innocent, playful attitude made her a fashion icon.

English born, English bred, forgotten by the English and the world, James Parkinson identified the "shaking palsy" as a disease of the central nervous system.

Charles Willson Peale was an American painter best known as one of the most prolific artists in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He painted more than a dozen heroic portraits of George Washington.

Gregory Peck is best known for his larger-than-life film roles, particularly as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird.

I.M. Pei is a Chinese-born American architect, perhaps best known for his controversial glass pyramid in the courtyard at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Kal Penn is best known for his performance in the Harold and Kumar comedy films. He has also performed on several television shows, including House and 24.

Anthony Perkins is an Oscar-nominated stage and film actor who is best known for his role as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

Frances Perkins was the first female to serve in the U.S. presidential cabinet. As secretary of labor, she helped with the New Deal and Social Security.

Matthew C. Perry was a 19th century U.S. Naval officer who fought in the Mexican War and headed an important naval expedition to Japan.

Michelle Pfeiffer is an American actress known for her film roles in Scarface, The Fabulous Baker Boys and Batman Returns.

Russian serial killer Alexander Pichushkin, nicknamed "The Chessboard Killer," was caught in Moscow and convicted in 2007 of killing 48 people.

Mary Pickford was a legendary silent film actress and was known as "America’s sweetheart." She was a founder of United Artists and helped establish the Academy.

American singer Kate Pierson is famous as the frontwoman for the B-52s, one of the most popular bands of the late 1980s and early '90s.

A pioneer in early hormonal and reproductive research, Gregory Pincus and his team of scientists are credited with formulating the first oral contraceptive for birth control.

Paulina Porizkova is a Czechoslovakian model and actress best known for being the first woman from Eastern Europe to grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.

American filmmaker Edwin S. Porter invented the Simplex camera for the Edison Company, and pioneered new techniques in films like The Great Train Robbery.

Colin Powell was the first African American appointed as the U.S. Secretary of State, and the first, and so far the only, to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

American author Julie Powell is best known for her blog, "The Julie/Julia Project," and the Nora Ephron movie Julie & Julia, which is based in part on Powell's experience.

Florence Beatrice Price was an award-winning pianist and composer who became the first African-American woman to have her work performed by a major symphony.

French Romantic painter Pierre-Paul Prud'hon is best known for his soft forms and gentle light in his allegorical paintings and portraits.

Tito Puente was a musical pioneer, mixing musical styles with Latin sounds and experimenting in fusing Latin music with jazz.

Dennis Quaid is an actor known for a wide variety of films, from Breaking Away to Dreamscape to Postcards from the Edge.

Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain was crowned in 1953. Her 60 years on the throne was celebrated in June 2012, with the Diamond Jubilee.