Horace Andy is a Jamaican singer-songwriter known for his breakthrough single, "Skylarking," and for his long association with British trip-hop band Massive Attack.
1951-
Buju Banton is a controversial Jamaican dancehall singer who is best known for his notorious single "Boom Bye Bye," which advocated violence against gays and inspired worldwide protest.
1973-
Harry Belafonte has achieved lasting fame for such songs as "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," and for his humanitarian work.
1927-
Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake holds the world record for the 4-by-100-meter relay. In 2012, he won a silver medal in both the 100-meter and 200-meter races, losing to rival and fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt in both events.
1989-
Usain Bolt became the first man in Olympic history to win both the 100-meter and 200-meter races in world record times in 2008. Four years later, at the London Olympics, he became the first man to win gold medals in both the 100 and 200 at consecutive Olympic Games and the first man in history to set three world records in a single Olympic Games competition.
1986-
Reggae artist Dennis Brown began his career at the age of 12, when he recorded the hit single "No Man is an Island."
1957-1999
Reggae musician Burning Spear, also known as Winston Rodney, OD, is a Bob Marley protégé whose hits include "Door Peep" and "Slavery Days."
1945-
Veronica Campbell-Brown is the youngest Jamaican woman to win an Olympic medal. At the 2012 Olympic Games, she became a six-time Olympic medalist.
1982-
Jamaican musician Jimmy Cliff is best known for introducing reggae to an international audience.
1948-
Christopher "Dudus" Coke, also know as the "Kingston Kingpin," is the notorious longtime leader of the international Shower Posse gang.
1969-
Jamaican born singer Desmond Dekker was best known for creating several musical hits in the ska and reggae genres.
1941-2006
Alton Ellis was a Jamaican singer and songwriter with a smooth vocal style, known widely as the "Godfather of Rocksteady," a slow, soulful Jamaican music genre.
1938-2008
Hortense Ellis, younger sister of the "Godfather of Rock Steady" Alton Ellis, was a pop singer who was regarded as Jamaica’s first locally based female singing star.
1941-2000
Patrick Ewing is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player best known for winning Olympic Gold Medals in 1984 and 1992 for U.S. Men's Basketball.
1962-
Sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce became the first Jamaican woman to win the 100-meter Olympic gold medal in 2008. She won her second straight 100-meter Olympic gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
1986-
Marcus Garvey was a proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, inspiring the Nation of Islam and the Rastafarian movement.
1887-1940
Musician Frederick "Toots" Hibbert helped define reggae with his band Toots and the Maytals. Their 2004 album, True Love, won a Grammy in 2005.
1946-
Linton Kwesi Johnson is a Jamaican poet, journalist and author based in London. He is widely considered to be the father of reggae dub poetry, a precursor to rap music.
1952-
King Yellowman is a Jamaican dancehall reggae performer whose stage name references his white skin due to albinism, a genetic defect causing an absence of the pigment melanin.
1956-
Lennox Lewis was the first British boxer to hold the undisputed world heavyweight title since Bob Fitzsimmons (who won the title in 1899). Lewis won Olympic gold in 1988.
1965-
Jamaican singer, musician and songwriter Bob Marley served as a world ambassador for reggae music and sold more than 20 million records throughout his career—making him the first international superstar to emerge from the so-called Third World.
1945-1981
Damian Marley is a Grammy Award-winning reggae musician and the son of Bob Marley. His biggest hit is the song "Welcome to Jamrock."
1978-
Rita Marley, Bob Marley's widow, is best known for carrying on her late husband's musical legacy and for her own career as a solo artist.
1946-
Singer and songwriter Ziggy Marley is the oldest son of the reggae giant Bob Marley, and is best known as a talented reggae musician in his own right.
1968-
Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel written by an American black to that time.
1890-1948
Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter Sugar Minott was best known for his hit, "Good Thing Going," a cover of Michael Jackson's "We've Got a Good Thing Going." Minott's version reached No. 4 on the British singles chart in 1981.
1956-2010
Reggae artist and music producer Lee Perry was an early pioneer of reggae music and its offshoot, dub music, and recorded a young Bob Marley and the Wailers.
1936-
Mary Seacole was a Jamaican nurse who cared for British soldiers at the battlefront during the Crimean War.
1805-1881
Peter Tosh was a renowned reggae artist and founding member of the band the Wailers, which gave reggae artist Bob Marley his start.
1944-1987