James Buchanan Duke was an American tobacco and electric power industrialist best known for the invention of modern cigarette manufacture and marketing techniques, and his involvement with Duke University. He was the founder of the American Tobacco Company in 1890.
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Also born on December 23
Scientist
1933 · Japan
Akihito is a member of the Imperial House of Japan who reigned as the 125th emperor of Japan from 7 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The era of his rule was named the Heisei era, Heisei being an expression of achieving peace worldwide.
Malacañang Photo Bureau, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Musician
1964 · United States
Eddie Jerome Vedder is an American musician who is the lead vocalist and primary lyricist for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a guest vocalist for supergroup Temple of the Dog, a tribute band dedicated to singer Andrew Wood.
marco annunziata, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Author
1881–1958 · Spain
Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón was a Spanish poet, a prolific writer who received the 1956 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his lyrical poetry, which in the Spanish language constitutes an example of high spirit and artistic purity".
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Danish immunologist
1911–1994 · Kingdom of Denmark
Niels Kaj Jerne, FRS was a Danish immunologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F.
Niels K. Jernes, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Entrepreneur
1867–1919 · United States
Madam C. J. Walker, Mrs. Charles Joseph Walker upon her third marriage, was an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist. Walker is recorded as the first woman to become a self-made millionaire in America in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Addison Norton Scurlock / Adam Cuerden, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Musician
1929–1988 · United States
Chesney Henry Baker Jr. was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist. He is known for major innovations in cool jazz that led him to be nicknamed the "Prince of Cool".
Studio Harcourt., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons