Biographies of notable people — their path, achievements and key facts.
Howard Dean
Chair of the Democratic National Committee Born Howard Brush Dean III, November 17, 1948, in New York, NY; son of Howard Jr. (a stockbroker) and Andree Dean; married Judith Steinb...
Claude Debussy
Born: August 22, 1862 St-Germain-en-Laye, France Died: March 25, 1918 Paris, France French composer The French compos...
Ruby Dee
Born: October 27, 1924 Cleveland, Ohio African American actress Ruby Dee's acting career has spanned more than fifty years and has included theat...
Sandra Dee
Born Alexandra Cymboliak Zuck, April 23, 1942, in Bayonne, NJ; died of kidney disease, February 20, 2005, in Thousand Oaks, CA. Actress. Sandra Dee was one of Hollywood's hottest box-offic...
Mos Def
Actor and rap artist Born Dante Terrell Smith, December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, NY; son of Abdul (Abi) Rahman and Sheron (Umi) Smith. Addresses: Reco...
Daniel Defoe
Born: 1660 London, England Died: April 24, 1731 London, England English writer, journalist, and poet Daniel Defoe was...
Edgar Degas
Born: July 19, 1834 Paris, France Died: September 27, 1917 Paris, France French artist, painter, and sculptor The Fre...
Desmond Dekker
Born Desmond Adolphus Dacres, July 16, c. 1941, in Kingston, Jamaica; died of a heart attack, May 25, 2006, in London, England. Singer. Musical pioneer Desmond Dekker dominated Jamaica's p...
Michael Dell
February 23, 1965 • Houston, Texas Chairman of Dell, Inc. In 1984, as a first-year college student in Austin, Texas, Michael Dell borrowed $1,000 from his parents t...
Patrick Dempsey
Actor Born January 13, 1966, in Lewiston, ME; son of William (an insurance salesman) and Amanda (a high school secretary) Dempsey; married Rocky Parker, 1987 (divorced, 1993...
John Denver
American singer and songwriter John Denver (1943–1997) gained international popularity in the 1970s with pleasant, well-crafted songs, many of them extolling the beauties and the s...
Bob Denver
Born Robert Denver, January 9, 1935, in New Rochelle, NY; died of complications related to cancer treatment, September 2, 2005, in Winston-Salem, NC. Actor. American actor Bob Denver was b...
Gérard Depardieu
French actor Gérard Depardieu (born 1948) rose from humble beginnings to become a worldwide movie star. The award-winning actor has enjoyed a film career spanning more than four de...
Jacques Derrida
Born July 15, 1930, in El-Biar, Algeria; died of pancreatic cancer, October 8, 2004, in Paris, France. Philosopher. Algerian-born French philosopher Jacques Derrida upended the intellectua...
RenÉ Descartes
Born: March 31, 1596 La Haye, France Died: February 11, 1650 Stockholm, Sweden French philosopher and writer The Fren...
John Dewey
Born: October 20, 1859 Burlington, Vermont Died: June 1, 1952 New York, New York American philosopher, educator, and writer ...
Princess of Wales Diana
Born: July 1, 1961 Sandringham, England Died: August 31, 1997 Paris, France English princess Lady Diana Frances Spenc...
Charles Dickens
Born: February 7, 1812 Portsea (now Portsmouth), England Died: June 9, 1870 Near Chatham, England English author, novelist, and jour...
Janice Dickinson
Model, television personality, and author Born February 15, 1955 (some sources say February 17, 1953); married Ron Levy (a music composer; divorced); married Simon Fields (a film ...
Emily Dickinson
Born: December 10, 1830 Amherst, Massachusetts Died: May 15, 1886 Cambridge, Massachusetts American poet and author O...