Giacomo Puccini (born December 22, 1858) Italian opera composer – Madame Butterfly (1904)
Eduard Uspensky (born December 22, 1937) Russian children’s fiction – Uncle Fyodor, His Dog and His Cat
Read an obituary for Eduard Uspensky here
"Uspensky was most famous for his iconic cartoon characters Gena the Crocodile -- a friendly crocodile who works at a zoo and plays the accordion -- and Cheburashka, a strange brown-haired creature with large ears. Millions of children in the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc watched the animated adventures of Gena the Crocodile, which first aired in 1969. Cheburashka first made an appearance in the cartoon in 1971."
Watch an animation of Cheburashka and Gena
here
Kenneth Rexroth (born December 22, 1905) U.S. ‘Beat movement’ poet