From History: Today's Famous Birthdays - 16/Feb/2018

Hi Steemians,

This is an effort to provide some information on Five selected famous personalities born on this day.

Courtesy of this information goes to onthisday.com, famousbirthdays.com and wikipedia.org and image source is mentioned under "Source" just below each image.

1. Michael Holding

Source

Michael Holding is West Indian former test and ODI cricketer who was a fast bowler and is referred as "Whispering Death" because of his quiet approach to the bowling crease.

He is one among the fearsome fast bowling unit of Joel Garner, Andy Roberts, Sylvester Clarke, Colin Croft, Wayne Daniel and Malcolm Marshall.

He is the record holder of Best bowling figures in test cricket by a West Indies bowler with bowling figures of 14 wickets for 149 runs.

After retiring from cricket, Holding is working as a commentator.

2. Krishnadevaraya

Source

Krishnadevaraya was an Indian emperor ruling Vijayanagara and near by places in south Indian state of Karnataka from 1509 to 1529.

He is regarded as an icon in India with Krishnadevaraya earning the titles like Kannada Rajya Rama Ramana("Lord of the Kannada empire").

He was rated the as the most powerful and extensive emperor in South India as he expanded his territories by defeating the Sultans of Bijapur, Golconda, the Bahmani Sultanate and the Gajapatis of Odisha.

The art and literature flourished during the reign of Krishnadevaraya as he supported many Telugu, Kannada and Sanskrit scholars.

3. Richard Ford

Source

Richard Ford is an American novelist and short story writer and is known for the work on novel The Sportswriter and collection of short stories Rock Springs.

His first novel A Piece of My Heart was published in 1976.

Novel Independence Day won him an Pulitzer Prize along with PEN/Faulkner Award in 1995.

4. John McEnroe

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John McEnroe is a retired American tennis player and one of the greatest of all time who is a winner of 16 grand-slam titles(7 singles and 9 doubles titles) and a winner of 77 singles and 78 doubles titles throughout his career.

He was the number one player in singles and doubles and his tally of 155(77 singles and 78 doubles) titles makes him the highest men's combined total titles winner of the Open Era.

He has been inducted into International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1999.

5. Cathy Freeman

Source

Cathy Freeman is an Australian former sprinter who use to compete mainly in 400 m events and was winner of 400 m Olympic gold medal at 2000 Sydney Olympics.

She won a gold medal for Australia at the age of 16 in 1990 and she went on to win gold medals in 200 m and 400 m events at 1996 Commonwealth games, silver medal in 1996 Atlanta Olympics, first in 400 m event in 1997 world championships.

She was chosen as World Sportswoman of the Year 2001.