Today’s birthdays:

Robert Burns, Scottish poet (175996); Allan Holmes, New Zealand lawyer (18451909); Joseph Henry Cock, New Zealand businessman/ patron of the arts (18551921); T.W. Ratana, New Zealand Maori prophet/Ratana religion founder (18731939); W. Somerset Maugham, English author (18741965); Harold Livingstone Tapley, New Zealand politician (18751932); John Ryall, New Zealand businessman/politician (18751953); Rupert Julian (born Thomas Percival Hayes), New Zealand actor (18791943); Harold Herbert Carr, New Zealand land court judge/administrator (18801973); Virginia Woolf, English author (18821941); Helen Benson, New Zealand professor of home science (18861964); Jean Erwin, New Zealand military nurse/administrator (18901969); Stanley Nicholas Garland, New Zealand restaurateur/consul (18921964); Ian Watkin, New Zealand actor (19402016); Christine Fletcher, New Zealand politician (1955); Dinah Manoff, US actress (1958); Tim Balme, New Zealand actor (1967); Lynnette Brooky, New Zealand professional golfer (1968); Phill Jones, New Zealand basketball player (1974); Joe Naufahu, New Zealand actor (1978); Alicia Keys, US singer (1981); Steve Edwards, New Zealand field hockey player (1986); Liam Coltman, All Black (1990).