Birthdays Today

July 26, 2026

Birthdays Today: July 26

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Seventy living people we could verify share today's birthday, from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger, turning 83, Oscar winner Sandra Bullock, turning 62, and Dame Helen Mirren, turning 81, to figure-skating icon Dorothy Hamill, turning 70, plus a remarkable 1993 cohort of five notables across music, screen, and sport all turning 33 on this exact day.

The headliners

Mick Jagger turns 83 today, and six decades into fronting the Rolling Stones he is still, by any measure, the most recognizable rock frontman on the planet. Born Michael Philip Jagger in Dartford, Kent, he co-founded the Stones in 1962 and has co-written most of their catalog with Keith Richards, one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in rock history. He was knighted in 2003 and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989. The surprising part is how he got there: before the band, Jagger was a student at the London School of Economics, and he walked away from a degree to chase rock and roll. His father was a physical-education teacher who helped popularise basketball in Britain, and his younger brother Chris is also a musician. Offstage, Jagger has eight children with five women, and in 1985 he topped the UK and Australian charts with a "Dancing in the Street" duet alongside David Bowie.

Sandra Bullock turns 62 today, and "America's sweetheart" has the receipts to back the nickname: an Academy Award for The Blind Side, an Oscar nomination for Gravity) (her highest-grossing live-action film), and the title of the world's highest-paid actress in both 2010 and 2014. Born in Arlington, Virginia, she broke out in Speed) (1994) and built a run spanning Miss Congeniality), The Proposal), and Bird Box). Here is the detail that always gets a smile: over one weekend in March 2010, Bullock won both the Oscar for Best Actress (The Blind Side) and the Razzie for Worst Actress (All About Steve), and she showed up in person to accept the Razzie, hauling a wagon of DVDs and asking voters to reconsider. She told the BBC she would display the two trophies side by side. Less known: she grew up speaking German, lived twelve years in Nuremberg and Vienna, and holds German citizenship.

Helen Mirren turns 81 today, and she holds a record no other actor has matched: she is the only person to achieve both the US and UK Triple Crowns of Acting, stacking an Oscar, Emmys, a Tony, BAFTAs, and a Laurence Olivier Award. Born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff in Hammersmith, London, she won her Oscar) playing Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006), and also won an Emmy playing Elizabeth I, making her a two-queen monarch of the craft. She was made a Dame) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. The genuinely surprising thread is her bloodline: Mirren's father was from an exiled family of Russian nobility, and her great-great-great-great-grandfather was Count Mikhail Kamensky, a general in the Napoleonic Wars. She still works constantly, lately in 1923) and MobLand, and once partnered with Liam Neeson in the 1980s before marrying director Taylor Hackford in 1997.

Jacinda Ardern turns 46 today, and her time as New Zealand's 40th prime minister, from 2017 to 2023, made her one of the most watched leaders of her generation. Born in Hamilton and raised in Morrinsville and Murupara, she joined the Labour Party at 17 and later worked as a policy adviser in Tony Blair's Cabinet Office in London. She became the world's youngest female head of government at 37, and the truly striking detail is what happened next: in June 2018 she gave birth to her daughter while in office, only the second elected head of government ever to do so, after Benazir Bhutto. She led New Zealand through the Christchurch mosque shootings, rapidly tightening gun laws, and through the early COVID-19 response. In January 2023 she stepped down saying she simply did not "have enough in the tank," a line that reframed how a leader could exit.

Dorothy Hamill turns 70 today, and at nineteen she was the face of American figure skating, winning Olympic gold and the world title in 1976 in a sweep that turned her into "America's sweetheart." Born in Chicago and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut, she is the last woman to win an Olympic gold without landing a triple jump. Two things made her a household name beyond the medal. She invented a spin, the "Hamill camel," a camel spin that drops into a sit spin, and it carries her name to this day. And the wedge haircut that stylist Yusuke Suga cut for the Olympics became a national fad, with women and girls across the country asking for "the Dorothy Hamill" by name. She later married Dean Paul Martin, son of Dean Martin, and owned the Ice Capades.

Roger Taylor) turns 77 today, and as the drummer and backing vocalist of Queen) he is the engine behind some of the most stadium-shaking rock ever recorded. Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Queen in 2001 and was voted the eighth-greatest drummer in classic rock in a Planet Rock poll. He wrote or co-wrote three UK number ones, "These Are the Days of Our Lives," "Innuendo)," and "Under Pressure," plus "Radio Ga Ga" and "A Kind of Magic)." The surprise is his first career plan: Taylor went to London to study dentistry, got bored, and switched to biology, earning a science degree. He met Brian May after answering a drummer-wanted advert on a noticeboard at Imperial College, and their precursor band Smile) became Queen. His son Rufus Tiger Taylor now drums for The Darkness).

A note before the roll call

Before the list, one coincidence worth pausing on. Five notable people were born on this exact day in 1993, all turning 33: Taylor Momsen (The Pretty Reckless), Elizabeth Gillies (Dynasty), Stormzy (grime rapper), Danny van Poppel (Dutch pro cyclist), and Raymond Faitala-Mariner (NZ rugby league), a quintet spread across music, screen, and two sports. The date also pairs two 87-year-olds from entirely different worlds, born July 26, 1939: John Howard, Australia's 25th prime minister, and Bob Lilly, the Dallas Cowboys Hall of Famer nicknamed "Mr. Cowboy." And 1949 gives a trio all turning 77: Roger Taylor, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and composer Kevin Volans.

Also celebrating today

Screen and stage

Music

Sports

World and public figures

Writers, filmmakers, media, and more

That is seventy living birthdays confirmed for July 26, from a 95-year-old Time Tunnel star and an 87-year-old Australian prime minister down to a 26-year-old New Zealand actress. If you share the date, you are in colorful company.

That’s the reading for this issue.