Top 10 February 29 Birthdays

February 29 only comes once every 4 years, but I was able to find at least 10 notables with it as a birthday.

Dishonorable Mention: February 29, 1956: Aileen Wuornos. Serial killer convicted of 6 murders. Charlize Theron won an Oscar for playing her in Monster.

Dishonorable Mention: February 29, 1960: Richard Ramirez. Serial killer convicted of 13 murders. Known as the Valley Intruder and the Night Stalker.

10. February 29, 1736: Mother Ann Lee. She founded the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Coming, better known as the Shakers. This made her one of the few women to lead a religious movement in known history.

9. February 29, 1860: Herman Hollerith. The leading American statistician of his generation, he founded the company that would become International Business Machines, or IBM.

8. February 29, 1976: Ja Rule. At the dawn of the 21st Century, he was one of the biggest names in hip-hop. Okay, it's one of the shortest names, but he's not all that tall, either. Once 50 Cent won their beef, though, he became a laughingstock.

7. February 10, 1944: Dennis Farina. He played tough guys on both sides of the law: Cops on shows like Crime Story and Law & Order, and gangsters in movies like Midnight Run.

Honorable Mention: February 29, 1936: Alex Rocco. An actual low-level gangster in Boston, after he got out of prison, he went to Hollywood, and built up his resume to the point where he was cast as Moe Greene, the Bugsy Siegel analogue, in The Godfather. He continued to play guys like that for the rest of his life.

6. February 29, 1988: Benedikt Höwedes. He starred for soccer team Schalke in his native Germany, Juventus in Italy and Lokomotiv Moscow in Russia. He was the starting left back for Germany when it won the 2014 World Cup.

Honorable Mention: February 29, 1904: Pepper Martin. Known as Pepper because he seemed to have so much "pep," and the Wild Hoss of the Osage for the same reason, John Leonard Roosevelt Martin was the premier baserunner of his day. In 1931, he became the 1st player to collect 12 hits in a single World Series, helping the St. Louis Cardinals to victory. He did so again in 1934, as part of their "Gashouse Gang." He was named to 4 of Major League Baseball's 1st 5 All-Star Games.

Honorable Mention: February 29, 1980: Simon Gagné. A left wing, he scored 291 goals and made 2 NHL All-Star Games. He reached the Stanley Cup Finals with the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers, and won the Cup with the 2012 Los Angeles Kings. He helped Canada win the the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2004 World Cup.

Honorable Mention: February 29, 1980: Taylor Twellman. The forward won Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Player award in 2005, and helped the New England Revolution win the 2007 U.S. Open Cup. He helped the U.S. national team win the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Oddly, he never played on a World Cup team. He is now one of America's leading studio analysts for the sport.

5. February 29, 1924: Al Rosen. A 4-time All-Star, the 3rd baseman for the Cleveland Indians (now known as the Cleveland Guardians) helped them win the World Series in 1948 and another American League Pennant in 1954. In 1953, he led the AL in home runs and RBIs, winning the Most Valuable Player award.

A back injury cut his career short. He later served as general manager of the New York Yankees, building their 1978 World Champions, and also built postseason teams with the Houston Astros and the San Francisco Giants.

4. February 29, 1836: Dickey Pearce. Perhaps the 1st great shortstop in baseball, and one of the earliest to be known to have been paid to play, his career from 1857 to 1877, mostly with the Brooklyn Atlantics, includes his invention of the bunt. He is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. If Hall voters paid more attention to the game's pioneer era, he would be.

3. February 29, 1904: Jimmy Dorsey. He and his "big band" were never as popular as his younger brother Tommy Dorsey and his were. But he was a better musician, playing both clarinet and saxophone. 

2. February 29, 1792: Giachino Rossini. In 1816, he wrote the most famous comedic opera of all time, The Barber of Seville.

1. February 29, 1936: Henri Richard. Younger brother of Montreal Canadiens legend Maurice Richard, a.k.a. the Rocket, he was just 5-foot-7, so he was called the Pocket Rocket. He was a Hall-of-Famer in his own right, scoring 358 goals, making 4 All-Star Games, and helping the Canadiens win 11 Stanley Cups. He and Bill Russell are the only athletes with more World Championship rings than they had fingers. The Canadiens retired his Number 16.

Still alive as of this writing: Ja Rule, Höwedes, Gagné, Twellman.