More Notable Birthdays on December 28: 1972 - Patrick Rafter, born in Queensland, Australia, tennis star, 1993 USTA/Aptos California 1969 - Linus Torvalds, born in Helsinki, Finland, inventor, software engineer, pioneered development of the Linux kernel, a free, open source software operating system 1954 - Denzel Washington, born in Mount Vernon, New York, actor, Dr. Chandler-St. Elsewhere 1903 - John von Neumann, mathematician and astronomer, Bocher Award 1938