The first substantial amounts of metallic americium weighing 40 – 200 micrograms were not prepared until 1951 by reduction of americium ( III ) fluoride with barium metal in high vacuum at 1100 ° C.

* 1869 – Levon Shant, Armenian playwright, novelist and poet ( d. 1951 )

* 1951 – Bert Blyleven, Dutch baseball player

* 1884 – Otto Meyerhof, German physician and biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1951 )

* 1951 – Tom Noonan, American actor

* 1865 – Charles G. Dawes, American general and politician, 30th Vice President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1951 )

* 1951 – Buddy Bell, American baseball player and manager

* 1951 – Mack Brown, American football coach

* 1951 – Catherine Hicks, American actress

* 1951 – Daryl Somers, Australian television host

* 1951 – Steve Swisher, American baseball player

* 1951 – Dan Fogelberg, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and composer ( d. 2007 )

* 1871 – John French Sloan, American artist ( d. 1951 )

* 1951 – Andrew Gold, American singer-songwriter and producer ( Wax ) ( d. 2011 )

* 1951 – Joe Lynn Turner, American singer-songwriter and guitarist ( Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fandango, Brazen Abbot, and Hughes Turner Project )

* 1951 – Freddie Wadling, Swedish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor ( Leather Nun and Blue for Two )

* 1951 – Per Westerberg, Swedish politician

* 1861 – Sammy Jones, Australian cricketer ( d. 1951 )

* 1951 – Tommy Bolin, American singer-songwriter and guitarist ( Deep Purple, Zephyr, and James Gang ) ( d. 1976 )

* 1951 – Pete Mackanin, American baseball player

* 1894 – Harry Heilmann, American baseball player ( d. 1951 )

* 1951 – Marcel Dionne, Canadian ice hockey player

* 1951 – Jay North, American actor

* 1951 – Phil Carlson, Australian cricketer

* 1951 – Mamoru Oshii, Japanese director

Bill Atkinson ( born 1951 ) is an American computer engineer and photographer.

* 1951 – Bill Bryson, American author

In the experimental post 1960s eras, which saw the development of free jazz and jazz-rock fusion, some of the influential bassists included Charles Mingus ( 1922 – 1979 ), who was also a composer and bandleader whose music fused hard bop with black gospel music, free jazz and classical music ; free jazz and post-bop bassist Charlie Haden ( born 1937 ) is best known for his long association with saxophonist Ornette Coleman and for his role in the 1970s-era Liberation Music Orchestra, an experimental group ; Eddie Gomez and George Mraz, who played with Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson, respectively, and are both acknowledged to have furthered expectations of pizzicato fluency and melodic phrasing, fusion virtuoso Stanley Clarke ( born 1951 ) is notable for his dexterity on both the upright bass and the electric bass, and Terry Plumeri, noted for his horn-like arco fluency and vocal tone.

* 1874 – Bill Klem, American baseball umpire ( d. 1951 )

* 1951 – Bill Cratty, American modern dancer and choreographer ( d. 1998 )

Van Cleef appeared six times between 1951 and 1955 as Burt Tanner on the children's western The Adventures of Kit Carson, starring Bill Williams.

* 1951 – Bill Frisell, American jazz musician

* 1951 – Bill Mantlo, American comic book writer

* 1951 – Bill Morrissey, American musician

Contenders for the title of " first rock and roll record " include Goree Carter's " Rock Awhile " ( 1949 ); Jimmy Preston's " Rock the Joint " ( 1949 ), which was later covered by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1952 ; and " Rocket 88 " by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats ( actually an alias for Ike Turner and his band The Kings of Rhythm ), recorded by Sam Phillips for Sun Records in March 1951.

* March 25 – Bill Barilko, Canadian hockey player ( d. 1951 )

Bill Viola ( born January 25, 1951 ) is a contemporary video artist.

* Bill Gibson ( born William Scott Gibson, November 13, 1951, in Sacramento, California ) – drums, percussion, backing vocals ( 1979 – present )

William Edward Simon, Jr. ( born June 20, 1951 ), best known as Bill Simon, is an American businessman and politician.

After Yarborough's death in 1951 ( and therefore Romero's, who also died of a heart attack, as acknowledged on the December 27, 1951 episode " The Big Sorrow "), Friday was partnered with Sergeant Ed Jacobs ( December 27, 1951-April 10, 1952, subsequently transferred to the Police Academy as an instructor ), played by Barney Phillips ; Officer Bill Lockwood ( Ben Romero's nephew, April 17, 1952-May 8, 1952 ), played by Martin Milner ( with Ken Peters taking the role for the June 12, 1952 episode " The Big Donation "); and finally Frank Smith, played first by Herb Ellis ( 1952 ), then Ben Alexander ( September 21, 1952-1959 ).

* Bill Carmody ( born 1951 ), head basketball coach at Northwestern University.

* Bill Perry ( Sunday strips only, 1951 – 1975 )

King was succeeded by his former assistants, with Bill Perry taking responsibility for Sunday strips in 1951 and Dick Moores, first hired in 1956, becoming sole writer and artist for the daily strip in 1959.

Bill Haley and the Saddlemen recorded two boogies in 1951.

* Bill Mauldin's Army — 1951

Famous alumni of Pomona College include Walt Disney Company Executive Roy E. Disney ( 1951 ), writer, actor, and musician Kris Kristofferson ( 1954 ), Civil Rights activist and NAACP chairman Myrlie Evers ( 1968 ), and New York Times executive editor Bill Keller ( 1970 ), and six-time Grammy Winning conductor Robert Shaw ( 1938 ), as well as several Academy Award-winning screenwriters.

* How Your Train Stops, by Bill Reiche 1951 article with illustration that deals with the basics in way a layman would understand

John Scofield ( born December 26, 1951, Dayton, Ohio ), often referred to as " Sco ", is an American jazz-rock guitarist and composer, who has played and collaborated with Miles Davis, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, Charles Mingus, Joey Defrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, Pat Martino, Mavis Staples, Phil Lesh, Billy Cobham, Medeski Martin & Wood, George Duke, Jaco Pastorius, John Mayer, and many other well-known artists.