Famous People Born In 1879

Discover the most famous people born in 1879. The list includes people like Albert Einstein, Leon Trotsky, Margaret Sanger, Sarojini Naidu, Paul Klee and many more. This list of celebrities is loosely sorted by popularity. People featured on this list, include political leaders, philosophers, composers and artists born in 1879. This list includes people from United States, United Kingdom, Germany & France and many more countries.
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 1 
Albert Einstein
(One of the Greatest Physicists of All Time, Best Known for Developing the Theory of Relativity)
Albert Einstein
210
Listed In: Physicists
Birthdate: 14th March
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Ulm, Germany
Died: April 18, 1955
Deemed as the most influential physicist of the 20th century, the German-born physicist Albert Einstein was one of the greatest minds to have ever lived. Even his name is now synonymous with the term genius. The father of Modern Physics is credited with developing the theory of relativity and explaining the photoelectric effect. The latter won him the Nobel Prize.
 2 
Leon Trotsky
(Russian Marxist Revolutionary Who Developed a Variant of Marxism Which Has Become Known as 'Trotskyism')
Leon Trotsky
60
Birthdate: 7th November
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Bereslavka, Ukraine
Died: August 21, 1940

A Russian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary, Leon Trotsky developed a political ideology called Trotskyism, which eventually had a considerable impact on Russian politics. He also played a vital role in leading the Red Army to victory in the Russian Civil War.

 3 
Emiliano Zapata
(Leading Figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920)
Emiliano Zapata
16
Listed In: Revolutionaries
Birthdate: 8th August
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Anenecuilco, Mexico
Died: April 10, 1919
Emiliano Zapata was a key figure in the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920 and led the agrarian movement known as Zapatismo. As the leader of the Liberation Army of the South, he contributed to the fall of Mexican dictator Porfirio Díaz and later fought against Venustiano Carranza.
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 4 
Will Rogers
(Vaudeville Performer, Humorist)
Will Rogers
8
Birthdate: 4th November
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Oologah, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma)
Died: August 15, 1935
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 5 
E. M. Forster
(English Author Known for His Novels: ‘A Room with a View’, ‘Howards End’ and ‘A Passage to India’)
E. M. Forster
9
Listed In: Writers
Birthdate: 1st January
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Marylebone, London, United Kingdom
Died: June 7, 1970

Best known for his iconic novels Howard’s End and A Passage to India, British author E. M. Forster dealt with themes such as class division and gender. Born in England and educated at Cambridge, he had also spent some time as a secretary to Maharaja Tukojirao III of India.

 6 
Margaret Sanger
(Birth Control Activist Who Opened the First Birth Control Clinic in the United States)
Margaret Sanger
17
Listed In: Activists
Birthdate: 14th September
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Corning, New York, United States
Died: September 6, 1966

Margaret Sanger was an American writer and sex educator. She is credited with popularizing the term birth control. A birth control activist, Sanger established the first birth control clinic in America. She also set up organizations that later became the well-known non-profit organization Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She also played a key role in legalizing contraception in the US.

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 7 
Emperor Taishō
(Emperor of Japan from 1912 to 1926)
Emperor Taishō
6
Listed In: Emperors & Kings
Birthdate: 31st August
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japann
Died: December 25, 1926

Emperor Taishō was the 123rd Emperor of Japan. He was the son of  Emperor Meiji and Yanagihara Naruko, a concubine. As the eldest living son of the emperor, he was formally named the crown prince in 1888. Upon the death of his father in 1912, he ascended the throne. A sickly man with disabilities, he died at 47.

 8 
Sarojini Naidu
(Indian Political Activist, Poet and 1st Governor of United Provinces)
Sarojini Naidu
78
Listed In: Activists
Birthdate: 13th February
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Hyderabad, India
Died: March 2, 1949

Sarojini Naidu was an Indian poet and political activist. An important figure in the Indian Independence Movement, she was a proponent of anti-imperialistic ideas, women's rights, and civil rights. Her illustrious career as a poet earned her the nickname Nightingale of India. After India became independent, she became the first woman to hold the office of Governor in the Dominion of India.

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 9 
Paul Klee
(Swiss-born German Artist Whose Work Exhibited Shades of 'Expressionism', 'Cubism', and 'Surrealism')
Paul Klee
8
Birthdate: 18th December
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland
Died: May 29, 1940
The father of abstract art, Paul Klee’s works contained elements of surrealism, cubism, and expressionism, but they were not part of any specific school. He was also a skilled violinist and an avid reader. He also taught at the Bauhaus and experimented with various media, such as oil, watercolor, and ink.
 10 
Sydney Greenstreet
(Actor)
Sydney Greenstreet
7
Listed In: Actors
Birthdate: 27th December
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Sandwich, Kent, England
Died: January 18, 1954
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 11 
Nancy Astor
(Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton (1919-45))
Nancy Astor
3
Birthdate: 19th May
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Danville, Virginia, United States
Died: May 2, 1964
 12 
Ethel Barrymore
7
Listed In: Actresses
Birthdate: 15th August
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: June 18, 1959
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 13 
Kazimir Malevich
(Russian Avant-Garde Artist and Founder of the ‘Suprematism’ Art Movement)
Kazimir Malevich
6
Listed In: Artists
Birthdate: 23rd February
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Kyiv, Ukraine
Died: May 15, 1935

Kazimir Malevich was a Russian artist and art theorist. His pioneering work had a major influence on the development of abstract art in the 20th century. An influential personality, Malevich's art and writing influenced several artists like Lyubov Popova, El Lissitzky, Alexander Rodchenko, and Ad Reinhardt. His works are showcased in many major art museums around the world.

 14 
Samuel Goldwyn
(Film Producer)
Samuel Goldwyn
3
Birthdate: 17th August
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Warsaw
Died: January 31, 1974
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 15 
Patrick Pearse
(Barrister and a Leader of the Easter Rising in 1916)
Patrick Pearse
5
Listed In: Activists
Birthdate: 10th November
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
Died: May 3, 1916

Patrick Pearse was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, and revolutionary. He was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. Opinionated with radical views, he decided as a boy that he would dedicate his life to Irish freedom. A relentless idealist, he was executed after the Easter Rising and was immortalized as a symbol of the rebellion.

 16 
Otto Hahn
(Chemist)
Otto Hahn
5
Listed In: Chemists
Birthdate: 8th March
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Frankfurt
Died: July 28, 1968
Nobel Prize-winning German chemist Otto Hahn is remembered for revolutionary discovery of nuclear fission, along with Fritz Strassmann. Born to a glazier, he was pushed to study architecture but chose chemistry instead. He spent his final years grieving the death of his only son in a car accident.
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 17 
Billy Mitchell
(Military General)
Billy Mitchell
2
Listed In: Leaders
Birthdate: 29th December
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Nice, France
Died: February 19, 1936
 18 
Max Schreck
(Actor)
Max Schreck
0
Listed In: Actors
Birthdate: 6th September
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
Died: February 20, 1936
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 19 
Alma Mahler
(Austrian Composer & Socialite)
Alma Mahler
0
Listed In: Composers
Birthdate: 31st August
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Died: December 11, 1964

Alma Mahler, remembered as the wife of composer Gustav Mahler and the daughter of landscape painter Emil Schindler, initially studied art but later acquired skills as a pianist. However, Mahler discouraged her from composing after marriage. She later had other affairs and married architect Walter Gropius and author Franz Werfel.

 20 
Alla Nazimova
(Actress, Director, Producer Best Known for Her Film ‘Salome’)
Alla Nazimova
4
Birthdate: 3rd June
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Yalta, Crimea, Russian Empire
Died: July 13, 1945

Alla Nazimova was a Russian-American actress who had an extensive career on Broadway. She acted in the classic plays of playwrights like Ibsen, Chekhov, and Turgenev. She eventually moved on to films and had an equally successful stint in cinema as well. She was openly bisexual and had sexual relationships with women while being married to a man.

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 21 
Jane Darwell
(Known for Playing the 'Matriarch of the Joad family' in the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ & the 'Bird Woman' in ‘Mary Poppins')
Jane Darwell
2
Listed In: Actresses
Birthdate: 15th October
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Palmyra, Missouri, United States
Died: August 13, 1967

Jane Darwell was an American actress whose career spanned over 50 years, during which she appeared in over 100 movies. She is best remembered for her performance in the 1940 drama film The Grapes of Wrath, which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 1960, Darwell was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

 22 
Joe Hill
(Songwriter, Trade unionist)
Joe Hill
1
Birthdate: 7th October
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Gävle
Died: November 19, 1915
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 23 
Wallace Stevens
(Modernist poet)
Wallace Stevens
0
Listed In: Poets
Birthdate: 2nd October
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Reading, Pennsylvania, United States
Died: August 2, 1955
 24 
Ramana Maharshi
(Indian Hindu Sage and Jivanmukta)
Ramana Maharshi
11
Listed In: Philosophers
Birthdate: 30th December
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Tiruchuzhi, Virudhunagar, India
Died: April 14, 1950

Indian Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi had run away to Arunachala, a sacred mountain in Tamil Nadu, at 16, and had stayed there throughout his life. He propagated vichara, or self-enquiry, as the primary means of self-realization, instead of the study of scriptures as proposed by the Advaita Vedanta philosophy.

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 25 
Ottorino Respighi
(Composer)
Ottorino Respighi
3
Listed In: Musicians
Birthdate: 9th June
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Bologna, Italy
Died: April 18, 1936
 26 
Warner Oland
(Actor)
Warner Oland
1
Listed In: Actors
Birthdate: 3rd October
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Bjurholm Municipality, Sweden
Died: August 6, 1938
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 27 
Edward Steichen
(Photographer)
Edward Steichen
2
Birthdate: 27th March
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Bivange
Died: March 25, 1973

Edward Steichen was a Luxembourgish American painter, curator, and photographer. Widely regarded as one of the most influential and prolific personalities in the history of photography, Steichen is credited with changing photography into an art form. During the 1920s and 1930s, Edward Steichen was considered the highest-paid and best-known photographer in the world.

 28 
Symon Petlura
(Politician and Journalist)
Symon Petlura
5
Birthdate: 22nd May
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Poltava, Ukraine
Died: May 25, 1926
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 29 
Knud Rasmussen
(Greenlandic–Danish Polar Explorer and Anthropologist)
Knud Rasmussen
2
Listed In: Explorers
Birthdate: 7th June
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Ilulissat, Greenland
Died: December 21, 1933

Knud Rasmussen was a Greenlandic–Danish polar explorer. He was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dog sled. Also an anthropologist, he is often referred to as  the "father of Eskimology." As a young man,  he pursued an unsuccessful career as an actor and opera singer before embarking on his major explorations. 

 30 
Norman Lindsay
2
Listed In: Miscellaneous
Birthdate: 22nd February
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Creswick, Australia
Died: November 21, 1969

Once accused of being anti-Christian, Australian artist and Art Nouveau veteran Norman Lindsay is remembered for his controversial cartoons and drawings, mostly erotic or politically charged. Some of his works were once burned for being pornographic. He also experimented with sculpture and was an amateur boxer, too.

 31 
Sara Allgood
(Actress)
Sara Allgood
0
Listed In: Actresses
Birthdate: 29th November
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Dublin, Ireland
Died: September 13, 1950
 32 
Vanessa Bell
(Painter)
Vanessa Bell
2
Listed In: Artists
Birthdate: 30th May
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: London
Died: April 7, 1961
 33 
Milutin Milanković
(Serbian Climatologist Who Gave the Explanation of Earth's Climate Changes, Which Partly Explained the Ice Ages)
Milutin Milanković
0
Listed In: Scientists
Birthdate: 28th May
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Dalj, Croatia
Died: December 12, 1958

Milutin Milanković was a Serbian astronomer, mathematician, geophysicist, climatologist, and civil engineer. He is best remembered for his explanation of Earth's climate changes, which partly explained the ice ages. Milutin Milankovitch's biography inspired a 2007 documentary film titled A Traveler Through Distant Worlds and Times.

 34 
Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster
Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster
0
Listed In: Celebrities
Birthdate: 19th March
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Cheshire
Died: July 19, 1953
 35 
William Beveridge
(British Economist and Liberal Politician)
William Beveridge
1
Birthdate: 5th March
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Rangpur, Bangladesh
Died: March 16, 1963

Born to a British civil servant in British India, William Beveridge was educated at Oxford. While he initially excelled in math and classics, he later studied law. A leading economist, he created the Beveridge Report, which formulated the welfare state policies in the U.K. after World War II.

 36 
Ruth St. Denis
(Dancer)
Ruth St. Denis
2
Listed In: Choreographers
Birthdate: 20th January
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Newark, New Jersey, U.S.
Died: July 21, 1968
 37 
Lucy Burns
(American Suffragist and Women’s Rights Activist)
Lucy Burns
1
Listed In: Activists
Birthdate: 28th July
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States
Died: December 22, 1966
 38 
Rube Foster
(Former Baseball pitcher, Founder of Negro National League)
Rube Foster
0
Listed In: Sportspersons
Birthdate: 17th September
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Calvert, Texas, United States
Died: December 9, 1930
 39 
Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen
(Aristocrat)
Princess Feodora of Saxe-Meiningen
0
Birthdate: 12th May
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Potsdam, Germany
Died: August 26, 1945
 40 
E. H. Shepard
(English Artist and Book Illustrator)
E. H. Shepard
1
Birthdate: 10th December
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: London, England, United Kingdom
Died: March 24, 1976
 41 
Francis Picabia
(French Avant-Garde Painter and Poet Who was One of the Early Major Figures of the 'Dada Movement')
Francis Picabia
1
Birthdate: 22nd January
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Paris, France
Died: November 30, 1953
Francis Picabia was a French avant-garde painter, typographist, and poet. He is best remembered for his highly abstract planar compositions, which are rich in contrasts. One of the most influential figures of the Dada movement, Francis Picabia helped popularize Dadaism in France and in the United States of America. 
 42 
Henri Giraud
(French General)
Henri Giraud
0
Listed In: Soldiers
Birthdate: 18th January
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Paris
Died: March 13, 1949
 43 
An Jung-geun
(Political activist)
An Jung-geun
2
Birthdate: 2nd September
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Haeju, North Korea
Died: March 26, 1910
 44 
Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia
(Military Personnel)
Grand Duke Andrei Vladimirovich of Russia
1
Listed In: Military Leaders
Birthdate: 14th May
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Pushkin, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: October 30, 1956
 45 
Paul Poiret
(Grand couturier)
Paul Poiret
2
Birthdate: 20th April
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Paris
Died: April 30, 1944

Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer best remembered for advocating the idea of replacing the corset with the brassiere. Poiret is credited with founding his namesake haute couture house which was responsible for making him one of the most influential designers of pre-World War I Paris. It is also widely believed that Paul Poiret invented the hobble skirt.

 46 
Alfred Korzybski
(Scholar who developed the field of General Semantics)
Alfred Korzybski
0
Listed In: Philosophers
Birthdate: 3rd July
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Warsaw
Died: March 1, 1950

Polish-American scholar Alfred Korzybski had initially been sent to the U.S. by the Russian intelligence services. After the fall of the tsarist rule, he stayed back in the U.S. The pioneer of general semantics, he believed human knowledge is shaped by one’s linguistic reach and the nervous system.

 47 
Agrippina Vaganova
(Russian Ballet Teacher Known for Developing the 'Vaganova Method' )
Agrippina Vaganova
0
Listed In: Dancers
Birthdate: 26th June
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Saint Petersburg, Russia
Died: November 5, 1951

The person behind the development of the Vaganova method, Agrippina Vaganova was a significant name in the Russian ballet scene. She also penned Fundamentals of the Classical Dance, which is the most-followed text on ballet. At Mariinsky Ballet, she was known as the queen of variations.

 48 
Vachel Lindsay
(Poet)
Vachel Lindsay
1
Listed In: Poets
Birthdate: 10th November
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Springfield, Illinois, United States
Died: December 5, 1931
 49 
Émile Nelligan
(Canadian Poet)
Émile Nelligan
1
Listed In: Poets
Birthdate: 24th December
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Died: November 18, 1941
Émile Nelligan was French-Canada’s one of the most beloved and admired poets. A hugely talented poet, Nelligan's literary career was short-lived as he was sent to mental asylum aged 20. He took French-Canadian poetry into the modern age and poetry inspired several music composers. His poems have become the subject of numerous films, novels, and a ballet and an opera. 
 50 
Clyde Cessna
(Aviator)
Clyde Cessna
0
Listed In: Miscellaneous
Birthdate: 5th December
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Montgomery County, Iowa, United States
Died: November 20, 1954