Famous People Born In 1746

Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish-Lithuanian statesman, military leader, and military engineer. Thanks to his participation in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's fight against Prussia and Russia and his role in the American Revolutionary War, Tadeusz Kościuszko is widely regarded as a national hero in the United States, Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania.

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was a Swiss educational reformer and pedagogue. He is credited with establishing several educational institutions in French- and German-speaking regions of Switzerland. He also came up with many works explaining his modern principles of education. Thanks to Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Switzerland was able to overcome illiteracy as early as 1830.

Though he initially studied law, Carlo Buonaparte quit without a degree to take charge of his inheritance after his father’s death. He later served Pasquale Paoli. However, following the French conquest of Corsica, he completed his legal education. He is best remembered as the father of Napoleon Bonaparte.

Joaquim José da Silva Xavier was a revolutionary who played a major role in a colonial Brazilian revolutionary movement called Inconfidência Mineira, which called for a creation of a Brazilian republic and full independence from the Portuguese Empire. Joaquim José da Silva Xavier was arrested and publicly hanged. Today, he is regarded as a national hero in Brazil.

Best known for developing the Charles’s law, which explains the expansion of gases when heated, Jacques Charles was a prominent French physicist. He was the first to ascend in a hydrogen-filled gas balloon, thus pioneering hot-air balloon flight. The Académie des Sciences member later became a professor of physics.

Gustav III of Sweden, the eldest son of Adolf Fredrik, was a man of culture and a symbol of the Swedish Enlightenment. He is remembered for regaining control over the Swedish parliament and for introducing reforms such as free trade. He was assassinated at a masked ball.

Italian Theatine priest, astronomer and mathematician Giuseppe Piazzi discovered and identified the first asteroid Ceres at Palermo Astronomical Observatory that he established in Palermo, Sicily. He first demonstrated the large proper motion of the binary star system 61 Cygni in the constellation Cygnus. He also supervised compilation of the Palermo Catalogue of stars and completion of the Capodimonte (Naples) Observatory.

Though born to a weaver, Michael Bruce had started reading before turning 4. Best known for works such as Elegy Written in Spring, he died at the tender age of 21. It is believed, poet John Logan stole most of Bruce’s works and passed them off as his own.

Peter Jacob Hjelm was a Swedish chemist best remembered for isolating the element molybdenum; he became the first person to do so in 1781, four years after it was discovered by Carl Wilhelm Scheele. In 1784, Peter Jacob Hjelm was inducted into the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.