Famous People Born In 1802

Victor Hugo was a French poet, dramatist, and novelist of the Romantic movement. Regarded as one of the best-known and greatest French writers of all time, Victor Hugo wrote abundantly during his career that spanned over six decades. Thanks to his works, such as Hernani and Cromwell, Victor Hugo was one of the leading figures of the Romantic literary movement.

One of the most widely read French authors of all time, Alexandre Dumas was prolific in several genres. He joined the army as a young man and later became a full-time writer. Starting his writing career as a playwright, he moved on to writing novels. His novels have been adapted into nearly 200 films in the past century.

Dorothea Dix was an American advocate who fought for the welfare of the mentally ill. She helped create the first generation of mental asylums in the United States. Dix also played a key role during the Civil War, serving as a Superintendent of Army Nurses. In 1979, Dorothea Dix was made an inductee of the National Women's Hall of Fame.

Born to a pastor, Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel first showcased his mathematical skills in his cathedral school and later became a pioneer of various mathematical concepts. He died of tuberculosis, amid poverty, before he could learn that he had been appointed to teach at the University of Berlin.

Regarded by many as the first female sociologist, Harriet Martineau was a prominent 19th-century social theorist, classical economist, and intellectual who penned the iconic work The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. She was partially deaf and had lost her sense of taste and smell in childhood.

Born into a noble family, Lajos Kossuth grew up to be one of his country’s greatest political reformers. He initially followed in his father’s footsteps to become a lawyer and later entered national politics to become the governor-president of Hungary. He is remembered for his role in the Hungarian Revolution.

Charles Auguste de Bériot was a Belgian artist, violinist, and composer. De Bériot composed a significant volume of violin music which includes 10 concertos. His Romantic style of composition and pioneering violin technique make him an ideal teacher for any violin student. His pedagogical compositions are still being taught to violin students all over the world. 

Edwin Landseer was an English sculptor and painter best remembered for incorporating animals as subjects in his works. Landseer is credited with sculpting the famous lion sculptures that form a part of the base of Nelson's Column in the City of Westminster, Central London.

Ignacy Domeyko was a Polish geologist, educator, and mineralogist. He is credited with founding one of Chile's oldest public universities, the University of Santiago, Chile (Usach). After the Polish–Russian War 1830–31, he settled in Chile where he made significant contributions to the study of Chile's geology, geography, and mineralogy. Ignacy Domeyko’s observations helped shape Chile's labor movement.

Alcide d'Orbigny is regarded as the founder of micropaleontology. The French paleontologist traveled for 8 years throughout South America, exploring its natural history and geology. His study of marine fossils, sedimentary rocks, and pollen was accompanied by his iconic written work Paléontologie française. He supported the theory of catastrophism.

Catharine Parr Traill moved from England to Canada after her marriage and soon became one of the greatest authors of children’s and settlers’ literature of her time. Her writings reflected the charm of the Canadian countryside. Her letters to her mother in England were collated in The Backwoods of Canada.

Best remembered for establishing the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Irish nun Mary Frances Clarke made significant contributions to the spread of education in America. While she initially worked for her father’s leather business, she changed her mind after nursing people during a cholera epidemic.

The son of a renowned Italian historian, Italian-born French archaeologist Paul-Émile Botta was chosen as a consul at Mosul, modern-day Iraq. While he initially excavated relics of Assyrian king Sargon II's palace, he later mistakenly believed he had discovered Nineveh. One shipment of the antiquities he unearthed was sunk in transit.

Archduke Franz Karl of Austria is best remembered as the father of Maximilian I of Mexico and Franz Joseph I of Austria who served as the emperors of the Second Mexican Empire and Austria respectively. Karl is also remembered as the grandfather of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria whose murder is considered the most immediate cause of World War I.

Magnus Brostrup Landstad was a Norwegian poet, parish priest, and hymn writer. He is credited with publishing the first collection of Norwegian traditional ballads in 1853. He is remembered for incorporating contemporary Norwegian language into his hymns, which contributed greatly to Norwegian romantic nationalism. His most prominent hymnal Landstads kirkesalmebog was used by the Church of Norway for many years.

Hungarian mathematician János Bolyai, who was the son of renowned mathematician Farkas Bolyai, co-founded non-Euclidean geometry. He had also served in the army and was a skilled swordsman. He was a linguist and a talented violinist, too. He also contributed to a geometric concept of complex numbers.

George Ripley was an American journalist, Unitarian minister, and social reformer. He is best remembered for his association with Transcendentalism. Ripley is credited with founding a Utopian community named Brook Farm in Massachusetts. He later established himself as a literati, working for the New York Tribune and publishing the New American Cyclopaedia.

While studying the salt waters of the Mediterranean, Antoine Jérôme Balard made a chance discovery of bromine, though Carl Jacob Löwig had discovered the element independently a year earlier. The French chemist also taught chemistry at the Sorbonne. Renowned chemist Louis Pasteur was one of his students.