Famous People Born In 1804

Franklin Pierce was an American politician who served as the 14th president of the US. A northern Democrat, Franklin Pierce's actions leading up to the American Civil War are believed to have contributed to the commencement of the war. Scholars and historians rank Pierce as one of the least memorable and worst US presidents.

Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American writer, known for dark romanticism and moral-themed novels and short stories. A descendant of judge John Hathorne of the Salem witch trials infamy, the writer was a friend of late American president Franklin Pierce. His well-known books include Twice-Told Tales, The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables. Nathaniel was married to painter Sophia Peabody.

Benjamin Disraeli was a British politician who served two terms as prime minister of the UK. Disraeli is credited with playing a key role in the formation of the modern Conservative Party. Apart from being an influential politician, Benjamin Disraeli was also a prolific novelist; he wrote and published works of fiction even while serving as the prime minister.

Known as the ultimate American mountain man, Jim Bridger is remembered for his exploration of the Western United States. It is believed, the illiterate fur trader was the first white man to explore the Great Salt Lake and one of the first to visit Yellowstone. He also worked as a forest guide.

Mikhail Glinka was a Russian composer who is considered the fountainhead of classical music in Russia. Glinka was the first Russian musician to achieve widespread acclaim within his own country. His compositions went on to influence subsequent generations of Russian composers, such as the members of The Five.

Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi was a German mathematician best remembered for his contributions to differential equations, dynamics, number theory, determinants, and elliptic functions. He is the first Jewish mathematician to work as a professor at a German university. Jacobi has a crater on the Moon named after him in recognition of his contribution to science.

Osceola led the Seminole tribe of Native Americans in their resistance against the U.S. attempt of moving them out of Florida and into the land west of Mississippi. He was eventually deceived by a fake truce attempt, captured, and transported to Fort Moultrie, where he passed away.

Ludwig Feuerbach was a German philosopher and anthropologist. He is best remembered for his work, The Essence of Christianity, which strongly influenced generations of future thinkers like Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Engels, and Sigmund Freud among others. Ludwig Feuerbach advocated atheism and his thought was influential in the progression of historical materialism.

Matthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist who is credited with co-founding cell theory along with Rudolf Virchow and Theodor Schwann. He is also remembered for his service as a professor at the University of Dorpat from the mid 1860s.

German physicist Wilhelm Weber is remembered for inventing the first electromagnetic telegraph, along with Carl Friedrich Gauss. The Copley Medal-winning scientist had also taught at the universities of Göttingen and Leipzig. The SI unit of magnetic flux, formerly known as the coulomb, was later named the weber in his honor.

Johan Ludvig Runeberg was a Finnish priest and poet. He is credited with writing Vårt land, the unofficial national anthem of Finland, and is regarded as a national poet of the country. As a priest, Runeberg was involved in the modernization of Virsikirja and produced numerous texts for the new edition. Johan Ludvig Runeberg is an aconic figure in Finland. 

Heinrich Lenz was a Russian physicist best remembered for formulating Lenz's law in electrodynamics. Lenz started his career as a teacher and later became the Dean of Mathematics and Physics at the University of St. Petersburg. From 1863 until his demise in 1865, Heinrich Lenz served as a Rector at the institution.

Squire Whipple is remembered for introducing the first scientific bridge construction rules. Initially a surveyor, he later invented truss designs using iron and timber. His treatise An Elementary and Practical Treatise on Bridge Building was a seminal text in railroad engineering for many years and helped in wrought and cast-iron designs.

Allan Kardec was a French educator, author, and translator. The founder of Spiritism, Kardec is best remembered for writing five books which are collectively known as the Spiritist Codification. His work with Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi helped lay the foundation for the teaching model in France and Germany.

Eliza R. Snow was an American poet and an important member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. One of the most celebrated Mormon women of the 19th century, Snow is best remembered as a plural wife of Joseph Smith. As a poet, she achieved popularity within the LDS Church.

Apart from being a Lutheran pastor, Eduard Mörike was also one of Germany’s best-known lyric poets. His Peregrina poems, his sonnets to Luise Raufolk, his poems and tales, such as Das Stuttgarter Hutzelmännlein, along with his novel Maler Nolten, remain significant to German literature to this day.

Aleksey Stepanovich Khomyakov was a Russian philosopher, theologian, poet, and amateur artist. Apart from co-founding an intellectual movement called the Slavophile movement, Khomyakov went on to serve as one of the most distinguished theoreticians of the movement.

Born in Austria, Moritz von Schwind led a bohemian life for much of his youth. The famed painter later moved to Germany, where he taught at the Munich Academy. His art reflected Romanticism, and his subjects were often casual honeymooning couples. He also painted the glass windows of the Glasgow Cathedral.

Nineteenth-century French civil engineer and economist Jules Dupuit ascertained the economic issues associated with public works. He pioneered the use of the diminishing marginal utility curve, while finding out the optimum cost for using a bridge, and also explained what later came to be known as consumer surplus.

Robert Hermann Schomburgk was a German-born explorer who carried out ethnological, botanical, and geographical studies in the West Indies and South America. Robert Hermann Schomburgk also fulfilled diplomatic missions on behalf of the Great Britain in Thailand and the Dominican Republic.

Thomas Ustick Walter was an American architect who worked as the fourth architect of the Capitol, largely overseeing the addition of the north and south wings and the central dome, which can be viewed today. Walter is also revered for his work as one of the founders of the American Institute of Architects where he served as the second president.