Biographies on This Day in History: October 13
Born On
Sacha Baron Cohen
British actor
October 13, 1971 -
Sacha Baron Cohen is a British actor and comedian best known for his politically incorrect social satire. Baron Cohen was born into a devout Jewish family, and he studied history at the University of Cambridge....
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Ian Thorpe
Australian swimmer
October 13, 1982 -
Ian Thorpe is an Australian athlete, who was the most successful swimmer in that country’s history, accumulating five Olympic gold medals and 11 world championship titles between 1998 and 2004. Thorpe...
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Margaret Thatcher
prime minister of United Kingdom
October 13, 1925 - April 8, 2013
Margaret Thatcher was a British Conservative Party politician and prime minister (1979–90), Europe’s first woman prime minister. The only British prime minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive...
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Paul Simon
American musician
October 13, 1941 -
Paul Simon is an American singer-songwriter who brought a highbrow sensibility to rock music. One of the most paradoxical figures in rock-and-roll history, Simon exemplified many of the principles against...
Died On
Bhumibol Adulyadej
king of Thailand
December 5, 1927 - October 13, 2016
Bhumibol Adulyadej ninth king of the Chakkri dynasty (1950–2016), which has ruled or reigned in Thailand from 1782, and Thailand’s longest-serving monarch. He was a grandson of King Chulalongkorn and was...
Born On
Jerry Rice
American football player
October 13, 1962 -
Jerry Rice is an American professional gridiron football player whom many consider the greatest wide receiver in the history of the National Football League (NFL). Playing primarily for the San Francisco...
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Claudius
Roman emperor
August 1, 10 BCE - October 13, 54
Claudius was a Roman emperor (41–54 ce), who extended Roman rule in North Africa and made Britain a province. The son of Nero Claudius Drusus, a popular and successful Roman general, and the younger Antonia,...
Died On
Kishore Kumar
Indian actor, singer, composer, and director
August 4, 1929 - October 13, 1987
Kishore Kumar was an Indian actor, playback singer, composer, and director known for his comic roles in Indian films of the 1950s and for his expressive and versatile singing voice, which, in the course...
Born On
Lenny Bruce
American comedian
October 13, 1925 - August 3, 1966
Lenny Bruce was an American stand-up comic and social satirist during the 1950s and early ’60s. Although public authorities increasingly denounced his performances as dirty and sick and courts across the...
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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
Pakistani singer
October 13, 1948 - August 16, 1997
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a Pakistani singer who is considered one of the greatest performers of qawwali, a Sufi Muslim devotional music characterized by simple melodies, forceful rhythms, and energetic...
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Doc Rivers
American basketball player and coach
October 13, 1961 -
Doc Rivers is an American professional basketball player and coach who, as head coach of the Boston Celtics, led the team to a National Basketball Association (NBA) championship in 2008. Rivers first emerged...
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Chris Carter
American writer and producer
October 13, 1956 -
Chris Carter is an American writer and producer who was best known for the television series The X-Files (1993–2002, 2016, and 2018) and its related films. Carter graduated from California State University...
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Ed Sullivan
American television personality
September 28, 1901 - October 13, 1974
Ed Sullivan was an American television personality who was best known as the master of ceremonies of the immensely popular early TV variety program first known as Toast of the Town (1948–55) and later...
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Rudolf Virchow
German scientist
October 13, 1821 - September 5, 1902
Rudolf Virchow was a German pathologist and statesman, one of the most prominent physicians of the 19th century. He pioneered the modern concept of pathological processes by his application of the cell...
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Nipsey Russell
American actor and comedian
October 13, 1924 - October 2, 2005
Nipsey Russell was an American actor and comedian known for the clever impromptu verses that he created for his television appearances. Russell was raised in Atlanta, where he began performing as a child...
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Milton Snavely Hershey
American manufacturer
September 13, 1857 - October 13, 1945
Milton Snavely Hershey was an American manufacturer and philanthropist who founded the Hershey Chocolate Corporation and was instrumental in popularizing chocolate candy throughout much of the world. Following...
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Joachim Murat
king of Naples
March 25, 1767 - October 13, 1815
Joachim Murat was a French cavalry leader who was one of Napoleon’s most celebrated marshals and who, as king of Naples (1808–15), lent stimulus to Italian nationalism. The son of an innkeeper, he studied...
Born On
Lillie Langtry
British actress
October 13, 1853 - February 12, 1929
Lillie Langtry was a British beauty and actress, known as the Jersey Lily. She was the daughter of the dean of Jersey. In 1874 she married Edward Langtry, who died in 1897, and in 1899 she married Hugo...
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Yves Montand
French actor
October 13, 1921 - November 9, 1991
Yves Montand was a French stage and film actor and popular cabaret singer. Though considered by many to be the quintessence of worldly Gallic charm, Montand was actually born in Italy to peasants who fled...
Born On
Art Tatum
American musician
October 13, 1909 - November 5, 1956
Art Tatum was an American pianist, considered one of the greatest technical virtuosos in jazz. Tatum, who was visually impaired from childhood, displayed an early aptitude for music. At age 13, after starting...
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Antonio Canova, marchese d’Ischia
Italian sculptor
November 1, 1757 - October 13, 1822
Antonio Canova, marchese d’Ischia was an Italian sculptor, one of the greatest exponents of Neoclassicism. Among his works are the tombs of popes Clement XIV (1783–87) and Clement XIII (1787–92) and statues...
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Cornel Wilde
American actor
October 13, 1915 - October 16, 1989
Cornel Wilde was an American actor and filmmaker who attained stardom with his sensitive portrayal of composer Frédéric Chopin in the motion picture A Song to Remember (1945), for which he received an...
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Sir Isaac Brock
British soldier and administrator
October 6, 1769 - October 13, 1812
Sir Isaac Brock was a British soldier and administrator in Canada, popularly known as the “Hero of Upper Canada” during the War of 1812 against the United States. Brock entered the British army as an ensign...
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Arthur de Gobineau
French diplomat, writer, and ethnologist
July 14, 1816 - October 13, 1882
Arthur de Gobineau was a French diplomat, writer, ethnologist, and social thinker whose theory of racial determinism had an enormous influence upon the subsequent development of racist theories and practices...
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Dario Fo
Italian author and actor
March 24, 1926 - October 13, 2016
Dario Fo was an Italian avant-garde playwright, manager-director, and actor-mime who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997 though he often faced government censure as a theatrical caricaturist...
Born On
Ray Brown
American musician
October 13, 1926 - July 2, 2002
Ray Brown was an American string bassist and one of the greatest of all jazz virtuosos. Brown first made his mark at age 19 when he went to New York City to join Dizzy Gillespie’s band at a time when the...
Died On
Maya Deren
American director and actress
April 29, 1917 - October 13, 1961
Maya Deren was an influential director and performer who is often called the “mother” of American avant-garde filmmaking. Her films are not only poetic but instructive, offering insight into the human...
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Nivedita
Irish-born teacher
October 28, 1867 - October 13, 1911
Nivedita was an Irish-born schoolteacher who was a follower of the Indian spiritual leader Vivekananda (Narendranath Datta) and became an influential spokesperson promoting Indian national consciousness,...
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Maria Cantwell
United States senator
October 13, 1958 -
Maria Cantwell is an American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and began representing Washington the following year. She previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives...
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Turgut Özal
president of Turkey
October 13, 1927 - April 17, 1993
Turgut Özal was a Turkish politician, prime minister from 1983 to 1989 and president from 1989 to 1993. Özal studied electrical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, where he met the future prime...
Died On
Le Duc Tho
Vietnamese politician
October 14, 1911 - October 13, 1990
Le Duc Tho was a Vietnamese politician who, acting as an adviser to North Vietnam, negotiated a cease-fire agreement with U.S. official Henry Kissinger during the Vietnam War. The two men were jointly...
Born On
Charles Frederick Worth
English designer
October 13, 1825 - March 10, 1895
Charles Frederick Worth was a pioneer fashion designer and one of the founders of Parisian haute couture. In 1845 Worth left London, where he had worked in a yard-goods firm, for Paris, where he was employed...
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Sir Henry Irving
British actor and theatrical manager
February 6, 1838 - October 13, 1905
Sir Henry Irving was one of the most famous of English actors, the first of his profession to be knighted (1895) for services to the stage. He was also a celebrated theatre manager and the professional...
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Elzie Segar
American cartoonist
December 8, 1894 - October 13, 1938
Elzie Segar was an American cartoonist and creator of “Popeye,” a comic strip in which the main character, a roughhewn sailor who gained immense strength from eating spinach, became an international folk...
Born On
Jozef Tiso
Slovak priest and statesman
October 13, 1887 - April 18, 1947
Jozef Tiso was a Slovak priest and statesman who fought for Slovak autonomy within the Czechoslovak nation during the interwar period and headed the German puppet state of independent Slovakia (1939–45)...
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Nicolas Malebranche
French priest
August 6, 1638 - October 13, 1715
Nicolas Malebranche was a French Roman Catholic priest, theologian, and major philosopher of Cartesianism, the school of philosophy arising from the work of René Descartes. His philosophy sought to synthesize...
Died On
Gus Hall
American politician
October 8, 1910 - October 13, 2000
Gus Hall was an American political organizer who was the general secretary of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA; 1959–2000) and a four-time candidate for U.S. president (1972,...
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Louise Glück
American poet
April 22, 1943 - October 13, 2023
Louise Glück was an American poet whose willingness to confront the horrible, the difficult, and the painful resulted in a body of work characterized by insight and a severe lyricism. In 2020 she was awarded...
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Samuel, baron von Pufendorf
German jurist and historian
January 8, 1632 - October 13, 1694
Samuel, baron von Pufendorf was a German jurist and historian, best known for his defense of the idea of natural law. He was created a baron in the last year of his life. Pufendorf’s father was a Lutheran...
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Walter H. Brattain
American physicist
February 10, 1902 - October 13, 1987
Walter H. Brattain was an American scientist who, along with John Bardeen and William B. Shockley, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956 for his investigation of the properties of semiconductors—materials...
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Mary Henrietta Kingsley
English traveler
October 13, 1862 - June 3, 1900
Mary Henrietta Kingsley was an English traveler who, disregarding the conventions of her time, journeyed through western and equatorial Africa and became the first European to enter parts of Gabon. A niece...
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Theodore G. Bilbo
American politician
October 13, 1877 - August 21, 1947
Theodore G. Bilbo was an American politician and Democratic senator from Mississippi (1935–47), best known for his racist and demagogic rhetoric. Bilbo managed despite poverty to attend Peabody College...
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Theodore Beza
French theologian
June 24, 1519 - October 13, 1605
Theodore Beza was an author, translator, educator, and theologian who assisted and later succeeded John Calvin as a leader of the Protestant Reformation centred at Geneva. After studying law at Orléans,...
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Aḥmad Shawqī
Egyptian poet
1868 - October 13, 1932
Aḥmad Shawqī was known as the amīr al-shuʿarāʾ (“prince of poets”) of modern Arabic poetry and a pioneer of Arabic poetical drama. Shawqī, a member of a family attached to the khedivial court, was sent...
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Erich Auerbach
American scholar
November 9, 1892 - October 13, 1957
Erich Auerbach was an educator and scholar of Romance literatures and languages. After gaining a doctorate in philology at the University of Greifswald, Germany, in 1921, Auerbach served as librarian for...
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Manuel Ávila Camacho
president of Mexico
April 24, 1897 - October 13, 1955
Manuel Ávila Camacho was a soldier and moderate statesman whose presidency (1940–46) saw a consolidation of the social reforms of the Mexican Revolution and the beginning of an unprecedented period of...
Born On
Eddie Mathews
American baseball player
October 13, 1931 - February 18, 2001
Eddie Mathews was an American professional baseball third baseman who is the only person to have played for the Braves franchise in all three of the cities it has called home: Boston (1952), Milwaukee...
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Antonio Berni
Argentine artist
May 14, 1905 - October 13, 1981
Antonio Berni was an Argentine artist known for his socially committed art. Berni had his first exhibition when still a teenager and received a scholarship to study painting in Europe in 1925. After visiting...
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Alice Neel
American painter
January 28, 1900 - October 13, 1984
Alice Neel, (b. January 28, 1900, Merion Square [now Gladwyne], Pennsylvania, U.S.—d. October 13, 1984, New York, New York), American realist painter celebrated for her honest and expressive portraits,...
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Thomas Harrison
English general
1616 - October 13, 1660
Thomas Harrison was an English Parliamentarian general and a leader in the Fifth Monarchy sect (men who believed in the imminent coming of Christ and were willing to rule until he came). He helped to bring...