Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1857
Born in 1857? Meet the well-known people who share your birth year, from the biggest names to the ones you might not expect, month by month.
Turning 169 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Snake
The 1850s
The most famous people born in 185724
1857–1930William Howard Taft
27th US President who later became Chief Justice, the only person to hold both offices
Photo: Pach Brothers, restored by Adam Cuerden · Public domain
1857–1924Joseph Conrad
Polish-born British novelist and former sailor who wrote Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim and Nostromo in his third language
Photo: George Charles Beresford · Public domain
1857–1939Pius XI
Italian pope who signed the Lateran Treaty creating Vatican City in 1929 and condemned Nazism in an encyclical
Photo: Nicola Perscheid · Public domain
1857–1894Heinrich Hertz
German physicist who proved the existence of radio waves in 1887; the unit of frequency, the hertz, honours him
Photo: Robert Krewaldt, Kaiserplatz 16, Bonn · Public domain
1857–1933Clara Zetkin
German socialist politician and women's rights campaigner who proposed the first International Women's Day in 1910
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
1857–1913Ferdinand de Saussure
Swiss linguist whose Course in General Linguistics founded structuralism and the modern study of signs
Photo: "F. Jullien Genève", maybe Frank-Henri Jullien (1882–1938) · CC BY-SA 4.0
1857–1941Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell
British Army officer who founded the Scout and Guide movements
Photo: Francis Henry Hart, for Elliott & Fry · Public domain
1857–1935Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Russian rocket scientist and pioneer of astronautic theory
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
Born in 1857, month by month
- January
- Vladimir Bekhterev (January 20) · Russian neurologist who discovered the role of the hippocampus in memory
- February
- Heinrich Hertz (February 22) · German physicist who proved the existence of radio waves in 1887; the unit of frequency, the hertz, honours him
- Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell (February 22) · British Army officer who founded the Scout and Guide movements
- March
- Julius Wagner-Jauregg (March 7) · First psychiatrist to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine
- Christian Michelsen (March 15) · First Prime Minister of independent Norway after the union with Sweden
- Paul Doumer (March 22) · President of France who was assassinated in 1932
- April
- Ruggero Leoncavallo (April 23) · Italian composer best known for the popular opera Pagliacci
- Eugen Bleuler (April 30) · Swiss psychiatrist who coined the terms schizophrenia and autism
- May
- Ronald Ross (May 13) · Nobel Prize-winning scientist who proved malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes
- Pius XI (May 31) · Italian pope who signed the Lateran Treaty creating Vatican City in 1929 and condemned Nazism in an encyclical
- June
- Karl Adolph Gjellerup (June 2) · Danish poet and novelist who won the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Edward Elgar (June 2) · English composer known for the Enigma Variations
- Antoni Grabowski (June 11) · Chemical engineer and pioneer of the Esperanto language
- July
- Clara Zetkin (July 5) · German socialist politician and women's rights campaigner who proposed the first International Women's Day in 1910
- Alfred Binet (July 8) · Psychologist who developed the first practical intelligence test
- Henrik Pontoppidan (July 24) · Nobel Prize-winning Danish novelist known for his realist fiction
- Thorstein Veblen (July 30) · Economist who coined the term conspicuous consumption
- September
- William Howard Taft (September 15) · 27th US President who later became Chief Justice, the only person to hold both offices
- Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (September 17) · Russian rocket scientist and pioneer of astronautic theory
- November
- Ferdinand de Saussure (November 26) · Swiss linguist whose Course in General Linguistics founded structuralism and the modern study of signs
- Charles Scott Sherrington (November 27) · Nobel Prize-winning neurophysiologist who coined the term synapse
- Alfonso XII of Spain (November 28) · King of Spain who restored the monarchy after the First Republic
- December
- Joseph Conrad (December 3) · Polish-born British novelist and former sailor who wrote Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim and Nostromo in his third language
- Edward Emerson Barnard (December 16) · Astronomer who discovered the fifth moon of Jupiter