Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1874
Born in 1874? 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 152 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Dog
The 1870s
The most famous people born in 187432
1874–1965Winston Churchill
British Prime Minister who led the country through the Second World War with defiant speeches, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
1874–1964Herbert Hoover
Mining engineer and humanitarian who served as the 31st US President when the Great Depression began
Photo: Underwood & Underwood · Public domain
1874–1937Guglielmo Marconi
Italian inventor who pioneered long-distance radio, sent the first transatlantic wireless signal and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
Photo: Pach Brothers · Public domain
1874–1963Robert Frost
American poet of The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening who won four Pulitzer Prizes
Photo: Fred Palumbo, World Telegram staff photographer · Public domain
1874–1936G. K. Chesterton
English writer and wit who created the priest-detective Father Brown and wrote essays and The Man Who Was Thursday
Photo: Ernest Herbert Mills · Public domain
1874–1965William Somerset Maugham
English novelist of Of Human Bondage and The Moon and Sixpence, once the highest-paid author in the world
Photo: Carl Van Vechten (1880 - 1964) · Public domain
1874–1926Harry Houdini
Legendary Hungarian-American escape artist and illusionist
Photo: LaPine Studios · Public domain
1874–1951Arnold Schoenberg
Composer who developed the twelve-tone technique of musical composition
Photo: Man Ray · CC BY-SA 2.0
Born in 1874, month by month
- January
- Joseph Erlanger (January 5) · American physiologist who won the Nobel Prize for nerve fibre research
- William Somerset Maugham (January 25) · English novelist of Of Human Bondage and The Moon and Sixpence, once the highest-paid author in the world
- February
- Hugo von Hofmannsthal (February 1) · Austrian writer and librettist who co-founded the Salzburg Festival
- Gertrude Stein (February 3) · American writer and art collector who hosted a famous Paris salon
- Ernest Shackleton (February 15) · Antarctic explorer who led the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
- March
- Nikolai Berdyaev (March 6) · Russian philosopher and theologian known for his focus on human freedom
- Harry Houdini (March 24) · Legendary Hungarian-American escape artist and illusionist
- Luigi Einaudi (March 24) · Italian economist who served as the second President of Italy
- Robert Frost (March 26) · American poet of The Road Not Taken and Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening who won four Pulitzer Prizes
- Karl Kraus (March 28) · Austrian writer and journalist known for his satirical magazine Die Fackel
- Lou Henry Hoover (March 29) · American geologist and First Lady to President Herbert Hoover
- April
- Johannes Stark (April 15) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered the splitting of spectral lines
- Guglielmo Marconi (April 25) · Italian inventor who pioneered long-distance radio, sent the first transatlantic wireless signal and shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
- May
- Howard Carter (May 9) · British archaeologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun
- Ernst Cassirer (May 28) · German philosopher known for his work on symbolic forms
- G. K. Chesterton (May 29) · English writer and wit who created the priest-detective Father Brown and wrote essays and The Man Who Was Thursday
- August
- Herbert Hoover (August 10) · Mining engineer and humanitarian who served as the 31st US President when the Great Depression began
- Antanas Smetona (August 10) · First President of Lithuania and prominent intellectual figure
- Max Scheler (August 22) · German philosopher who made significant contributions to phenomenology and ethics
- Carl Bosch (August 27) · Nobel Prize-winning chemist who pioneered industrial high-pressure chemistry
- Edward Thorndike (August 31) · American psychologist who pioneered the study of animal behaviour
- September
- Talaat Paşa (September 1) · Ottoman politician and a primary architect of the Armenian Genocide
- Arnold Schoenberg (September 13) · Composer who developed the twelve-tone technique of musical composition
- Gustav Holst (September 21) · English composer best known for his orchestral suite The Planets
- Nicholas Roerich (September 27) · Russian painter and philosopher who designed the Roerich Pact
- November
- Alexander Kolchak (November 4) · Russian naval commander and leader of the anti-Bolshevik White movement
- August Krogh (November 15) · Nobel Prize-winning scientist who studied human blood flow
- Chaim Weizmann (November 27) · First President of Israel and a pioneering research biochemist
- António Egas Moniz (November 29) · Portuguese neurologist who won the Nobel Prize for medicine
- Winston Churchill (November 30) · British Prime Minister who led the country through the Second World War with defiant speeches, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30) · Canadian author best known for writing Anne of Green Gables
- December
- William Lyon Mackenzie King (December 17) · Longest-serving prime minister in Canadian history