Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1889
Born in 1889? 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 137 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Ox
The 1880s
The most famous people born in 188929
1889–1945Adolf Hitler
Nazi dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945 who started the Second World War in Europe and directed the Holocaust
Photo: Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
1889–1977Charlie Chaplin
English comic genius who created the Tramp and wrote, directed and starred in silent classics such as The Kid, City Lights and Modern Times
Photo: Strauss-Peyton Studio · Public domain
1889–1964Jawaharlal Nehru
Leader of India's independence movement who became the country's first prime minister and served from 1947 until 1964
Photo: Keystone View Company/FPG · Public domain
1889–1951Ludwig Wittgenstein
Austrian-British philosopher whose Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations transformed the philosophy of language, logic and mind
Photo: Moritz Nähr · Public domain
1889–1976Martin Heidegger
German philosopher whose Being and Time reshaped 20th-century thought, though his Nazi party membership remains controversial
Photo: Willy Pragher · CC BY-SA 3.0
1889–1966Anna Akhmatova
Russian poet whose Requiem bore witness to Stalin's terror, one of the greatest voices of 20th-century Russian poetry
Photo: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin · Public domain
1889–1957Gabriela Mistral
Chilean poet and educator who became the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945
Photo: Anna Riwkin-Brick · Public domain
1889–1963Jean Cocteau
French poet, novelist and filmmaker of Les Enfants Terribles and the film Beauty and the Beast, a leading avant-garde artist
Photo: Agence de presse Meurisse · Public domain
Born in 1889, month by month
- January
- Pitirim Sorokin (January 21) · Sociologist who founded the Department of Sociology at Harvard University
- February
- Carl Theodor Dreyer (February 3) · Danish director of the silent masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc
- Risto Ryti (February 3) · President of Finland during the Second World War
- Victor Fleming (February 23) · Director of Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz
- March
- Idris I of Libya (March 12) · First and only King of Libya who reigned from 1951
- Vaslav Nijinsky (March 12) · Influential ballet dancer and choreographer of the early twentieth century
- Warner Baxter (March 29) · Academy Award-winning actor known for playing the Cisco Kid
- April
- Gabriela Mistral (April 7) · Chilean poet and educator who became the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945
- Arnold J. Toynbee (April 14) · Influential British historian and philosopher of global civilisations
- Charlie Chaplin (April 16) · English comic genius who created the Tramp and wrote, directed and starred in silent classics such as The Kid, City Lights and Modern Times
- Adolf Hitler (April 20) · Nazi dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945 who started the Second World War in Europe and directed the Holocaust
- Paul Karrer (April 21) · Swiss organic chemist who won the Nobel Prize for vitamin research
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (April 26) · Austrian-British philosopher whose Tractatus and Philosophical Investigations transformed the philosophy of language, logic and mind
- António de Oliveira Salazar (April 28) · Long-serving authoritarian Prime Minister and dictator of Portugal
- May
- Igor Sikorsky (May 25) · Aviation pioneer who designed the world's first mass-produced helicopter
- June
- Anna Akhmatova (June 23) · Russian poet whose Requiem bore witness to Stalin's terror, one of the greatest voices of 20th-century Russian poetry
- July
- Jean Cocteau (July 5) · French poet, novelist and filmmaker of Les Enfants Terribles and the film Beauty and the Beast, a leading avant-garde artist
- Ante Pavelić (July 14) · Founder of the Ustaše and leader of the Independent State of Croatia
- September
- Konstantin Rokossovsky (September 3) · Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union
- Walter Lippmann (September 23) · Influential journalist who introduced the concept of the Cold War
- Martin Heidegger (September 26) · German philosopher whose Being and Time reshaped 20th-century thought, though his Nazi party membership remains controversial
- October
- Carl von Ossietzky (October 3) · German journalist and pacifist who received the Nobel Peace Prize
- Abel Gance (October 25) · Pioneering French director of the silent film era
- November
- Philip Noel-Baker, Baron Noel-Baker (November 1) · British politician and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
- Jawaharlal Nehru (November 14) · Leader of India's independence movement who became the country's first prime minister and served from 1947 until 1964
- Manuel II of Portugal (November 15) · The final King of Portugal who reigned until the 1910 revolution
- Edwin Hubble (November 20) · American astronomer who proved that other galaxies exist and that the universe is expanding; the Hubble Space Telescope is named after him
- Edgar Douglas Adrian (November 30) · Nobel Prize-winning scientist who studied how nerve cells transmit signals
- December
- Gabriel Marcel (December 7) · French philosopher and playwright who founded Christian existentialism