Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1903
Born in 1903? 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 123 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Rabbit
The 1900s
The most famous people born in 190343
1903–1950George Orwell
English writer whose novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four warned against totalitarianism and gave us the term Big Brother
Photo: Cassowary Colorizations · CC BY 2.0
1903–1977Bing Crosby
American crooner and actor whose White Christmas is the best-selling single of all time, an Oscar winner for Going My Way
Photo: Anonymous Unknown author · Public domain
1903–1957John von Neumann
Hungarian-American mathematician who designed the architecture of modern computers, founded game theory and worked on the atomic bomb
Photo: Unknown author · Attribution
1903–1991Isaac Bashevis Singer
Polish-born American writer who wrote in Yiddish about Jewish life, including Gimpel the Fool, and won the Nobel Prize
Photo: Israel Press and Photo Agency (I.P.P.A.) photographer · CC BY 4.0
1903–1969Theodor W. Adorno
German philosopher and key figure of the Frankfurt School
Photo: Jeremy J. Shapiro · CC BY-SA 3.0
1903–1989Konrad Lorenz
Nobel Prize-winning zoologist who studied animal behaviour and imprinting
Photo: Max Planck Gesellschaft ( Eurobas ) · CC BY-SA 3.0
1903–1977Anaïs Nin
French-born writer celebrated for her extensive published diaries
Photo: Elsa Dorfman · CC BY 2.5
1903–1987Marguerite Yourcenar
First woman elected to the prestigious French Academy
Photo: Winoksbergen Bernhard De Grendel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Born in 1903, month by month
- January
- Kane Tanaka (January 2) · Japanese supercentenarian once verified as the world's oldest living person
- Alan Paton (January 11) · South African author of the novel Cry, the Beloved Country
- John Carew Eccles (January 27) · Nobel Prize-winning neurophysiologist who studied the human brain
- February
- Tunku Abdul Rahman (February 8) · First Prime Minister and founding father of independent Malaysia
- Georges Simenon (February 13) · Prolific Belgian author who created the detective character Jules Maigret
- Sadegh Hedayat (February 17) · Iranian writer and translator who wrote the novel The Blind Owl
- Anaïs Nin (February 21) · French-born writer celebrated for her extensive published diaries
- Raymond Queneau (February 21) · French novelist and poet who co-founded the Oulipo literary group
- Julius Fučík (February 23) · Czech journalist and resistance leader against the Nazi occupation
- Giulio Natta (February 26) · Nobel Prize-winning chemist who helped develop modern plastics
- March
- Galeazzo Ciano (March 18) · Italian diplomat and foreign minister under Benito Mussolini
- Adolf Butenandt (March 24) · Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who isolated human sex hormones
- April
- Andrey Kolmogorov (April 12) · Soviet mathematician who established the modern foundations of probability
- Jan Tinbergen (April 12) · Economist who was the first recipient of the Nobel Prize
- José Antonio Primo de Rivera (April 24) · Spanish politician who founded the nationalist Falange party
- May
- Benjamin Spock (May 2) · Paediatrician and author of a world-famous book on childcare
- Bing Crosby (May 3) · American crooner and actor whose White Christmas is the best-selling single of all time, an Oscar winner for Going My Way
- Fernandel (May 8) · Iconic French comic actor best known for the Don Camillo films
- Aram Khachaturian (May 24) · Soviet Armenian composer famous for the Sabre Dance
- Bob Hope (May 29) · Entertainer famous for hosting the Academy Awards and USO tours
- June
- Marguerite Yourcenar (June 7) · First woman elected to the prestigious French Academy
- Alonzo Church (June 14) · Mathematician who made vital contributions to theoretical computer science
- George Orwell (June 25) · English writer whose novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four warned against totalitarianism and gave us the term Big Brother
- July
- Alec Douglas-Home (July 2) · Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- Olav V of Norway (July 2) · King of Norway who reigned for over three decades
- Hugo Theorell (July 6) · Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who studied the action of enzymes
- August
- Habib Bourguiba (August 3) · First President of the Republic of Tunisia
- Fahri Korutürk (August 3) · Turkish naval officer who served as the country’s sixth president
- Louis Leakey (August 7) · Paleoanthropologist who discovered early human remains in Africa
- September
- Theodor W. Adorno (September 11) · German philosopher and key figure of the Frankfurt School
- Claudette Colbert (September 13) · Oscar-winning actress of the Hollywood Golden Age
- Vladimir Horowitz (September 18) · Virtuoso Russian-American classical pianist known for his technical skill
- October
- Ernst Kaltenbrunner (October 4) · High-ranking SS official and major perpetrator of the Holocaust
- Ernest Walton (October 6) · Irish physicist who co-led the first successful splitting of the atom
- George Wells Beadle (October 22) · American geneticist and Nobel Prize winner for his work on genes
- Evelyn Waugh (October 28) · English writer known for the novel Brideshead Revisited
- November
- Konrad Lorenz (November 7) · Nobel Prize-winning zoologist who studied animal behaviour and imprinting
- Isaac Bashevis Singer (November 21) · Polish-born American writer who wrote in Yiddish about Jewish life, including Gimpel the Fool, and won the Nobel Prize
- Lars Onsager (November 27) · Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist known for his work in thermodynamics
- December
- Cecil Frank Powell (December 5) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered the subatomic pion particle
- Johannes Heesters (December 5) · Dutch actor and singer whose career spanned nine decades
- Yasujirō Ozu (December 12) · Influential Japanese film director of Tokyo Story
- John von Neumann (December 28) · Hungarian-American mathematician who designed the architecture of modern computers, founded game theory and worked on the atomic bomb