Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1906
Born in 1906? 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 120 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Horse
The 1900s
The most famous people born in 190640
1906–1982Leonid Brezhnev
Soviet leader for 18 years, from 1964 to 1982, whose rule saw the invasion of Czechoslovakia and an era of stagnation
Photo: Vladimir Musaelyan · CC0
1906–1989Samuel Beckett
Irish writer of Waiting for Godot and Endgame, a pioneer of the Theatre of the Absurd who won the Nobel Prize in Literature
Photo: Roger Pic · Public domain
1906–1975Hannah Arendt
German-American political theorist of The Origins of Totalitarianism who coined the phrase the banality of evil
Photo: Barbara Niggl Radloff · CC BY-SA 4.0
1906–1978Kurt Gödel
Austrian-American logician whose incompleteness theorems proved that some mathematical truths can never be proved within a system
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
1906–1975Dmitri Shostakovich
Soviet composer of 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets, including the Leningrad Symphony, who survived Stalin's attacks on his music
Photo: Fotothek_df_roe-neg_0002792_002_Portrait_Dmitri_Dmitrijewitsch_Schostakowitchs_im_Publikum_der_Bachfeier.jpg : Roger &am · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
1906–1972Maria Göppert Mayer
Nobel Prize-winning physicist who proposed the nuclear shell model
Photo: Nobel foundation · Public domain
1906–1975Josephine Baker
American-born French entertainer, Resistance agent and civil rights activist
Photo: Studio Harcourt · Public domain
1906–1962Adolf Eichmann
Nazi official who was a primary architect of the Holocaust
Photo: Author and location unknown. Bettina Stangneth's caption for the image says: "Unknown photographer, undated (1941), AKG · Public domain
Born in 1906, month by month
- January
- Albert Hofmann (January 11) · Swiss chemist who discovered the psychedelic properties of LSD
- Aristotle Onassis (January 15) · Greek shipping tycoon who married Jacqueline Kennedy
- Robert E. Howard (January 22) · American author who created the fictional character Conan the Barbarian
- February
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer (February 4) · German pastor and theologian who resisted the Nazi regime
- Clyde Tombaugh (February 4) · American astronomer who discovered the dwarf planet Pluto
- Puyi (February 7) · The last emperor of China and the final Qing dynasty ruler
- March
- Adolf Eichmann (March 19) · Nazi official who was a primary architect of the Holocaust
- Shinichiro Tomonaga (March 31) · Japanese physicist who won the Nobel Prize for quantum electrodynamics
- April
- Victor Vasarely (April 9) · Artist regarded as the leader of the Op art movement
- Samuel Beckett (April 13) · Irish writer of Waiting for Godot and Endgame, a pioneer of the Theatre of the Absurd who won the Nobel Prize in Literature
- King Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (April 14) · King of Saudi Arabia who implemented significant social and economic reforms
- Kurt Gödel (April 28) · Austrian-American logician whose incompleteness theorems proved that some mathematical truths can never be proved within a system
- May
- Mary Astor (May 3) · Oscar-winning actress known for The Maltese Falcon
- Roberto Rossellini (May 8) · Italian film director who pioneered the neorealist cinema movement
- June
- Josephine Baker (June 3) · American-born French entertainer, Resistance agent and civil rights activist
- Ernst Chain (June 19) · Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who co-developed penicillin for medical use
- Billy Wilder (June 22) · Director and screenwriter of classics like Some Like It Hot
- Maria Göppert Mayer (June 28) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who proposed the nuclear shell model
- July
- Hans Bethe (July 2) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered how stars generate energy
- George Sanders (July 3) · Oscar-winning actor known for playing sophisticated villains
- Philip Johnson (July 8) · Influential American architect who designed the iconic Glass House
- Vladimir Prelog (July 23) · Nobel Prize-winning chemist who researched the structure of organic molecules
- August
- John Huston (August 5) · Director and screenwriter of classics like The Maltese Falcon
- September
- Max Delbrück (September 4) · Nobel Prize-winning scientist who helped establish molecular biology
- Luis Federico Leloir (September 6) · Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who discovered how carbohydrates are processed
- Sayyid Qutb (September 10) · Egyptian theorist and prominent member of the Muslim Brotherhood
- Dmitri Shostakovich (September 25) · Soviet composer of 15 symphonies and 15 string quartets, including the Leningrad Symphony, who survived Stalin's attacks on his music
- October
- Janet Gaynor (October 6) · American actress and winner of the first Best Actress Oscar
- Léopold Sédar Senghor (October 9) · Poet and first president of independent Senegal
- Hannah Arendt (October 14) · German-American political theorist of The Origins of Totalitarianism who coined the phrase the banality of evil
- Dino Buzzati (October 16) · Italian author and journalist best known for the novel The Tartar Steppe
- Giuseppe Farina (October 30) · Italian racing driver and first ever Formula One World Champion
- November
- Luchino Visconti (November 2) · Italian film director known for Death in Venice
- Sōichirō Honda (November 17) · Founder of the Honda Motor Company
- Klaus Mann (November 18) · German writer and anti-fascist known for his novel Mephisto
- George Wald (November 18) · Nobel Prize-winning scientist who discovered how eyes process light
- December
- Grace Hopper (December 9) · Computer science pioneer and high-ranking United States Navy officer
- Leonid Brezhnev (December 19) · Soviet leader for 18 years, from 1964 to 1982, whose rule saw the invasion of Czechoslovakia and an era of stagnation
- Ernst Ruska (December 25) · German physicist who designed the first electron microscope
- Sergei Korolev (December 30) · Rocket engineer who led the Soviet space programme