Famous People Born in 1934

Yuri Gagarin

Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human in space, orbiting the Earth aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961

Soviet cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space aboard Vostok 1.

Photo: Alexander Mokletsov / RIA Novosti · CC BY 4.0

Yuri Gagarin

becoming the first human to journey into outer space during his historic Vostok 1 orbital flight in 1961

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first person to journey into outer space during the first successful crewed spaceflight. He was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kazakh SSR.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: В. Жихаренко / ТАСС Обработка: Roman Kubanskiy · CC BY 4.0

Brigitte Bardot

French actress who became an international sex symbol in And God Created Woman, then quit films to campaign for animal rights

Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot (French:; 28 September 1934 – 28 December 2025), often referred to by her initials B.B., was a French actress, singer, model, and animal rights activist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: MGM · Public domain

Carl Sagan

American astronomer who presented the TV series Cosmos, wrote Pale Blue Dot and helped design the Voyager Golden Record

Carl Edward Sagan (SAY-gən; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: NASA/JPL · Public domain

Sophia Loren

Italian film star of Two Women, the first actress to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance, and a lasting screen icon

Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (Italian:; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( lə-REN, Italian:), is an Italian actress, active in her native country and the United States.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Unknown. Photo by Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images · Public domain

Leonard Cohen

Canadian poet, novelist and singer-songwriter of Suzanne, So Long, Marianne and the much-covered anthem Hallelujah

Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gorupdebesanez · CC BY-SA 3.0

Jane Goodall

English primatologist whose decades studying chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania revealed their tool use and transformed animal science

Dame Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall ( GUUD-awl; 3 April 1934 – 1 October 2025) was an English primatologist and anthropologist.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: U.S. Department of State from United States · Public domain

Wole Soyinka

Nigerian playwright and poet of Death and the King's Horseman who became the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian writer, playwright, and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty-five plays and five memoirs.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Geraldo Magela/Agência Senado · CC BY 2.0