Who Shares My Birthday.

Famous birthdays by month

Famous Birthdays in May

Who was born in May? Browse the best-known birthdays for every day of the month, then tap any date to see everyone famous born on that day.

Birthstone: Emerald · Star signs: Taurus & Gemini

The most famous May birthdays856

Karl Marx1818–1883

Karl Marx

German philosopher and economist who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, inspiring socialist and communist movements worldwide

PhilosophyWould be 208

Photo: John Jabez Edwin Mayall · Public domain

John F. Kennedy1917–1963

John F. Kennedy

35th US President who faced down the Soviet Union in the Cuban Missile Crisis and was assassinated in Dallas in 1963

PoliticsWould be 109

Photo: Cecil W. Stoughton · Public domain

Dante Alighieri1265–1321

Dante Alighieri

Florentine poet who wrote The Divine Comedy, the epic journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise that helped shape the Italian language

LiteratureWould be 761

Photo: Sandro Botticelli · Public domain

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk1881–1938

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Ottoman army commander who founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923, became its first president and drove sweeping modernising reforms

PoliticsWould be 145

Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

Sigmund Freud1856–1939

Sigmund Freud

Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis and introduced ideas such as the unconscious, repression and the interpretation of dreams

Notable PeopleWould be 170

Photo: Max Halberstadt · Public domain

Salvador Dalí1904–1989

Salvador Dalí

Spanish Surrealist painter famous for The Persistence of Memory, with its melting clocks, and for his flamboyant moustache

ArtWould be 122

Photo: Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964. · Public domain

Rabindranath Tagore1861–1941

Rabindranath Tagore

Bengali poet, composer and painter who wrote Gitanjali and became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

LiteratureWould be 165

Photo: Generalstabens litografiska anstalt · Public domain

Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527

Niccolò Machiavelli

Florentine diplomat and political thinker whose book The Prince offered blunt advice on gaining and keeping power

PoliticsWould be 557

Photo: Santi di Tito · Public domain

May birthdays, day by day

  1. May 1
  2. May 2
    • Satyajit Ray (1921) · Bengali filmmaker of Pather Panchali and the Apu Trilogy who received an honorary Oscar for his lifetime's work
    • David Beckham (1975) · English footballer and former national captain famed for his free kicks at Manchester United and Real Madrid, now co-owner of Inter Miami
    • Novalis (1772) · German Romantic poet of Hymns to the Night and the novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen, whose blue flower became a Romantic symbol
  3. May 3
    • Niccolò Machiavelli (1469) · Florentine diplomat and political thinker whose book The Prince offered blunt advice on gaining and keeping power
    • Golda Meir (1898) · Ukrainian-born, Milwaukee-raised politician who became Israel's first and only female prime minister and led it through the 1973 war
    • Bing Crosby (1903) · American crooner and actor whose White Christmas is the best-selling single of all time, an Oscar winner for Going My Way
  4. May 4
    • Audrey Hepburn (1929) · Belgian-born British actress of Roman Holiday and Breakfast at Tiffany's, a style icon and UNICEF goodwill ambassador
    • Hosni Mubarak (1928) · Egyptian air force commander who ruled as president for 30 years until he was toppled in the 2011 Arab Spring
    • Thomas Henry Huxley (1825) · English biologist known as Darwin's Bulldog for his fierce public defence of evolution, who also coined the word agnostic
  5. May 5
    • Karl Marx (1818) · German philosopher and economist who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, inspiring socialist and communist movements worldwide
    • Søren Kierkegaard (1813) · Danish philosopher and theologian of Either/Or and Fear and Trembling, widely regarded as the father of existentialism
    • Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846) · Polish novelist of Quo Vadis and the historical Trilogy, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905
  6. May 6
    • Sigmund Freud (1856) · Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis and introduced ideas such as the unconscious, repression and the interpretation of dreams
    • Rabindranath Tagore (1861) · Bengali poet, composer and painter who wrote Gitanjali and became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
    • Tony Blair (1953) · Labour leader who won three general elections and served as British Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007, including during the Iraq War
  7. May 7
    • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840) · Russian Romantic composer of the ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture
    • Johannes Brahms (1833) · German Romantic composer of four symphonies, A German Requiem, the Hungarian Dances and the famous Lullaby
    • Josip Broz Tito (1892) · Partisan leader who freed Yugoslavia from Nazi occupation and ruled it for 35 years, defying Stalin
  8. May 8
    • Harry S. Truman (1884) · 33rd US President who ordered the atomic bombings of Japan, launched the Marshall Plan and helped found NATO
    • Friedrich Hayek (1899) · Austrian-British economist of The Road to Serfdom who championed free markets and won the Nobel Prize in economics
    • Henry Dunant (1828) · Swiss businessman who founded the Red Cross after witnessing the Battle of Solferino and won the first Nobel Peace Prize
  9. May 9
    • J. M. Barrie (1860) · Scottish novelist and playwright who created the character Peter Pan
    • Glenda Jackson (1936) · Double Oscar-winning actress who later served as a British MP
    • Howard Carter (1874) · British archaeologist who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun
  10. May 10
    • Fred Astaire (1899) · Legendary American dancer and actor known for his musical films
    • Bono (1960) · Lead singer of U2 and prominent global humanitarian campaigner
    • Heydar Aliyev (1923) · Third President of Azerbaijan and former Soviet politician
  11. May 11
    • Salvador Dalí (1904) · Spanish Surrealist painter famous for The Persistence of Memory, with its melting clocks, and for his flamboyant moustache
    • Richard Feynman (1918) · American physicist who won the Nobel Prize for quantum electrodynamics, invented Feynman diagrams and was a famous teacher
    • Justinian I (482) · Byzantine emperor who codified Roman law, rebuilt Hagia Sophia and reconquered Italy and North Africa
  12. May 12
    • Florence Nightingale (1820) · English nurse known as the Lady with the Lamp for her work in the Crimean War, who founded modern nursing
    • Rishi Sunak (1980) · Former Chancellor of the Exchequer who served as British Prime Minister from 2022 to 2024, the first of Asian heritage
    • Katharine Hepburn (1907) · American actress of The Philadelphia Story and On Golden Pond who won a record four Oscars for best actress
  13. May 13
    • Alphonse Daudet (1840) · French writer of Letters from My Windmill and Tartarin of Tarascon, beloved for his tales of Provence
    • Maria Theresa of Austria (1717) · Habsburg ruler for 40 years, the only woman to reign over the Habsburg lands, and mother of 16 children including Marie Antoinette
    • Pius IX (1792) · Longest-serving elected pope in the history of the Catholic Church
  14. May 14
    • Che Guevara (1928) · Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary who fought alongside Fidel Castro in Cuba and became a worldwide symbol of rebellion
    • Mark Zuckerberg (1984) · American entrepreneur who co-founded Facebook at Harvard in 2004 and leads Meta, owner of Instagram and WhatsApp
    • Cate Blanchett (1969) · Australian actress of Elizabeth and The Lord of the Rings who won Oscars for The Aviator and Blue Jasmine
  15. May 15
    • Omar Khayyám (1048) · Persian mathematician and astronomer who reformed the calendar and is remembered for the poems of the Rubaiyat
    • Pierre Curie (1859)
    • Mikhail Bulgakov (1891) · Soviet writer whose satirical novel The Master and Margarita, with the Devil visiting Moscow, was only published after his death
  16. May 16
    • Megan Fox (1986) · American actress who rose to fame in Transformers and starred in the cult horror comedy Jennifer's Body
    • Andrzej Duda (1972) · Polish lawyer and politician who served two terms as President of Poland, from 2015 to 2025
    • Janet Jackson (1966) · Influential American singer and dancer known for innovative pop and R&B
  17. May 17
    • Ruhollah Khomeini (1900) · Shia cleric who led the 1979 Iranian Revolution against the Shah and became the first Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic
    • Edward Jenner (1749) · English country doctor who pioneered vaccination with cowpox in 1796, leading to the eradication of smallpox
    • Enya (1961) · Irish singer and composer of Orinoco Flow and Only Time, whose layered, ethereal sound has sold tens of millions of albums
  18. May 18
    • John Paul II (1920) · Polish pope from 1978 to 2005, the first non-Italian pope in 455 years, who helped inspire the fall of communism in Eastern Europe
    • Bertrand Russell (1872) · British philosopher, logician and anti-war campaigner who co-wrote Principia Mathematica and won the Nobel Prize in Literature
    • Nicholas II of Russia (1868) · Last Tsar of Russia, who abdicated in 1917 and was executed with his family by the Bolsheviks in 1918
  19. May 19
    • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881) · Ottoman army commander who founded the Republic of Turkey in 1923, became its first president and drove sweeping modernising reforms
    • Li Bai (701) · Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty famed for his romantic verses about wine, moonlight and nature, one of China's greatest poets
    • Ho Chi Minh (1890) · Vietnamese communist revolutionary who led the fight for independence from France and became North Vietnam's first president
  20. May 20
    • Honoré de Balzac (1799) · French novelist who created La Comédie humaine, a vast cycle of novels including Père Goriot that portrays French society
    • John Stuart Mill (1806) · English philosopher of On Liberty and Utilitarianism who campaigned in Parliament for women's right to vote
    • Cher (1946) · American singer and actress known as the Goddess of Pop, from Sonny & Cher to Believe, who won an Oscar for Moonstruck
  21. May 21
    • Albrecht Dürer (1471) · German Renaissance painter and printmaker whose woodcuts, engravings and self-portraits, including the Rhinoceros, spread across Europe
    • Alexander Pope (1688) · English Augustan poet of The Rape of the Lock and An Essay on Man, famous for his heroic couplets and wit
    • Andrei Sakharov (1921) · Soviet physicist who designed the hydrogen bomb, then became a leading dissident and won the Nobel Peace Prize
  22. May 22
    • Richard Wagner (1813) · German composer whose operas, including the four-part Ring cycle and Tristan and Isolde, transformed music drama
    • Arthur Conan Doyle (1859) · Scottish doctor and writer who created the detective Sherlock Holmes and his companion Dr Watson
    • Novak Djokovic (1987)
  23. May 23
    • Carl Linnaeus (1707) · Swedish botanist who created binomial nomenclature and the modern classification system that made him the father of taxonomy
    • John Bardeen (1908) · American physicist who co-invented the transistor
    • Pär Lagerkvist (1891) · Nobel Prize-winning Swedish author of the novel Barabbas
  24. May 24
    • Bob Dylan (1941) · American singer-songwriter of Blowin' in the Wind and Like a Rolling Stone, the first musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
    • Victoria (1819) · Queen of the United Kingdom for 63 years and Empress of India, whose long reign gave its name to the Victorian era
    • Joseph Brodsky (1940) · Russian poet expelled from the Soviet Union in 1972 who became US Poet Laureate and won the Nobel Prize in Literature
  25. May 25
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803) · American essayist and poet who led the Transcendentalist movement and wrote the influential essay Self-Reliance
    • Pieter Zeeman (1865) · Dutch physicist who discovered how magnetic fields affect light radiation
    • Ian McKellen (1939) · British actor known for playing Gandalf and Magneto
  26. May 26
    • John Wayne (1907) · American actor known as the Duke, star of Stagecoach and The Searchers, who won an Oscar for True Grit
    • Isadora Duncan (1877) · American dancer who pioneered modern dance with free, barefoot movement and died when her scarf caught in a car wheel
    • Miles Davis (1926) · Influential jazz trumpeter and composer
  27. May 27
    • Ibn Khaldun (1332) · North African historian whose Muqaddimah analysed the rise and fall of societies, making him a forerunner of sociology and economics
    • Henry Kissinger (1923) · German-born US Secretary of State who opened relations with China and shared the Nobel Peace Prize for Vietnam ceasefire talks
    • Christopher Lee (1922) · English actor of towering presence who played Dracula for Hammer, Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and Count Dooku in Star Wars
  28. May 28
    • Kylie Minogue (1968) · Australian singer and Neighbours actress whose hits from I Should Be So Lucky to Can't Get You Out of My Head span four decades
    • Ian Fleming (1908) · British naval intelligence officer and journalist who created James Bond, beginning with the 1953 novel Casino Royale
    • Patrick White (1912) · First Australian author to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
  29. May 29
    • John F. Kennedy (1917) · 35th US President who faced down the Soviet Union in the Cuban Missile Crisis and was assassinated in Dallas in 1963
    • G. K. Chesterton (1874) · English writer and wit who created the priest-detective Father Brown and wrote essays and The Man Who Was Thursday
    • Charles II of England (1630) · English monarch restored to the throne in 1660
  30. May 30
    • Dante Alighieri (1265) · Florentine poet who wrote The Divine Comedy, the epic journey through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise that helped shape the Italian language
    • Mikhail Bakunin (1814) · Russian revolutionary and founder of collectivist anarchism who clashed with Karl Marx in the First International
    • Idi Amin (1928) · Ugandan army officer who seized power in 1971 and ruled as a brutal dictator, expelling Uganda's Asian community
  31. May 31
    • Genghis Khan (1162) · Mongol warrior who united the steppe tribes and founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest land empire in history
    • Walt Whitman (1819) · American poet whose free-verse collection Leaves of Grass, including Song of Myself, celebrated democracy and the individual
    • Clint Eastwood (1930) · American actor and director of Dirty Harry and Westerns, who won Oscars for directing Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby
← apriljune →