Rudolf Nureyev born on trans-Siberian railway
Rudolf Nureyev is born on board a train on the trans-Siberian railway, near Lake Baikal. Although his official birth date is March 17, 1938 it was probably in fact two or three days earlier. He is the youngest of four children and the only boy, born to a Tartar family of peasant stock. His father Hamet, is a political education officer in the Red Army, advancing to the rank of major while his mother, Farida, accompanies her husband with the family. Nureyev attends the Leningrad Ballet school, then joins the Kirov Ballet.
I had no early memories of my father earlier than his return from military service in 1946. This helps explain the lack of rapport between my father and I which was, made worse because by then I had already fixed on what my father thought the unmanly career of dancing.
Bill Cosby born in Philadelphia
William Henry Cosby Jr. is born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania to Anna Pearl (née Hite) and William H. Cosby Sr. a U.S. Navy sailor.
I started out as a child and group up in the streets of Philadelphia playing street football.
He spends many afternoons at the movies:
I was able to go on a Saturday afternoon and see cowboys and cartoons and a serial—we called them chapters in our neighborhood in the Projects in Philadelphia.
Madeleine Albright born in Prague
Albright is born as Maria Jana Korbelova in Prague, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). Her father, Josef Korbel, is a member of the Czechoslovakian diplomatic service. Her mother, Mandula, is a homemaker. Her grandmother gave her the nickname “Madeleine” when she was young, and her name was legally changed when she was an adolescent. She has a younger sister Katherine.
Sylvia Plath born in Boston
Sylvia Plath is born in Boston, USA to Otto Plath, biology professer and a teacher, Aurelia Plath. Plath excels in schooling, having an interest in reading and writing through the entirety of her schooling. She publishes her first poem at the age of eight, in the Boston Herald. Extract from her poem Child.
Your clear eye is the one absolutely beautiful thing.
I want to fill it with color
Meir Kahane born in New York
Martin David Kahane (Meir Kahane) is born in New York. Growing up in the U.S. in Flatbush, he is the first born of Rabbi and Mrs. Charles Kahane. He is educated at the Yeshiva of Flatbush elementary school and attends both the Abraham Lincoln H.S. and at the Brooklyn Talmudical Academy. He has one younger brother. According to his father:
He was always a sensitive and sentimental boy. A brilliant student.
Born
0 0 Mark Devlin Mark Devlin1932-01-01 00:05:142014-05-02 22:52:09BornLeonard Nimoy born in Boston
Leonard Simon Nimoy is born in Boston, MA, to Dora and Max, orthodox Jewish immigrants from the Ukraine. Max owns a barbershop. He has an older brother, Melvin. He attends Boston English High School.He speaks and reads Yiddish.
My first language was English. but I needed to speak Yiddish with my grandparents.
On the famous Vulcan salute:
I grew up in an interesting inner-city neighborhood in Boston. The area was known as the West End and was written about in a book called the Urban Villagers. It was a desirable area since it was within walking distance of downtown Boston and the Boston Commons, as well as being situated along the banks of the Charles River. The population was mostly immigrants. Maybe 70% Italian and 25% Jewish. My family attended services in an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue, or “Shul.” We were especially attentive to the high holidays, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Since I was somewhat musical, I was hired as a young boy to sing in choirs for the holidays and I was therefore exposed to all of the rituals firsthand. I still have a vivid memory of the first time I saw the use of the split-fingered hands being extended to the congregation in blessing. There were a group of five or six men facing the congregation and chanting in passionate shouts of a Hebrew benediction. It would translate to “May the Lord bless you and keep you,”…etc. My Dad said, “Don’t look.”
I learned later that it is believed that during this prayer, the “Shekhina,” the feminine aspect of God comes into the temple to bless the congregation. The light from this Deity could be very damaging. So we are told to protect ourselves by closing our eyes. I peeked. And when I saw the split-fingered gesture of these men… I was entranced. I learned to do it simply because it seemed so magical. It was probably 25 years later that I introduced that gesture as a Vulcan greeting in Star Trek and it has resonated with fans around the world ever since. It gives me great pleasure since it is, after all, a blessing.
Pol Pot born in Prek Sbauv, Cambodia
Pot is born named Saloth Sar the second son of a successful landowner in Cambodia. Pot’s father has political connections at the royal court at the Cambodian capital. Visits by court officials and even by the Cambodian king himself to Pol Pot’s father’s home appear to be common. Pot is a poor student, yet he receives a good education and studies hard. Pot’s only brother:
When he was young, he was really gentle, as I knew him. His character was kind and he studied hard.
Robert Mugabe born in Southern Rhodesia
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is born to Gabriel (a Malawian) and Bona Mugabe in Khutama Mission, Zvimba District north east of Salisbury in Southern Rhodesia. In 1934 his father, who was a carpenter left for South Africa and then to Bulawayo to look for work and never came back leaving his mother to bear the burden of taking care of him alone. He is the third born of six children. He has two older brothers Michael and Raphael, young brother Donato and two sisters Bridget and Sabina. His older brothers both die young. He is educated by Jesuits and attended secondary school at Kutama College. Speaking in 2014:
Michael was born in 1919 and Raphael in 1922. I played together with Michael until 1934 when he died of poisoning. Raphael died when he was only six months so I could not see him. Donato also died then Sabina, now Bridgette. That was Mbuya Bona’s family. Michael and Raphael passed on, so I became the first born. After the poisoning, my father was not happy and said there was something wrong at our home before going to Bulawayo in 1934. Bulawayo was fine, actually better than Harare in terms of social life. So most of the young men from different areas preferred to go to work in Bulawayo. I was not happy after he had taken his time to come back home and wrote a letter to him expressing my displeasure.
Richard Attenbourogh born in Cambridge, England
Richard Attenborough is born in Cambridge, England. His mother, Mary Clegg is one of the founders of the Marriage Guidance Council. His father Frederick Levi Attenborough, is a don, scholar and academic administrator at Emmanuel College. Attenborough attends grammar school at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester.
My family was principled and socially responsible. My parents adopted two German Jewish refugee orphan girls in 1939 and raised them in addition to their own three boys. [I] definitely imbibed my parents’ dedication towards their respective professions, their idealism and sense of social responsibility.
Shimon Peres born in Visnieva, Belarus
Shimon Peres, originally named Szymon Perski, is born to Yitzhak and Sarah (nee Melzer) Peres, in Poland (now Visnieva, Belarus). His father is a wealthy timber merchant and his mother is a volunteer librarian. When he is 11 years old the family immigrates to Israel (then Mandatory Palestine) and settles in Tel Aviv. He is educated at the Balfour and Geulah schools. He has one younger brother.
As a child, I grew up in my grandfather’s home. … I was educated by him. … My grandfather taught me Talmud. It was not as easy as it sounds. My home was not an observant one. My parents were not Orthodox but I was Haredi [observant]. At one point, I heard my parents listening to the radio on the Sabbath and I smashed it.
Kurt Vonnegut born in Indianapolis
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., is born to Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., and Edith Vonnegut in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father and grandfather were both architects at Vonnegut & Bohn and were expecting Vonnegut, Jr., to continue the family business, but Vonnegut failed to fulfill their expectations.
Yitzhak Rabin born in Jerusalem
Rabin is born in Jerusalem. His father Nehemiah Rabin, is immigrant from the U.S. who serves with the Jewish Legion and works with the Palestine Electricity Corporation. His mother Rosa Rabin (nee Cohen) is one of the founders of the Jewish defense force, Haganah, and works as a bookeeper. The family moves to Tel Aviv when Yitchak is one. There he goes to Beit Hinuch Leyaldei Ovdim elementary school followed by the Kadoorie Agricultural School at Kfar Tabor which he chooses to attend because he wants to become a farmer. He has one younger sister.
At my parents house I absorbed values that guided me throughout my life.
Clark Terry born in St. Louis
Clark Terry is born to parents Clark Virgil Terry and Mary Scott. He is one of 11 children.
John F. Kennedy born in Brookline, Massachusetts
JFK is born to businessman/politician Joe Kennedy and philanthropist/socialite Rose Fitzgerald-Kennedy in Brookline, Massachusetts, United States of America. He has three brothers and five sisters.
Moshe Dayan born in Palestine
Moshe Dayan is born in Palestine, Ottoman Empire, near the shores of Lake Kinneret at Kibbutz Degania Alefin. His parents Shmuel and Devorah Dayan are Jewish immigrants couple from the Ukraine. The family later move to Nahalal, a settlement in northern Israel. He has a younger brother and sister. He is educated at the Agricultural School in Nahalal. He is named for Moshe Barsky a family friend murdered by a hostile Arab faction. Friend:
Moshe inherited with his very name at birth a direct association with the struggle between Jews and Arabs that would characterize the rest of his life.
Hedy Lamarr born in Vienna
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiessler Lamarr is born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary too parents Emil Kiesler and Gertrud or “Trude” Kesler. Her father is a Bank of Vienna director and her mother a concert pianist. Lamarr attends schools in Vienna and is sent to a finishing school in Switzerland as a teenager. Her mother downplays her looks and abilities:
When she was dressed for a party and looked lovely, I would say, ‘You look very well.’ When she did something clever, I would say, “You did alright.” But I under-emphasized praise and flattery, hoping in this way, to balance the scales for her.
Jack Ruby born in Chicago
Ruby is born the fifth of eight children to Fannie Turek Rutkowski and Joseph Rubenstein. Ruby moves around a lot as a youth, mostly throughout the Jewish neighbourhoods of Chicago. The Rubenstein home is marked by constant strife and the parents are reported to occasionally strike each other.
[We lived] below the middle class, but yet it wasn’t the poorest class.
Nicholas Wertheim (Winton) born in London, UK
Nicholas Wertheim Winton is born in West Hampstead, England. His father is a businessman who imports glassware from Bohemia. Although his parents are German Jews, they join the Anglican Church and have Nicholas baptized, and he is raised a Christian. His parents changed the family name to Winton after joining the church in 1938. He attends Stowe School. He has one sister and one brother
My upbringing had taught me not to show emotion or to despair. I grew up knowing that to achieve anything I would need to remain focused.
Salvador Dali born in Figueres, Spain
Salvador Dali is born to Salvador Dali Cusi, a prominent notary, and Felipa Domenech Ferres. His mother often encourages his eccentric side. Dali’s artistic talent is obvious from a young age, and both of his parents support it. His mother dies when he is sixteen.
[My mother’s death] was the greatest blow I had experienced in my life. I worshipped her… I could not resign myself to the loss of a being on whom I counted to make invisible the unavoidable blemishes of my soul