In the year 1899, Opel Motors open for business (Jan 21), Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin and Bayer registers its name as a trademark (Mar 6), Jean Sibelius’s First Symphony premiers in Helsinki (Apr 26), gold is discovered in Nome, Alaska, leading to the Nome Gold Rush (Jul 27), Henry Bliss is the first person in the United States to be killed in an automobile accident (Sep 13), the FC Barcelona Association football club is founded (Nov 29) - and all these fine people were born:
1899-0101
1899-0105 Kaarlo Marjanen* recitator/writer/critic - Maaria, GD of Finland (1984/85)
1899-0110
1899-0111 Eva Le Gallienne* British-American actress/director/author - London, England (1991/92)
1899-0112 Paul Hermann Müller* chemist/N - Basel, Switzerland (1965/66)
1899-0114 Georg Witt* Russian-German film director/to Germany at a young age - Moscow, Russia, Russian Empire (1973/74)
1899-0115 Goodman Ace* (b Aiskowitz) actor/ comedian/writer - Kansas City, MO USA (1982/83)
1899-0117 Al Capone* mobster/crime boss - Brooklyn, NY USA (1947/48)
1899-0117 Abram Lincoln Harris* perhaps the first prominent African American economist/anthropologist - Richmond, VA USA (1963/64)
1899-0120
1899-0121 Lassi Tokkola* painter - Keuruu, GD of Finland (1975/76)
1899-0130 Sidney Bernstein* businessman/ media executive/Baron Bernstein - Ilford, Essex, England (1993/94)
1899-0202 Herbie Faye* actor - New York City, NY USA (1980/81)
1899-0215 Georges Auric* composer - Lodève, France (1983/83)
1899-0219 Greta Hällfors-Sipilä* (b Hällfors) painter - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1974/75)
1899-0222 George O’Hara* actor - New York City, NY USA (1966/67)
1899-0224 Mikhail Gromov* aviator/researcher - Tver, Russian Empire (1985/85)
1899-0301
1899-0310
1899-0314 Elliot E. Cohen* the founder and first editor of Commentary - Des Moines, IA USA (1959/60)
1899-0319 Alma Aspinen** daughter of Wilhelmiina Aspinen - Vanhakylä, Viipuri msrk, GD of Finland
1899-0320
1899-0322 Ruth Page* ballerina/ choreographer - Indianapolis, IN USA (1991/92)
1899-0327 Gloria Swanson* actress - Chicago, IL USA (1983/84)
1899-0328 August Anheuser Busch* brewing magnate - St. Louis, MO USA (1989/90)
1899-0331
1899-0403 Maria Redaelli-Granoli* Italian supercentenarian - Lombardy, Kingdom of Italy (2013/113)
1899-0404 Hillel Oppenheimer* (b Heinz Oppenheimer) German-Israeli botanist - Berlin, German Empire (1971/72)
1899-0405 Elsie Thompson* (b Calvert) supercentenarian/wife of Ronald Thompson - USA (2013/113)
1899-0407 Robert Casadesus* pianist/ composer - Paris, France (1972/73)
1899-0411 Percy Lavon Julian* research chemist/pioneer in the chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants - Montgomery, AL USA (1975/76)
1899-041
1899-0416 Osman Achmatowicz* Polish chemist - Bergaliszki, near Oszmania, Poland (1988/89)
1899-0419 George O’Brien* actor - San Francisco, CA USA (1985/86)
1899-0421 Emmi Jurkka* actress/ theater manager - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1990/91)
1899-0422 Vladimir Nabokov* writer - Saint Petersburg, Russia (1977/78)
1899-0424 Allen Saunders* journalist/ writer/cartoonist - Lebanon, IN USA (1986/86)
1899-0429 Duke Ellington* singer - Washington, D.C. USA (1974/75)
1899-0430
1899-0501 Jón Leifs* (b Þorleifsson) pianist/ composer/conductor - Sólheimar, Húnavatnssýsla, Iceland (1968/69)
1899-0503 Aline MacMahon* actress - McKeesport, PA USA (1991/92)
1899-0506 Billy Cotton* entertainer/ band leader - Smith Square, London, England (1969/69)
1899-0507
1899-0508 Arthur Q. Bryan*
1899-0508 Friedrich Hayek* economist/ legar theorist/N - Vienna, Austria-Hungary (1992/92)
1899-0508 Jacques Heim* fashion designer/costume designer - Paris, France (1967/67)
1899-0510 Fred Astaire* singer/ dancer/actor - Omaha, NE USA (1987/88)
1899-0512 Indra Devi* (b Eugenie Peterson) actress/yoga teacher/popularized yoga in America - Riga, Latvia, Russian Empire (2002/102)
1899-0515
1899-0517 Carmen de Icaza* journalist/ novelist - Madrid, Kingdom of Spain (1979/79)
1899-0518 Ronald Armstrong-Jones* (b Jones) soldier/ lawyer/father-in-law of Princess Margaret - Ilford, Essex, England (1966/66)
1899-0520
1899-0523 Jeralean Talley* (b Kurzt) supercentenarian - Montrose, GA USA (2015/116)
1899-0524 Suzanne Lenglen* tennis player/OG - Paris, France (1938/39)
1899-0530 Irving Thalberg* film producer - Brooklyn, NY USA (1936/37)
1899-0601 Edward Charles Titchmarsh* mathematician - Newbury, Berkshire, England (1963/63)
1899-0603 Georg von Békésy* Hungarian biophysicist/N - Budapest, Austria-Hungary (1972/73)
1899-0610
1899-0612 Fritz Albert Lipmann* German-American biochemist/N - Königsberg, German Empire (1986/87)
1899-0620
1899-0622 Haddon Sundblom* artist (Santa Claus for The Coca-Cola Company)/of Finnish and Swedish descent - Muskegon, MI USA (1976/76)
1899-0626 Elvy Kalep* the first female pilot of Estonia/artist/toy designer active in the United States - Taali, Estonia (1989/90)
1899-0630 Madge Bellamy* (b Philpott) actress - Hillsboro, TX USA (1990/90)
1899-0701 Charles Laughton* actor - Scarborough, Yorkshire England (1962/63)
1899-0710 John Gilbert* actor - Logan, UT USA (1936/36)
1899-0715 Jacob Albert “Jac” Edgren* illustrator - Gunnarskog, Sweden (1980/80)
1899-0717 James Cagney* actor - New York City, NY USA (1986/86)
1899-0718 John Tootoosis* prominent Cree First Nations leader/grandson of Yellow Mud Blanket, the brother of legendary Cree leader Pitikwahanapiwiyin, also known as Poundmaker – Poundmaker Reserve, SK Canada (1989/89)
1899-0721 Ernest Hemingway* journalist/novelist/N - Oak Park, IL USA (1961/61)
1899-0724 Chief Dan George* Chief the Tsleil-Waututh Nation/actor/ musician - Tsleil-Waututh, North Vancouver, BC Canada (1981/82)
1899-0726 Nan Wood Graham* historian/sister of Grant Wood - Anamosa, IA USA (1990/91)
1899-0801
1899-0813 Alfred Hitchcock* film director - Leytonstone, Essex, England (1980/80)
1899-0823 George Erskine* senior British army officer - Hascombe, Surrey, England (1965/66)
1899-0824 Jorge Luis Borges* short-story writer/poet/translator - Buenos Aires, Argentina (1986/86)
1899-0824 Albert Claude* biologist/N - Longlier, Neufchâteau, Belgium (1983/83)
1899-0829 Alexander Saxelin* ballet dancer/ballet teacher - Viipuri, GD of Finland (1959/60)
1899-0903 Frank Macfarlane Burnet* virologist/N - Trafalgon, Victoria, Australia (1985/85)
1899-0929 Billy Butlin* British holiday camp entrepreneur - Cape Town, South Africa (1980/80)
1899-1023 John Lee Laurie* educator/political activist/best known for First Nations advocacy - Ayr, ON Canada (1959/60)
1899-1029 Akim Tamiroff* actor - Tbilisi, Russian Empire (1972/72)
1899-1108 John Lindgren* cross-country skier/WC (Vasaloppet) - Hedlunda, Sweden (1990/90)
1899-1126 Richard Hauptmann* carpenter/the Lindbergh baby kidnapper - Kamenz, Saxony, German Empire (1936/36)
1899-1129 Emma Morano* supercentenarian - Civiasco, Italy (2017/117)
1899-1201
1899-1202 Eino Kaipainen* police officer/actor - Jäpppilä, GD of Finland (1995/95)
1899-1210
1899-1216 Noel Coward* writer/composer - Teddington, Middlesex, England (1973/73)
1899-1219 Martin Luther King Sr* pastor - Stockbridge, GA USA (1984/84)
1899-1220
1899-1225 Humprey Bogart* actor - New York, NY USA (1957/57)
1899-1226 Udham Singh* revolutionary - Sunam, Punjab, British India (1940/40)
1899-1231
1899-0
1899-0
1899-0
Updated 2025-0124 Helsinki
Search for another year here