Famous people born on March 13th

March 13 brings together a notably wide-ranging set of birthdays, spanning intelligence and diplomacy, media and publishing, literature and journalism, and major figures in film and music. The date blends public power with creative influence, from decision-makers and commentators to performers who shaped popular culture. Across the 22 notable births, the common thread is outsized impact in fields that define how societies tell stories, gather information, and imagine themselves.

Notable highlights

• Cillian Murphy (1974) - An Irish actor acclaimed for intense, minimalist performances and transformative character work across independent cinema and blockbuster films.
• William H. Macy (1950) - A celebrated character actor known for portraying flawed, deeply human roles on stage and screen with sharp comedic timing.
• Dana Delany (1956) - A prominent television and film actress whose breakthrough dramatic work helped define prestige TV in the early 1990s.
• Walter Annenberg (1908) - A publishing magnate and philanthropist who expanded a media empire and later became a major patron of education and the arts.
• William J. Casey (1913) - A central U.S. intelligence figure of the Cold War era, influential in shaping covert strategy during a tense geopolitical period.
• Charles Krauthammer (1950) - A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist who became a defining voice in late-20th-century American political commentary.
• L. Ron Hubbard (1911) - A prolific writer whose fiction and later religious movement-building made him one of the most controversial cultural figures of the 20th century.
• Adam Clayton (1960) - Bassist for U2, recognized for anchoring the band"s sound with melodic, spacious bass lines across decades of stadium-scale rock.
• Roy Haynes (1925) - A landmark jazz drummer admired for crisp, modern swing and decades of high-level collaboration across bebop and post-bop eras.
• Giorgos Seferis (1900) - A Nobel Prize-winning poet whose work fused modernism with Greek history and identity, shaping 20th-century European literature.

On this day

• 1781 - William Herschel discovers Uranus, expanding the known boundaries of the solar system.
• 1881 - Czar Alexander II of Russia is assassinated in St. Petersburg, a turning point in imperial Russian politics and repression.
• 1933 - The Enabling Act is introduced in Germany, laying the legal groundwork for Adolf Hitler"s dictatorship.
• 1954 - The Battle of Dien Bien Phu begins, a decisive campaign that helped end French colonial rule in Indochina.