Famous people born on May 24th
May 24 gathers an unusually wide-ranging group of birthdays, spanning monarchs and revolutionaries, poets and philosophers, and modern figures who reshaped music, film, and sport. The date bridges centuries of public life, from ancient command and imperial courts to contemporary stages and stadiums. Together, these births reflect how influence can travel through art, ideas, leadership, and performance.
Notable highlights
- Bob Dylan (1941) - The Nobel Prize-winning songwriter helped redefine popular music with literate lyrics and a restless, shape-shifting sound.
- Queen Victoria (1819) - Her long reign became synonymous with an era of industrial expansion, empire, and evolving constitutional monarchy.
- Eric Cantona (1966) - A mercurial football icon whose flair and charisma helped set the tone for Manchester United's modern dominance.
- Priscilla Presley (1945) - A central figure in the Elvis Presley legacy who later built a successful acting and business career in her own right.
- Jean-Paul Marat (1743) - A radical voice of the French Revolution whose journalism and politics made him both feared and revered.
- Joseph Brodsky (1940) - Exiled from the Soviet Union, he became a major English-language essayist and a Nobel-winning poet of memory and moral clarity.
- Patti LaBelle (1944) - A powerhouse vocalist whose gospel-rooted delivery influenced generations across soul, R&B, and pop.
- John C. Reilly (1965) - A rare comic-dramatic chameleon equally at home in indie dramas, musical roles, and broad comedy.
- Michael Chabon (1963) - A Pulitzer-winning novelist known for expansive storytelling that blends literary craft with pop-culture imagination.
- William Whewell (1794) - A Victorian polymath who popularized the term "scientist" and shaped how modern research is described and categorized.
On this day
- 1844 - Samuel Morse sent the first long-distance telegraph message, "What hath God wrought", from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore.
- 1883 - The Brooklyn Bridge opened to traffic, becoming a landmark of engineering and a symbol of New York City.
- 1940 - The first prisoners arrived at Auschwitz, which later became the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp.
- 1962 - NASA astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited Earth in Aurora 7, the second U.S. orbital spaceflight.
- 1993 - Eritrea was admitted to the United Nations after gaining independence, marking a major shift in the Horn of Africa.