January 12 is the birthday of 81 notable people we've found so far, including authors, historical figures, entrepreneurs and musicians, and 4 of them are billionaires.
With 16 founders and entrepreneurs, this birthday is among the top 7% of all dates for entrepreneurial representation.
The people we list for this date were born across 1369 years, from 626 to 1995.
Authors are the most common group among people born on January 12: 25 of 81.
People born on this day come from 36 countries, most often United States (20 of 78).
Jeff Bezos is the wealthiest person we list for January 12, with an estimated $205B reported as of August 2020.
Founders born on January 12 started companies including Amazon, S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia and Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG.
With 4 billionaires, this date has well above the average of 2.3 per birthday.
Jeff Bezos accounts for more than half of the documented wealth among people born on this day.
January 12 birthdays span at least four well-represented fields, including billionaires, entrepreneurs, founders and scientists.
48% of the people we list for this date are historical figures who are no longer living.
Together, the 4 people with sourced estimates born on January 12 hold a reported $213B, the #5 total among all 366 birthdays.
3 Nobel laureates were born on January 12, including Eugenio Montale and Paul Hermann Müller.
3 of them had founded a company, won a major award or taken a top job before turning 30.
💰 Richest person born on January 12
Seattle City Council from Seattle, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Jeffrey Preston Bezos is an American businessman, and the founder, executive chairman, and former president and CEO of Amazon, the world's largest e-commerce and cloud computing company.
Amos Barr Hostetter Jr. is an American businessman, who was the founder, chairman, and CEO of Continental Cablevision. With an estimated current net worth of around $3.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 538th richest person in the world as of 2020.
Harald Link is a Thai-German businessman, industrialist, and philanthropist. He is the chairman, CEO, and owner of B.Grimm of Bangkok, Thailand. As of 2020, his net worth is estimated to be US$3.3 billion.
Industries of the companies the 4 wealthy people born on January 12 founded or led.
aerospace100% (1 people)
retail100% (1 people)
Who shares January 12
What kind of people are born on January 12?
Share of the 81 people we list, by documented field. People can belong to more than one.
Authors31% (25 people)
Entrepreneurs20% (16 people)
Musicians17% (14 people)
Actors16% (13 people)
Athletes15% (12 people)
Creators15% (12 people)
Politicians14% (11 people)
Countries
36 countries, most often United States
Citizenship as recorded on Wikidata, one country per person.
United States20 (20 people)
United Kingdom7 (7 people)
Italy4 (4 people)
Soviet Union4 (4 people)
Japan3 (3 people)
Belgium2 (2 people)
Canada2 (2 people)
Life timeline
What were people born on January 12 doing at your age?
Dated milestones from Wikidata (company foundings, awards, top jobs, notable works), placed at the age each person reached them. Add your birth year above to see the ones you have passed.
Kirstie Louise Alley was an American actress. Her breakthrough role was as Rebecca Howe in the NBC sitcom Cheers (1987–1993), for which she received an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe in 1991.
Kirstie Alley 1994.jpg: Photo by Alan Light derivative work: Bad Randolph (talk), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Swami Vivekananda, born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna.
Thomas Harrison, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Haruki Murakami is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been best-sellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan.
Ministerio Cultura y Patrimonio from Quito, Ecuador, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy. He formally retired in 2007, but remains active as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva.
Heather Anne Mills is an English former model, businesswoman and animal rights activist. She came to public attention in 1993 when she was a model and was run over by a police motorcycle in London.
C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Founder · S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia
1907–1966 · Soviet Union
Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was a Soviet rocket engineer and spacecraft designer who led the development of the Soviet space program during the early years of the Space Race.
Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Howard Allan Stern is an American broadcaster, comedian, and media personality. He is best known for The Howard Stern Show, which rose to prominence through national syndication on terrestrial radio from 1986 to 2005; he has broadcast on SiriusXM since 2006.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is an Indian politician who is serving as the member of the Lok Sabha for Wayanad, Kerala, since November 2024. A member of the Indian National Congress, she is also serving as a general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC).
The Times of India, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Per Håkan Gessle is a Swedish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the male half and primary songwriter of the pop rock duo Roxette, which he formed with Marie Fredriksson in 1986 and which was disbanded after her death in 2019.
Melanie Jayne Chisholm, commonly known as Melanie C or Mel C, is an English singer and songwriter. She rose to fame in the mid-1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Sporty Spice.
Naya Marie Rivera was an American actress, singer, and model recognized for her work on the popular musical comedy-drama series Glee. She began her career as a child actress and model, first appearing in national television commercials.
Hispanic Lifestyle, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Gemma Christina Arterton is an English actress. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature-film debut in the comedy St Trinian's (2007).
John Griffith London, better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.
published by L C Page and Company Boston 1903, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Husayn ibn Ali was the second son of Ali and Fatima, a younger brother of Hasan and a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is the third Imam in Shia Islam, succeeding his brother Hasan and preceding his son Ali al-Sajjad.
Oliver Platt is an American actor known for his work on stage and screen. He has been nominated for five Primetime Emmys, a Golden Globe Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and one Tony Award.
Bridget Laudien, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha is an American musician, rapper, singer, songwriter, and political activist. He is best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Rage Against the Machine.
Joseph William Frazier was an American professional boxer who competed from 1965 to 1981. Nicknamed "Smokin’ Joe”, he was known for his strength, durability, formidable left hand, and relentless pressure fighting style.
Bill Apter or David Lee Waite, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Christiane Maria Heideh Amanpour is a British-Iranian journalist and television host. Amanpour is the Chief International Anchor for CNN and host of CNN International's nightly interview program Amanpour, CNN's The Amanpour Hour on Saturdays and Amanpour & Company on PBS.
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of The Rush Limbaugh Show, which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM radio stations from 1988 until his death in 2021.
The White House from Washington, DC, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Edmund Burke was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, and politician who is widely credited as the founder of the cultural and political philosophy of conservatism.
Joshua Reynolds, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was the creator of Transcendental Meditation (TM) and leader of the worldwide organization that has been characterized in multiple ways, including as a new religious movement and as non-religious. He became known as Maharishi and Yogi as an adult.
Vernon Barnes PhD Dr Jean Fortunet, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Jacques Dominique Wilkins is an American former professional basketball player who primarily played for the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Emre Can is a German professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder or centre-back for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, which he captains, and the Germany national team.
Sandro Halank, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. Her debut studio album, Turn It Up (2009), reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and sold over 1.5 million copies.
Christopher William Adach from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Charles Perrault was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his 1697 book Histoires ou contes du temps passé.
Charles Le Brun, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Phil Spencer is an American business executive and the former CEO of Microsoft Gaming from 2022 to 2026. Starting his career at Microsoft as an intern in 1988, Spencer has worked in various sectors within the company, including developing Microsoft's first CD-ROM-based titles.
Robert Prosinečki is a professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Born in West Germany, he represented Yugoslavia and later Croatia at international level.
Fudbalski Savez Crne Gore - pictures for public use under CC 3.0 license, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre was a Scottish-American philosopher who contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology.
Peter Langkjær Madsen is a Danish convicted murderer and former entrepreneur. In April 2018, he was convicted of the August 2017 murder of Swedish journalist Kim Wall on board his submarine, UC3 Nautilus in Køge Bay, and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Marie Catherine Colvin was an American journalist who worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her death.
Emmanuel Levinas was a French philosopher of Lithuanian Jewish ancestry who is known for his work within Jewish philosophy, existentialism, and phenomenology, focusing on the relationship of ethics to metaphysics and ontology.
Ottmar Hitzfeld is a German former professional football player and a former manager. He accumulated a total of 25 major titles, mostly in his tenures with Grasshoppers, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich.
Mohammed ben Abdelkrim El Khattabi, better known as Abd el-Krim, was a Moroccan revolutionary, religious, political and military leader and the president of the Republic of the Rif.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov was a Soviet physicist who played a central role directing Laboratory No. 2, the research institute of the Soviet nuclear weapons program. He has been called the "father of the Russian atomic bomb".
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
This page lists 81 people born on January 12, every one traced to a Wikidata record and, where shown, a Wikipedia summary (CC BY-SA) and a licensed Wikimedia Commons photo. 4 of them carry a dated net-worth estimate citing Forbes or Bloomberg; combined wealth is the sum of the low end of those estimates, the newest as of 2025. Rankings compare all 366 dates in the dataset built on 2026-09-28. Milestone ages come from dated Wikidata statements; a tilde marks year-only dates. Nothing on this page is a prediction about anyone born on January 12. Read the full methodology.
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