Born On Your Day
William Henry Perkin
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

entrepreneurinventorscientist

William Henry Perkin

Entrepreneur · born March 12, 1838 · died 1907

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About

Sir William Henry Perkin was an English chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first commercial synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Milestones, by age

Dated facts from Wikidata; ages marked “about” come from year-only dates.

  1. ~28Received the Fellow of the Royal Society1866
  2. ~41Received the Royal Medal1879
  3. ~51Received the Davy Medal1889
  4. ~68Named Knight Bachelor1906

Sources

Every fact on this page traces to one of these.

Sources (2)

Also born on March 12

William's most notable birthday twins

billionaire

Stephen Mandel

American hedge fund manager

1956 · United States

$2.8Bolder estimate, as of November 2020 · Forbes

Stephen Frank Mandel Jr. is an American hedge fund manager, investor, and philanthropist. He founded Lone Pine Capital in 1997, after working as the managing director at Tiger Management. According to Forbes, Mandel has an estimated net worth of US$3.9 billion as of August 2022.

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Sources (3)
Ron Jeremy
entrepreneur

Ron Jeremy

Entrepreneur

1953 · United States

Ronald Jeremy Hyatt is an American former pornographic actor and actor.

Toglenn, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources (2)
Mitt Romney
founder

Mitt Romney

Entrepreneur · Bain Capital · finance

1947 · United States

Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and retired politician who served as a United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.

United States Congress, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Leo Esaki
scientist

Leo Esaki

Scientist

1925 · Japan

Leo Esaki is a Japanese physicist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physics with Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson for his work on tunneling in semiconductors, which led to his invention of the tunnel diode that exploits this phenomenon.

日本学士院, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Christina Grimmie
actor

Christina Grimmie

Actor

1994–2016 · United States

Christina Victoria Grimmie was an American singer, songwriter, and internet personality. In 2009, she began posting covers of popular songs on YouTube. After releasing her debut EP, Find Me (2011), her YouTube channel reached one million subscribers.

Justin Higuchi, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources (2)