1926 births

Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during her lifetime and was the monarch of 15 realms at her death. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days is the longest of any British monarch, the second-longest of any sovereign state, and the longest of any queen regnant in history.

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution. She was a top-billed actress for a decade, and her films grossed $200 million by her death in 1962.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as prime minister from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 2008. Ideologically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he also served as the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1965 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state; industry and business were nationalized, and socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.

French philosopher (1926–1984)

French official and politician (1926–2020)

Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)

American novelist (1926–2016)

former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (1926–2022)

American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer (1926–1991)

American musician (1926–2017)

American poet and writer (1926–1997)

Argentine-Spanish association football player (1926–2014)

Sir David Frederick Attenborough is an English broadcaster, natural historian and writer. His presenting career began as host of Zoo Quest in 1954, and has spanned eight decades; it includes the nine documentary series forming The Life Collection, Natural World, Wildlife on One, the Planet Earth franchise, The Blue Planet and Blue Planet II. He is the only person to have won BAFTA Awards in black-and-white, colour, high-definition, 3D and 4K resolution. Over his life, he has collected dozens of honorary degrees and awards, including three Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator and one Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Personality - Non-Daily.

theoretical physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics recipient

American comedian, actor and film director (1926–2017)

American businessman and magazine publisher (1926–2017)

Melvin James Brooks is an American actor, filmmaker, comedian, songwriter, and playwright. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. A recipient of numerous accolades, he is one of 28 entertainers to win the EGOT, which includes an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2010, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2013, a British Film Institute Fellowship in 2015, a National Medal of Arts in 2016, a BAFTA Fellowship in 2017, and an Honorary Academy Award in 2024.

American physicist and neurobiologist (1926–2013)

Polish film director (1926–2016)

Chinese-American physicist (1926–2024)

European-Canadian/American businessman, entrepreneur, actor, producer and comedian (1926–2010)

Japanese physicist and astronomer (1926-2020)

Swedish business magnate (1926-2018)

American stand-up comedian (1926–2017)

American jazz saxophonist (1926–1967)

American stage and film actress (1926-2010)

Tunisian politician Tunisian of Italian origin

Indian spiritual guru (1926–2011)

Danish nuclear physicist (1926–2022)

American biochemist, Professor emeritus at Stanford University & Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1926–2023)

6th President of Lithuania (born 1926)

American singer (1926–2023)

American economist and financial advisor (born 1926)

British chemist and biophysicist

English novelist (1926–2005)

Vietnamese Buddhist monk and activist (1926–2022)

German actor (1926–1991)

Joseph Stalin's daughter (1926–2011)

French comic book artist and author (1926-1977)

American fiction writer (1926–2013)

Australian racing driver (1926–2014)

American actress and comedian (1926–2021)

3rd President of Senegal

Austrian poet and author (1926–1973)

American economist (1926–1995)

Egyptian Islamic theologian based in Doha, Qatar (1926-2022)

Polish-American endocrinologist (1926–2024)

Austrian philosopher and theologian (1926–2002)

military, dictator and de facto president of Argentina from 1981 until 1982

American astronaut (1926–1967)

English record producer (1926–2016)

German author (1926-2014)

Greek politician, former president of the Hellenic Republic

American science fiction writer (1926–2001)

American philosopher

Swiss-American psychiatrist and pioneer in near-death studies (1926-2004)

American film director, producer, and actor (1926–2024)

American actor (1926–2017)

Uruguayan footballer (1926-2015)

Japanese association football player (1926-2002)