A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam BR was an Indian aerospace scientist and statesman who served as the 11th president of India from 2002 to 2007. Born and raised in a Muslim family in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, he studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts. He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.

15 October 1931

Born on the same birth date (15 October 1931): Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark

Born on the same birth day (15 October): Alicia Patterson • Bill Charlap • Dominique Jones • Jean Peters • Joey Abs • Mickey Baker • Nicky Barnes • Penny Marshall • Richaun Holmes • Sali Berisha

Born in the same month (October 1931): Anatoly Pristavkin • Ann Rule • Annie Girardot • Atsushi Miyagi • Dan Rather • Ed Emberley • Eddie Mathews • Harold Battiste • Jim Bunning • Jim Parks (cricketer, born 1931) • José Alencar • Ken Utsui • P. W. Underwood • Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark • Riccardo Giacconi • Rosa Rosal • Suhailah Noah • Sylvano Bussotti • William P. Clark Jr.