Ayn Rand

Alice O'Connor, better known by her pen name Ayn Rand, was a Russian-born American author and philosopher. She is known for her fiction and for developing a philosophical system she named Objectivism. Born and educated in Russia, she moved to the United States in 1926. After two early novels that were initially unsuccessful and two Broadway plays, Rand achieved fame with her 1943 novel The Fountainhead. In 1957, she published her best-selling work, the novel Atlas Shrugged. Afterward, until her death in 1982, she turned to non-fiction to promote her philosophy, publishing her own periodicals and releasing several collections of essays.

2 February 1905

Born on the same birth day (2 February): Anthony Haden-Guest • Brad Peacock • Carolina Klüft • Erik ten Hag • Farrah Fawcett • George Band • Jean de Lattre de Tassigny • John of Leiden • Kristo Saage • Wayne Fontes

Born in the same month (February 1905): Arne Beurling • Chick Webb • David Cecil, 6th Marquess of Exeter • Emilio Segrè • Franchot Tone • Harold Arlen • Henrietta Barnett (WRAF officer) • Hylda Baker • Jan Werich • Paul Ariste • Paul Nizan • Perry Miller • Rózsa Péter • Ulf von Euler • Walter A. Brown • Władysław Gomułka