Basil Hall Chamberlain

Basil Hall Chamberlain was a British academic and Japanologist. He was a professor of the Japanese language at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during the late 19th century. He also wrote some of the earliest translations of haiku into English. He is perhaps best remembered for his informal and popular one-volume encyclopedia Things Japanese, which first appeared in 1890 and which he revised several times thereafter. His interests were diverse, and his works include an anthology of poetry in French.

18 October 1850

Born on the same birth day (18 October): Arliss Howard • D. T. Suzuki • Isabel Briggs Myers • Jerry Royster • Jesse Helms • Kjell Samuelsson • Laura Nyro • Max Gerson • Pascal Wehrlein

Born in the same month (October 1850): Annie Smith Peck • Charles Kingston • Grigore Tocilescu • Henry Louis Le Chatelier • Hermann von Ihering • Sergey Muromtsev