Hendrik Verwoerd

Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, also known as H. F. Verwoerd, was a South African politician, scholar, and newspaper editor who was Prime Minister of South Africa and is commonly regarded as the architect of apartheid and nicknamed the "father of apartheid". Verwoerd played a significant role in socially engineering apartheid, the country's system of institutionalized racial segregation and white supremacy, and implementing its policies, as Minister of Native Affairs (1950–1958) and then as prime minister (1958–1966). Furthermore, Verwoerd played a vital role in helping the far-right National Party come to power in 1948, serving as their political strategist and propagandist, becoming party leader upon his premiership. He was the Union of South Africa's last prime minister, from 1958 to 1961, when he proclaimed the founding of the Republic of South Africa, remaining its prime minister until his assassination in 1966.

8 September 1901

Born on the same birth day (8 September): David O'Halloran • Gojong of Korea • Harry Secombe • Heather Thomas • Howard Dietz • James Packer • Jason Collier • Lachlan Murdoch • Larenz Tate • Lewis Roberts-Thomson • Nick Hundley • Peter Maxwell Davies • Pink (singer)

Born in the same month (September 1901): Adolph Rupp • Charles Brenton Huggins • Donald Bailey (civil engineer) • Enrico Fermi • Florence Eldridge • Francis Chichester • Gordon Coventry • Jaroslav Seifert • Josef Schächter • Lanza del Vasto • Mario Scelba • Nadezhda Alliluyeva • Shmuel Hurwitz • William Lyons • William S. Paley