Jascha Heifetz

Jascha Heifetz was a Jewish-Russian-American violinist, widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Born in Vilnius, he was soon recognized as a child prodigy and was trained in the Russian classical violin style in St. Petersburg. Accompanying his parents to escape the violence of the Russian Revolution, he moved to the United States as a teenager, where his Carnegie Hall debut was rapturously received. Fritz Kreisler, another leading violinist of the twentieth century, said after hearing Heifetz's debut, "We might as well take our fiddles and break them across our knees."

2 February 1901

Born on the same birth day (2 February): Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord • François de Chevert • Gerard Piqué • Gregory Mertens • Mao Miyaji • Mary Ellis (pilot) • Osamu Kido • Rich Sommer • Robert Chef d'Hôtel • Robert Philipp • Rudi Wulf • Teddy Hart • Than Shwe • Ursula Oppens • William Rose Benét

Born in the same month (February 1901): Arnold Nordmeyer • Ben Lyon • Chester Morris • Clark Gable • James Murray (American actor) • Linus Pauling • Louis Kahn • Marino Marini (sculptor) • Mohamed Naguib • Paul Lazarsfeld • R. S. Ramakrishna Ranga Rao • René Dubos • Stella Adler • Wayne King • Yoshikazu Okada • Zeppo Marx