Whittaker Chambers

Whittaker Chambers was an American writer and intelligence agent. After early years as a Communist Party member (1925) and Soviet spy (1932–1938), he defected from the Soviet underground (1938), worked for Time magazine (1939–1948), and then testified about the Ware Group in what became the Hiss case for perjury (1949–1950), often referred to as the trial of the century, all described in his 1952 memoir Witness. Afterwards, he worked as a senior editor at National Review (1957–1959). US President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1984.

1 April 1901

Born on the same birth day (1 April): Abbé Prévost • Ajit Wadekar • Alberto Zaccheroni • Annette O'Toole • Augusta Braxton Baker • Christian Vietoris • Darren McCarty • Deng Linlin • Don Hasselbeck • Gábor Király • Helmuth Duckadam • Mark White (British musician) • Oliver Turvey • Pieter Hellendaal • Sammy Nelson • Samuel R. Delany • Simon Bolivar Buckner • William Blomfield

Born in the same month (April 1901): Ajoy Mukherjee • Al Lewis (lyricist) • Alan Watt (diplomat) • Curt Bois • Doggie Julian • H. B. Stallard • Jacques Lacan • Jean Bruchési • Joe Davis • Melvyn Douglas • Simon Kuznets