10 famous people born on the Fourth of July

As we celebrate the Independence Day holiday, it’s time to look at some famous birthdays of people born on the same date as the United States.

Of course, there are some people who believe that July 2^nd is the real birth date of the United States, since that is the day that the Continental Congress voted to break free from British rule.

But it took two more days for the wording of the Declaration of Independence to be approved and printed, so July 4^th became more accepted as the date to mark Independence Day.

So here’s a list of 10 famous Fourth of July birthdays, with two presidential connections.

1. Malia Obama. The current First Daughter was born on July 4, 1998 in Chicago.

2. Calvin Coolidge. The only president born on the Fourth of July, Coolidge was the 30^th president and he was born in 1872 in Vermont.

3. Gloria Stuart. The Titanic actress was born on July 4, 1910 in Santa Monica, California.  She passed away at the age of 100 in 2010, but not before she received an Oscar nomination at the age of 87.

4. Nathaniel Hawthorne. The famous author was born in 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, and the author of The Scarlett Letter had an ancestor who was a judge at the Salem witch trials.

5. Geraldo Rivera. Born on July 4, 1943 in Brooklyn, Rivera was a lawyer before he was a TV commentator (and host of the famous TV special about Al Capone’s vault).

6. Stephen Foster. The famous songwriter was born in 1826 in Pittsburgh and died when he was just 37 years old.

7. Stephen Mather. An industrialist with an interest in conservation, Mather helped lead a drive to create the National Park Service in 1916. He was the service’s first director and is credited with establishing a professional civic service organization.

8. George Murphy. The one-time actor made a splash in politics when, like his friend Ronald Reagan, he ran for office and became a U.S. senator from California.

9. George Steinbrenner. The late New York Yankees owner was born on July 4 1930 in Ohio.

10. Ron Kovic. The disabled Vietnam Vet really was “Born on the Fourth of July,” which was the title of his autobiography and the Oliver Stone movie from 1989.

One note: the family of legendary entertainer George M. Cohan claimed that just like in his song, “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” the stage star was born on July 4^th. He was actually born on July 3, 1878.