Birthday profile

Marcel Berlins

Marcel Berlins, French-English lawyer, journalist, and academic (died 2019)

Born
October 30, 1941
Died
July 31, 2019
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1941

About Marcel Berlins

Marcel Berlins (30 October 1941 – 31 July 2019) was a French lawyer, writer and broadcaster. He was best known for his work in the United Kingdom, writing for British national newspapers The Times and The Guardian, presenting BBC Radio 4's legal programme Law in Action for 16 years, and teaching Media Law at City, University of London. == Biography == Berlins was born in Marseille, France, on 30 October 1941, the only child of Jacques Berlins and his wife, Pearl. Of Latvian-Jewish heritage, they had moved to France to open a hotel. When the country was occupied by the Nazis in 1940, Jacques became active in the Resistance; the family moved to a village near Luberon. In 1951, the family moved to South Africa. There Berlins learnt English, reputedly in part through reading the works of Agatha Christie. He remained a French citizen, however, and voted in the 2007 French presidential election. Berlins studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand and spent his early career in the courts in Johannesburg. The worsening political situation in South Africa saw Berlins move firstly to Paris, and then to London to avoid French military service.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Marcel Berlins was born

Marcel Berlins was born in 1941. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1941

  • #1 song"Chattanooga Choo Choo" – Glenn Miller
  • Top movieCitizen Kane
  • Best-selling bookThe Keys of the Kingdom – A.J. Cronin

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJoe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak
  • Top headlineJapan bombs Pearl Harbor — United States enters World War II
  • Technology milestoneFirst commercial television broadcasts (CBS, NBC)
  • Defining fadVictory gardens
  • Notable inventionAerosol spray can
  • World population2.30 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population133.4M

1941 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Marcel Berlins's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19412026
Gas$0.19$3.45/gal
Average home$5,500$435,000
Average income$3,400$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population133.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.