Portrait of Carl Icahn

Birthday profile

Carl Icahn

Carl Icahn, American businessman and investor

Born
February 16, 1936
Age in 2026
90
Zodiac sign
Aquarius
Birth year
1936

About Carl Icahn

Carl Celian Icahn is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. Icahn's business model is to take large stakes in companies that he believes will appreciate from changes to corporate policy; Icahn then pressures management to make the changes that he believes will benefit shareholders, and him. Widely regarded as one of the most successful hedge fund managers of all time and one of the greatest investors on Wall Street, he was one of the first activist shareholders and is credited with making that investment strategy mainstream for hedge funds. In 1978, in his first takeover attempt, he took a controlling stake in Tappan and forced the sale of the company to Electrolux, making a profit of $2.7 million, or doubling his investment. In February 2022 Icahn, who held 200 shares of the company, nominated two people for election to McDonald's board of directors in what may be the first step toward a proxy fight. At that year's Newstead Farm Trust sale run by Fasig-Tipton, he paid $4 million for Larida, a six-year-old mare and a record $7 million for the four-year-old bay mare Miss Oceana who was in foal to champion sire, Northern Dancer. She became pregnant 8 months later and Icahn offered to marry her if she signed a prenuptial agreement.

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

Carl Icahn timeline

  1. In 1978, in his first takeover attempt, he took a controlling stake in Tappan and forced the sale of the company to Electrolux, making a profit of $2.7 million, or doubling his investment.
  2. In February 2022 Icahn, who held 200 shares of the company, nominated two people for election to McDonald's board of directors in what may be the first step toward a proxy fight.

The world when Carl Icahn was born

Carl Icahn was born in 1936. 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 1936

  • #1 song"The Way You Look Tonight" – Fred Astaire
  • Top movieModern Times (Charlie Chaplin)
  • Top TV showBBC Television Service launches
  • Best-selling bookGone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJesse Owens wins 4 gold medals at Berlin Olympics
  • Top headlineJesse Owens dominates the Berlin Olympics
  • Technology milestoneBBC launches the world's first regular television service
  • Defining fadSwing dancing
  • Notable inventionSun glasses (mass-produced)
  • World population2.26 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population128.1M

1936 versus 2026

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

Measure19362026
Gas$0.19$3.45/gal
Average home$5,100$435,000
Average income$2,900$67,500
Minimum wage$0.25$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population128.1M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. 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.