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Birthday profile

Ben Lexcen

Ben Lexcen, Australian sailor and architect (died 1988)

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Born
March 19, 1936
Died
May 1, 1988
Zodiac sign
Pisces
Birth year
1936

About Ben Lexcen

Benjamin Lexcen AM was an Australian yachtsman and marine architect. He is famous for the winged keel design applied to Australia II which, in 1983, became the first non-American challenger to win the prestigious America's Cup in the competition's 132-year history. Miller won the competition in 1961 with his next entry, the Venom. With friend Craig Whitworth, he founded a boat building, sailmaking, and ship chandlery firm, Miller and Whitworth, and designed boats part time.

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

Ben Lexcen timeline

  1. Miller won the competition in 1961 with his next entry, the Venom.
  2. He is famous for the winged keel design applied to Australia II which, in 1983, became the first non-American challenger to win the prestigious America's Cup in the competition's 132-year history.

The world when Ben Lexcen was born

Ben Lexcen 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 Ben Lexcen'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, 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.