Birthday profile

Helene Hanff

Helene Hanff, American author and screenwriter (died 1997)

Born
April 15, 1916
Died
April 9, 1997
Zodiac sign
Aries
Birth year
1916

About Helene Hanff

Helene Hanff was an American writer born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is best known as the author of the book 84, Charing Cross Road, which became the basis for a stage play, television play, and film of the same name. Her family could not fund an expensive education, but Hanff won a scholarship to attend Temple University. The epistolary work 84, Charing Cross Road was first published in 1970. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still-standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.

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

Helene Hanff timeline

  1. The epistolary work 84, Charing Cross Road was first published in 1970.
  2. Hanff did finally visit Charing Cross Road and the empty but still-standing shop in the summer of 1971, a trip recorded in her 1973 book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.

The world when Helene Hanff was born

Helene Hanff was born in 1916. 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 1916

  • Best-selling book"Seventeen" – Booth Tarkington

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentGeorgia Tech defeats Cumberland 222-0, most lopsided football game ever
  • Top headlineBattle of the Somme — 1 million casualties
  • Technology milestoneTanks first used in warfare
  • Notable inventionMilitary tanks
  • World population~1.76B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWoodrow Wilson
  • U.S. population99.6M

1916 versus 2026

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

Measure19162026
Population99.6M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, IMDb, 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.