Portrait of René Lacoste

Birthday profile

René Lacoste

René Lacoste, French tennis player and businessman, created the polo shirt (died 1996)

Born
July 2, 1904
Died
October 12, 1996
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1904

About René Lacoste

Jean René Lacoste (French pronunciation: [ʁəne lakɔst]; 2 July 1904 – 12 October 1996) was a French tennis player and businessman. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" because of how he dealt with his opponents; he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929, and eventually founded the brand and its logo in 1933. Lacoste was one of the Four Musketeers with Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, and Henri Cochet, French players who dominated tennis in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He won seven Grand Slam singles titles at the French, American, and British championships and was an eminent baseline player and tactician of the pre-war period. As a member of the French team, Lacoste won the Davis Cup in 1927 and 1928. Lacoste was ranked the World No. 1 player in some rankings for 1926, 1927 and 1929. He also won a bronze medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics.

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

René Lacoste timeline

  1. He also won a bronze medal at the 1924 Summer Olympics.
  2. As a member of the French team, Lacoste won the Davis Cup in 1927 and 1928.
  3. He was nicknamed "the Crocodile" because of how he dealt with his opponents; he is also known worldwide as the creator of the Lacoste tennis shirt, which he introduced in 1929, and eventually founded the brand and its logo in 1933.

The world when René Lacoste was born

René Lacoste was born in 1904. 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 1904

  • Best-selling book"The Crossing" – Winston Churchill

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Olympic Games in the Americas (St. Louis)
  • Top headlineRusso-Japanese War begins
  • Technology milestoneNew York subway opens
  • World population~1.64B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderTheodore Roosevelt
  • U.S. population81.8M

1904 versus 2026

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

Measure19042026
Population81.8M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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