Portrait of Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine

Birthday profile

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (died 1953)

Born
July 11, 1866
Died
November 11, 1953
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1866

About Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine (Irène Luise Marie Anne; 11 July 1866 – 11 November 1953), later Princess Henry of Prussia, was the third child and third daughter of Princess Alice of the United Kingdom and Louis IV, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine. Her maternal grandparents were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Her paternal grandparents were Prince Charles of Hesse and by Rhine and Princess Elisabeth of Prussia. She was the wife of Prince Henry of Prussia, a younger brother of Wilhelm II, German Emperor and her first cousin. The SS Prinzessin Irene, a liner of the North German Lloyd was named after her. Her siblings included Princess Victoria of Hesse and by Rhine, wife of Prince Louis of Battenberg, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna of Russia, wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia, Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, and Empress Alexandra Feodorovna of Russia, wife of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. Like her younger sister, the empress, Irene was a carrier of the hemophilia gene, and Irene would lose her sisters Alix and Elisabeth in Russia to the Bolsheviks. == Early life == She received her first name, which was taken from the Greek word for "peace", because she was born at the end of the Austro-Prussian War. She was nicknamed "Nin" by her family. Queen Victoria considered Irene an unattractive child and once wrote to her daughter Victoria that Irene was "not pretty".

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

The world when Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine was born

Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine was born in 1866. 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 1866

  • Best-selling bookCrime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineReconstruction era begins in the South
  • Technology milestoneTransatlantic telegraph cable successfully laid
  • World population~1.46B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderAndrew Johnson
  • U.S. population34.0M

1866 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Princess Irene of Hesse and by Rhine's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18662026
Population34.0M341 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.

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