Portrait of Margaret Brown

Birthday profile

Margaret Brown

Margaret Brown, American philanthropist and activist (died 1932)

Born
July 18, 1867
Died
October 26, 1932
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1867

About Margaret Brown

Margaret Brown (née Tobin; July 18, 1867 – October 26, 1932), posthumously known as the "Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an American socialite and philanthropist. She was a survivor of the RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912, and she unsuccessfully urged the crew in Lifeboat No. 6 to return to the debris field to look for survivors. During her lifetime, her friends called her "Maggie", but by her death, obituaries referred to her as the "Unsinkable Mrs. Brown". Gene Fowler referred to her as "Molly Brown" in his 1933 book Timber Line. The following year, she was referred to as the "Unsinkable Mrs. Brown" and "Molly Brown" in newspapers. The 1960 Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown with music and lyrics by Meredith Willson and book by Richard Morris is a fictionalized account of the life of Brown. The musical was subsequently made into the 1964 film of the same name starring Debbie Reynolds. Brown has been portrayed on television and in film by Thelma Ritter, Cloris Leachman, Marilu Henner and Kathy Bates. Brown had two half-sisters: Catherine Bridget Tobin, by her father's first marriage, and Mary Ann Collins, by her mother's first marriage. Brown co-founded a branch in Denver of the Alliance Française to promote her love of French culture. His employer, Ibex Mining Company, awarded him 12,500 shares of stock and a seat on the board. Margaret became a charter member of the Denver Woman's Club, whose mission was the improvement of women's lives by continuing education and philanthropy.

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

The world when Margaret Brown was born

Margaret Brown was born in 1867. 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.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineUS purchases Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million
  • Technology milestoneDynamite patented by Alfred Nobel
  • Notable inventionDynamite
  • World population~1.47B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderAndrew Johnson
  • U.S. population34.5M

1867 versus 2026

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

Measure18672026
Population34.5M341 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.