Portrait of Bert Haanstra

Birthday profile

Bert Haanstra

Bert Haanstra, Dutch director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1997)

Born
May 31, 1916
Died
October 23, 1997
Zodiac sign
Gemini
Birth year
1916

About Bert Haanstra

Albert Haanstra was a Dutch director of films and documentaries. His documentary Glass (1958) won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. His feature film Fanfare (1958) was the most visited Dutch film at the time, and has since only been surpassed by Turkish Delight (1973). During his later employment as a press photographer, Haanstra experimented in staged photography, where he would create his first film, Catfish. Haanstra himself, after realizing teaching didn't interest him, became a painter himself and started experimenting with photography. Through his fascination, Haanstra became friends with a local cinema owner who eventually would let him see movies for free from the projection room, where Haanstra's desire to dabble in cinema would grow.

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

The world when Bert Haanstra was born

Bert Haanstra 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 Bert Haanstra'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.