Portrait of Charles Joseph Bonaparte

Birthday profile

Charles Joseph Bonaparte

Charles Joseph Bonaparte, American lawyer and politician, 46th United States Attorney General (died 1921)

Born
June 9, 1851
Died
June 28, 1921
Zodiac sign
Gemini
Birth year
1851

About Charles Joseph Bonaparte

Charles Joseph Bonaparte ( BOH-nə-part; June 9, 1851 – June 28, 1921) was an American lawyer and political activist of French descent from the House of Bonaparte who advocated for progressive and liberal causes. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he served in the cabinet of the 26th U.S. president, Theodore Roosevelt. His grandfather was Jérôme Bonaparte, brother of Emperor Napoleon I, and his grandmother was Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte. Bonaparte was the U.S. Secretary of the Navy and later the U.S. Attorney General. During his tenure as Attorney General, he formed the Bureau of Investigation (now the FBI). Bonaparte was one of the founders and for a time the president, of the National Municipal League. He was also an activist for the voting rights of black residents of his native city of Baltimore. == Early life and education == Bonaparte was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 9, 1851, the son of Jérôme ("Bo") Napoleon Bonaparte (1805–1870), and Susan May Williams (1812–1881), from whom the American line of the House of Bonaparte descended, and a grandson of Jérôme Bonaparte, King of Westphalia, the youngest brother of French emperor Napoleon. However, the American Bonapartes never used any titles. Bonaparte graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1871 and lived in Grays Hall during his freshman year.

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

Career and life highlights

Charles Joseph Bonaparte timeline

  1. Bonaparte graduated from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1871 and lived in Grays Hall during his freshman year.
  2. In 1899, Bonaparte was the keynote speaker for the first graduating class of the Roman Catholic women's institution run by the Order of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland (now Notre Dame of Maryland University).
  3. In 1903, he was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame, the oldest and most prestigious award for American Catholics.

The world when Charles Joseph Bonaparte was born

Charles Joseph Bonaparte was born in 1851. 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 1851

  • Best-selling bookMoby-Dick by Herman Melville

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineGreat Exhibition in London — first World's Fair
  • Technology milestoneIsaac Singer patents practical sewing machine
  • World population~1.31B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderMillard Fillmore
  • U.S. population23.8M

1851 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Charles Joseph Bonaparte's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18512026
Population23.8M341 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.