Donald Swann

Donald Swann, Welsh-English pianist and composer (died 1994)

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Born: September 30, 1923
Died: March 23, 1994
Zodiac sign: Libra
Birth year: 1923

About Donald Swann

Donald Ibrahim Swann was a British composer, musician, singer and entertainer. He was one half of Flanders and Swann, writing and performing comic songs with Michael Flanders. In 1941 Swann was awarded an exhibition to Christ Church, Oxford, to read modern languages. In the later years of his life he 'discovered' Victorian poetry and composed some of his most profound and moving songs, settings of William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti, Oscar Wilde and others.

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

The world when Donald Swann was born

Donald Swann was born in 1923. 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 1923

#1 song"Yes! We Have No Bananas"
Top movieThe Ten Commandments (Cecil B. DeMille)
Best-selling bookBlack Oxen – Gertrude Atherton

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentFirst 24 Hours of Le Mans race
Top headlineTime magazine publishes its first issue
Technology milestoneFirst neon signs appear in the United States
Defining fadDance marathons
Notable inventionFrozen food process (Clarence Birdseye)
World population1.93 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderWarren G. Harding / Calvin Coolidge
Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
U.S. population111.9M

1923 versus 2026

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

Measure	1923	2026
Gas	$0.22	$3.45/gal
Average home	$5,700	$435,000
Average income	$3,380	$67,500
Movie ticket	$0.15	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.02	$0.73
Population	111.9M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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