Portrait of Frederick Kempe

Birthday profile

Frederick Kempe

Frederick Kempe, American journalist and author

Born
September 5, 1954
Age in 2026
72
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1954

About Frederick Kempe

Frederick Kempe (born 1954) is president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council, a foreign policy think tank and public policy group based in Washington, D.C. He is a journalist, author, columnist and a regular commentator on television and radio both in Europe and the United States. His book BERLIN 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth (Putnam) was released May 10, 2011, and was a New York Times bestseller. == Biography == Born in Utah, Kempe is the son of German immigrants who came to the United States before World War II. He is a graduate of the University of Utah and earned his master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he was a member of the International Fellows program in the School of International Affairs. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and daughter. == Career == Kempe spent nearly thirty years with the Wall Street Journal, where he covered the rise of Solidarity in Poland, the ascent and fall of Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia, the wars in Afghanistan and Lebanon, the American invasion of Panama, the reunification of Germany and the collapse of Soviet Communism. He joined the Wall Street Journal in 1981 in London before opening the paper's Vienna bureau in 1984 and its Berlin bureau in 1990. He won national and international prizes while serving in numerous management and reportorial capacities—editor, associate publisher, columnist and correspondent. He was most recently assistant managing editor, International, and "Thinking Global" columnist. He was previously for seven years the longest serving editor and associate publisher ever of the Wall Street Journal Europe and was European editor for the global Wall Street Journal from 2002 to 2005, also overseeing Middle Eastern reporting. As managing editor from 1992–1997, he created the Central European Economic Review and co-founded Convergence, a magazine on Europe's digital economy.

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

Career and life highlights

Frederick Kempe timeline

  1. His book BERLIN 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth (Putnam) was released May 10, 2011, and was a New York Times bestseller.
  2. As managing editor from 1992–1997, he created the Central European Economic Review and co-founded Convergence, a magazine on Europe's digital economy.
  3. In 2007, Kempe became president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council.

The world when Frederick Kempe was born

Frederick Kempe was born in 1954. 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 1954

  • #1 song"Sh-Boom" – The Crew-Cuts
  • Top movieOn the Waterfront
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookLord of the Flies – William Golding

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentRoger Bannister breaks the 4-minute mile
  • Top headlineSupreme Court rules school segregation unconstitutional
  • Technology milestoneFirst nuclear power plant begins operation (USSR)
  • Defining fadRock and roll emerges
  • Notable inventionNonstick pan (Tefal)
  • World population2.72 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championNew York Giants (World Series)
  • Also wonMinneapolis Lakers (NBA)
  • U.S. population162.0M

1954 versus 2026

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

Measure19542026
Gas$0.29$3.45/gal
Average home$10,250$435,000
Average income$5,800$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.49$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population162.0M341 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. 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.