Portrait of James Stockdale

Birthday profile

James Stockdale

James Stockdale, American admiral and pilot, Medal of Honor recipient (died 2005)

Born
December 23, 1923
Died
July 5, 2005
Zodiac sign
Capricorn
Birth year
1923

About James Stockdale

James Bond Stockdale (December 23, 1923 – July 5, 2005) was a U.S. Navy vice admiral, aviator, and Stoic philosopher who received the Medal of Honor in 1976 for his leadership as a POW for more than seven years during the Vietnam War. Stockdale was the most senior naval officer held captive in Hanoi, North Vietnam. He led aerial attacks from the carrier USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) during the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin incident. On his next deployment, while commander of Carrier Air Wing Sixteen aboard the carrier USS Oriskany (CV-34), his A-4 Skyhawk jet was shot down in North Vietnam on September 9, 1965. He served as president of the Naval War College from October 1977 until he retired from the navy in 1979. As vice admiral, James Bond Stockdale was the president of The Citadel from 1979 to 1980. Stockdale was a candidate for vice president of the United States in the 1992 presidential election, on Ross Perot's independent ticket.

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

The world when James Stockdale was born

James Stockdale 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 James Stockdale's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19232026
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
Population111.9M341 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.