Portrait of Jonathan Schell

Birthday profile

Jonathan Schell

Jonathan Schell, American journalist and author (died 2014)

Born
August 21, 1943
Died
March 25, 2014
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1943

About Jonathan Schell

Jonathan Edward Schell (August 21, 1943 – March 25, 2014) was an American reporter and writer whose work primarily dealt with American foreign policy from the Vietnam War to the war on terror, as well as the threat posed by nuclear weapons and support for nuclear disarmament. == Biography == === Early life and education === Schell was born in New York City on August 21, 1943, to Orville Hickock Schell Jr., a lawyer who chaired Americas Watch, and Marjorie Bertha. His siblings included a sister, Suzanne, and a brother, Orville Schell, a former Dean of the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and, since 2006, the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.–China Relations at Asia Society in New York. He studied at Dalton School in New York and graduated from The Putney School in Vermont. In 1965 he graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Far Eastern history. He then spent a year learning Japanese at the International Christian University in Tokyo. === Early career: Vietnam, The New Yorker === After completing his studies in Tokyo, Schell flew to Saigon in January 1967, as American involvement in the Vietnam War continued to escalate. He managed to acquire a press pass by claiming to be a correspondent for The Harvard Crimson, and would later recount how the correspondents reporting on the war "took [him] under their wing". He was a witness to Operation Cedar Falls, writing particularly on the destruction of Bến Súc. His reportage was published first in The New Yorker and then as a book, The Village of Ben Suc, with Alfred A. Knopf.

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

Career and life highlights

The world when Jonathan Schell was born

Jonathan Schell was born in 1943. 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 1943

  • #1 song"As Time Goes By" – Dooley Wilson
  • Top movieFor Whom the Bell Tolls
  • Best-selling bookThe Robe – Lloyd C. Douglas

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentAll-American Girls Professional Baseball League founded
  • Top headlineAllies invade Italy
  • Technology milestoneLSD accidentally discovered by Albert Hofmann
  • Defining fadZoot suits
  • Notable inventionSlinky
  • World population2.38 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population136.7M

1943 versus 2026

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

Measure19432026
Gas$0.21$3.45/gal
Average home$5,700$435,000
Average income$4,100$67,500
Minimum wage$0.30$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.27$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population136.7M341 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, 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.