Birthday profile

Marie Colvin

American war correspondent (1956–2012)

Born
January 12, 1956
Died
February 22, 2012
Zodiac sign
Capricorn
Birth year
1956

About Marie Colvin

Marie Catherine Colvin (January 12, 1956 – February 22, 2012) was an American journalist who worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times from 1985 until her death. She was one of the most prominent war correspondents of her generation, widely recognized for her extensive coverage on the frontlines of various conflicts across the globe. On February 22, 2012, while she was covering the siege of Homs alongside the French photojournalist Rémi Ochlik; the pair were killed in a targeted attack by Syrian government forces. After her death, Stony Brook University established the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting in her honor. Her family also established the Marie Colvin Memorial Fund through the Long Island Community Foundation, which strives to give donations in Marie's name in honor of her humanitarianism. In July 2016, lawyers representing Colvin's family filed a civil action against the Syrian Arab Republic in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, claiming they had obtained proof that the Syrian government had directly ordered her assassination. In a verdict issued in 2019, the Columbia District Court found the Assad regime guilty of "extrajudicial killing", terming it as an "unconscionable crime" deliberately committed by the government, and mandated Syria to pay Colvin's family $302 million in compensation for the damages. In 2025, the French government issued arrest warrants for Bashar al-Assad and other high ranking Ba’athist Syrian officials. During her time at Yale, Colvin was known for her strong personality and quickly established herself as a "noise-maker" on campus. For Gaddafi's first international interview since the start of the war, Colvin took along Christiane Amanpour of ABC News and Jeremy Bowen of BBC News.

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

The world when Marie Colvin was born

Marie Colvin was born in 1956. 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 1956

  • #1 song"Heartbreak Hotel" – Elvis Presley
  • Top movieAround the World in 80 Days
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookPeyton Place – Grace Metalious

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentDon Larsen pitches a perfect game in the World Series
  • Top headlineElvis Presley takes America by storm
  • Technology milestoneFirst transatlantic telephone cable (TAT-1)
  • Defining fadElvis Presley mania
  • Notable inventionHard disk drive (IBM)
  • World population2.82 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonPhiladelphia Warriors (NBA)
  • U.S. population168.1M

1956 versus 2026

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

Measure19562026
Gas$0.30$3.45/gal
Average home$11,700$435,000
Average income$6,500$67,500
Minimum wage$1.00$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population168.1M341 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.