Martin Rees

Martin Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, English cosmologist and astrophysicist

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Born: June 23, 1942
Age in 2026: 84
Zodiac sign: Cancer
Birth year: 1942

About Martin Rees

Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow, is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He was the fifteenth Astronomer Royal from 1995 to 2025, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 2004 to 2012, and President of the Royal Society from 2005 to 2010. He has received various physics awards including the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2024 for fundamental contributions to high-energy astrophysics, galaxies and structure formation, and cosmology. There, his parents founded Bedstone College, a boarding school based on progressive educational concepts. He co-founded the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Future of Life Institute.

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

The world when Martin Rees was born

Martin Rees was born in 1942. 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 1942

#1 song"White Christmas" – Bing Crosby
Top movieCasablanca
Best-selling bookThe Song of Bernadette – Franz Werfel

Headlines and milestones

Major sports momentFirst Negro League World Series
Top headlineBattle of Midway becomes turning point of WWII in the Pacific
Technology milestoneEnrico Fermi achieves first nuclear chain reaction
Defining fadRationing and war bonds
Notable inventionNapalm
World population2.35 billion

United States snapshot

U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
Sports championSt. Louis Cardinals (World Series)
U.S. population134.9M

1942 versus 2026

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

Measure	1942	2026
Gas	$0.20	$3.45/gal
Average home	$5,600	$435,000
Average income	$3,800	$67,500
Minimum wage	$0.30	$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket	$0.27	$11.95
Postage stamp	$0.03	$0.73
Population	134.9M	341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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