Portrait of Martti Ahtisaari

Birthday profile

Martti Ahtisaari

Martti Ahtisaari, Finnish captain and politician, 10th President of Finland, Nobel Prize laureate (died 2023)

Born
June 23, 1937
Died
October 16, 2023
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1937

About Martti Ahtisaari

Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (23 June 1937 – 16 October 2023) was a Finnish politician and diplomat who was the president of Finland from 1994 to 2000. He was Finland's Ambassador to Tanzania from 1973 to 1977 and United Nations Commissioner for Namibia from 1977 to 1981. Noted for his international peace work, he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008. Ahtisaari was a United Nations special envoy for Kosovo, charged with organizing the Kosovo status process negotiations. These negotiations aimed to resolve a long-running dispute in Kosovo, which later declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. In October 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts". The Nobel statement said that Ahtisaari had played a prominent role in resolving serious and long-lasting conflicts, including ones in Namibia, Aceh (Indonesia), Kosovo and Serbia, and Iraq. == Youth and early career == Martti Ahtisaari was born in Viipuri, Finland (now Vyborg, Russia) on 23 June 1937. His father, Oiva Ahtisaari, whose grandfather Julius Marenius Adolfsen had emigrated with his parents to Kotka, Finland in 1872 from Tistedalen in Southern Norway, took Finnish citizenship in 1929 and Finnicized his surname from Adolfsen in 1935. Oiva was working as a NCO in the supply troops in Viipuri when Martti was born.

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

Career and life highlights

Martti Ahtisaari timeline

  1. Ahtisaari began his diplomatic career in 1973 when he became Finland's Ambassador to Tanzania, Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique, an office he held until 1977.
  2. Ahtisaari led in the polls against Sorsa, who was already a popular and experienced politician and won the primaries on 16 May 1993 with 61% of the votes.
  3. In October 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts".

The world when Martti Ahtisaari was born

Martti Ahtisaari was born in 1937. 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 1937

  • #1 song"A-Tisket, A-Tasket" – Ella Fitzgerald
  • Top movieSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs
  • Best-selling bookOf Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentJoe Louis becomes heavyweight champion
  • Top headlineHindenburg zeppelin explodes in New Jersey
  • Technology milestoneGolden Gate Bridge opens in San Francisco
  • Defining fadSwing music
  • Notable inventionShopping cart
  • World population2.30 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin D. Roosevelt
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • U.S. population128.8M

1937 versus 2026

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

Measure19372026
Gas$0.20$3.45/gal
Average home$5,200$435,000
Average income$3,000$67,500
Minimum wage$0.25$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.25$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population128.8M341 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.