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Stephen Foster

Stephen Foster, American songwriter and composer (died 1864)

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Born
July 4, 1826
Died
January 13, 1864
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1826

About Stephen Foster

Stephen Collins Foster, known as "the father of American music", was an American composer known primarily for his parlour and folk music during the Romantic period. Foster wrote more than 200 songs, including "Oh! Susanna", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer". Many of his compositions remain popular today. The first song Foster had published was "Open thy Lattice Love" (1844). In 1957, Ray Charles released a version of "Old Folks at Home" that was titled "Swanee River Rock (Talkin’ ’Bout That River)", which became his first pop hit that November. Foster became sick with a fever in January 1864.

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

Stephen Foster timeline

  1. The first song Foster had published was "Open thy Lattice Love" (1844).
  2. Foster became sick with a fever in January 1864.
  3. In 1957, Ray Charles released a version of "Old Folks at Home" that was titled "Swanee River Rock (Talkin’ ’Bout That River)", which became his first pop hit that November.

The world when Stephen Foster was born

Stephen Foster was born in 1826. 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.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineJohn Adams and Thomas Jefferson both die on July 4
  • Technology milestoneFirst photograph (heliograph) by Nicéphore Niépce
  • World population~1.06B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderJohn Quincy Adams
  • U.S. population11.3M

1826 versus 2026

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

Measure18262026
Population11.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

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