Birthday profile

Tim Bowden

Tim Bowden, Australian historian and television presenter (died 2024)

Born
August 2, 1937
Died
September 1, 2024
Zodiac sign
Leo
Birth year
1937

About Tim Bowden

Timothy Gibson Bowden (2 August 1937 – 1 September 2024) was an Australian author, radio and television broadcaster and producer, and oral historian. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, and studied at the University of Tasmania, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Bowden's work included hosting the Australian Broadcasting Corporation program Backchat (1986–1994), producing This Day Tonight during the 1970s, and founding the ABC's Social History Unit. His other productions include Prisoners of War – Australians Under Nippon and the 24-part series Taim Bilong Masta – The Australian Involvement with Papua New Guinea. Tim Bowden has also authored numerous books and oral histories, including the well-known The Changi Camera documenting Australian prisoners-of-war under Japanese captivity. Tim Bowden was a war correspondent during the Vietnam War, which included embedded journalism with military units on patrol. He was the only Western journalists who was embedded with South Vietnamese military units in the war. During the 1990s he produced several notable documentaries on Australian research in the Antarctic. Tim Bowden had conducted nearly 120 oral history reports, which are documented and publicly available on the Australian War Memorial website. Bowden died on 1 September 2024, at the age of 87. Changi Photographer: George Aspinall's Record of Captivity. The Changi Camera: A Unique Record of Changi and the Thai-Burma Railway.

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

The world when Tim Bowden was born

Tim Bowden 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 Tim Bowden'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, National Library of Australia Trove, Yale LUX, 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.