1879 births

Yoshihito (Japanese: 嘉仁, 31 August 1879 – 25 December 1926), posthumously honored as Emperor Taishō (大正天皇, Taishō-tennō), was the 123rd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 1912 until his death in 1926. The era he presided over is known as the Taishō era.
Born to Emperor Meiji and his concubine Yanagiwara Naruko, Yoshihito was proclaimed crown prince in 1888, his two older siblings having died in infancy. In 1900, he married Kujō Sadako, a member of the Kujō family of the Fujiwara clan. The couple had four children: Hirohito, Yasuhito, Nobuhito and Takahito. Upon the death of his father in 1912, Yoshihito ascended the Chrysanthemum Throne. Suffering from neurological issues for the better part of his life, he played only a limited role in politics and from 1919 on undertook no official duties. His reign was characterized by a liberal and democratic shift in political power known as Taishō Democracy. It also saw Japan's entrance in the First World War and the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923.
Yoshihito's declining health led to the appointment of Crown Prince Hirohito as prince regent in 1921. He spent the rest of his life as a recluse. In 1926, Yoshihito died of a heart attack at the age of 47 following a bout of pneumonia. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Hirohito, as Emperor of Japan.

Max Theodor Felix von Laue (German: [maks fɔn ˈlaʊ̯ə] ; 9 October 1879 – 24 April 1960) was a German physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals.In addition to his scientific endeavors with contributions in optics, crystallography, quantum theory, superconductivity, and the theory of relativity, Laue had a number of administrative positions which advanced and guided German scientific research and development during four decades. A strong objector to Nazism, he was instrumental in re-establishing and organizing German science after World War II.

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen, Erbsälzer zu Werl und Neuwerk (German: [ˈfʁants fɔn ˈpaːpn̩] ; 29 October 1879 – 2 May 1969) was a German conservative politician, reactionary, diplomat, Prussian nobleman and General Staff officer. He served as the chancellor of Germany in 1932, and then as the vice-chancellor under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1934.
Born into a wealthy family of Westphalian Catholic aristocrats, Papen served in the Prussian Army from 1898 onward and was trained as a German General Staff officer. He served as military attaché in Mexico and the United States from 1913 to 1915, while also covertly organising acts of sabotage in the United States and quietly backing and financing Mexican forces in the Mexican Revolution on behalf of German military intelligence.
After being expelled as persona non grata by the United States State Department in 1915, he served as a battalion commander on the Western Front of World War I and finished his war service in the Middle Eastern theatre as a lieutenant colonel.
Asked to become chancellor of the Weimar Republic by President Paul von Hindenburg in 1932, Papen ruled by presidential decree. He launched the Preußenschlag coup against the Social Democratic Party-led Government in the Free State of Prussia. His failure to secure a base of support in the Reichstag led to his removal by Hindenburg and replacement by General Kurt von Schleicher.
Determined to return to power, Papen, believing that Adolf Hitler could be controlled once he was in the government, pressured Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor and Papen as vice-chancellor in 1933 in a cabinet ostensibly not under Nazi Party domination. Seeing military dictatorship as the only alternative to a Nazi Party chancellor, Hindenburg consented. Papen and his allies were quickly marginalized by Hitler and he left the government after the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, during which the Nazis killed some of his allies and confidants. Subsequently, Papen served the German Foreign Office as the ambassador in Vienna from 1934 to 1938 and in Ankara from 1939 to 1944. He joined the Nazi Party in 1938.After the Second World War, Papen was indicted for Nazi war crimes in the Nuremberg trials before the International Military Tribunal but was acquitted of all charges. In 1947, a West German denazification court found Papen to have acted as the main culprit in crimes relating to the Nazi government. Papen was given a sentence of eight years' imprisonment at hard labour, but was released on appeal in 1949. Franz von Papen's memoirs were published in 1952 and 1953; he died in 1969.

Corneille Lentz (20 July 1879 – 10 March 1937) was a Luxembourgian painter. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.

Vladimir Aïtoff (August 5, 1879 in Paris – Septempber 6, 1963 in Paris) was a French rugby union player who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics. Aïtoff was a member of the French rugby union team, which won the gold medal. During World War I, Aïtoff was a doctor in the French Army, with him being awarded with the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d'honneur. In World War II, he was imprisoned in both the Buchenwald and Auschwitz concentration camps.

Henri Alexis Tauzin (17 April 1879 in Paris – 11 October 1918 in Lyon) was a French athlete who competed in the early twentieth century. He specialized in the 400 metres hurdles and won a silver medal in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, his birthplace.Tauzin also competed in the 200 metre hurdles, finishing fourth in his semifinal heat to not advance to the final.
An administrative officer in the army, Tauzin was killed in action during World War I.

Émile Adolphe Eugène Champion (August 7, 1879 in Laval, Mayenne – 4 August 1934 in Bordeaux) was a French track and field athlete, born in Paris, who competed in the early 20th century. He was a long-distance runner but specialized in the marathon and won a silver medal in Athletics at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Gustaf Adolf Britsch (11 August 1879 – 27 October 1923) was an early 20th-century German art theorist and the founder of Gustaf Britsch Institute in Starnberg, Germany.

Agnes Miegel (9 March 1879 – 26 October 1964) was a German author, journalist and poet. She is best known for her poems and short stories about East Prussia, but also for the support she gave to the Nazi Party.

Helene Bresslau Schweitzer (25 January 1879 – 1 June 1957) was a German medical missionary, nurse, social worker, linguist, public medicine enthusiast, editor, feminist, sociologist, and the wife/confidant of Albert Schweitzer, who co-founded the Albert Schweitzer Hospital with her. Albert, a medical missionary, did not mention her role in his efforts. According to writer Mary Kingsley, she is "one form of human being whose praise has never adequately been sung, namely, the missionary's wife."