1881 births

Albert_Caquot

Albert Irénée Caquot (1 July 1881 – 28 November 1976) was a French engineer. He received the “Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France)” (military honor) and was Grand-croix of the Légion d’Honneur (1951). In 1962, he was awarded the Wilhelm Exner Medal. He was a member of the French Academy of Sciences from 1934 until his death in 1976.

Gaby_Deslys

Gaby Deslys (born Marie-Elise-Gabrielle Caire, 4 November 1881 – 11 February 1920) was a French singer and actress during the early 20th century. She selected her name for her stage career, and it is a contraction of Gabrielle of the Lillies. During the 1910s she was exceedingly popular worldwide, making $4,000 a week in the United States alone ($125,629 in 2022 dollars ). She performed several times on Broadway, at the Winter Garden Theater, and performed in a show with a young Al Jolson. Her dancing was so popular that The Gaby Glide was named for her.Renowned for her beauty, she was courted by several wealthy gentlemen including King Manuel II of Portugal. She eventually made the leap to silent films, making her only U.S. film Her Triumph with Famous Players–Lasky in 1915. She would make a handful of films in France before her death. In 1919 she contracted Spanish influenza and underwent several operations trying to cure a throat infection caused by the disease. She died from complications of the infection in Paris in 1920, at the age of 38.

Franz_Hellens

Franz Hellens, born Frédéric van Ermengem (8 September 1881, in Brussels – 20 January 1972, in Brussels) was a prolific Belgian novelist, poet and critic. Although of Flemish descent, he wrote entirely in French, and lived in Paris from 1947 to 1971. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature four times.He is known as one of the major figures in Belgian magic realism (fantastique quotidien), and as the indefatigable editor of Signaux de France et de Belgique (later Le Disque vert). The only work translated into English is Mémoires d'Elseneur ("Memoirs from Elsinore", 1954).
His father, Émile van Ermengem, was the bacteriologist who discovered the cause of botulism. His younger brother was the writer François Maret (Frans van Ermengem).

Jules_Védrines

Jules Charles Toussaint Védrines (29 December 1881 – 21 April 1919) was an early French aviator, notable for being the first pilot to fly at more than 100 mph and for winning the Gordon Bennett Trophy race in 1912.

Jan_Sluyters

Johannes Carolus Bernardus (Jan) Sluijters, or Sluyters (17 December 1881 in 's-Hertogenbosch – 8 May 1957 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch painter and co-founder of the Moderne Kunstkring.
Sluijters (in English often spelled "Sluyters") was a leading pioneer of various post-impressionist movements in the Netherlands. He experimented with several styles, including fauvism and cubism, finally settling on a colorful expressionism. His paintings feature nude studies, portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Friedrich_Dessauer

Friedrich Dessauer (19 July 1881 – 16 February 1963) was a German physicist, a philosopher, a socially engaged entrepreneur and a journalist.
Friedrich Dessauer was born in Aschaffenburg, German Empire. As a young man he was fascinated by new discoveries in the natural sciences. He was particularly interested in the X-rays discovered by Röntgen and their medical applications. After attending the humanistic Gymnasium in Aschaffenburg, he studied electrical engineering and physics at the Technische Universität Darmstadt and the University of Munich. Due to radiation damage during his research on the use of X-rays, his face was badly damaged and he was repeatedly treated with plastic surgery. In connection with this, he was released from military service. Due to the death of his father, he initially interrupted his studies, continued in 1914 at the Goethe University Frankfurt and then completed it in 1917. From 1924 to 1933 he was a Zentrum party member of the Reichstag, the German Parliament.A practicing Catholic with a Jewish grandparent, he was imprisoned by the Nazis when they came to power for his opposition to Hitler. He was released at request of the Turkish government, who invited him to the University of Istanbul, where he was made chair of the Institute. Here he worked together with Erich Uhlmann to develop medical applications of X-rays in Turkey. He moved to Fribourg University in 1937 to become the chair of experimental physics.On 16 February 1963 Dessauer died from radioactive contamination. His name was added to the Monument to the X-ray and Radium Martyrs of All Nations in Hamburg, Germany.