Famous People Born In 1713

Junípero Serra was a Roman Catholic priest who is credited with founding the Franciscan Missions of the Sierra Gorda. He is also credited with founding nine of the 21 Spanish missions in California. On 25 September 1988, Junípero Serra was beatified in the Vatican City by Pope John Paul II. On 23 September 2015, he was canonized by Pope Francis.

Denis Diderot revolutionized the Age of Enlightenment as the co-founder of Encyclopédie, which was banned for questioning religion. He had flirted with the idea of joining the theater and becoming a priest, and even studied law, but later devoted himself to languages, literature, and philosophy.

Born to a math teacher, French mathematician and physicist Alexis Clairaut had mastered calculus at 10. He is best remembered for devising the Clairaut’s equation and for validating the scientific claims of Sir Isaac Newton. He was part of an expedition to Lapland to ascertain a degree of the meridian arc.

British naturalist and biologist John Needham was also a Roman Catholic priest who became the first Catholic clergyman to be named a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. He supported the theories of spontaneous generation and vitalism. He also served the Imperial Academy in Brussels as its director.

Nicolas Louis de Lacaille was a French astronomer and geodesist. He is credited to have named 14 out of the 88 constellations. He studied rhetoric, theology, and philosophy and became an abbot. He later found employment as a professor of mathematics in the Mazarin college and was made a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 

Jacques-Germain Soufflot was a French architect credited with introducing neoclassicism to the world. Soufflot designed several important edifices, including the Panthéon in Paris which was originally built as a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve. Such was his popularity that by 1755 Jacques-Germain Soufflot had gained architectural control of all of Paris' royal buildings.

Italian philosopher, political economist, and priest Antonio Genovesi initially taught metaphysics. However, his humanistic ideas and treatises were deemed heretical, which is why his Elements of Universal Christian Theology could only be published posthumously. He was one of the first to use Italian instead of Latin in his courses.

Yechezkel Landau was a Polish religious leader and an influential authority in halakha. He is best remembered for his work Noda Biyhudah, which serves as a major source of halakha or Jewish law from his time. A highly respected figure, Yechezkel Landau also had a say in political affairs, particularly when the government introduced anti-Semitic measures.