Famous People Born In 1736

A significant figure of the American Revolution, Patrick Henry was the first governor of post-colonial Virginia. A skilled orator, he is remembered for his iconic words “Give me liberty or give me death!” He excelled as a lawyer and gained fame with his win in the Parson's Cause.

Joseph Louis Lagrange was an Italian mathematician and astronomer who made significant contributions to the fields of number theory, analysis, and both classical and celestial mechanics. He served as the director of mathematics at the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin for over 20 years. He later moved to France and became a member of the French Academy of Sciences. 

French physicist Charles Augustin De Coulomb, remembered for laying down the Coulomb’s law, had previously been a military engineer in the West Indies. At the onset of the French Revolution, Coulomb, struggling with failing health, devoted himself to research. The unit of electric charge, coulomb, was named after him.

Claude Nicolas Ledoux was a French architect, known for developing an eclectic architectural style, linked with budding pre-Revolutionary social ideals. First noticed for his imaginative woodwork at Café militaire, he was soon flooded with commissions, designing numerous private houses in the neoclassical style for the French elite, also receiving commission for designing public buildings including the Ledoux’s Theatre of Besançon.

Ann Lee is remembered as the founder of the Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, also known as the Shakers, for their ritual of shaking during worshipping. Born to a blacksmith in England, she initially worked at a textile mill and later ushered her movement into the U.S.

Russian artist Fyodor Rokotov is best remembered for his Rococo-inspired chamber portraits. Born into serfdom, he surprised everyone with his classy art that didn’t show any sign of his humble beginnings. He also served as a court painter for Peter III and often painted portraits of Catherine II.

A major figure of the French Revolution, Jean Sylvain Bailly is remembered for leading the Tennis Court Oath. He also made a name for himself as an astronomer and studied the Halley’s Comet and the satellites of Jupiter extensively. As a mayor of Paris, he later defended Marie-Antoinette and was guillotined.

German-Austrian Franz Xaver Messerschmidt was a court sculptor in Vienna but was later forced to move to Pressburg, now Bratislava, where he worked on a series of over 60 heads, made of either tin alloy or alabaster. The heads have peculiar expressions, but their meaning hasn’t yet been unearthed.

Swiss artist Anton Graff is remembered for his state portraits of various Saxon rulers. A self-portrait that he sent to Dresden earned him the positions of the court painter of Saxony and the portrait painting teacher at the Dresden Art Academy. He was a major figure of the Neoclassical movement in art.