Born into a middle-class family in Etterbeek, Brussels, he took a keen interest in Scouting in early life, something that would prove highly influential on his later work.

Born into a wealthy middle-class family in Trier ( formerly in Prussian Rhineland, now called Rhineland-Palatinate ), Marx studied at both the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians.

Born to a lower middle-class Muslim family in the Gamaleyya quarter of Cairo, Mahfouz was named after Professor Naguib Pasha Mahfouz ( 1882 – 1974 ), the renowned Coptic physician who delivered him.

Born into a middle-class family in Poitiers, Foucault was educated at the Lycée Henri-IV and then the École Normale Supérieure, where he developed a keen interest in philosophy and came under the influence of his tutors Jean Hyppolite and Louis Althusser.

Born in Sydney, New South Wales into a middle-class family of English descent, Childe studied at the University of Sydney before moving to England where he studied at the University of Oxford.

Born near Alexanderplatz in Berlin to a middle-class Jewish family as Bruno Schlesinger, he began his musical education at the Stern Conservatory at the age of eight, making his first public appearance as a pianist when he was nine.

Born into a middle-class family, Coke was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge before leaving to study at the Inner Temple, where he was called to the Bar on 20 April 1578.

Born into a middle-class Jewish family, Einhorn studied at the University of Pennsylvania.

Born to a middle-class family-and initially known to friends and classmates as " Steve Belew "-Adrian Belew played drums in his teen years ( playing with the Ludlow High School marching band ) and later with the high-school covers band The Denems.

Born in Bochum in Westphalia, of middle-class parents, his original name was Heinrich Johann Friedrich Ostermann.

Born into a middle-class family in London, Blackstone was educated at Charterhouse School before matriculating at Pembroke College, Oxford in 1738.

Born in Portage, Wisconsin, the son of Andrew Jackson Turner and Mary Olivia Hanford Turner, Turner grew up in a middle-class family.

Born to a middle-class family in Shangan Township ( 尚幹鄉 ), Minhou County ( 閩侯縣 ), Fujian, Lin was educated by American missionaries.

Born at La Rochelle, he belonged to a wealthy middle-class Huguenot family ; the name des Réaux was derived from a small property he purchased in 1650.

Born Vladimir Jabotinsky in Odessa, Russian Empire, he was raised in a Jewish middle-class home and educated in Russian schools.

Born into a wealthy, middle-class family, he was educated by the Jesuits at Crescent College and later at Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare.

Born to a middle-class family in Santa Monica, California, Anger would later claim to have been a child actor who appeared in the film A Midsummer Night's Dream ( 1935 ); the accuracy of this claim has come under dispute.

Born in an Iranian middle-class family, he grew up in Tehran and at the age of 14 he started acting in amateur theater groups.

Born in Matsumoto, Nagano into an upper middle-class family of seedling merchants, Kusama started creating art at an early age, going on to study Nihonga painting in Kyoto in 1948.

Born in 1768 in the fictional Provençal town Plassans to middle-class parents ( members of the French " bourgeoisie "), she has a slight mental deficiency.

Born in Vienna to a middle-class Jewish family, the daughter of Dr. Maximilian ( died 1891 ) and Emelie Richter ( d. 1889 ), sister of Helene Richter who wrote on and translated English literature and drama, she studied Philosophy at the University of Vienna and received a Doctorate in 1901.

Born into a middle-class family in Damascus, Syria, Aflaq studied at the Sorbonne, where he met his future political companion Salah al-Din al-Bitar.

Born in Genoa to a middle-class family, Togliatti began his political life in the Italian Socialist Party prior to the First World War.

* 1857 July: Born into a middle-class peasant family in Ibaynah in the Nile delta.

Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Dwan moved with his family to the United States when he was 11 years old.

Born in Sainte-Foy-lès-Lyon, Rhône, Carrel was raised in a devout Catholic family and was educated by Jesuits, though he no longer practiced his religion when he entered the university.

Born into an old, wealthy equestrian branch of the Plebeian Octavii family, Augustus was adopted posthumously by his maternal great-uncle Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 BC following Caesar's assassination.

Born to a wealthy family in Paris, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier inherited a large fortune at the age of five with the passing of his mother.

Born from a noble family of the province of Soule, his father Michel was born in Arrast-Larrebieu and his mother was Irish.

Born in Riga in Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire, the Jewish German-speaking Nimzowitsch came from a wealthy family, where he learned chess from his father, who was a merchant.

Born into a privileged Unitarian family, Potter, along with her younger brother, Walter Bertram ( 1872 – 1918 ), grew up with few friends outside her large extended family.

Born to a family of low status in the Roman province of Dalmatia, Diocletian rose through the ranks of the military to become cavalry commander to the Emperor Carus.

Born into a working-class family, from an early age Ortega developed a hatred of the ruling President Anastasio Somoza Debayle, who was widely recognized as a dictator, and became involved in the underground movement to oppose Somoza's regime.

Born into a family of relatively low status, his parents sent him to be educated by the monks of Fulda-one of the most impressive centres of learning in the Frank lands-perhaps due to his small stature ( Einhard referred to himself as a " tiny manlet ") which restricted his riding and sword-fighting ability, Einhard concentrated his energies towards scholarship and especially to the mastering of Latin.

Born into a family of tradesmen, the Imam's family were of Persian origin.

Born into a very wealthy landowning family in the north of Mexico, he was the proto-type of the respectable upper-class politician ; a background which supplied the centre around which opposition to the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz could coalesce.

Born in Innsbruck, he was the son of Duke Ernest the Iron of the Leopoldinian line of the Habsburg family, the ruler of Inner Austria, i. e. the duchies of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, and of Ernest's wife Cymburgis of Masovia.

Born into an upper-middle-class family in Blundellsands, Lancashire, Gardner spent much of his childhood abroad in Madeira.

Born in Berlin, Germany to Jewish parents, he escaped Nazi Germany in January 1936, emigrating with his family to the United States.

Born into a large family in Dudley, England, Whale early discovered his artistic talent and studied art.

Born Georg Henri Anton Ivens into a wealthy family, Ivens went to work in one of his father's photo supply shops and from there developed an interest in film.

Born in Burslem, Staffordshire, England, the twelfth and last child of Thomas Wedgwood and Margret Wedgwood ( née Stringer ; d. 1766 ), Josiah was raised within a family of English Dissenters.

Born in Southampton into a seafaring family, Jellicoe joined the Royal Navy as a cadet in 1872 and was posted to HMS Britannia.

Born in Berlin, Germany, on 22 June 1910, he moved with his family in 1912 to Braunsberg, East Prussia, where his father was a postal clerk.