American author and playwright (died 2005)

August Wilson

August Wilson was an American playwright. He has been referred to as the "theater's poet of Black America". He is best known for a series of 10 plays, collectively called The Pittsburgh Cycle , which chronicle the experiences and heritage of the African-American community in the 20th century. Plays in the series include Fences (1987) and The Piano Lesson (1990), each of which won Wilson the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1988).

Born

1945

April 27

Died

2005

Era

1940s

Country

—

About

August, in brief

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Life timeline

Key dates

1945 Born
2005 Died

Also on April 27

What else happened on this day, through history

247 Philip the Arab marks the millennium of Rome with a celebration of the ludi saeculares.
395 Emperor Arcadius marries Aelia Eudoxia, daughter of the Frankish general Flavius Bauto. She becomes one of the more powerful Roman empresses of Late Antiquity.
711 Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus).
1296 First War of Scottish Independence: John Balliol's Scottish army is defeated by an English army commanded by John de Warenne, 6th Earl of Surrey at the Battle of Dunbar.

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The world in 1945

When August arrived

april 1 World War II: The Tenth United States Army attacks the Thirty-Second Japanese Army on Okinawa.
april 11 World War II: American forces liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
april 12 U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in office; Vice President Harry S. Truman succeeds him.
april 12 World War II: The U.S. Ninth Army under General William H. Simpson crosses the Elbe River astride Magdeburg, and reaches Tangermünde—only 80 kilometres from Berlin.

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Same-day contemporaries

Also born on April 27

Arielle Dombasle 1953– French-American actress and model Fethullah Gülen 1941–2024 Turkish preacher and theologian (died 2024) Frank Abagnale Jr. 1948– American security consultant and criminal Frank Catalanotto 1974– American baseball player Irving Adler 1913–2012 American mathematician, author, and academic (died 2012) Kate Pierson 1948– American singer-songwriter and bass player Lim Bo Seng 1909– Chinese businessman, resistance fighter of Force 136 and war hero of Singapore (died 1944) Mumtaz Mahal 1593–1631 Mughal empress buried at the Taj Mahal (died 1631) Pik Botha 1932– South African lawyer, politician, and diplomat, 8th South African Ambassador to the United States (died 2018)

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Same-year contemporaries

Also born in 1945

Adly Mansour 1945– Egyptian lawyer, judge, and politician, President of Egypt André Lacroix 1945– Canadian-American ice hockey player and coach Bernard Goldberg 1945– American journalist and author Bill Bergey 1945–2024 American football player (born 1945) Bob Seger 1945– American singer-songwriter and guitarist Brenda Fricker 1945– Irish actress Brian Doyle-Murray 1945– American actor and comedian Colin Blunstone 1945– English singer-songwriter Daniel Ortega 1945– Nicaraguan politician, President of Nicaragua

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Keep going

More to explore

August's birthday April 27 August's zodiac Taurus When August arrived 1945