Gustav III of Sweden Birthday, Date of Birth
Gustav III (24 January [O.S. 13 January] 1746 – 29 March 1792), also called Gustavus III, was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden.
Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw as the abuse of political privileges seized by the nobility since the death of King Charles XII in the Great Northern War. Seizing power from the government in a coup d'état, called the Swedish Revolution, in 1772, that ended the Age of Liberty, he initiated a campaign to restore a measure of royal autocracy. This was completed by the Union and Security Act of 1789, which swept away most of the powers exercised by the Swedish Riksdag of the Estates during the Age of Liberty, but at the same time it opened up the government for all citizens, thereby breaking the privileges of the nobility.
A believer in enlightened absolutism, Gustav spent considerable public funds on cultural ventures, which were controversial among his critics, as well as military attempts to seize Norway with Russian aid, then a series of attempts to re-capture the Swedish Baltic dominions lost during the Great Northern War through the failed war with Russia. Nonetheless, his successful leadership in the Battle of Svensksund averted a complete military defeat and signified that Swedish military might was to be countenanced after its major defeats earlier in the century.
An admirer of Voltaire, Gustav legalised Catholic and Jewish presence in Sweden, and enacted wide-ranging reforms aimed at economic liberalism, social reform and the restriction, in many cases, of torture and capital punishment. The much-praised Freedom of the Press Act of 1766 was severely curtailed, however, by amendments in 1774 and 1792, effectively extinguishing independent media. Following the uprising against the French monarchy in 1789, Gustav pursued an alliance of princes aimed at crushing the insurrection and re-instating his French counterpart, King Louis XVI, offering Swedish military assistance as well as his leadership. In 1792 he was mortally wounded by a gunshot in the lower back during a masquerade ball as part of an aristocratic-parliamentary coup attempt, but managed to assume command and quell the uprising before succumbing to sepsis 13 days later, a period during which he received apologies from many of his political enemies. Gustav's immense powers were placed in the hands of a regency under his brother Prince Carl and Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm until his son and successor Gustav IV Adolf reached adulthood in 1796. The Gustavian autocracy thus survived until 1809, when his son was ousted in another coup d'état, which definitively established parliament as the dominant political power; this has lasted until the modern day, where the Riksdag is Sweden's supreme legislature.
A patron of the arts and benefactor of arts and literature, Gustav founded the Swedish Academy, created a national costume and had the Royal Swedish Opera and Royal Dramatic Theatre built. In 1772 he founded the Royal Order of Vasa to acknowledge and reward those Swedes who had contributed to advances in the fields of agriculture, mining and commerce. He was also a patron of many cultural figures, including Alexander Roslin and Carl Michael Bellman, and is often considered one of the most important figures in the history of Swedish art, music and architecture. Gustav III was well liked by the Swedish population and was mourned upon his death.
In 1777, Gustav III was the first formally neutral head of state in the world to recognise the United States during its war for independence from Great Britain. Swedish military forces were engaged by the thousands on the side of the colonists, largely through the French expedition force. Through the acquisition of Saint Barthélemy in 1784, Gustav enabled the restoration, if symbolic, of Swedish overseas colonies in America, as well as great personal profits from the transatlantic slave trade.
Read more...- Birthday, Date of Birth
- Monday, January 24, 1746
- Place of Birth
- Die Hofkirchengemeinde Schwedens
- Age
- 279
- Star Sign
- ♒
The January 24, 1746 was a Monday under the star sign of ♒. It was the 23 day of the year. President of the United States was N/A.
If you were born on this day, you are 279 years old. Your last birthday was on the Friday, January 24, 2025, 258 days ago. Your next birthday is on Saturday, January 24, 2026, in 106 days. You have lived for 102,161 days, or about 2,451,882 hours, or about 147,112,929 minutes, or about 8,826,775,740 seconds.
Some people who share this birthday:
- Sharon Tate (actor, model, born January 24, 1943)
- Luis Suárez (association football player, born January 24, 1987)
- John Belushi (comedian, film actor, musician, screenwriter, television actor, voice actor, writer, born January 24, 1949)
- Frederick II of Prussia (art collector, warlord, born January 24, 1712)
- Patrik Schick (association football player, born January 24, 1996)
- Matthew Lillard (actor, film actor, film director, film producer, stage actor, television actor, voice actor, born January 24, 1970)
- Moon Jae-in (lawyer, politician, born January 24, 1953)
- Neil Diamond (actor, guitarist, musician, pianist, recording artist, singer, singer-songwriter, born January 24, 1941)
- Nastassja Kinski (film actor, model, voice actor, born January 24, 1961)
- Ed Helms (actor, banjoist, character actor, comedian, film actor, screenwriter, television actor, voice actor, born January 24, 1974)
- Chad Hurley (businessperson, entrepreneur, born January 24, 1977)
- Daveed Diggs (actor, rapper, stage actor, television actor, born January 24, 1982)
- John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer (aide-de-camp, equerry, politician, born January 24, 1924)
- Ernest Borgnine (actor, character actor, film actor, military officer, stage actor, television actor, voice actor, born January 24, 1917)
- Carrie Coon (film actor, stage actor, television actor, born January 24, 1981)
- Mischa Barton (actor, child actor, film actor, model, stage actor, television actor, born January 24, 1986)
- Kristen Schaal (comedian, film actor, film producer, screenwriter, television actor, voice actor, born January 24, 1978)
- Tatyana Ali (actor, film actor, model, singer, television actor, born January 24, 1979)
- Michelle Hunziker (actor, model, presenter, singer, soubrette, stage actor, television presenter, born January 24, 1977)
- Yōko Nogiwa (actor, announcer, narrator, presenter, seiyū, singer, born January 24, 1936)
- Rick Salomon (film actor, film director, film producer, poker player, born January 24, 1968)
- Frankie Grande (actor, reality television participant, born January 24, 1983)
- Justin Baldoni (actor, association football player, director, disc jockey, executive producer, film actor, film director, film producer, model, television actor, born January 24, 1984)
- Sean McVay (American football coach, American football player, coach, born January 24, 1986)
- Daniel Auteuil (actor, film actor, film director, stage actor, television actor, theatrical director, born January 24, 1950)
- E. T. A. Hoffmann (caricaturist, children's writer, composer, conductor, critic, diarist, director, drawer, judge, music critic, novelist, painter, science fiction writer, screenwriter, writer, born January 24, 1776)
- Walter Model (military officer, born January 24, 1891)
- Michio Kaku (futurist, non-fiction writer, physicist, radio personality, science communicator, science writer, theoretical physicist, university teacher, born January 24, 1947)
- Oral Roberts (televangelist, born January 24, 1918)
- J. Howard Marshall (association football player, entrepreneur, lawyer, born January 24, 1905)
- Vasily Surikov (painter, born January 24, 1848)
- Warren Zevon (guitarist, pianist, recording artist, singer, singer-songwriter, songwriter, born January 24, 1947)
- Raymond Domenech (association football manager, association football player, radio personality, born January 24, 1952)
- Kenya Moore Daly (beauty pageant contestant, film actor, film producer, model, television actor, born January 24, 1971)
- Ekaterina Klimova (actor, singer, born January 24, 1978)
- Farinelli (actor, opera singer, singer, stage actor, theatrical director, viola d'amore player, born January 24, 1705)
- Henry Morgan (flibuster, pirate, slave trader, born January 24, 1635)
- Gustav III of Sweden (politician, born January 24, 1746)
- Mark Eaton (basketball player, born January 24, 1957)
- Stevin Smith (basketball player, born January 24, 1972)
- Edith Wharton (novelist, poet, prosaist, translator, writer, born January 24, 1862)
- Ade Edmondson (comedian, film actor, film director, screenwriter, television actor, born January 24, 1957)
- Sudirman (military personnel, born January 24, 1916)
- Mary Lou Retton (artistic gymnast, born January 24, 1968)
- Phil LaMarr (comedian, dancer, film actor, film director, film producer, improviser, screenwriter, singer, stand-up comedian, television actor, television director, television producer, voice actor, born January 24, 1967)
- Beth Hart (composer, guitarist, musician, painter, recording artist, singer, singer-songwriter, born January 24, 1972)
- Akira Maeda (mixed martial arts fighter, professional wrestler, born January 24, 1959)
- Joachim Gauck (journalist, non-fiction writer, pastor, politician, university teacher, born January 24, 1940)
- Zhan Beleniuk (amateur wrestler, athlete, politician, born January 24, 1991)
- Riya Sen (actor, model, born January 24, 1981)