November 13 Birthday

Famous Birthdays on November 13

• Robert Louis Stevenson (1850)

  Scottish author known for Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

• Whoopi Goldberg (1955)

  American actress, comedian, and one of a small number of entertainers to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony.

• Jimmy Kimmel (1967)

  American television host known for Jimmy Kimmel Live!

• Gerard Butler (1969)

  Scottish actor known for 300 and Olympus Has Fallen.

This Day in History

• 1927 — The Holland Tunnel opened, becoming the first vehicular tunnel connecting Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

• 1971 — NASA's Mariner 9 became the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, entering orbit around Mars.

• 1985 — The eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia triggered lahars that destroyed the town of Armero, killing an estimated 23,000 people.

What November 13 Says About You

Robert Louis Stevenson wrote The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, a story about a single person carrying two entirely separate, warring identities inside one body, and he happens to share his November 13 birthday with a date whose real historical record is similarly split between quiet engineering triumph and sudden, devastating natural disaster. The Holland Tunnel opened in 1927, a genuine feat of underwater engineering that let ordinary drivers pass beneath the Hudson River without a second thought about the pressure and complexity that made the crossing possible. Mariner 9 achieved something comparably quiet but historic in 1971, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, a milestone that happened with far less fanfare than a crewed landing but that fundamentally advanced planetary science. Then, in 1985, the same date turned catastrophic: the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia triggered volcanic mudflows that destroyed the town of Armero and killed an estimated 23,000 people, a tragedy made worse by warnings that had gone largely unheeded in the days before. That range, from methodical engineering to sudden catastrophe, mirrors the split Stevenson wrote about, and it fits Scorpio, the sign attached to this date, whose reputation for containing contradictory intensities within a single character is one of the more consistent traits assigned to it in astrological writing. The numerology of the 13th reduces to day number 4, tied to structure, discipline, and methodical building — a description that applies neatly to both the Holland Tunnel's engineering and Mariner 9's carefully plotted trajectory to Mars, though it sits in obvious tension with the same date's sudden volcanic disaster, a reminder that even the most disciplined systems can be overtaken by forces outside their control. Whoopi Goldberg, born in 1955, built one of the more structurally rare careers in entertainment, becoming one of a small handful of performers to win an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony across a range of disciplines that most performers never attempt to cross. Jimmy Kimmel has spent decades building a nightly show around the same disciplined format night after night, proof that day number 4's steadiness doesn't have to be dull. Gerard Butler, born in 1969, built his breakout role in 300 around a character whose entire appeal rested on physical discipline and formation, hundreds of soldiers moving as a single structured unit rather than as individuals. November's topaz, in some old European traditions, was believed to change color as a warning when danger was near its wearer — a folk belief that resonates uncomfortably with a birthday whose real history includes a volcanic disaster that arrived with warnings too easily dismissed. Stevenson reportedly wrote an entire first draft of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in just a few feverish days, then burned it after his wife criticized it as too much like a straightforward horror story, rewriting the whole thing from scratch in another few days to give it the moral complexity it's now known for. Jimmy Kimmel co-created and hosted the game show Win Ben Stein's Money years before launching his own late-night program.