Akihito was born on 23 December 1933 in Tokyo Imperial Palace. The 125th emperor of Japan according to the traditional count, Akihito ascended the throne in 1989 after the death of his father Hirohito, beginning the Heisei era. He was the first emperor to marry a commoner, Michiko Shōda, in 1959. As a constitutional monarch he had no political power, but he made it his mission to bring the imperial family closer to the people, visiting disaster areas and sites of wartime suffering and expressing remorse for the war. In 2019, citing his age and health, he became the first Japanese emperor in about two centuries to abdicate. He is also a respected ichthyologist who has published research on gobies.
Before and after
- 18 August 1933Birth of Roman Polanski
- 30 August 1933Founding of Air France
- 3 November 1933Birth of Amartya Sen
- 19 November 1933Birth of Larry King
- 23 December 1933Birth of Akihito
- 26 December 1933Founding of Nissan
- 1934Night of the Long Knives
- 1934Publication of March of the Volunteers
- 1934Founding of DC Comics
More in Wars, politics & history
- from 25 April 1915 to 9 January 1916Gallipoli Campaign
- 4 June 1917Pulitzer Prize
- 1919Paris Peace Conference
- 30 September 1938Munich agreement
- from 1 September 1939 to 6 October 19391939 Invasion of Poland
- from 7 December 1941 to 2 September 1945Pacific War
The era
This moment belongs to the Modern era (1914 CE to 1945 CE), world wars and a changing world. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.