Elon Musk was born on 28 June 1971 in Pretoria. A South African-born American businessman, Musk made his first fortune with the online payments company PayPal and then founded the rocket company SpaceX in 2002, with the aim of lowering the cost of space travel. He joined Tesla, the electric-car maker, as an early investor and became its chief executive, helping to make electric vehicles popular. He has also founded or led other ventures, including Neuralink and the artificial intelligence firm xAI, and in 2022 he bought the social network Twitter and renamed it X. He took on a role in the US government's efficiency effort in 2025. His business and his political statements have made him a highly visible and divisive figure.
Before and after
- 28 May 1971Launch of Mars 3
- 30 May 1971Launch of Mariner 9
- 6 June 1971Launch of Soyuz 11
- 16 June 1971Birth of Tupac Shakur
- 28 June 1971Birth of Elon Musk
- 3 July 1971Birth of Julian Assange
- 3 July 1971Death of Jim Morrison
- 4 July 1971Release of Project Gutenberg
- 6 July 1971Death of Louis Armstrong
More in Science & technology
- 1949Discovery of berkelium
- December 1952Discovery of fermium
- 1958Discovery of nobelium
- c. 1980sInvention of laptop
- 9 November 1994Discovery of darmstadtium
- 8 December 1994Discovery of roentgenium
The era
This moment belongs to the Contemporary world (1945 CE to today), the world since 1945. You can also browse everything in the 20th century.