Jack London, the American novelist, journalist, and adventurer whose Klondike tales like The Call of the Wild and White Fang became world classics, is the most historically significant person born on January 12. Full Name: John Griffith Chaney (known professionally as Jack London); Profession: Novelist, short story writer, journalist, essayist, war correspondent, social critic; Nationality: American; Born: January 12, 1876; Birthplace: San Francisco, California, USA (likely born in the working class waterfront area, then raised in Oakland); Generation: Lost Generation precursor / Progressive Era American generation (born in the post–Civil War industrial expansion period); Chinese Zodiac: Fire Rat (year 1876); Zodiac Sign: Capricorn; Age in 2026: 150 (deceased); Marital Status: Married twice (first to Elizabeth “Bessie” Maddern 1900–1904, then to Charmian Kittredge London 1905–1916 until his death); Children: Two daughters with Bessie Maddern (Joan London and Becky London); Description: Jack London rose from poverty and near-orphanhood in the rough dockside neighborhoods of Oakland, working as an oyster pirate, cannery laborer, and sailor in the Pacific before turning those experiences into vivid, muscular adventure fiction that captured both the brutality and beauty of nature at the turn of the 20th century. His breakthrough came with Klondike Gold Rush stories such as “To Build a Fire” and novels like The Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906), which portrayed dogs, wolves, and men battling harsh northern environments while exploring themes of survival, instinct, hierarchy, and the thin line between civilization and savagery. London became one of the highest-paid writers of his era, publishing prolifically in magazines and books—works like The Sea-Wolf, Martin Eden, and The Iron Heel—and using his celebrity to advocate for socialism, workers’ rights, and critiques of capitalism, even as he also embraced a rugged individualism expressed in his own adventurous lifestyle, ranching, and around-the-world sailing plans on the Snark. His life, however, was marked by heavy physical strain, alcoholism, and illnesses acquired in the Yukon and the South Pacific (including scurvy and tropical infections like yaws), which damaged his kidneys and overall health even as he continued to write and manage his Beauty Ranch in Glen Ellen, California, as an experiment in progressive agriculture. London’s early death at 40 turned him into a romantic, mythic figure of the modern writer as adventurer, and his books have remained continuously in print, adapted into numerous films and translations worldwide, influencing later nature writers, adventure storytellers, and social novelists who graphed human struggle against economic forces and untamed landscapes. Cause of Death: Died on November 22, 1916, at his Beauty Ranch near Glen Ellen, California, from uremic poisoning due to advanced kidney failure (uremia) complicated by gastrointestinal illness and chronic alcoholism; contemporary speculation about suicide by morphine has largely been discounted by modern biographical and medical analyses.