Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize–winning theologian, organist, philosopher, and mission doctor in Africa, is the most historically significant person born on January 14. Full Name: Ludwig Philipp Albert Schweitzer; Profession: Theologian, Lutheran pastor, New Testament scholar, philosopher, concert organist and Bach musicologist, medical doctor, missionary surgeon, hospital founder, humanitarian, writer; Nationality: Alsatian-German (born a German citizen in Alsace, later associated with France after the region changed hands); Born: January 14, 1875; Birthplace: Kaysersberg, Upper Alsace, German Empire (now Kaysersberg-Vignoble, Haut-Rhin, France); Generation: Late 19th-century European / pre–World War I generation; Chinese Zodiac: Wood Pig (year 1875); Zodiac Sign: Capricorn; Age in 2026: 151 (deceased); Marital Status: Married (to Helene Bresslau from 1912 until his death, though they spent long periods apart because of her health and conditions in Africa); Children: One daughter (Rhena Schweitzer, who later helped run the hospital at Lambaréné); Description: Albert Schweitzer grew up in a Protestant pastor’s family in Alsace, immersed in both German and French language and culture, showing early gifts in theology, philosophy, and particularly music, where he became a renowned interpreter and scholar of Johann Sebastian Bach and a celebrated concert organist across Europe. After earning doctorates in philosophy and theology and holding academic and pastoral posts in Strasbourg, he shocked colleagues by deciding at age 30 to study medicine so he could serve as a missionary doctor in equatorial Africa, embodying his emerging ethic of “Reverence for Life,” which grounded morality in profound respect for all living beings. In 1913 he and his wife, Helene, traveled to Lambaréné in French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), where he founded a hospital on the banks of the Ogooué River, treating thousands of patients with limited resources and repeatedly rebuilding his work through World War I internment, economic hardship, and criticism of his paternalistic, village-like hospital model. Schweitzer financed much of the mission through European and American lecture tours and organ recitals, wrote influential books on theology, the historical Jesus, and Bach, and later used his moral authority to speak against nuclear weapons and the drift toward global war, becoming a prominent mid-20th-century voice of conscience. Awarded the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work and his philosophy of brotherhood among nations, he became an international symbol of medical altruism, though later scholars have debated his colonial-era attitudes toward Africans and the limitations of his paternalistic approach. Even with these critiques, his decades of service at Lambaréné, his integration of scholarship, music, ethics, and medicine, and his “Reverence for Life” concept left a lasting imprint on medical ethics, humanitarianism, and global peace movements, and his hospital continues to operate in Gabon as part of his living legacy. Cause of Death: Died on September 4, 1965, in Lambaréné, Gabon, at age 90, from natural causes related to old age after a lifetime of medical and humanitarian work; he was buried in a simple grave near the hospital on the banks of the Ogooué River.