Lev Semenovich Vygotsky was born. Despite his premature death at the age of just 37, Lev Vygotsky is widely considered as one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century. Drawing on a range of perspectives including Marxist thought, cultural history, evolutionary phylogeny and lifespan development, Vygotsky made a seminal contribution to our understanding of the relationship between language and thought, the psychology of art, pedagogy and the psychology of play, in particular the process of self-regulation through creative play.

Included among the most memorable tributes paid to Vygotsky; Stephen Toulmin described him as 'The Mozart of Psychology' in an influential review of his key works published in The New York Review of Books and writing in his autobiography, eminent neuropsychologist Alexander Luria stated that 'Vygotsky was a genius. After more than half a century in science I am unable to name another person who even approaches his incredible analytical ability and foresight. All of my work has been no more than the working out of the psychological theory which he constructed.'

(Note: Sources drawing on the New Style (N.S.) Julian calendar record Vygotsky's date of birth as November 17th, 1896.)