December 26, 1893 - Mao Zedong
His decades of rule over the world's most populous nation produced some of the twentieth century's most catastrophic man-made disasters, including the Great Leap Forward famine, estimated to have killed tens of millions, and the Cultural Revolution's systematic destruction of institutions, communities, and lives. What distinguished Mao's trajectory was the combination of genuine revolutionary capability — the guerrilla strategies, the Long March, the ultimate victory in the civil war — with a willingness, once in power, to impose ideological transformation at almost any human cost. The scale of the resulting suffering remains a subject of ongoing historical reckoning.
From Wikipedia
Mao Zedong (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976) was a Chinese revolutionary and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) and was its paramount leader from 1949 until his death in 1976. Most political control he exercised came through his position as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). His political philosophy, known as Mao Zedong Thought, was promoted as a Chinese adaptation of Marxism–Leninism, and has influenced communist political movements and organizations worldwide.
Born to a peasant family in Shaoshan, Hunan, Mao studied in Changsha and was influenced by the 1911 Revolution and ideas of Chinese nationalism and anti-imperialism. He was introduced to Marxism while working as a librarian at Peking University, and later participated in the May Fourth Movement of 1919. In 1921, Mao became a founding member of the CCP. After the start of the Chinese Civil War, he helped build the Chinese Red Army, and developed a strategy of guerrilla warfare. In 1935, Mao became leader of the CCP during the Long March, a military retreat to the Yan'an Soviet in Shaanxi. The CCP allied with the Kuomintang (KMT) in 1937, but the civil war resumed after Japan's surrender in 1945.
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