On this day in 1973, Mark Shuttleworth was born

Mark Shuttleworth was born on 18 September 1973, in Welkom in the Free State. He has achieved many successes in his life, including two head-boy titles in school (from Western Province Preparatory School in 1986 and Bishops/ Diocesan College in 1991).

Mark attended the University of Cape Town, where he became involved in the installation of the first residential internet connection at the university and his aims to be successful did not stop there. In 1995, Shuttleworth founded Thawte Consulting , which he sold four years later for a massive R3,5 billion.

Mark has undertaken several other business ventures and even started an NPO called the Shuttleworth Foundation, which is dedicated to social innovation.

His international fame came on 22 April 2002, when he became the first South African to go into space. He was the second self-funded space tourist in the world, spending approximately $20 million on the voyage. He underwent a year of training and preparation to be able to participate in the voyage and even spent seven months in Star City, Russia.

While he was in space, Shuttleworth had a radio conversation with Nelson Mandela and a 14-year-old girl named Michelle Foster. The terminally ill teenager asked Shuttleworth to marry her during their radio conversation, but he politely dodged the question. Michelle had been given the opportunity to talk to Mandela and Shuttleworth through the Reach for a Dream Foundation.

At one point, Mark moved R2,5 billion to an account in the Isle of Man and the South African Reserve Bank charged him a R250 million levy to do it, which he was not happy with. After a lengthy legal battle, he was refunded the levy (with interest) and donated the entire amount to a trust which would help others take their cases to the Constitutional Court.

A few of the other people born on 18 September include actors James Marsden and Jason Sudeikis, and Roodepoort Record/ Northsider journalists, Thabisile Mgwali and Amy Slocombe.