True, but highly controversial. At the time we were still using the Julian calendar, which gives a slightly different date to what is considered accurate in the modern Gregorian calendar (the dates 03-09-1752 to 13-09-1752 didnt exist owing to the change!
); according to the Gregorian calendar, he was born in early January and died on my birthday [coincidentally, Déscartes was born on it]. To be honest, I just don't see the point in celebrating the birth(day) of someone who died centuries ago.
Oh wait...
On a side note, is anyone else interested in the rather low number of people voting 1? Roughly 40 voters; just 4 choosing the "correct" option.