Political Leaders through history
The atlas holds 107 people and 4,290 moments here, from 1281 BC to 2025. The most recorded lives are Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx and Leonardo da Vinci. Across the Cold War and the Interwar Period.
Notable people
Adolf Hitler
from 1889 to 1945
75 moments here
Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who led the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP), became German…
Karl Marx
from 1818 to 1883
53 moments here
German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Born in Trier, Marx studied in Bonn and Berlin, worked in Cologne, and…
Leonardo da Vinci
from 1452 to 1519
27 moments here
Italian Renaissance painter, draftsman, engineer, architect, anatomist, and natural philosopher.…
Ronald Reagan
from 1911 to 2004
120 moments here
American broadcaster, actor, labor leader, governor of California, and 40th president of the United States.…
Abraham Lincoln
from 1809 to 1865
68 moments here
American lawyer, Illinois legislator, congressman, and sixteenth president of the United States.…
Vladimir Lenin
from 1870 to 1924
85 moments here
Russian Marxist revolutionary, Bolshevik leader, political theorist, and founding head of government of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union.…
Nelson Mandela
from 1918 to 2013
99 moments here
South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, lawyer and statesman. Mandela helped lead the African National Congress, co-founded its armed wing,…
Napoleon Bonaparte
from 1769 to 1821
68 moments here
French military commander and statesman who rose during the French Revolution, became First Consul in 1799, and ruled as Emperor of the French in…
Mahatma Gandhi
from 1869 to 1948
69 moments here
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, political ethicist, and leader of mass nonviolent resistance.…
Julius Caesar
from 100 BC to 44 BC
50 moments here
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman politician, general, orator and author whose career spanned the late Roman Republic.…
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
from 1749 to 1832
78 moments here
German poet, dramatist, novelist, scientist, theatre director, and statesman. Born in Frankfurt, Goethe studied in Leipzig and Strasbourg, practiced…
Joseph Stalin
from 1878 to 1953
16 moments here
Soviet revolutionary and political leader, born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia.…
George Washington
from 1732 to 1799
45 moments here
George Washington was a Virginia surveyor, planter, military commander, revolutionary leader, constitutional statesman, and the first president of…
Dante Alighieri
from 1265 to 1321
26 moments here
Florentine poet, prose writer, philosopher, and statesman whose Divine Comedy became a foundational work of Italian and European literature.…
Galileo Galilei
from 1564 to 1642
35 moments here
Italian astronomer, physicist, engineer, mathematician, and natural philosopher. Born in Pisa, Galileo was educated in Tuscany, taught mathematics at…
Victor Hugo
from 1802 to 1885
39 moments here
French Romantic poet, novelist, dramatist, artist, activist, and politician. This chronology traces documented physical presences from his mobile…
Alexander the Great
from 356 BC to 323 BC
54 moments here
Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BCE), known as Alexander the Great, became king of Macedon in 336 BCE and campaigned from the Balkans through the…
Winston Churchill
from 1874 to 1965
68 moments here
Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874–1965) was a British soldier, journalist, author and statesman whose career ranged from imperial campaigns in…
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
from 1881 to 1938
99 moments here
Ottoman officer, Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, founder of the Republic of Turkey, and its first president.…
John F. Kennedy
from 1917 to 1963
86 moments here
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was an American naval officer, journalist, congressman, senator, and the 35th president of the United States.…
Martin Luther King Jr.
from 1929 to 1968
68 moments here
American Baptist minister and civil-rights leader who advanced racial equality through nonviolent protest.…
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
from 1882 to 1945
92 moments here
Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served as New York state senator, assistant secretary of the Navy,…
Augustus
from 63 BC to 14
51 moments here
Augustus, born Gaius Octavius and conventionally called Octavian before 27 BC, founded the Roman principate.…
Pope Francis
from 1936 to 2025
71 moments here
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, was an Argentine Jesuit priest, archbishop of Buenos Aires, cardinal, and head of the Catholic Church and…
Moments
- 570 BC Birth and early years on Samos Pythagoras
- 468 BC First Dionysia victory Sophocles
- 343 BC Studied at Mieza Alexander the Great
- 90 BC Serves in the Social War Cicero
- 82 BC Hides in the Sabine country Julius Caesar
- 47 BC Assumes the toga of manhood Augustus
- 1269 Meets his returning father in Venice Marco Polo
- 1283 Exchanged greetings with Beatrice in Florence Dante Alighieri
- 1469 Moves to Florence Leonardo da Vinci
- 1491 Studies at the University of Kraków Nicolaus Copernicus
- 1498 First diplomatic mission Niccolò Machiavelli
- 1564 Baptized at Pisa Cathedral Galileo Galilei
- 1652 Christ Church residence and study John Locke
- 1687 Stay at Rheinfels Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
- 1723 Move to Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin
- 1735 Lives at Little Hunting Creek George Washington
- 1761 College of William & Mary student Thomas Jefferson
- 1765 Takes lodgings as a Leipzig student Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- 1779 Enrolls at school in Autun Napoleon Bonaparte
- 1806 Residence at Burgage Manor Lord Byron
- 1807 Rejoins his father in Avellino Victor Hugo
- 1811 Childhood at Knob Creek Farm Abraham Lincoln
- 1816 Childhood at Kniephof estate Otto von Bismarck
- 1835 Enrolls at Bonn University Karl Marx
- 1838 Commercial apprenticeship Friedrich Engels
- 1871 Childhood summers at Kokushkino Vladimir Lenin
- 1876 Family settles in Rajkot Mahatma Gandhi
- 1882 Return to the family farm Henry Ford
- 1884 Infancy near Harrisonville Harry S. Truman
- 1894 Enrolls at Tiflis Theological Seminary Joseph Stalin
- 1896 Arrives in Bangalore Winston Churchill
- 1898 Settles near Linz in childhood Adolf Hitler
- 1905 Moves into Springwood after marriage Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1905 Graduates from the Military College Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- 1910 Entered Saint-Cyr military academy Charles de Gaulle
- 1911 Lives on Glassburn Street Ronald Reagan
- 1912 Studies in Changsha Mao Zedong
- 1924 Childhood in Archery Jimmy Carter
- 1925 Childhood relocation to Greenwich George H. W. Bush
- 1925 Attends school near Qunu Nelson Mandela
- 1927 Relocated to Riverdale John F. Kennedy
- 1938 Munich Conference Benito Mussolini
- 1941 German occupation of family home Yuri Gagarin
- 1941 Moves to Boulevard home Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1942 Underground seminary in occupied Kraków Pope John Paul II
- 1948 Medical studies at the University of Buenos Aires Che Guevara
- 1950 Arrival for Moscow State University Mikhail Gorbachev
- 1959 United States working visit Fidel Castro
- 1975 Meeting President Ford Margaret Thatcher
- 2013 Papal inauguration Mass Pope Francis