Writers through history
The atlas holds 180 people and 5,946 moments here, from 620 BC to 2025. The most recorded lives are William Shakespeare, Albert Einstein and Confucius. Across the Cold War and the Interwar Period.
Notable people
William Shakespeare
from 1564 to 1616
15 moments here
English playwright, poet, actor, and theatrical shareholder. Surviving records place Shakespeare principally in Stratford-upon-Avon and London, with…
Albert Einstein
from 1879 to 1955
85 moments here
German-born theoretical physicist who transformed modern physics through special and general relativity, foundational work on quantum theory, and…
Confucius
from 551 BC to 479 BC
23 moments here
Confucius, born Kong Qiu, was a teacher, political thinker, and sometime official of the Chinese state of Lu.…
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.…
Plato
from 428 BC to 347 BC
18 moments here
Ancient Greek philosopher of Classical Athens, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, and founder of the Academy.…
Abraham Lincoln
from 1809 to 1865
68 moments here
American lawyer, Illinois legislator, congressman, and sixteenth president of the United States.…
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,…
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.…
Leo Tolstoy
from 1828 to 1910
21 moments here
Russian novelist, essayist, educator, religious thinker, and social critic. Born at Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy studied in Kazan, served in the Caucasus…
Charles Darwin
from 1809 to 1882
110 moments here
English naturalist, geologist, and biologist whose observations during the global voyage of HMS Beagle and subsequent research led to his theory of…
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…
Socrates
from 469 BC to 399 BC
8 moments here
Classical Athenian philosopher known chiefly through Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes, and later ancient testimony.…
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…
The Buddha
from 563 BC to 483 BC
18 moments here
Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and teacher who founded Buddhism in the eastern Indo-Gangetic Plain.…
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.…
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…
Pablo Picasso
from 1881 to 1973
60 moments here
Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and co-founder of Cubism. Born in Málaga, Picasso trained in A Coruña, Barcelona, and Madrid…
Charlie Chaplin
from 1889 to 1977
62 moments here
English actor, comedian, director, writer, producer and composer whose screen persona, the Tramp, became an international icon.…
Martin Luther
from 1483 to 1546
29 moments here
German Augustinian friar, priest, theologian, professor, translator, and leading figure of the Protestant Reformation.…
Michelangelo
from 1475 to 1564
29 moments here
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet.…
Voltaire
from 1694 to 1778
51 moments here
François-Marie Arouet, known as Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, dramatist, and philosopher.…
Moments
- 563 BC Born at Lumbini The Buddha
- 501 BC Governs Zhongdu Confucius
- 432 BC Serves at Potidaea Socrates
- 399 BC Attends Socrates’ trial Plato
- 82 BC Hides in the Sabine country Julius Caesar
- 55 BC Completed his Cremona boyhood Virgil
- 365 Schooling at Madaurus Augustine of Hippo
- 1283 Exchanged greetings with Beatrice in Florence Dante Alighieri
- 1469 Moves to Florence Leonardo da Vinci
- 1475 Brought to Florence as an infant Michelangelo
- 1484 Family relocates to Mansfeld Martin Luther
- 1498 First diplomatic mission Niccolò Machiavelli
- 1551 Childhood relocation to Valladolid Miguel de Cervantes
- 1599 Moves to Southwark William Shakespeare
- 1607 Enters the College of La Flèche René Descartes
- 1643 Illustre Théâtre visit to Rouen Molière
- 1704 Studies at Louis-le-Grand Voltaire
- 1722 Boarding at Bossey Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- 1730 Attends the Hospitalschule Immanuel Kant
- 1735 Lives at Little Hunting Creek George Washington
- 1765 Takes lodgings as a Leipzig student Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- 1799 Infancy in Saint Petersburg Alexander Pushkin
- 1807 Moves to childhood home Hans Christian Andersen
- 1807 Rejoins his father in Avellino Victor Hugo
- 1811 Childhood at Knob Creek Farm Abraham Lincoln
- 1813 Family holiday at Abergele Charles Darwin
- 1815 Moves to Norfolk Street Charles Dickens
- 1824 Lafayette visit honor guard Edgar Allan Poe
- 1831 Childhood summers at Darovoye Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- 1835 Enrolls at Bonn University Karl Marx
- 1836 Family moves to Moscow Leo Tolstoy
- 1839 Family moves to Hannibal Mark Twain
- 1850 Family relocates to Naumburg Friedrich Nietzsche
- 1854 Childhood in Port Huron Thomas Edison
- 1860 Moves with family to Vienna Sigmund Freud
- 1872 Countryside stay at Panihati Rabindranath Tagore
- 1876 Family settles in Rajkot Mahatma Gandhi
- 1879 Move to Moscow for medical school Anton Chekhov
- 1880 Family moves to Munich Albert Einstein
- 1885 Moves to Wenceslas Square Franz Kafka
- 1891 Family reaches A Coruña Pablo Picasso
- 1894 Makes childhood stage appearance Charlie Chaplin
- 1905 Graduates from the Military College Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
- 1911 Lives on Glassburn Street Ronald Reagan
- 1912 Studies in Changsha Mao Zedong
- 1917 Exhibits at his Figueres home Salvador Dalí
- 1925 Attends school near Qunu Nelson Mandela
- 1927 Relocated to Riverdale John F. Kennedy
- 1941 Moves to Boulevard home Martin Luther King Jr.
- 2013 Papal inauguration Mass Pope Francis