Historical figures of World War II
The atlas holds 269 people and 950 moments here, from 1939 to 1945. The most recorded lives are Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler and John F. Kennedy. Among them Writers, Political Leaders and Performers.
Notable people
Bob Marley
in 1945
1 moment here
Jamaican singer, songwriter and guitarist whose work with the Wailers made reggae an international musical force.…
B. R. Ambedkar
from 1939 to 1945
4 moments here
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer, politician, principal architect of India’s Constitution, and a leading…
Bruce Lee
from 1940 to 1941
2 moments here
Bruce Lee (Lee Jun-fan) was a Hong Kong and American martial artist, actor, filmmaker, and founder of Jeet Kune Do.…
Charles de Gaulle
from 1939 to 1945
21 moments here
French army officer, leader of Free France during the Second World War, head of France's Provisional Government, and president of the French Fifth…
Charlie Chaplin
in 1943
1 moment here
English actor, comedian, director, writer, producer and composer whose screen persona, the Tramp, became an international icon.…
Chiang Kai-shek
from 1941 to 1945
9 moments here
Chinese military commander, revolutionary, and statesman. Chiang Kai-shek led the Nationalist government of China through the Northern Expedition,…
Chien-Shiung Wu
from 1940 to 1944
4 moments here
Chinese-American experimental physicist whose career moved from Jiangsu and eastern China to California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York,…
Claude Simon
from 1939 to 1944
7 moments here
French novelist, painter, photographer, viticulturist, Resistance participant, and 1985 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate.…
David Hilbert
in 1943
1 moment here
German mathematician and philosopher of mathematics whose career began in Königsberg and was centered at the University of Göttingen from 1895 until…
Desmond Tutu
from 1941 to 1945
2 moments here
South African Anglican bishop, theologian, anti-apartheid activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Archbishop of Cape Town, and chair of South Africa’s…
Dwight D. Eisenhower
from 1940 to 1945
11 moments here
Dwight D. Eisenhower was a United States Army officer, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, and the 34th president of the United…
Dzhokhar Dudayev
in 1944
2 moments here
Dzhokhar Musayevich Dudayev was a Soviet Air Force major general and the first president of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.…
Édith Piaf
from 1940 to 1945
11 moments here
French singer and lyricist Édith Giovanna Gassion, known as Édith Piaf, rose from street performance in Paris to international prominence in chanson…
Edmund Hillary
from 1939 to 1945
3 moments here
New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, diplomat, and philanthropist. Hillary became internationally known after reaching Mount Everest’s summit with…
Eisaku Satō
from 1939 to 1945
2 moments here
Japanese politician and prime minister of Japan from 1964 to 1972. A former railway bureaucrat, Satō led Japan during rapid economic growth, pursued…
Eleanor Roosevelt
from 1940 to 1945
7 moments here
American political figure, diplomat, activist, and First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945.…
Elizabeth II
from 1939 to 1945
6 moments here
Elizabeth II was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death.…
Elizabeth Taylor
from 1939 to 1940
2 moments here
British-American actress and HIV/AIDS activist. Born in London, Taylor moved to Southern California in 1939, became a major Hollywood star, worked…
Elvis Presley
in 1945
1 moment here
American singer and actor Elvis Aaron Presley, widely known as the “King of Rock and Roll.” Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, he grew up in Memphis,…
Emilio Aguinaldo
from 1942 to 1945
3 moments here
Filipino revolutionary, military leader, and political figure who led forces in the Philippine Revolution, headed the First Philippine Republic,…
Enrico Fermi
from 1939 to 1945
10 moments here
Italian and naturalized-American physicist whose documented movements trace a path from Rome and Pisa through European study in Göttingen and Leiden,…
Ernest Hemingway
from 1939 to 1944
12 moments here
American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. Hemingway’s documented movements ranged from Illinois and Michigan to Italy in World War I,…
Errol Flynn
from 1940 to 1943
2 moments here
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn was an Australian-born actor who became a major Hollywood star in swashbuckling and adventure films.…
Erwin Schrödinger
from 1939 to 1943
3 moments here
Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate whose work on wave mechanics and the Schrödinger equation became foundational to quantum…
Moments
- 1939 Wartime district officer in Kulim Tunku Abdul Rahman
- 1939 Travel to Los Angeles for Gone with the Wind Vivien Leigh
- 1939 Security guard at Kibbutz Ginosar Yitzhak Rabin
- 1939 Attends launch of Bismarck Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Snow White Academy Award Walt Disney
- 1939 Arrives in Klaipėda Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Enters Prague Castle Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Andrew Lang Lecture at St Andrews J. R. R. Tolkien
- 1939 Government Code and Cypher School course J. R. R. Tolkien
- 1939 The Philadelphia Story opens on Broadway Katharine Hepburn
- 1939 Marriage to Princess Fawzia Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
- 1939 Teacher at Western Mungyeong Public School Park Chung Hee
- 1939 Attends Tirpitz launch in Wilhelmshaven Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Relocation to Hollywood Alfred Hitchcock
- 1939 Birth in Mashhad Ali Khamenei
- 1939 Relocation to Pasadena Elizabeth Taylor
- 1939 Opens New York World's Fair by television Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1939 Final residence on Avenida Viena Leon Trotsky
- 1939 Visits Orissa at provincial invitation Rabindranath Tagore
- 1939 Professor at Kyoto Imperial University Hideki Yukawa
- 1939 Birth in Geula Ada Yonath
- 1939 Sails to Mount Vernon with British monarchs Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1939 Departure from Kobe for first overseas journey Hideki Yukawa
- 1939 Meets Szilárd and Wigner on Long Island Albert Einstein
- 1939 Met Philip at Dartmouth Elizabeth II
- 1939 Attendance at the first World Science Fiction Convention Isaac Asimov
- 1939 Medical visit to Moscow Zhou Enlai
- 1939 Politburo meetings in Yan'an Zhou Enlai
- 1939 Mobilization in the Ardennes Claude Simon
- 1939 Fishes at Campobello Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1939 Fishes in Bonne Bay Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1939 Fishes in Newfoundland's Bay of Islands Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1939 Fishing trip through Atlantic Canada Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1939 Stops in Halifax Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1939 Arrival at Naples Hideki Yukawa
- 1939 Boarding at Hamburg Hideki Yukawa
- 1939 Departure for Britain aboard SS Orama John Cornforth
- 1939 The Wizard of Oz New York premiere Judy Garland
- 1939 Final European concert Sergei Rachmaninoff
- 1939 Final family gathering in Paris before wartime departure Sergei Rachmaninoff
- 1939 Enters Gdańsk Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Inspects siege front near Warsaw Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Inspects Westerplatte Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Visits front near Ubieszyn Adolf Hitler
- 1939 Reports to Bletchley Park Alan Turing
- 1939 Attacked at Bitche in the Saar Offensive Charles de Gaulle
- 1939 Sapienza enrollment Federico Fellini
- 1939 Move to Arcan Ridge Helen Keller
- 1939 Congress Working Committee meeting Jawaharlal Nehru
- 1939 Attended Parliament's war speeches John F. Kennedy