Historical figures in Boston
The atlas holds 83 people and 187 moments here, from 1706 to 2016. The most recorded lives are Ralph Waldo Emerson, John Adams and Helen Keller. Among them Writers, Political Leaders and Scientists, across the Space Age and the Cold War.
Notable people
Kofi Annan
in 1971
1 moment here
Ghanaian diplomat and statesman who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006.…
Léopold Sédar Senghor
in 1971
1 moment here
Senegalese poet, theorist of Négritude, and statesman who became Senegal’s first president in 1960.…
Liliʻuokalani
from 1887 to 1896
2 moments here
Liliʻuokalani was the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, reigning from January 29, 1891, until the overthrow of the monarchy on January…
Macfarlane Burnet
from 1944 to 1958
2 moments here
Australian virologist and immunologist Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, known as Macfarlane Burnet, shared the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine…
Mario Vargas Llosa
in 1992
1 moment here
Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist, and political figure. Vargas Llosa lived and worked across Peru, Bolivia, Spain, France, the United Kingdom,…
Martin Luther King Jr.
in 1951
1 moment here
American Baptist minister and civil-rights leader who advanced racial equality through nonviolent protest.…
Maryam Mirzakhani
from 1999 to 2003
2 moments here
Iranian mathematician whose work transformed the study of hyperbolic surfaces, moduli spaces, and dynamics.…
Max Theiler
in 1922
1 moment here
South African-American virologist and physician whose work at Harvard, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Yale contributed to the development of the 17D…
Mercedes Sosa
in 1995
1 moment here
Argentine folk singer and leading exponent of the nuevo cancionero movement, internationally known for interpreting Latin American popular song and…
Nadine Gordimer
in 1969
1 moment here
South African novelist, short-story writer, and anti-apartheid activist whose work examined apartheid, race, power, and moral responsibility.…
Nguyễn Văn Thiệu
in 2001
1 moment here
South Vietnamese army officer and politician who led South Vietnam as chairman of the National Leadership Committee from 1965 and as president from…
Octavio Paz
in 1974
1 moment here
Mexican poet, essayist, editor, and diplomat whose international postings and teaching appointments connected Mexico City, the United States, Europe,…
Oscar Wilde
in 1882
1 moment here
Irish author, poet, playwright, critic, and leading figure in late nineteenth-century aestheticism.…
Paramahansa Yogananda
in 1920
2 moments here
Indian and American Hindu monk, yogi, teacher, and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship and Yogoda Satsanga Society of India.…
Phillis Wheatley
from 1761 to 1784
8 moments here
Phillis Wheatley Peters was a poet born in West Africa, enslaved in Boston as a child, and the author of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and…
P. L. Travers
from 1965 to 1966
2 moments here
Pamela Lyndon Travers, born Helen Lyndon Goff, was an Australian-British writer, actress, journalist, and creator of the Mary Poppins books.…
Ralph Waldo Emerson
from 1803 to 1878
17 moments here
American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, Unitarian minister, poet, abolitionist, and leading figure in Transcendentalism.…
Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
in 1926
1 moment here
Indian philosopher, academic, diplomat, and statesman. Radhakrishnan taught at leading Indian and British universities, served as vice-chancellor of…
Simón Bolívar
in 1807
1 moment here
Venezuelan military and political leader known as El Libertador. Bolívar led revolutionary campaigns that helped secure the independence of…
Stephen Hawking
in 2016
1 moment here
English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author whose work on singularities, black-hole thermodynamics, and Hawking radiation reshaped modern…
Steve Jobs
in 1997
1 moment here
Steven Paul Jobs was an American entrepreneur, inventor, and executive who co-founded Apple, founded NeXT, and led Pixar.…
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
in 1935
1 moment here
Indian-American astrophysicist whose work established the Chandrasekhar limit and ranged across stellar structure, stellar dynamics, radiative…
Swami Vivekananda
in 1893
1 moment here
Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, teacher, and chief disciple of Ramakrishna. Born Narendranath Datta in Calcutta, he travelled widely through India…
Sydney Brenner
from 1987 to 1995
3 moments here
South African-born molecular biologist whose career moved from Johannesburg and Oxford to Cambridge, California, Singapore and other scientific…
Moments
- 1920 Normalcy speech to the Home Market Club Warren G. Harding
- 1920 Campaigns in Boston Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1920 Congress address in Boston Paramahansa Yogananda
- 1922 Harvard tropical-medicine appointment Max Theiler
- 1924 Boston arrival after western road trip Amelia Earhart
- 1924 Birth in Milton George H. W. Bush
- 1925 Residence and social work in Medford Amelia Earhart
- 1926 International Congress of Philosophy Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
- 1927 Official flight from Dennison Airport Amelia Earhart
- 1927 Birth at Cambridge Hospital Bhumibol Adulyadej
- 1928 Friendship departure from East Boston Amelia Earhart
- 1932 Charles Eliot Norton professorship T. S. Eliot
- 1932 Campaign address in Boston Franklin Delano Roosevelt
- 1935 MIT studies begin I. M. Pei
- 1935 Harvard Observatory visit Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
- 1936 Entered Harvard College John F. Kennedy
- 1939 Harvard Norton Lectures Igor Stravinsky
- 1942 Harvard Graduate School of Design enrollment I. M. Pei
- 1944 Dunham Lectures at Harvard Macfarlane Burnet
- 1944 Treated at Chelsea Naval Hospital John F. Kennedy
- 1945 Return to Harvard after wartime work I. M. Pei
- 1946 Established a Boston political residence John F. Kennedy
- 1947 Morris Gray Poetry Reading T. S. Eliot
- 1949 Speaks at MIT Winston Churchill
- 1949 Move to Boston Isaac Asimov
- 1949 Hospitalization in Boston Judy Garland
- 1949 Residence in Somerville Isaac Asimov
- 1951 Begins Boston University studies Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1952 Visiting lecturer at Harvard Walter Brattain
- 1955 Honorary degree at Harvard Helen Keller
- 1956 Sabbatical at Harvard Allan MacLeod Cormack
- 1956 Residence in West Newton Isaac Asimov
- 1956 Study year at Harvard Jacques Derrida
- 1956 Keller-Macy Cottage dedication Helen Keller
- 1957 Move to Tufts University Allan MacLeod Cormack
- 1957 Marriage in Boston Jacques Derrida
- 1958 Cutter Lecture at Harvard Macfarlane Burnet
- 1963 Harvard and Smithsonian appointment Carl Sagan
- 1963 Boston Marathon Abebe Bikila
- 1964 Speech on gender discrimination at MIT Chien-Shiung Wu
- 1965 Harvard summer seminar Kenzaburō Ōe
- 1965 Radcliffe College conversation P. L. Travers
- 1965 Week of lectures at MIT Dorothy Hodgkin
- 1966 Radcliffe College interview P. L. Travers
- 1966 Attends Institute of Contemporary Art survey opening Andy Warhol
- 1967 Norton Lectures at Harvard Jorge Luis Borges
- 1967 Free concert on Boston Common Judy Garland
- 1968 Continuation of Norton Lectures Jorge Luis Borges
- 1969 Begins undergraduate study at Harvard Benazir Bhutto
- 1969 Vietnam-war protest Benazir Bhutto