Historical figures in London

The atlas holds 249 people and 882 moments here, from 1374 to 2025. The most recorded lives are Charles Dickens, John Milton and William Blake. Among them Writers, Political Leaders and Scientists, across the Space Age and the Cold War.

Notable people

1. Jonathan Swift

   from 1707 to 1726

   3 moments here

   Anglo-Irish writer, satirist, political pamphleteer, and Church of Ireland cleric, best known for Gulliver's Travels, A Tale of a Tub, and A Modest…

2. Joseph Stalin

   in 1907

   1 moment here

   Soviet revolutionary and political leader, born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili in Gori, Georgia.…

3. José Raúl Capablanca

   from 1913 to 1922

   2 moments here

   Cuban chess player and diplomat, world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. This chronology records documented physical presence at places of birth,…

4. J. R. R. Tolkien

   from 1936 to 1972

   3 moments here

   John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English philologist, university professor, and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.…

5. Judy Garland

   from 1951 to 1969

   5 moments here

   American actress, singer, and vaudevillian, born Frances Ethel Gumm. Garland rose from childhood vaudeville and MGM musical films to become a major…

6. Jules Verne

   in 1868

   1 moment here

   French novelist, playwright, and poet whose documented life included residences and work in Nantes, Paris, Amiens, Auteuil, and Le Crotoy, together…

7. Julius Nyerere

   from 1951 to 1999

   3 moments here

   Tanzanian anti-colonial leader, political theorist, and founding president of Tanzania. Nyerere led the Tanganyika African National Union (TANU),…

8. Kahlil Gibran

   in 1910

   1 moment here

   Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist, best known for The Prophet. Born in Bsharri, he emigrated to Boston as a child, studied in Beirut…

9. Karl Marx

   from 1845 to 1883

   9 moments here

   German philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. Born in Trier, Marx studied in Bonn and Berlin, worked in Cologne, and…

10. Katharine Hepburn

    from 1952 to 1959

    2 moments here

    American stage, film, and television actress whose career ran from 1928 to 1995. Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut, educated at Bryn Mawr…

11. Katherine Mansfield

    from 1903 to 1922

    10 moments here

    Katherine Mansfield (Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp, later Murry) was a New Zealand modernist short-story writer, poet, critic and diarist.…

12. Khaleda Zia

    in 2025

    2 moments here

    Bangladeshi politician who was prime minister of Bangladesh in 1991–1996 and 2001–2006, chaired the Bangladesh Nationalist Party from 1984 until her…

13. Kwame Nkrumah

    in 1945

    1 moment here

    Ghanaian nationalist leader, Pan-Africanist, and political theorist who led the Gold Coast to independence as Ghana in 1957.…

14. Lawrence Bragg

    from 1934 to 1961

    5 moments here

    Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer. Bragg shared the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics with his father, William Henry Bragg, for…

15. Lee Kuan Yew

    from 1946 to 1968

    5 moments here

    Singaporean barrister and statesman who co-founded the People’s Action Party and served as Singapore’s first prime minister from 1959 to 1990.…

16. Leon Trotsky

    from 1902 to 1907

    3 moments here

    Leon Trotsky (Lev Davidovich Bronstein) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet political leader, Marxist theorist, and organizer of the Red Army.…

17. Liliʻuokalani

    in 1887

    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…

18. Lord Byron

    from 1788 to 1812

    10 moments here

    George Gordon Noel Byron, 6th Baron Byron (1788–1824), was a British poet, peer, and political speaker.…

19. Louis Pasteur

    in 1881

    1 moment here

    French chemist and microbiologist whose work on molecular asymmetry, fermentation, germ theory, pasteurization, and vaccines transformed modern…

20. Ludwig Wittgenstein

    in 1941

    1 moment here

    Austro-British philosopher whose work in logic, language, mathematics, and mind shaped twentieth-century analytic philosophy.…

21. Luísa Diogo

    from 1992 to 2010

    2 moments here

    Mozambican economist and FRELIMO politician who served as Minister of Planning and Finance and as Mozambique’s first female prime minister, from 2004…

22. Macfarlane Burnet

    from 1925 to 1966

    4 moments here

    Australian virologist and immunologist Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, known as Macfarlane Burnet, shared the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine…

23. Mahatma Gandhi

    from 1888 to 1931

    4 moments here

    Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, political ethicist, and leader of mass nonviolent resistance.…

24. Margaret Thatcher

    from 1959 to 2013

    11 moments here

    British stateswoman Margaret Hilda Thatcher (née Roberts) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the first woman to hold the…

Moments

1. 1862 Diplomatic visit to England Otto von Bismarck
2. 1864 Public visit to Kensington gardens Queen Victoria
3. 1864 Moves to Modena Villas Karl Marx
4. 1864 Joins the First International's founding meeting Karl Marx
5. 1866 Birth at Atlas House H. G. Wells
6. 1868 University College London studies Alexander Graham Bell
7. 1868 Visit to London Jules Verne
8. 1870 Gives final public reading Charles Dickens
9. 1870 Makes last public appearance Charles Dickens
10. 1870 Buried in Poets' Corner Charles Dickens
11. 1870 Move to Regent's Park Road Friedrich Engels
12. 1871 Makes a London trip Mark Twain
13. 1872 Arrival at Buckingham Palace during O'Connor incident Queen Victoria
14. 1872 Thanksgiving service after the Prince of Wales's recovery Queen Victoria
15. 1872 Writes from London Mark Twain
16. 1873 Rents Montague Street house Charles Darwin
17. 1873 Begins work in London Vincent van Gogh
18. 1874 Lives at Ivy Cottage Vincent van Gogh
19. 1875 Conducts Requiem in London Giuseppe Verdi
20. 1875 Moves to 41 Maitland Park Road Karl Marx
21. 1875 Appears before vivisection commission Charles Darwin
22. 1876 Childhood at Pembroke Lodge Bertrand Russell
23. 1876 Residence in South Kensington George Bernard Shaw
24. 1876 Move to England George Bernard Shaw
25. 1876 Teaches and assists ministry in Isleworth Vincent van Gogh
26. 1879 London triumph at the Gaiety Theatre Sarah Bernhardt
27. 1879 Studies at University College London Rabindranath Tagore
28. 1881 International Medical Congress presentation Louis Pasteur
29. 1881 Boarder at Tite Street Oscar Wilde
30. 1882 Birth at Hyde Park Gate Virginia Woolf
31. 1882 Buried in Westminster Abbey Charles Darwin
32. 1882 Marriage to Jacques Damala Sarah Bernhardt
33. 1882 Henry George meeting at Memorial Hall George Bernard Shaw
34. 1883 Marx funeral eulogy Friedrich Engels
35. 1883 Dies at Maitland Park Road Karl Marx
36. 1884 Student at the Normal School of Science H. G. Wells
37. 1884 Wilde family home at Tite Street Oscar Wilde
38. 1884 Marriage at St James's Church Oscar Wilde
39. 1887 Marriage to Alice Regnault Octave Mirbeau
40. 1887 Golden Jubilee thanksgiving Queen Victoria
41. 1888 Studies at University College London Mahatma Gandhi
42. 1888 Trains for the bar at Inner Temple Mahatma Gandhi
43. 1888 Concert at St James's Hall Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
44. 1888 Enters Harrow School Winston Churchill
45. 1889 Teacher at Henley House School H. G. Wells
46. 1889 Residence on Villiers Street Rudyard Kipling
47. 1889 Born in London Charlie Chaplin
48. 1889 Departure from London before Faraday Lecture Dmitri Mendeleev
49. 1889 Dinner at the Langham Hotel Oscar Wilde
50. 1891 Consulting room at Upper Wimpole Street Arthur Conan Doyle

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