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
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.…
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…
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,…
Nero
from 37 to 68
19 moments here
Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus was Roman emperor from 13 October 54 to 9 June 68. This chronology records securely documented physical…
Niccolò Machiavelli
from 1469 to 1527
32 moments here
Florentine diplomat, civil servant, political theorist, playwright, and historian of the Italian Renaissance.…
Nicolaus Copernicus
from 1473 to 1543
15 moments here
Renaissance astronomer, canon, physician, administrator, and economist whose heliocentric model placed the Sun rather than Earth at the center of the…
Otto von Bismarck
from 1815 to 1898
27 moments here
Otto von Bismarck was a Prussian and German statesman, diplomat, and the first chancellor of the German Empire.…
Peter Paul Rubens
from 1577 to 1640
25 moments here
Flemish Baroque painter, designer, humanist, collector, and diplomat. Rubens was born at Siegen, spent formative years in Cologne and Antwerp, worked…
Peter the Great
from 1672 to 1725
36 moments here
Peter I of Russia, known as Peter the Great, was tsar from 1682 and emperor from 1721 until 1725.…
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…
Pope John Paul II
from 1920 to 2005
31 moments here
Karol Józef Wojtyła (1920–2005), Pope John Paul II from 1978, was a Polish Catholic priest, bishop, cardinal, and pope.…
Pythagoras
from 570 BC to 490 BC
5 moments here
Ancient Greek philosopher and founder of the Pythagorean way of life. The surviving evidence for his biography is sparse and often contradictory;…
Qin Shi Huang
from 259 BC to 210 BC
34 moments here
Born Zhao Zheng at Handan, he became king of Qin as a child, completed the conquest of the rival Warring States, and proclaimed himself China’s First…
Raisa Gorbacheva
from 1932 to 1999
26 moments here
Soviet and Russian activist, philanthropist, lecturer, and public figure; wife of Mikhail Gorbachev.…
Ramesses II
from 1281 BC to 1213 BC
17 moments here
Ramesses II, commonly called Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty.…
Ronald Reagan
from 1911 to 2004
120 moments here
American broadcaster, actor, labor leader, governor of California, and 40th president of the United States.…
Saladin
from 1137 to 1193
26 moments here
Kurdish military commander, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, and sultan of Egypt and Syria. Born at Tikrit, Saladin rose through the Zengid…
Seneca the Younger
from 5 to 65
9 moments here
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, commonly called Seneca the Younger, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, writer, and statesman.…
Shinzo Abe
from 1954 to 2022
68 moments here
Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2006 to 2007 and from 2012 to 2020.…
Simón Bolívar
from 1783 to 1830
113 moments here
Venezuelan military and political leader known as El Libertador. Bolívar led revolutionary campaigns that helped secure the independence of…
Sophocles
from 480 BC to 406 BC
5 moments here
Ancient Athenian tragic playwright, probably born at Colonus in Attica and active chiefly in Athens.…
Suleiman the Magnificent
from 1494 to 1566
29 moments here
Ottoman sultan from 1520 to 1566, known in Ottoman tradition as Kanuni, the Lawgiver. Born at Trabzon and educated for dynastic rule, Suleiman…
Tacitus
from 88 to 112
5 moments here
Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman historian, senator, orator, and provincial governor. His birth date and place are uncertain; he was probably…
Theodore Roosevelt
from 1858 to 1919
33 moments here
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (1858–1919) was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909.…