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
Abraham Lincoln
from 1809 to 1865
68 moments here
American lawyer, Illinois legislator, congressman, and sixteenth president of the United States.…
Abu Nuwas
from 756 to 814
5 moments here
Abū Nuwās al-Ḥasan ibn Hānī al-Ḥakamī was a classical Arabic poet. Sources document his birth in the Ahvaz area, childhood and study in Basra and…
Adam Smith
from 1723 to 1790
25 moments here
Scottish moral philosopher and political economist of the Scottish Enlightenment, author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the…
Aeschylus
from 525 BC to 456 BC
6 moments here
Ancient Greek tragedian and soldier, born at Eleusis in Attica and active in the Persian Wars.…
Aesop
from 620 BC to 564 BC
2 moments here
Greek fabulist and storyteller traditionally credited with Aesop’s Fables. His historical existence and biography are uncertain; this atlas records…
Agatha Christie
from 1890 to 1976
30 moments here
English novelist, playwright, and memoirist, internationally known for detective fiction featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.…
Albert Camus
from 1913 to 1960
29 moments here
French writer, philosopher, journalist, and political activist, born in French Algeria. Camus studied and worked in Algiers, moved between Algeria…
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…
Al-Biruni
from 973 to 1048
9 moments here
Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni was a Khwarazmian polymath whose documented movements connect Kath and Khwarazm, Bukhara, Gurgan, Gurganj,…
Alexander Pushkin
from 1799 to 1837
58 moments here
Russian poet, novelist, playwright, and foundational figure of modern Russian literature. This chronology traces documented physical presences from…
Alexandre Dumas
from 1802 to 1870
26 moments here
French novelist, playwright, journalist, and travel writer, also known as Alexandre Dumas père.…
Al-Ghazali
from 1058 to 1111
14 moments here
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghazali was a Persian Sunni jurist, theologian, philosopher, logician, and mystic.…
Ali ibn Abi Talib
from 600 to 661
21 moments here
Ali ibn Abi Talib was the fourth Rashidun caliph (656–661), cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad, and first Shia Imam.…
Anton Chekhov
from 1860 to 1904
12 moments here
Russian playwright, short-story writer, and physician. Chekhov was born in Taganrog, studied and began his literary career in Moscow, undertook a…
Aristophanes
from 446 BC to 424 BC
2 moments here
Athenian comic playwright of Old Comedy. The surviving biographical record is unusually sparse: reliable evidence securely places him in Athens at…
Arthur Schopenhauer
from 1788 to 1860
38 moments here
German philosopher and writer, born in Danzig and dead in Frankfurt am Main. His documented movements included childhood residences in Hamburg and Le…
Augustine of Hippo
from 354 to 430
26 moments here
Aurelius Augustinus, known as Augustine of Hippo, was a North African rhetorician, Christian theologian, philosopher, priest, and bishop.…
Averroes
from 1126 to 1182
6 moments here
Averroes, also known as Ibn Rushd, was an Andalusian jurist, physician, philosopher, and commentator on Aristotle.…
Avicenna
from 980 to 1037
17 moments here
Ibn Sina (Avicenna; c. 980–22 June 1037) was a Persian philosopher, physician, and court official.…
Benito Mussolini
from 1883 to 1945
45 moments here
Italian journalist, Fascist leader, and dictator of Italy from 1922 until his removal in 1943.…
Benjamin Franklin
from 1706 to 1790
28 moments here
American printer, scientist, civic leader, colonial agent, revolutionary statesman, and diplomat.…
Blaise Pascal
from 1623 to 1662
11 moments here
French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic writer. Pascal spent his life principally between Clermont-Ferrand, Paris,…
Carl Friedrich Gauss
from 1777 to 1855
35 moments here
German mathematician, astronomer, geodesist, and physicist. Gauss was born in Brunswick, studied there and at Göttingen, worked privately in…
Carrie Fisher
from 1956 to 2016
20 moments here
Carrie Frances Fisher was an American actress, writer, and public advocate, internationally known for playing Princess Leia in the Star Wars films.…
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