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
Michel de Montaigne
from 1533 to 1592
31 moments here
French Renaissance writer, magistrate, diplomat, and two-term mayor of Bordeaux, best known for the Essais.…
Miguel de Cervantes
from 1547 to 1616
28 moments here
Spanish novelist, playwright, poet, soldier, purchasing agent and tax collector, best known for Don Quixote.…
Molière
from 1622 to 1673
24 moments here
Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, known as Molière, was a French playwright, actor, and theatrical manager.…
Montesquieu
from 1689 to 1755
29 moments here
Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu, was a French jurist, historian, and political philosopher.…
Mother Teresa
from 1910 to 1997
23 moments here
Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, known as Mother Teresa or Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Catholic nun.…
Muḥammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi
from 780 to 825
3 moments here
Persian mathematician, astronomer, geographer, and author active under the Abbasid caliphs. Biographical evidence is exceptionally sparse and his…
Murasaki Shikibu
from 973 to 1013
8 moments here
Japanese novelist, poet, and lady-in-waiting of the Heian court, best known for The Tale of Genji.…
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.…
Nadine Gordimer
from 1923 to 2014
17 moments here
South African novelist, short-story writer, and anti-apartheid activist whose work examined apartheid, race, power, and moral responsibility.…
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…
Omar Khayyam
from 1048 to 1131
5 moments here
Persian polymath, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and poet. The securely dated portions of his documented life place him in Nishapur,…
Oscar Wilde
from 1854 to 1900
36 moments here
Irish author, poet, playwright, critic, and leading figure in late nineteenth-century aestheticism.…
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.…
Ovid
from 43 BC to 17
9 moments here
Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid) was a Roman poet born at Sulmo. Educated in Rome, he later travelled in Greece, Asia Minor, and Sicily, though the…
Pablo Picasso
from 1881 to 1973
60 moments here
Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and co-founder of Cubism. Born in Málaga, Picasso trained in A Coruña, Barcelona, and Madrid…
Paul the Apostle
from 5 to 64
45 moments here
Paul (Saul of Tarsus) was a first-century Jewish Christian apostle and missionary. The chronology below follows the traditional reconstruction used…
Paul Walker
from 1973 to 2013
17 moments here
Paul William Walker IV was an American actor best known for playing Brian O'Conner in the Fast & Furious franchise.…
Petrarch
from 1304 to 1374
38 moments here
Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) was an Italian scholar, poet, cleric, diplomat, and foundational humanist.…
Plato
from 428 BC to 347 BC
18 moments here
Ancient Greek philosopher of Classical Athens, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, and founder of the Academy.…
Plutarch
from 66 to 95
4 moments here
Greek Platonist philosopher, biographer, essayist, magistrate, and Delphic priest. He was born at Chaeronea between 45 and 47 CE and died after 119…
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…