History by century
20th Century historical figures
Explore historical figures who lived in the 20th Century. Read concise biographies, learn key facts, and play a quiz focused on this collection.
People connected to 20th Century
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266 figures
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Nelson Mandela
President & anti-apartheid leader
Frida Kahlo
Painter
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Benazir Bhutto
Prime Minister of Pakistan
Sukarno
First President of Indonesia
Eva Perón
First Lady of Argentina
Kwame Nkrumah
First President of Ghana
Che Guevara
Revolutionary & guerrilla leader
Kim Dae-jung
President of South Korea
John F. Kennedy
35th U.S. President
Barack Obama
44th U.S. President
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Elizabeth II
Queen of the United Kingdom
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Hirohito
Emperor of Japan
Martin Luther King Jr.
Civil rights leader & minister
Malcolm X
Civil rights activist & minister
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Rosa Parks
Civil rights activist
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Yuri Gagarin
Cosmonaut
Bonnie and Clyde
Outlaw couple
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Pelé
Footballer
Diego Maradona
Footballer & manager
Jackie Robinson
Baseball player
Muhammad Ali
Boxer & activist
Jesse Owens
Track and field athlete
Wilma Rudolph
Track and field athlete
Usain Bolt
Sprinter
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Serena Williams
Tennis player
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Michael Jackson
Singer & entertainer
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John Lennon
Musician & songwriter
Bob Marley
Musician
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Louis Armstrong
Jazz musician & singer
Elvis Presley
Singer & actor
Michael Jordan
Basketball player
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Wayne Gretzky
Ice hockey player
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Tiger Woods
Golfer
Michael Phelps
Swimmer
Lionel Messi
Footballer
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Roger Federer
Tennis player
Simone Biles
Gymnast
Ronald Reagan
40th U.S. President
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Bill Clinton
42nd U.S. President
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Pol Pot
Dictator of Democratic Kampuchea
Kim Il Sung
Founder & dictator of North Korea
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Idi Amin
Dictator of Uganda
Saddam Hussein
Dictator of Iraq
Alan Turing
Mathematician & computer scientist
Richard Feynman
Theoretical physicist
Stephen Hawking
Theoretical physicist & cosmologist
Salvador Dalí
Surrealist artist
Chinua Achebe
Novelist & critic
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Wole Soyinka
Playwright, poet & novelist
Salvador Allende
President of Chile
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Fidel Castro
Revolutionary & head of state
Norodom Sihanouk
King & Head of State of Cambodia
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Bhumibol Adulyadej
King of Thailand
Aung San
Independence activist & revolutionary
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Aung San Suu Kyi
Politician & Nobel laureate
Gabriel García Márquez
Writer
Lee Kuan Yew
First Prime Minister of Singapore
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Tunku Abdul Rahman
First Prime Minister of Malaysia
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Founding President of Bangladesh
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Robert Mugabe
Revolutionary & head of state
Léopold Sédar Senghor
First President of Senegal & poet
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Patrice Lumumba
Independence leader
Anwar Sadat
President of Egypt
Samora Machel
President of Mozambique
Julius Nyerere
President of Tanzania
Muammar Gaddafi
Leader of Libya
Gamal Abdel Nasser
President of Egypt
Desmond Tutu
Anglican Archbishop and anti-apartheid activist
Steve Biko
Anti-apartheid activist
Eddie Mabo
Land rights activist
Yasser Arafat
Chairman of the PLO
Isabel Allende
Novelist
Rigoberta Menchú
Human rights activist
Pierre Trudeau
Prime Minister of Canada
Augusto Pinochet
Dictator of Chile
Hugo Chávez
President of Venezuela
Simone de Beauvoir
Philosopher and writer
Jane Goodall
Primatologist
Rosalind Franklin
X-ray crystallographer
Neil Armstrong
Astronaut
Katherine Johnson
Mathematician
Ravi Shankar
Sitarist and composer
Fela Kuti
Musician and activist
Umm Kulthum
Singer and actress
Édith Piaf
Singer
Freddie Mercury
Singer and songwriter
Sachin Tendulkar
Cricketer
Ayrton Senna
Racing driver
Nadia Comăneci
Gymnast
Emil Zátopek
Long-distance runner
Don Bradman
Cricketer
Abebe Bikila
Marathon runner
Josephine Baker
Entertainer and French Resistance member
Ella Fitzgerald
Jazz vocalist
Jimi Hendrix
Guitarist and songwriter
David Bowie
Musician and actor
Aretha Franklin
Singer and songwriter
Bob Dylan
Singer-songwriter
Celia Cruz
Singer
Miles Davis
Jazz trumpeter and composer
Miriam Makeba
Singer and activist
Youssou N'Dour
Musician and politician
Toumani Diabaté
Musician
Grace Hopper
Computer scientist and naval officer
Alan Shepard
Astronaut
Tim Berners-Lee
Computer scientist
Corazon Aquino
President of the Philippines
Ferdinand Marcos
President of the Philippines
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan
Founding President of the United Arab Emirates
Mohammad Zahir Shah
King of Afghanistan
Norodom Sihamoni
King of Cambodia
Václav Havel
Playwright and statesman
Lech Wałęsa
President of Poland
Mobutu Sese Seko
President of Zaire
Thomas Sankara
President of Burkina Faso
Ahmed Sékou Touré
President of Guinea
Nnamdi Azikiwe
President of Nigeria
Olusegun Obasanjo
President of Nigeria
Robert Sobukwe
Anti-apartheid revolutionary
F. W. de Klerk
President of South Africa
J. Robert Oppenheimer
Theoretical physicist
Enrico Fermi
Physicist
Werner Heisenberg
Theoretical physicist
Barbara McClintock
Cytogeneticist
Nina Simone
Singer, pianist, and civil rights activist
Maria Callas
Opera singer
Rudolf Nureyev
Ballet dancer and choreographer
José Figueres Ferrer
President of Costa Rica
Omar Torrijos
Military leader of Panama
Rafael Correa
President of Ecuador
Olof Palme
Prime Minister of Sweden
Dag Hammarskjöld
United Nations Secretary-General
Thor Heyerdahl
Explorer and ethnographer
Muhammad Yunus
Economist and microfinance pioneer
Malala Yousafzai
Education activist
Wangari Maathai
Environmental activist
Shirin Ebadi
Lawyer and human rights activist
Leymah Gbowee
Peace activist
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
President of Liberia
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Multi-sport athlete
Wilt Chamberlain
Basketball player
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Basketball player
George Best
Footballer
Johan Cruyff
Footballer and manager
Naomi Osaka
Tennis player
Zaha Hadid
Architect
Toni Morrison
Novelist and editor
Levon Ter-Petrosyan
President of Armenia
Heydar Aliyev
President of Azerbaijan
Eduard Shevardnadze
Statesman and diplomat
Nursultan Nazarbayev
President of Kazakhstan
Islam Karimov
President of Uzbekistan
Askar Akayev
President of Kyrgyzstan
Todor Zhivkov
Leader of Bulgaria
Simeon II
Tsar and Prime Minister of Bulgaria
Enver Hoxha
Leader of Albania
Slobodan Milošević
President of Serbia and Yugoslavia
Alija Izetbegović
President of Bosnia and Herzegovina
Franjo Tuđman
President of Croatia
Habib Bourguiba
President of Tunisia
Hassan II of Morocco
King of Morocco
Mohammed V of Morocco
King of Morocco
Hafez al-Assad
President of Syria
Bashar al-Assad
Former President of Syria
Hussein of Jordan
King of Jordan
Mustafa Barzani
Kurdish nationalist leader
Rafic Hariri
Prime Minister of Lebanon
Kiri Te Kanawa
Opera singer
Gough Whitlam
Prime Minister of Australia
Julia Gillard
Prime Minister of Australia
Menachem Begin
Prime Minister of Israel
Yitzhak Rabin
Prime Minister of Israel
Shimon Peres
Prime Minister and President of Israel
Ariel Sharon
Prime Minister of Israel
Moshe Dayan
Military leader and politician
Ehud Barak
Prime Minister of Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of Israel
Chien-Shiung Wu
Physicist
Dorothy Hodgkin
Chemist
Hedy Lamarr
Actress and inventor
Mae Jemison
Astronaut and physician
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Vivien Thomas
Surgical laboratory supervisor
Cristiano Ronaldo
Footballer
Zinedine Zidane
Footballer and manager
Ronaldinho
Footballer
David Beckham
Footballer
Suharto
President of Indonesia
Megawati Sukarnoputri
President of Indonesia
Diosdado Macapagal
President of the Philippines
Ngô Đình Diệm
President of South Vietnam
Bảo Đại
Last emperor of Vietnam
Lê Duẩn
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam
Võ Nguyên Giáp
General
Anne Frank
Diarist and Holocaust victim
Oskar Schindler
Industrialist and humanitarian
Raoul Wallenberg
Diplomat and humanitarian
Simon Wiesenthal
Nazi hunter
Elie Wiesel
Writer and Holocaust survivor
Primo Levi
Writer and Holocaust survivor
Viktor Frankl
Neurologist and psychiatrist
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Theologian and anti-Nazi dissident
Sophie Scholl
Anti-Nazi student activist
Claus von Stauffenberg
Army officer
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Francois Duvalier
President of Haiti
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Jean-Claude Duvalier
President of Haiti
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Jean-Bertrand Aristide
President of Haiti
Michel Martelly
President of Haiti
Rene Preval
President of Haiti
Carlos Andres Perez
President of Venezuela
Rafael Caldera
President of Venezuela
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Marcos Perez Jimenez
Military dictator of Venezuela
Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Astrophysicist
Vera Rubin
Astronomer
Katherine Freese
Theoretical physicist
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Sally Ride
Astronaut & physicist
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Valentina Tereshkova
Cosmonaut
Svetlana Savitskaya
Cosmonaut & aviator
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Peggy Whitson
Astronaut & biochemist
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Christa McAuliffe
Teacher & astronaut
Eileen Collins
Astronaut & Air Force pilot
Ellen Ochoa
Astronaut & engineer
Rosalind Picard
Computer scientist
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Michael Somare
Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea
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Oscar Arias
President of Costa Rica
Manuel Noriega
Military dictator of Panama
Daniel Ortega
President of Nicaragua
Joaquin Balaguer
President of the Dominican Republic
Violeta Chamorro
President of Nicaragua
Indira Gandhi
Prime Minister of India
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Sirimavo Bandaranaike
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
Wilma Mankiller
Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Dolores Huerta
Labor leader & activist
Shirley Chisholm
Politician
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Juan Bosch
President of the Dominican Republic
Felix Houphouet-Boigny
First President of Ivory Coast
Kenneth Kaunda
First President of Zambia
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Sam Nujoma
First President of Namibia
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Seretse Khama
First President of Botswana
Amilcar Cabral
Anti-colonial leader & agricultural engineer
Paul Biya
President of Cameroon
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Denis Sassou Nguesso
President of the Republic of the Congo
Gnassingbe Eyadema
President of Togo
Mengistu Haile Mariam
Head of state of Ethiopia
Siad Barre
President of Somalia
Qaboos bin Said
Sultan of Oman
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Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa
King of Bahrain
Lee Teng-hui
President of the Republic of China
Chiang Ching-kuo
President of the Republic of China
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Jigme Singye Wangchuck
King of Bhutan
Hassanal Bolkiah
Sultan of Brunei
Kamisese Mara
Prime Minister & President of Fiji
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Malietoa Tanumafili II
Head of State of Samoa
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Vigdis Finnbogadottir
President of Iceland
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Alexander Dubcek
Leader of Czechoslovakia
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Stanislau Shushkevich
First head of state of independent Belarus
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Kiro Gligorov
First President of independent Macedonia
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Milo Djukanovic
President & Prime Minister of Montenegro
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Milan Kucan
First President of independent Slovenia
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Dom Mintoff
Prime Minister of Malta
Makarios III
Archbishop & first President of Cyprus
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Eric Williams
First Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
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Forbes Burnham
Leader of Guyana
George Price
First Prime Minister of Belize
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Victor Paz Estenssoro
President of Bolivia
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Alfredo Stroessner
Military dictator of Paraguay
Willy Brandt
Chancellor of West Germany
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