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Famous People in History

Omkar Phatak
This story has a list of some of the most famous people in history, who stood out due to their monumental contributions to human knowledge and culture. If it wasn't for them, our present would have been quite different from what it is today.
Some individuals rise in stature and change the course of history through their extraordinary efforts. These are people who followed their heart and believed in their own genius.
In this story, I present a list of such famous people from the annals of history, who changed the world, challenged established thought, broke the shackles of conformity and dared to be themselves. If you are looking for inspiration, it can be found in the biographies of these great men and women who have influenced generations with their thinking.

Famous People Who Changed the World

Here is a list of some of the most famous personalities who broke all rules of conformity and created new paradigms of thought. They have been listed together, according to their fields of contribution.

Great Leaders of Men

Alexander the Great
July 356 BC - June 323 BC
Military Commander, King of Macedonia
Pharaoh of Egypt, King of Persia,
King of Asia

Genghis Khan
1162 AD - 1227 AD
Supreme Khan of the Mongols
Founder and Emperor of the Mongol Empire

Julius Caesar
100 BC - 44 BC
Dictator of the Roman Republic
Saladin
1138 AD - 1193 AD
Sultan of Syria and Egypt

Catherine the Great
1729 AD - 1796 AD
Empress and Autocrat of All the Russias, Empress consort of All the Russias

Cleopatra
69 BC - 30 BC
Queen of Egypt

Qin Shi Huang
260 BC - 210 BC
King of Qin, Emperor of China
Attila the Hun
406 AD - 453 AD
Ruler of the Hunnic Empire

Elizabeth I
1533 AD - 1603 AD
Queen of England and Ireland

Queen Victoria
1819 AD - 1901 AD
Monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

Peter I of Russia
1672 AD - 1725 AD
Emperor of All Russia, Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of All Russia
Horatio Nelson
1758 AD - 1805 AD
Vice Admiral of the White, Royal British Navy

Oliver Cromwell
1599 AD - 1658 AD
English Political and Military Leader

Mahatma Gandhi
1869 - 1948
Father of India

Winston Churchill
1874 - 1965
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Napoleon Bonaparte
1769 - 1821
French Military and Political Leader

Franklin D. Roosevelt
1882 - 1945
32nd President of the United States

Abraham Lincoln
1809 - 1865
16th President of the United States

Indira Gandhi
1917 - 1984
Prime Minister of India
Ho Chi Minh
1890 - 1969
1st President of Vietnam

John F. Kennedy
1917 - 1963
35th President of the United States

Nelson Mandela
1918 - 2013
President of South Africa

Queen Elizabeth II
Born 21 April, 1926
Queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth
Theodore Roosevelt
1858 - 1919
26th President of the United States

Vladimir Lenin
1870 - 1924
Premier of the Soviet Union

Benjamin Franklin
1706 - 1790
A Founding Father of the United States

Ariel Sharon
1928 - 2014
11th Prime Minister of Israel
Henri La Fontaine
1854 - 1943
President of the International Peace Bureau, Nobel Laureate

Jacques Chirac
Born: November 29, 1932
22nd President of France

Thomas Jefferson
1743 - 1826
3rd President of the United States

Aung San Suu Kyi
Born: June 19, 1945
Burmese Politician

Fidel Castro
Born: August 13, 1926
President of Cuba

Kofi Annan
Born: April 8, 1938
7th Secretary-General of the United Nations

Henry Kissinger
Born: May 27, 1923
56th United States Secretary of State

Yasser Arafat
1929 - 2004
President of the Palestinian National Authority
George Washington
1732 - 1799
1st U.S. President

Angela Merkel
Born: July 17, 1954
Chancellor of Germany

Religious Figures

Bahá'u'lláh
1817 - 1892
Founder of the Bahá'í Faith

Jesus Christ
7-2 BC - 30-33 AD
Central figure of Christianity

Buddha
563 BC to 483 BC - 483 BC or 411 BC and 400 BC
Sage, Founder of Buddhism
Krishna
Hindu Deity, Incarnation of Vishnu

Moses
Prophet, Religious Leader

Prophet Muhammad
570 AD - 632 AD
Islamic Prophet

Confucius
551 BC - 479 BC
Chinese Philosopher

Martin Luther
1483-1546
German Monk
St. John the Baptist
1st Century BC - 31 - 36 AD
Religious Figure

Mother Teresa
1910-1997
Christian Missionary

Saint Paul
5 AD - 67 AD
Apostle

Ramkrishna Paramhansa
1836 - 1886
Hindu Mystic
Sri Aurobindo
1872 - 1950
Indian Yogi, Poet

St. Francis of Assisi
1181/1182 - 1226
Italian Catholic Friar and Preacher

Swami Vivekananda
1863 - 1902
Indian Hindu Monk

John Calvin
1509 - 1564
French Theologian and Pastor
 Ayatollah Khomeini
1902 - 1989
Iranian Religious Leader and Politician

Desmond Tutu
Born: October 7, 1931
South African Retired Anglican Bishop and Social Rights Activist

Zoroaster
Founder of Zoroastrianism

14th Dalai Lama
Born: July 6, 1935
Tibetan Buddhist High Monk
Martin Luther King, Jr.
1929 - 1968
American Pastor, Activist

Lao-tzu
604 BC - 531 BC
Chinese Poet and Philosopher

Mathematicians, Scientists, and Inventors

Nicolaus Copernicus
1473 - 1543
Polish Astronomer and Mathematician

Galileo Galilei
1564 - 1642
Italian Physicist, Mathematician, Engineer, Astronomer

Pythagoras
570 BC - 495 BC
Greek Mathematician, Philosopher
Euclid
Greek Mathematician

Leonardo Da Vinci
1452 - 1519
Italian Polymath

Joseph Louis Lagrange
1736 - 1813
Italian Astronomer and Mathematician

Leonhard Euler
1707 - 1783
Swiss Physicist and Mathematician
Albert Einstein
1879 - 1955
German Theoretical Physicist

Richard Feynman
1918 - 1988
American Theoretical Physicist

Niels Bohr
1885 - 1962
Danish Physicist

Paul Dirac
1902 - 1984
English Theoretical Physicist
Alexander Graham Bell
1847 - 1922
Scottish Inventor of the Telephone

Heinrich Hertz
1857 - 1894
German Physicist

Satyendranath Bose
1894 - 1974
Indian Physicist

Thomas Edison
1847 - 1931
American Investor
Archimedes
287 BC - 212 BC
Ancient Greek Astronomer, Mathematician

Srinivasa Ramanujan
1887 - 1920
Indian Autodidact, Mathematician

Tim Berners-Lee
Born: June 8, 1955
Inventor of the World Wide Web

Sir Isaac Newton
1642 - 1727
English Physicist and Mathematician
Stefan Banach
1892 - 1945
Polish Mathematician

Aryabhata
476 AD - 550 AD
Indian Mathematician and Astronomer

John von Neumann
1903 - 1957
Hungarian-American Polymath

Pierre de Fermat
1601/1607 - 1665
French Lawyer, Mathematician
James Clerk Maxwell
1831- 1879
Scottish Theoretical Physicist

Carl F. Gauss
1777 - 1855
German Mathematician

Joseph Fourier
1768 - 1830
French Physicist and Mathematician

Henri Poincaré
1854 - 1912
French Theoretical Physicist, Mathematician
David Hilbert
1862 - 1943
German Mathematician

Pierre-Simon Laplace
1749 - 1827
French Astronomer and Mathematician

John Bardeen
1908 - 1991
American Physicist

Henri Becquerel
1852 - 1908
French Physicist
James Chadwick
1891 - 1974
English Physicist

Hendrik Casimir
1909 - 2000
Dutch Physicist

Enrico Fermi
1901 - 1954
Italian Physicist

Robert Boyle
1627 - 1691
Irish Physicist, Chemist
Abdus Salam
1926 - 1996
Theoretical Physicist

Stephen Hawking
Born: January 8, 1942
Theoretical Physicist

Jack Kilby
1923 - 2005
American Electrical Engineer

Orville Wright
1871 - 1948
Aviation Pioneer

Writers, Poets, and Philosophers

Ernest Hemingway
1899 - 1961
American Author, Journalist

Hans Christian Andersen
1805 - 1875
Danish Author

Dante Alighieri
1265 - 1321
Italian Poet
Jalaluddin Rumi
1207 - 1273
Persian Sufi Mystic, Poet

Samuel Beckett
1906 - 1989
Irish Playwright, Novelist, Poet, Theater Director

Anton Chekhov
1860 - 1904
Russian Author, Playwright, Physician

Ray Bradbury
1920 - 2012
American Fiction Writer
Leo Tolstoy
1828 - 1910
Novelist, Playwright, Essayist

Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1821- 1881
Russian Novelist, Essayist, Writer

Isaac Asimov
1920 - 1992
American Science Fiction Writer

H.G.Wells
1866 - 1946
English Science Fiction Novelist
Arthur C. Clarke
1917 - 2008
British Science Fiction Writer

Cormac McCarthy
Born: July 20, 1933
American Novelist, Playwright, Screenwriter

Pearl Buck
1892 - 1973
American Novelist

Jeffrey Archer
Born: April 15, 1940
English Novelist
George Byron
1788 - 1824
English Poet

Oscar Wilde
1854 - 1900
Irish Poet and Writer

Albert Camus
1913 - 1960
French Author, Journalist, Philosopher, Nobel Laureate

Truman Capote
(Truman Streckfus Persons)
1924 - 1984
American Playwright, Screenwriter, Author
Lewis Carroll
(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
1832 - 1898
English Writer, Mathematician

Joseph Conrad
1857 - 1924
Polish Author

Harper Lee
Born: April 28, 1926
American Novelist

T. S. Eliot
1888 - 1965
English/American Literary and Social Critic, Playwright, Essayist
J.R.R.Tolkien
1892 - 1973
English Writer, Poet

Salman Rushdie
Born: June 19, 1947
Indian British Novelist, Essayist

V.S. Naipaul
Born: August 17, 1932
British Writer, Novelist

Paulo Coelho
Born: August 24, 1947
Brazilian Novelist and Lyricist
Sidney Sheldon
1917 - 2007
American Screenwriter, Novelist

J. K. Rowling
Born July 31, 1965
British Novelist

W. B. Yeats
1865 - 1939
Irish Poet

Alfred Tennyson
1809 - 1892
Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland
Robert Frost
1874 - 1963
American Poet

Rabindranath Tagore
1861 - 1941
Indian Poet, Writer, Playwright, Painter, Polymath

Kahlil Gibran
1883 - 1931
Lebanese Poet, Writer, Artist

Mario Puzo
1920 - 1999
Italian American Novelist, Screenwriter
Sant Tukaram
1577 - 1650
Spiritual Poet, Saint

Saint Dnyaneshwar
1275 - 1296
Indian Poet, Writer, Philosopher, Yogi

Munshi Premchand
1880 - 1936
Indian Novelist

Mark Twain
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
1835 - 1910
American Humorist and Writer
P. G. Wodehouse
1881 - 1975
English Humorist, Novelist, Journalist

Ralph Waldo Emerson
1803 - 1882
American Poet, Lecturer, Essayist

Henry David Thoreau
1817 - 1862
American Author, Poet, Philosopher, Polymath

Rudyard Kipling
1865 - 1936
English Poet, Writer, Novelist
Arthur Conan Doyle
1859 - 1930
Scottish Writer, Physician

Virginia Woolf
1882 - 1941
English Writer

Victor Hugo
1802 - 1885
French Novelist, Dramatist

William Shakespeare
1564 - 1616
English Playwright, Poet, Actor
William Somerset Maugham
1874 - 1965
British Novelist, Playwright

Walt Whitman
1819 - 1892
American Essayist, Poet, Journalist

Sylvia Plath
1932 - 1963
American Poet, Novelist, Writer

Pablo Neruda
(Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto)
1904 - 1973
Chilean Poet
Emily Dickinson
1830 - 1886
American Poet

John Keats
1795 - 1821
English Poet

Robert Louis Stevenson
1850 - 1894
Scottish Novelist, Poet, Essayist, Travel Writer

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807 - 1882
American Poet
Karl Marx
1818 - 1883
German Philosopher, Economist, Revolutionary Socialist, Journalist

Friedrich Engels
1820 - 1895
German Author, Philosopher, Social Scientist

George Bernard Shaw
1856 - 1950
Irish Playwright

Friedrich Nietzsche
1844 - 1900
German Philosopher, Writer, Cultural Critic, Poet, Composer
Immanuel Kant
1724 - 1804
German Philosopher

Jean-Paul Sartre
1905 - 1980
French Playwright, Philosopher, Literary Critic, Novelist

David Hume
1711 - 1776
Scottish Historian, Philosopher, Economist

Karl Popper
1902 - 1994
Austrian-British Philosopher, Economist
Adam Smith
1723 - 1790
Scottish Philosopher and Political Economist

Francis Bacon
1561 - 1626
English Philosopher, Scientist, Statesman

Socrates
470/469 BC - 399 BC
Greek Philosopher

Bertrand Russell
1872 - 1970
British Philosopher, Mathematician
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
1770 - 1831
German Philosopher

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712 - 1778
German Philosopher, Composer, Writer

Chānakya
370 BC - 283 BC
Indian Philosopher, Teacher, Royal Advisor

W. H. Auden
1907 - 1973
Anglo-American Poet
Purushottam Lakshman Deshpande
1919 - 2000
Indian Humorist, Writer, Orator, Philanthropist

Explorers and Adventurers

Sir Edmund Hillary
1919 - 2008
New Zealand Mountaineer, Explorer, and Philanthropist

Tenzing Norgay
1914 - 1986
Nepalese Sherpa Mountaineer

George Mallory
1886 - 1924
English Mountaineer

Marco Polo
1254 - 1324
Italian Merchant Traveler
David Livingstone
1813 - 1873
Scottish Medical Missionary, Pioneering Explorer of Africa

Ferdinand Magellan
1480 - 1521
Portuguese Explorer

Amerigo Vespucci
1454 - 1512
Italian explorer, Navigator, Cartographer, Financier
Christopher Columbus
1450/1451 - 1506
Italian Navigator, Explorer, Colonizer

Roald Amundsen
1872 - 1928
Norwegian Polar Explorer

Frederick Cook
1865 - 1940
American Explorer, Physician, Ethnographer
Captain James Cook
1728 - 1779
British Navigator, Explorer, Cartographer

Neil Armstrong
1930 - 2012
American Astronaut, First Lunar Explorer

Yuri Gagarin
1934 - 1968
Soviet Cosmonaut and Pilot

Charles Augustus Lindbergh
1902 - 1974
American Explorer, Aviator, Author, Inventor
Amelia Earhart
1897 - 1937 (Disappeared)
American Aviation Pioneer, Author

Wiley Post
1898 - 1935
American Aviator

Famous Actors, Actresses, and Directors

Elizabeth Taylor
1932 - 2011
British-American Actress

Sir Sidney Poitier
Born: February 20, 1927
Bahamian-American Actor, Film Director

Clark Gable
1901 - 1960
American Film Actor
Marilyn Monroe
(Norma Jeane Mortenson)
1926 - 1962
American, Actress, Model, Singer

Marlon Brando
1924 - 2004
American Film and Stage Actor

Sean Connery
Born: August 25, 1930
Scottish Actor and Producer
Harrison Ford
Born: July 13, 1942
American Film Actor, Producer

Humphrey Bogart
1899 - 1957
American Actor

Ingrid Bergman
1915 - 1982
Swedish Actress

Alfred Hitchcock
1899 - 1980
English Film Director and Producer
Al Pacino
Born: April 25, 1940
American Film and Stage Actor

Robert De Niro
Born: August 17, 1943
American Actor, Director, Producer

Tom Hanks
Born: July 9, 1956
American Actor, Writer, Producer, and Director

Steven Spielberg
Born: December 18, 1946
American film Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Francis Ford Coppola
Born: April 7, 1939
American film director, Screenwriter, Producer

Robert Zemeckis
Born: May 14, 1952
Lithuanian-American Film Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Christopher Nolan
Born July 30, 1970
British-American Film Director, Producer, Screenwriter
Angelina Jolie
Born: June 4, 1975
American Actress, Screenwriter, Film Director

Cameron Diaz
Born: August 30, 1972
American Actress, Model

Meryl Streep
June 22, 1949
American Actress

Morgan Freeman
Born: June 1, 1937
American Actor, Film Director
Jim Carrey
Born: January 17, 1962
Canadian American Actor, Comedian

Rachel Weisz
Born: March 7, 1970
English Film, Theater Actress

Kate Winslet
Born: October 5, 1975
English Actress, Singer

Will Smith
Born: September 25, 1968
American Actor, Producer, Rapper
Kevin Costner
Born: January 18, 1955
American Actor, Musician, Singer

Russell Crowe
Born: April 7, 1964
New Zealand Actor, Musician, Producer

Leonardo Di Caprio
Born: November 11, 1974
American Actor, Producer

Jude Law
(David Jude Heyworth Law)
Born: December 29, 1972
English Actor, Director, Producer
Robert John Downey, Jr.
Born: April 4, 1965
American Actor

Charlie Chaplin
1889 - 1977
English Actor, Comedian, Filmmaker

Paul Newman
1925 - 2008
American Actor, Director

Dustin Hoffman
Born August 8, 1937
American Actor
Richard Burton
1925 - 1984
Welsh Actor

Denzel Washington
Born: December 28, 1954
American Actor, Producer, Director

Sean Penn
Born: August 17, 1960
American actor, Screenwriter, Director

Kevin Spacey
July 26, 1959
American Actor, Screenwriter, Director
Michael Douglas
Born: September 25, 1944
American Actor and Producer

Tom Cruise
Born: July 3, 1962
American Actor and Producer

Sir Ben Kingsley
Born: December 31, 1943
English Actor

Industrialists and Entrepreneurs

Bill Gates
Born: October 28, 1955
American Inventor, Programmer, Microsoft Founder

Steve Jobs
1955 - 2011
American Entrepreneur, Inventor, Apple Inc. Founder, Philanthropist

Warren Buffett
Born: August 30, 1930
American Investor, Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Philanthropist
Carlos Slim Helú
Born: January 28, 1940
Mexican Businessman, Investor

Henry Ford
1863 - 1947
Ford Motor Company Founder, American Industrialist

John D. Rockefeller
1839 - 1937
Standard Oil Company Co-founder, Philanthropist
Andrew Carnegie
1835 - 1919
Scottish-American Industrialist

Howard Hughes
1905 - 1976
Aviator, Filmmaker, American Businessman

George Eastman
1854 - 1932
American Innovator, Entrepreneur, Eastman Kodak Company Founder

Larry Page
Born: March 26, 1973
Google Co-founder
Sergey Brin
Born: August 21, 1973
Google Co-founder

Mark Zuckerberg
Born: May 14, 1984
Facebook Co-founder, Computer Programmer

Richard Branson
Born: July 18, 1950
Virgin Group Founder, Investor

J. R. D. Tata
1904 - 1993
Indian Aviator, Business Tycoon

Famous Athletes and Sportsmen

Michael Jordan
Born: February 17, 1963
American Professional Basketball Player

Wayne Gretzky
Born: January 26, 1961
Canadian Ice hockey, Head Coach

Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay, Jr.)
Born: January 17, 1942
American Boxer, Heavyweight Champion
Pelé
(Edson Arantes do Nascimento)
Born: October 23, 1940
Brazilian Footballer

Joe Montana
Born: June 11, 1956
American Football Player

Larry Bird
Born: December 7, 1956
American Basketball Player

Usain Bolt
Born: August 21, 1986
Jamaican Sprinter
Babe Ruth
1895 - 1948
American Baseball Player

Michael Phelps
Born: June 30, 1985
American Swimmer

Bo Jackson
Born: November 30, 1962
American Baseball and Football Player

Alexander Karelin
Born: September 19, 1967
Russian Greco-Roman Wrestler
Steffi Graf
Born: June 14, 1969
German Tennis Player

Björn Borg
Born: June 6, 1956
Swedish Tennis Player

Michael Schumacher
Born: January 3, 1969
German Formula 1 Driver

Paula Radcliffe
Born: December 17, 1973
English Long-distance Runner
Roger Federer
Born: August 8, 1981
Swiss Tennis Player

David Beckham
Born: May 2, 1975
English Footballer

Carolina Klüft
Born: February 2, 1983
Swedish Track and Field Athlete

Carl Lewis
Born: July 1, 1961
American Track and Field Athlete
Bruce Lee
1940 - 1973
Father of Mixed Martial Arts

Jim Thorpe
1888 - 1953
American Athlete

Magic Johnson
Born: August 14, 1959
American Basketball Player

Tom Brady
Born: August 3, 1977
American Football Quarterback
Jesse Owens
1913 - 1980
American Track and Field Athlete

Lou Gehrig
1903 - 1941
American Baseball First Baseman

Hank Aaron
Born: February 5, 1934
American Baseball Player

Chris Evert
Born: December 21, 1954
American Tennis Player
Yelena Isinbayeva
Born: June 3, 1982
Russian Pole Vaulter

Maria Sharapova
Born: April 19, 1987
Russian Tennis Player

Boris Becker
Born: November 22, 1967
German Tennis Player

Tiger Woods
Born: December 30, 1975
American Golfer
Lionel Messi
Born: June 24, 1987
Argentine Footballer

Oliver Kahn
Born: June 15, 1969
German Football Goalkeeper

Jackie Robinson
1919 - 1972
American Baseball Player

Famous Singers, Composers, and Musicians

Johann Sebastian Bach
1685 - 1750
German Composer and Musician

Mick Jagger
Born: July 26, 1943
English Musician, Singer, Songwriter

Xian Xinghai
1905 - 1945
Chinese Composer
Bob Marley
1945 - 1981
Jamaican Reggae Singer-songwriter, Guitarist

Madonna Louise Ciccone
Born: August 16, 1958
American Singer, Songwriter

Caetano Veloso
Born: August 7, 1942
Brazilian Composer, Singer, Guitarist

Fela Kuti
1938 - 1997
Nigerian Musician, Multi-instrumentalist, Composer
Miles Davis
1926 - 1991
American Jazz Musician, Trumpeter, Composer

Billie Holiday
1915 - 1959
American Jazz Singer, Songwriter

Robert Johnson
1911 - 1938
American Blues Singer, Musician

Bob Dylan
Born: May 24, 1941
American Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756 - 1791
Austrian Classical Music Composer

Elvis Presley
1935 - 1977
American singer, Musician, Actor

Louis Armstrong
1901 - 1971
American Jazz Trumpeter, Singer

Michael Jackson
1958 - 2009
American Singer, Songwriter, Musician, Dancer
John Lennon
1940 - 1980
English Musician, Singer, Songwriter

Paul McCartney
Born: June 18, 1942
English Musician, Singer, Songwriter, Composer

George Harrison
1943 - 2001
English Musician, Singer, Songwriter

Ringo Starr
Born: July 7, 1940
English Musician, Singer, Songwriter
Ludwig van Beethoven
1770 - 1827
German Composer, Pianist

Kurt Cobain
1967 - 1994
American Musician, Guitarist, Songwriter

Elton John
March 25, 1947
English Singer, Songwriter, Composer, Pianist, Record Producer

Jimi Hendrix
1942 - 1970
American Electric Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter
Aretha Franklin
Born: March 25, 1942
American Singer, Musician

Axl Rose
Born: February 6, 1962
American Singer, Songwriter, Musician

Whitney Houston
1963 - 2012
American Singer, Actress, Producer

Stevie Wonder
Born: May 13, 1950
American Musician, Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer
Robert Plant
Born: 20 August, 1948
English Musician, Singer, Songwriter

Marvin Gaye
1939 - 1984
American Singer, Songwriter, Musician

Bono
Born: May 10, 1960
Irish Singer, Songwriter, Musician

James Brown
1933 - 2006
American Recording Artist, Musician
This is a representative list of famous people in ancient and recent history. It is simply not possible to list each and every one of the famous personalities as it's endless.

All these people symbolize the phenomenal power of the human will and creativity.