wing of the archive
The Modern Era
The industrial and imperial centuries: inventors, statesmen, artists, and the makers of the modern world.
Modern era
Indira Gandhi
November 19, 1917 – October 31, 1984
Prime Minister of India (1966-1977; 1980-1984)
Modern era
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
December 25, 1876 – September 11, 1948
Politician and the founder of Pakistan (1876–1948)
Modern era
Sun Yat-sen
November 12, 1866 – March 12, 1925
Chinese politician, physician, and revolutionary (1866–1925)
Modern era
Chiang Kai-shek
October 31, 1887 – April 5, 1975
Chinese politician, military leader, and President of the ROC (1887–1975)
Modern era
Zhou Enlai
March 5, 1898 – January 8, 1976
1st Premier of the People's Republic of China
Modern era
Deng Xiaoping
August 22, 1904 – February 19, 1997
Chinese politician and paramount leader from 1978 to 1989
Modern era
Emperor Meiji
November 3, 1852 – July 30, 1912
Emperor of Japan from 1867 until 1912
Modern era
Ho Chi Minh
May 19, 1890 – September 2, 1969
Vietnamese communist leader, founder of North Vietnam (1890–1969)
Modern era
Sukarno
June 6, 1901 – June 21, 1970
1st President of Indonesia (1901—1970)
Modern era
Corazon Aquino
January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009
President of the Philippines from 1986 to 1992
Modern era
Kwame Nkrumah
September 21, 1909 – April 27, 1972
Ghanaian politician (1909–1972)
Modern era
Julius Nyerere
April 13, 1922 – October 14, 1999
Tanzanian politician and writer, first Prime Minister and President of Tanzania (1922–1999)
Modern era
Jomo Kenyatta
October 20, 1893 – August 22, 1978
First Prime Minister (1963 to 1964) and President (1964 to 1978) of self-governing Kenya
Modern era
Patrice Lumumba
July 2, 1925 – January 17, 1961
Congolese politician and independence leader (1925–1961)
Modern era
Haile Selassie
July 23, 1892 – August 27, 1975
Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974
Modern era
Malcolm X
May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965
American Black rights activist (1925–1965)
Modern era
John Lewis
February 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020
American politician and civil rights leader (1940–2020)
Modern era
Fidel Castro
August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016
Cuban politician, author and revolutionary (1926–2016)
Modern era
Che Guevara
June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967
Argentine Marxist revolutionary (1928–1967)
Modern era
Eva Peron
May 7, 1919 – July 26, 1952
Argentine actress and politician (1919–1952)
Modern era
Salvador Allende
June 26, 1908 – September 11, 1973
28th president of Chile (1908–1973
Modern era
Kofi Annan
April 8, 1938 – August 18, 2018
7th Secretary-General of the United Nations (1938-2018)
Modern era
Charles Darwin
February 12, 1809 – April 19, 1882
Naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed biology
Modern era
Louis Pasteur
December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895
Chemist whose germ theory and vaccines saved uncounted lives
Modern era
Thomas Edison
February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931
Prolific American inventor of the phonograph and practical electric light
Modern era
Nikola Tesla
July 10, 1856 – January 7, 1943
Inventor and electrical engineer who pioneered alternating current
Modern era
Marie Curie
November 7, 1867 – July 4, 1934
Physicist and chemist, first person to win Nobel Prizes in two sciences
Modern era
Albert Einstein
March 14, 1879 – April 18, 1955
Theoretical physicist who reshaped our understanding of space, time, and energy
Modern era
Alexander Fleming
August 6, 1881 – March 11, 1955
Discoverer of penicillin, the first true antibiotic
Modern era
Alan Turing
June 23, 1912 – June 7, 1954
Mathematician who founded computer science and broke Enigma
Modern era
Ada Lovelace
December 10, 1815 – November 27, 1852
Mathematician who wrote the first computer program a century early
Modern era
Edwin Hubble
November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953
American astronomer (1889–1953)
Modern era
Georges Lemaitre
July 17, 1894 – June 20, 1966
Belgian astrophysicist and Catholic priest (1894–1966)
Modern era
Carl Sagan
November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996
American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author (1934–1996)
Modern era
Vera Rubin
July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016
American astronomer and physicist (1928-2016)
Modern era
Bernhard Riemann
September 17, 1826 – July 20, 1866
German mathematician (1826–1866)
Modern era
Srinivasa Ramanujan
December 22, 1887 – April 26, 1920
Indian mathematician (1887–1920)
Modern era
David Hilbert
January 23, 1862 – February 14, 1943
German mathematician (1862–1943)
Modern era
Kurt Godel
April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978
Austrian-American logician, mathematician, and philosopher of mathematics (1906–1978)
Modern era
Emmy Noether
March 23, 1882 – April 14, 1935
German Jewish mathematician (1882–1935)
Modern era
John von Neumann
December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957
Hungarian and American mathematician and physicist (1903–1957)
Modern era
Claude Shannon
April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001
American mathematician and information theorist (1916–2001)
Modern era
James Clerk Maxwell
June 13, 1831 – November 5, 1879
Scottish physicist (1831–1879)
Modern era
Heinrich Hertz
February 22, 1857 – January 1, 1894
German physicist (1857–1894)
Modern era
Ludwig Boltzmann
February 20, 1844 – September 5, 1906
Austrian physicist and philosopher (1844–1906)
Modern era
Lord Kelvin
June 26, 1824 – December 17, 1907
British physicist and engineer (1824–1907)
Modern era
Wilhelm Rontgen
March 27, 1845 – February 10, 1923
German physicist (1845–1923)
Modern era
Henri Becquerel
December 15, 1852 – August 25, 1908
French physicist (1852–1908)
Modern era
Pierre Curie
May 15, 1859 – April 19, 1906
French physicist (1859–1906)
Modern era
J. J. Thomson
December 18, 1856 – August 30, 1940
British physicist (1856-1940)
Modern era
Ernest Rutherford
August 30, 1871 – October 19, 1937
New Zealand physicist (1871–1937)
Modern era
Niels Bohr
October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962
Danish physicist (1885–1962)
Modern era
Max Planck
April 23, 1858 – October 4, 1947
German theoretical physicist (1858–1947)
Modern era
Werner Heisenberg
December 5, 1901 – February 1, 1976
German theoretical physicist and nobel prize winner (1901–1976)
Modern era
Erwin Schrodinger
August 12, 1887 – January 4, 1961
Austrian physicist (1887–1961)
Modern era
Paul Dirac
August 8, 1902 – October 20, 1984
British theoretical physicist (1902–1984)
Modern era
Wolfgang Pauli
April 25, 1900 – December 15, 1958
Physicist, Nobel prize winner (1900–1958)
Modern era
Enrico Fermi
September 29, 1901 – November 28, 1954
Italian–American physicist (1901–1954)
Modern era
Lise Meitner
1878 – October 27, 1968
Austrian-Swedish physicist
Modern era
James Chadwick
October 20, 1891 – July 24, 1974
English physicist (1891-1974), who discovered the neutron in 1932