A–Z index
All 973 people, filed by surname.
46 people
Robert La Follette 1855–1925Government & PoliticsWisconsin governor and senator who led the Progressive movement against railroad and corporate influence.
Robert M. La Follette 1855–1925Government & PoliticsProgressive governor and senator who championed direct democracy, corporate regulation, and political reform.
Kendrick Lamar b. 1987Arts & LettersRapper whose albums won a Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy Awards.
Hedy Lamarr 1914–2000Technology & BuildingActress and inventor who co-developed frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology, the basis for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Edwin Land 1909–1991Technology & BuildingScientist and co-founder of Polaroid who invented instant photography.
Dorothea Lange 1895–1965Arts & LettersDocumentary photographer whose Depression-era images defined the visual record of the 1930s.
Lewis Latimer 1848–1928Technology & BuildingAfrican American inventor who improved the light bulb and drafted patents for Alexander Graham Bell.
Lewis Howard Latimer 1848–1928Technology & BuildingPatented a durable carbon filament process and drafted key electrical patents for Bell and Edison.Estée Lauder 1908–2004Business & LaborCosmetics pioneer who built one of the world's largest beauty companies from her kitchen.
Ralph Lauren b. 1939Business & LaborFashion designer who created a global lifestyle brand synonymous with American style.
Ernest Lawrence 1901–1958Science & MedicineInvented the cyclotron and built the Berkeley model of large-scale team physics.
Jacob Lawrence 1917–2000Arts & LettersPainter whose Migration Series chronicled the Great Migration of African Americans to the North.
Emma Lazarus 1849–1887Arts & LettersPoet whose sonnet The New Colossus gave the Statue of Liberty its meaning as a refuge for immigrants.
Ursula K. Le Guin 1929–2018Arts & LettersWriter who used speculative fiction to examine gender, power, culture, and alternative social arrangements.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt 1868–1921Science & MedicineDiscovered the Cepheid period-luminosity relation that made measuring cosmic distances possible.
Harper Lee 1926–2016Arts & LettersAuthor of To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that shaped America's conversation on race.
Richard Henry Lee 1732–1794Government & PoliticsVirginia delegate whose June 1776 resolution formally moved that the colonies be independent states.
Robert E. Lee 1807–1870Government & PoliticsConfederate commander whose military reputation and later commemoration became central to Civil War memory and the Lost Cause.
Annie Leibovitz b. 1949Arts & LettersPortrait photographer whose Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair work defined American celebrity imagery.
Aldo Leopold 1887–1948Reform & RightsEcologist whose “land ethic” became foundational to modern environmental thought.
Lawrence Lessig b. 1961Ideas & MediaHarvard Law professor and activist who founded Creative Commons and campaigns against political corruption.
Carl Lewis b. 1961Frontier & SportTrack and field athlete who won nine Olympic gold medals across four consecutive Games.
John Lewis 1940–2020Reform & RightsFreedom Rider and congressman whose activism was central to the civil-rights movement and voting-rights legislation.
John L. Lewis 1880–1969Business & LaborUnion leader who built the United Mine Workers and helped found the CIO, expanding industrial unionism and collective bargaining.
Meriwether Lewis 1774–1809Frontier & SportCo-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which mapped the American West to the Pacific Ocean.
Michael Lewis b. 1960Ideas & MediaAuthor and financial journalist whose Moneyball and The Big Short turned complex topics into bestsellers.
Sinclair Lewis 1885–1951Arts & LettersFirst American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose satirical novels critiqued American capitalism.
Willard Libby 1908–1980Science & MedicineDeveloped radiocarbon dating — transforming archaeology and geology — and won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Roy Lichtenstein 1923–1997Arts & LettersPop artist whose comic-strip-inspired paintings became icons of 1960s American art.
Rush Limbaugh 1951–2021Ideas & MediaRadio host who built the national conservative talk format and reshaped American political broadcasting.
Maya Lin b. 1959Technology & BuildingDesigner of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial whose work transformed American memorial architecture.
Abraham Lincoln 1809–1865Government & Politics16th President who preserved the Union during the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation.
Mary Todd Lincoln 1818–1882Government & PoliticsFirst Lady who buried three sons and was committed by the fourth in a public insanity trial.
Charles Lindbergh 1902–1974Frontier & SportAviator who made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927.
Walter Lippmann 1889–1974Ideas & MediaColumnist and political thinker whose work shaped modern journalism and debate over public opinion and democracy.
Barbara Liskov b. 1939Technology & BuildingDeveloped data abstraction in the CLU language and formulated the Liskov substitution principle.
Robert R. Livingston 1746–1813Government & PoliticsChancellor of New York who administered Washington's oath and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase.
Henry Cabot Lodge 1850–1924Government & PoliticsSenate leader who blocked American entry into the League of Nations after the First World War.
Vince Lombardi 1913–1970Frontier & SportCoach whose Green Bay teams, championship record, and leadership mythology became embedded in American sports culture.
Huey Long 1893–1935Government & PoliticsLouisiana governor and senator whose Share Our Wealth program pressured New Deal policy before his assassination.
Joe Louis 1914–1981Frontier & SportHeavyweight boxing champion whose 1938 rematch against Max Schmeling became a symbolic battle against Nazism.
Glenn Loury b. 1948Ideas & MediaBrown University economist whose work on race, inequality, and social policy bridges left and right.
Jim Lovell 1928–2025Frontier & SportCommander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, whose calm leadership brought the crew home safely.
Percival Lowell 1855–1916Science & MedicineFounded Lowell Observatory and initiated the search that led to Pluto's discovery.
George Lucas b. 1944Arts & LettersFilmmaker who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones, later selling Lucasfilm to Disney for over $4 billion.
Henry Luce 1898–1967Ideas & MediaMagazine publisher whose Time — Life and Fortune defined mid-century American newsweekly formats.