A–Z index
All 1,176 people, filed by surname.
91 people
Douglas MacArthur 1880–1964Government & PoliticsCommander who led major Pacific campaigns, oversaw Japan’s occupation, and became central to the Korean War controversy.
Madam C. J. Walker 1867–1919Business & LaborEntrepreneur who built a major Black hair-care company and used her wealth for philanthropy and civil-rights causes.
Rachel Maddow b. 1973Ideas & MediaMSNBC host and author whose in-depth political analysis has made her a leading progressive voice.
Dolley Madison 1768–1849Government & PoliticsFirst Lady who built the political salon of early Washington and saved the Washington portrait in 1814.
James Madison 1751–1836Government & PoliticsFourth President and Father of the Constitution who co-authored the Federalist Papers.
Bernie Madoff 1938–2021Crime & NotorietyFinancier who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history — costing investors tens of billions of dollars.
Madonna b. 1958Arts & LettersThe Queen of Pop who reshaped the music industry and became a symbol of female empowerment and reinvention.
Norman Mailer 1923–2007Arts & LettersNovelist and journalist who won two Pulitzer Prizes and helped establish literary nonfiction.
Malcolm X 1925–1965Reform & RightsCivil-rights leader whose critique of racism and advocacy of Black dignity reshaped American political thought.
Frank Malina 1912–1981Technology & BuildingLed the Caltech student rocket group that became JPL, then left America under investigation and spent a second life as an artist in Paris.
Benoit Mandelbrot 1924–2010Science & MedicineDeveloped fractal geometry during a long research career at IBM and Yale.
Wilma Mankiller 1945–2010Reform & RightsFirst woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, known for institution-building and community development.
Horace Mann 1796–1859Ideas & MediaReformist who championed public education and is considered the father of the American public school system.
Charles Manson 1934–2017Crime & NotorietyCult leader whose followers’ murders became a lasting symbol of violence and the collapse of 1960s countercultural idealism.
Mickey Mantle 1931–1995Frontier & SportSwitch-hitting Yankees star whose power, championships, and celebrity made him an enduring icon of postwar baseball.Robert Mapplethorpe 1946–1989Arts & LettersPhotographer whose retrospective set off the 1989 fight over public arts fundingJacqueline Mars b. 1939Business & LaborHeiress and board member of Mars Inc., one of the world's largest privately held confectionery companies.
George C. Marshall 1880–1959Government & PoliticsArmy chief of staff who organized U.S. victory in World War II and later designed the Marshall Plan.
John Marshall 1755–1835Government & PoliticsChief justice who established judicial review and strengthened the Supreme Court and federal government.
Thurgood Marshall 1908–1993Government & PoliticsFirst African American Supreme Court Justice and lead attorney in Brown v. Board of Education.
Groucho Marx 1890–1977Arts & LettersComedian who turned the verbal insult into the engine of American comedy, from vaudeville and the Marx Brothers pictures to 14 years of You Bet Your Life.
Abraham Maslow 1908–1970Ideas & MediaProposed the hierarchy of needs and helped found humanistic psychology.
George Mason 1725–1792Government & PoliticsFounding-era statesman whose Virginia Declaration of Rights helped inspire the Bill of Rights.
Cotton Mather 1663–1728Ideas & MediaPuritan minister who wrote the official defense of the Salem witch court and later campaigned for smallpox inoculation.
John Mauchly 1907–1980Technology & BuildingCo-inventor of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer.
Maria Goeppert Mayer 1906–1972Science & MedicinePhysicist and Nobel laureate who developed the nuclear shell model, a fundamental account of atomic nuclei.
Marissa Mayer b. 1975Technology & BuildingFormer Yahoo CEO and early Google engineer who was one of Silicon Valley's most prominent female executives.
Willie Mays 1931–2024Frontier & SportBaseball icon known as the Say Hey Kid, widely considered one of the greatest all-around players ever.
Christa McAuliffe 1948–1986Frontier & SportTeacher selected for the Teacher in Space program who died in the Challenger disaster.
John McCain 1936–2018Government & PoliticsSenator and war hero whose bipartisan spirit and military service defined his political career.
Cormac McCarthy 1933–2023Arts & LettersNovelist whose stark, violent prose in Blood Meridian and The Road earned him a Pulitzer Prize.
John McCarthy 1927–2011Technology & BuildingCoined the term artificial intelligence and created the Lisp programming language.
Joseph McCarthy 1908–1957Crime & NotorietySenator whose unsupported accusations and investigations gave “McCarthyism” its name and damaged civil liberties.
Barbara McClintock 1902–1992Science & MedicineCytogeneticist who discovered transposable elements and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Mitch McConnell b. 1942Government & PoliticsLongest-serving Senate party leader who reshaped the federal judiciary through confirmation strategy.
Cyrus McCormick 1809–1884Technology & BuildingInventor of the mechanical reaper that transformed agriculture and fed a growing nation.
Frank McCourt 1930–2009Ideas & MediaPulitzer Prize-winning memoirist and New York City teacher whose Angela's Ashes became a global bestseller.
David McCullough 1933–2022Ideas & MediaNarrative historian of Truman, John Adams and the Brooklyn Bridge
George McGovern 1922–2012Government & PoliticsSouth Dakota senator and 1972 presidential nominee who led opposition to the Vietnam War.
William McKinley 1843–1901Government & PoliticsTwenty-fifth president who led the Spanish-American War and overseas expansion before being assassinated.
Robert McNamara 1916–2009Government & PoliticsSecretary of Defense who applied systems analysis to the Pentagon and escalated the Vietnam War.
Aimee Semple McPherson 1890–1944Ideas & MediaEvangelist and media innovator who founded the Foursquare Church and pioneered religious broadcasting and celebrity ministry.
Timothy McVeigh 1968–2001Crime & NotorietyDomestic terrorist whose Oklahoma City bombing became one of the deadliest attacks in American history.
Margaret Mead 1901–1978Ideas & MediaCultural anthropologist whose studies of Pacific Island societies shaped 20th-century social science.
George G. Meade 1815–1872Government & PoliticsUnion general whose command victory at Gettysburg marked a turning point in the Civil War.
Russell Means 1939–2012Reform & RightsAmerican Indian Movement leader whose occupations drove Native activism into national view.
George Meany 1894–1980Business & LaborNew York plumber who merged the AFL and the CIO in 1955 and ran the combined federation for 24 years, through the peak of American labor and the beginning of its decline.
Deborah Meier b. 1931Ideas & MediaPioneer of small-school reform who founded Central Park East and won a MacArthur Genius Grant.Sanford Meisner 1905–1997Arts & LettersActing teacher who created the Meisner technique
Andrew W. Mellon 1855–1937Business & LaborBanker and art collector whose foundation built the National Gallery of Art.
Herman Melville 1819–1891Arts & LettersNovelist whose Moby-Dick is considered one of the greatest works of American literature.
H.L. Mencken 1880–1956Ideas & MediaSatirist and cultural critic whose biting prose defined American journalism in the early 20th century.Thomas Merton 1915–1968Ideas & MediaTrappist monk and writer whose books popularized contemplative spirituality, social criticism, and interfaith dialogue.
Metacom 1638–1676Reform & RightsWampanoag leader whose war against New England colonies marked a decisive struggle over Indigenous sovereignty.
Robert Metcalfe b. 1946Technology & BuildingCo-invented Ethernet at Xerox PARC and founded 3Com to commercialize local area networking.
Albert A. Michelson 1852–1931Science & MedicineThe Michelson-Morley experiment and the measurement of the speed of light
Harvey Milk 1930–1978Reform & RightsFirst openly gay elected official in California whose assassination made him a martyr for LGBTQ rights.
Michael Milken b. 1946Business & LaborFinancier who built the modern high-yield bond market at Drexel Burnham Lambert, pleaded guilty to six securities and tax felonies in 1990, and later funded medical research and an economic think tank.
Arthur Miller 1915–2005Arts & LettersPlaywright whose Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are cornerstones of American drama.
Stanley Miller 1930–2007Science & MedicineThe 1953 experiment that made amino acids from a simulated early atmosphere
Robert Millikan 1868–1953Science & MedicineMeasuring the charge of the electron
Patsy Mink 1927–2002Reform & RightsFirst woman of color elected to Congress and a principal author and defender of Title IX.
Hyman Minsky 1919–1996Ideas & MediaFormulated the financial instability hypothesis explaining how stability breeds speculative crises.
Marvin Minsky 1927–2016Technology & BuildingBuilt the first neural network learning machine, then wrote the book blamed for burying the idea.
Lucy Sprague Mitchell 1878–1967Ideas & MediaProgressive educator who founded Bank Street College and revolutionized early childhood education.
Maria Mitchell 1818–1889Science & MedicineFirst American woman professional astronomer who discovered a comet and taught at Vassar College.
Ralph Modjeski 1861–1940Technology & BuildingPolish-American bridge engineer who designed major spans including the Bay Bridge and Benjamin Franklin Bridge.
Thelonious Monk 1917–1982Arts & LettersPianist and composer whose distinctive harmonies, rhythms, and repertory became central to modern jazz.
James Monroe 1758–1831Government & PoliticsFifth president associated with the Monroe Doctrine and an era of territorial expansion and one-party dominance.
Marilyn Monroe 1926–1962Arts & LettersActress and cultural icon whose blend of vulnerability and glamour made her a symbol of Hollywood's golden age.
Dwight L. Moody 1837–1899Ideas & MediaRan revival like a business and left the Chicago school that trained American fundamentalism.Betty Moore 1928–2023Business & LaborCo-founder of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, one of the largest environmental philanthropies.
Gordon Moore 1929–2023Technology & BuildingCo-founder of Intel whose observation became Moore's Law, driving decades of semiconductor progress.
Garrett Morgan 1877–1963Technology & BuildingInventor who created the traffic signal and gas mask, saving countless lives.
J. P. Morgan 1837–1913Business & LaborBanking titan who stabilized the economy during the Panic of 1907 and shaped modern finance.
Julia Morgan 1872–1957Technology & BuildingFirst woman licensed as an architect in California and designer of Hearst Castle.
Toni Morrison 1931–2019Arts & LettersNobel laureate whose novels, including Beloved, explored the African American experience with profound lyricism.
Samuel Morse 1791–1872Technology & BuildingPainter and inventor who developed the telegraph and Morse code, enabling instant long-distance communication.
Robert Moses 1888–1981Technology & BuildingMaster builder whose roads, parks, and public works reshaped metropolitan New York while displacing communities and entrenching car dependence.
Robert Parris Moses 1935–2021Ideas & MediaCivil rights leader and math educator who founded the Algebra Project to empower poor students.
Dustin Moskovitz b. 1984Business & LaborFacebook co-founder who left to build Asana and became one of the youngest self-made billionaires.
Mother Jones 1837–1930Business & LaborOrganizer whose militant campaigns for miners and against child labor made her an icon of American labor.
Lucretia Mott 1793–1880Reform & RightsAbolitionist and women’s-rights organizer who helped convene the Seneca Falls Convention.
Muddy Waters 1913–1983Arts & LettersChicago bluesman who electrified Delta blues and supplied a foundation for rock music.
John Muir 1838–1914Reform & RightsNaturalist and organizer whose advocacy helped create national parks and the modern wilderness movement.
Rupert Murdoch b. 1931Ideas & MediaMedia mogul whose News Corp and Fox Corporation shaped global news and entertainment.
Audie Murphy 1925–1971Government & PoliticsMost decorated American soldier of World War II who later became a film actor.
Pauli Murray 1910–1985Reform & RightsLawyer and activist whose legal arguments laid groundwork for Brown v. Board and LGBTQ rights.
Edward R. Murrow 1908–1965Ideas & MediaBroadcast journalist whose reporting from London during WWII and confrontation with McCarthy set journalistic standards.
Story Musgrave b. 1935Frontier & SportNASA astronaut who flew on six Space Shuttle missions and performed the first Shuttle spacewalk.
Elon Musk b. 1971Technology & BuildingEngineer and entrepreneur whose companies have advanced electric vehicles, reusable rockets, and neural interfaces.