Home › Timeline › Early 20th century
Early 20th century
Born 1900-1929 — depression, world war and the making of the superpower.
–1699
Colonial era
9
1700–1779
Founding era
46
1780–1819
Early Republic
77
1820–1864
Antebellum & Civil War era
132
1865–1899
Industrial & Progressive era
156
1900–1929
Early 20th century
327
1930–1949
Mid-20th century
251
1950–1969
Late 20th century
127
1970–1999
Contemporary era
51
2000–
Digital era
327 people, oldest first
The people
Howard Aiken 1900–1973Technology & BuildingPhysicist and engineer who designed the Harvard Mark I, an early electromechanical computer.
Aaron Copland 1900–1990Arts & LettersComposer whose accessible modernist works created an enduring musical language associated with American landscapes and identity.
Richard Halliburton 1900–1939Frontier & SportAdventurer and writer who traveled the world and swam the Panama Canal.
Mary Lasker 1900–1994Science & MedicineTurned advertising method into a lobbying machine and built federal funding for medical research.
Ernie Pyle 1900–1945Ideas & MediaWar correspondent whose columns on infantry life defined American reporting of the Second World War.
Charles Richter 1900–1985Science & MedicineCreator of the earthquake magnitude scale
Hyman G. Rickover 1900–1986Government & PoliticsArchitect of the nuclear Navy who transformed submarine propulsion, naval engineering, and military management.
Adlai Stevenson II 1900–1965Government & PoliticsIllinois governor and two-time Democratic presidential nominee who later served as UN ambassador.
Frederick Terman 1900–1982Technology & BuildingStanford dean and provost who built the first university industrial park
Stella Adler 1901–1992Arts & LettersActing teacher who trained Marlon Brando and broke with Lee Strasberg
Louis Armstrong 1901–1971Arts & LettersTrumpeter and singer whose innovations and worldwide fame made jazz a central American art form.
Harry Bridges 1901–1990Business & LaborLed West Coast longshore workers through the 1934 strike and headed the ILWU for decades.
Harold Clurman 1901–1980Arts & LettersCo-founder of the Group Theatre and drama critic of The Nation
Walt Disney 1901–1966Arts & LettersAnimator and business magnate who created Mickey Mouse and built the world's largest entertainment empire.
Enrico Fermi 1901–1954Science & MedicineItalian-American physicist who built the first nuclear reactor and won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Langston Hughes 1901–1967Arts & LettersHarlem Renaissance poet and writer whose work celebrated Black life and challenged racial injustice.
Louis Kahn 1901–1974Technology & BuildingThe Salk Institute, the Kimbell and the National Assembly at Dhaka, from an architect who began at 50.
Ernest Lawrence 1901–1958Science & MedicineInvented the cyclotron and built the Berkeley model of large-scale team physics.
Margaret Mead 1901–1978Ideas & MediaCultural anthropologist whose studies of Pacific Island societies shaped 20th-century social science.
Linus Pauling 1901–1994Science & MedicineChemist and peace activist who won two unshared Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Peace.
Lee Strasberg 1901–1982Arts & LettersTaught the Method to two generations of American actors, and made affective memory the centre of it.
Roy Wilkins 1901–1981Reform & RightsRan the NAACP for 22 years and bet everything on courts, lobbying and legislation.
Ansel Adams 1902–1984Arts & LettersLandscape photographer whose Western images and zone system shaped American photographic practice.
Walter Brattain 1902–1987Technology & BuildingThe experimentalist whose hands built the first working transistor, at Bell Labs in December 1947.
Ray Kroc 1902–1984Business & LaborBusinessman who transformed McDonald's from a single restaurant into the world's largest fast-food chain.
Charles Lindbergh 1902–1974Frontier & SportAviator who made the first solo nonstop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in 1927.
Barbara McClintock 1902–1992Science & MedicineCytogeneticist who discovered transposable elements and won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Richard Rodgers 1902–1979Arts & LettersWrote the scores that turned the Broadway musical into a form that could carry a story.
Carl Rogers 1902–1987Ideas & MediaCreated client-centered therapy and shaped modern counseling practice and training.
Menachem Mendel Schneerson 1902–1994Ideas & MediaLed Chabad-Lubavitch from Brooklyn for 43 years and sent married emissaries to more than 100 countries.
John Steinbeck 1902–1968Arts & LettersNobel Prize-winning novelist whose Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men chronicled American hardship.
Strom Thurmond 1902–2003Government & PoliticsLong-serving South Carolina senator who ran as a segregationist Dixiecrat and later joined the Republican Party.
John Atanasoff 1903–1995Technology & BuildingPhysicist who built the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer.
Ella Baker 1903–1986Reform & RightsGrassroots organizer who helped found the SNCC and shaped the civil rights movement behind the scenes.
George Beadle 1903–1989Science & MedicineGeneticist who won the Nobel Prize for showing that genes control biochemical reactions in cells.
James Beard 1903–1985Reform & RightsCookbook author and teacher whose advocacy helped define a distinct modern American culinary tradition.
John Dillinger 1903–1934Crime & NotorietyDepression-era bank robber whose 14-month run was used to build the modern FBI.
Walker Evans 1903–1975Arts & LettersPhotographer of the Depression-era American South
Sidney Farber 1903–1973Science & MedicineThe first remissions in childhood leukemia, and the Jimmy Fund
Lou Gehrig 1903–1941Frontier & SportYankees star whose durability, performance, and public farewell became enduring symbols of courage.
Mark Rothko 1903–1970Arts & LettersAbstract expressionist known for his large color-field paintings that evoke deep emotional responses.
Benjamin Spock 1903–1998Ideas & MediaPediatrician whose 1946 baby-care manual reshaped postwar American child-rearing advice.
John von Neumann 1903–1957Science & MedicineHungarian-American mathematician and engineer whose computer architecture remains the basis of modern computing.
Count Basie 1904–1984Arts & LettersKansas City bandleader whose rhythm section reset what a big band could swing like.
Willem de Kooning 1904–1997Arts & LettersAbstract expressionist whose gestural paintings helped define the New York School.Charles Drew 1904–1950Science & MedicinePhysician-scientist whose work on blood plasma and blood banking saved countless lives.
Cary Grant 1904–1986Arts & LettersThe definitive Hollywood leading man, and one of the first stars to break the studio contract system.
Alger Hiss 1904–1996Crime & NotorietyState Department official whose perjury conviction made Richard Nixon's career and split American opinion for decades.
George F. Kennan 1904–2005Government & PoliticsDiplomat whose Long Telegram and containment doctrine framed American Cold War strategy.
Isamu Noguchi 1904–1988Arts & LettersSculptor and designer whose works blend Japanese and American modernist traditions.
J. Robert Oppenheimer 1904–1967Science & MedicineTheoretical physicist who led the Manhattan Project and became known as the father of the atomic bomb.
Dr. Seuss 1904–1991Arts & LettersAuthor and illustrator whose rhythmic books transformed American children’s reading and publishing.
B. F. Skinner 1904–1990Ideas & MediaDeveloped operant conditioning and made behaviorism the dominant mid-century American psychology.
Henry Fonda 1905–1982Arts & LettersPlayed the plain American conscience for five decades — Tom Joad, Juror 8, Mister Roberts — and won his only Oscar at 76.Sanford Meisner 1905–1997Arts & LettersActing teacher who created the Meisner technique
Ayn Rand 1905–1982Arts & LettersNovelist and philosopher whose defense of individualism and capitalism deeply influenced American conservative and libertarian thought.
Hans Bethe 1906–2005Science & MedicinePhysicist who explained stellar energy production and led theoretical work at Los Alamos before becoming a prominent arms-control voice.
William J. Brennan Jr. 1906–1997Government & PoliticsInfluential justice who expanded civil liberties, equality doctrine, and application of the Bill of Rights to the states.Chester Carlson 1906–1968Technology & BuildingPhysicist who invented xerography, the technology behind the modern photocopier.
Philo Farnsworth 1906–1971Technology & BuildingDemonstrated the first fully electronic television system using his image dissector tube.
Kurt Gödel 1906–1978Science & MedicineProved the incompleteness theorems and spent his later career at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Grace Hopper 1906–1992Technology & BuildingComputer scientist and Navy rear admiral who helped develop early programming languages and computing.
Philip Johnson 1906–2005Technology & BuildingNamed the International Style at MoMA, then built it and publicly repudiated it.
Maria Goeppert Mayer 1906–1972Science & MedicinePhysicist and Nobel laureate who developed the nuclear shell model, a fundamental account of atomic nuclei.
Albert Sabin 1906–1993Science & MedicineMedical researcher who developed the oral polio vaccine used in worldwide eradication campaigns.
Billy Wilder 1906–2002Arts & LettersHollywood writer-director of Sunset Boulevard — Some Like It Hot and Double Indemnity.
Rachel Carson 1907–1964Reform & RightsMarine biologist whose book Silent Spring launched the modern environmental movement.
Charles Eames 1907–1978Arts & LettersDesigner who with Ray Eames produced molded plywood and fiberglass furniture for American manufacturers.
Robert A. Heinlein 1907–1988Arts & LettersScience fiction novelist — Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land
Katharine Hepburn 1907–2003Arts & LettersFour-time Oscar-winning actress whose independent spirit and wit made her a screen legend.
Abraham Joshua Heschel 1907–1972Ideas & MediaRabbi and theologian who linked Jewish thought with civil-rights and antiwar activism.
John Mauchly 1907–1980Technology & BuildingCo-inventor of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer.
Walter Reuther 1907–1970Business & LaborUnited Auto Workers leader who helped build organized labor into a major economic and political force.
I.F. Stone 1907–1989Ideas & MediaInvestigative journalist whose self-published newsletter exposed government lies for nearly two decades.
John Wayne 1907–1979Arts & LettersWestern star whose screen persona became a durable symbol of American masculinity.
John Bardeen 1908–1991Science & MedicineOnly person to win two Nobel Prizes in Physics, for the transistor and superconductivity theory.
Bette Davis 1908–1989Arts & LettersStudio-era actress who won two Academy Awards and fought Warner Bros. over contract terms.
Michael DeBakey 1908–2008Science & MedicineCardiovascular surgeon who invented the roller pump and the Dacron arterial graft
John Kenneth Galbraith 1908–2006Ideas & MediaEconomist and public intellectual whose The Affluent Society critiqued American consumerism.
Lyndon B. Johnson 1908–1973Government & Politics36th President who signed the Civil Rights Act and launched the Great Society programs.
Estée Lauder 1908–2004Business & LaborCosmetics pioneer who built one of the world's largest beauty companies from her kitchen.
Willard Libby 1908–1980Science & MedicineDeveloped radiocarbon dating — transforming archaeology and geology — and won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Thurgood Marshall 1908–1993Government & PoliticsFirst African American Supreme Court Justice and lead attorney in Brown v. Board of Education.
Abraham Maslow 1908–1970Ideas & MediaProposed the hierarchy of needs and helped found humanistic psychology.
Joseph McCarthy 1908–1957Crime & NotorietySenator whose unsupported accusations and investigations gave “McCarthyism” its name and damaged civil liberties.
Edward R. Murrow 1908–1965Ideas & MediaBroadcast journalist whose reporting from London during WWII and confrontation with McCarthy set journalistic standards.
Nelson Rockefeller 1908–1979Government & PoliticsGovernor and unelected vice president whose drug laws set the template for mass incarceration.
James Stewart 1908–1997Arts & LettersThe everyman of American movies, and a combat bomber pilot who rarely mentioned it.
Edward Teller 1908–2003Science & MedicinePhysicist and advocate of the hydrogen bomb whose work and policy influence shaped Cold War science and defense.
Richard Wright 1908–1960Arts & LettersNovelist whose works exposed the psychological and structural violence of racism and urban poverty in America.
Virginia Apgar 1909–1974Science & MedicinePhysician who created the Apgar score, transforming rapid assessment and survival of newborns.Clyde Barrow 1909–1934Crime & NotorietyThe West Dallas boy the Eastham Prison Farm turned into a killer bent on revenge.
Barry Goldwater 1909–1998Government & PoliticsSenator and presidential nominee whose 1964 campaign helped create the modern conservative movement.
Benny Goodman 1909–1986Arts & LettersClarinetist and bandleader who touched off the Swing Era
Elia Kazan 1909–2003Arts & LettersDirected A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman and On the Waterfront, and named names to HUAC.
Edwin Land 1909–1991Technology & BuildingScientist and co-founder of Polaroid who invented instant photography.
Roger Revelle 1909–1991Science & MedicineOceanographer and early scientist of human-caused global warming
Ronald Coase 1910–2013Ideas & MediaDeveloped transaction-cost theory of the firm and the Coase theorem while at Chicago.
John Hammond 1910–1987Arts & LettersRecord man who signed Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.
Kelly Johnson 1910–1990Technology & BuildingLed Lockheed's Skunk Works and designed the U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft.
Pauli Murray 1910–1985Reform & RightsLawyer and activist whose legal arguments laid groundwork for Brown v. Board and LGBTQ rights.
Bonnie Parker 1910–1934Crime & NotorietyBarrow Gang member and the most photographed outlaw of the Depression
Eero Saarinen 1910–1961Technology & BuildingArchitect whose expressive buildings and furniture became icons of postwar American modernism.
William Shockley 1910–1989Technology & BuildingCo-inventor of the transistor at Bell Labs, earning the Nobel Prize and launching the semiconductor age.Vivien Thomas 1910–1985Science & MedicineDevised the blue-baby heart operation without a medical degree, and went unnamed on the paper.
John Wooden 1910–2010Frontier & SportUCLA basketball coach whose ten NCAA titles in twelve seasons remain the sport's benchmark dynasty.
Lucille Ball 1911–1989Arts & LettersComedic actress and producer whose I Love Lucy pioneered the sitcom format and changed television.
Romare Bearden 1911–1988Arts & LettersArtist who used collage to depict African American life and culture in the 20th century.
Louise Bourgeois 1911–2010Arts & LettersFrench-American sculptor whose giant spider sculptures and psychologically intense works explored trauma.
L. Ron Hubbard 1911–1986Ideas & MediaScience-fiction writer who founded Scientology, creating a controversial and internationally influential American religious movement.
Hubert Humphrey 1911–1978Government & PoliticsSenator and vice president whose advocacy helped make civil rights a central commitment of the Democratic Party.Robert Johnson 1911–1938Arts & LettersDelta blues guitarist whose small recorded output influenced generations of blues and rock players.
Clark Kerr 1911–2003Ideas & MediaArchitect of California's 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education
Ronald Reagan 1911–2004Government & Politics40th president whose conservative domestic program and assertive Cold War strategy reshaped American politics.
Ginger Rogers 1911–1995Arts & LettersActress and dancer of Hollywood's Golden Age
Tennessee Williams 1911–1983Arts & LettersPlaywright whose A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof defined American theater.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias 1911–1956Frontier & SportMulti-sport athlete who won Olympic gold in track and field and became a golf legend.David Brower 1912–2000Reform & RightsConservation leader who transformed the Sierra Club and helped build the modern American environmental movement.
Julia Child 1912–2004Reform & RightsCookbook author and television host who transformed American home cooking and popular attitudes toward food.
Doris Duke 1912–1993Business & LaborTobacco heiress whose foundation supports the arts, environment, and medical research.
Milton Friedman 1912–2006Ideas & MediaNobel Prize-winning economist whose free-market ideas profoundly influenced American economic policy.
Woody Guthrie 1912–1967Arts & LettersDust Bowl balladeer whose songs shaped American folk and protest music for later generations.
Chuck Jones 1912–2002Arts & LettersWarner Bros. animator who directed many of the studio's Bugs Bunny and Road Runner shorts.
Gene Kelly 1912–1996Arts & LettersDanced in a T-shirt instead of tails, co-directed Singin' in the Rain, and rebuilt how dance is filmed.
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.
Tip O’Neill 1912–1994Government & PoliticsLong-serving House speaker who became the leading congressional counterweight to Ronald Reagan.David Packard 1912–1996Technology & BuildingBuilt Hewlett-Packard into a corporation and wrote the management code Silicon Valley copied.
Gordon Parks 1912–2006Arts & LettersPhotographer for Life magazine and first Black director of a major Hollywood studio film.
Jackson Pollock 1912–1956Arts & LettersAbstract expressionist whose drip painting technique revolutionized modern art.
Bayard Rustin 1912–1987Reform & RightsCivil rights strategist who organized the 1963 March on Washington and championed LGBTQ and labor rights.
Glenn T. Seaborg 1912–1999Science & MedicineCo-discovered plutonium and nine other transuranium elements and chaired the Atomic Energy Commission.
Studs Terkel 1912–2008Arts & LettersOral historian and Chicago broadcaster who recorded working Americans in book-length interview collections.
Wernher von Braun 1912–1977Technology & BuildingGerman-American aerospace engineer who led the development of the Saturn V rocket that took humans to the Moon.
Chien-Shiung Wu 1912–1997Science & MedicineExperimental physicist whose decisive work on parity violation transformed particle physics and challenged assumptions about natural symmetry.
Ralph Ellison 1913–1994Arts & LettersAuthor of Invisible Man, a landmark exploration of race, identity, and democracy.
Gerald Ford 1913–2006Government & Politics38th president who restored basic governmental stability after Watergate and controversially pardoned Richard Nixon.William Hewlett 1913–2001Technology & BuildingDesigned HP's first product and the pocket calculator that ended the slide rule.
Jimmy Hoffa 1913–1975Business & LaborTeamsters president who won American truckers their first national contract, and disappeared in 1975Larry Itliong 1913–1977Business & LaborFilipino American labor leader whose organizing initiated the Delano grape strike and helped build the United Farm Workers.
Vince Lombardi 1913–1970Frontier & SportCoach whose Green Bay teams, championship record, and leadership mythology became embedded in American sports culture.
Muddy Waters 1913–1983Arts & LettersChicago bluesman who electrified Delta blues and supplied a foundation for rock music.
Richard Nixon 1913–1994Government & Politics37th President whose foreign policy achievements were overshadowed by the Watergate scandal.
Jesse Owens 1913–1980Frontier & SportTrack and field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, defying Nazi ideology.
Rosa Parks 1913–2005Reform & RightsCivil rights activist whose refusal to give up her bus seat sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Norman Borlaug 1914–2009Reform & RightsAgronomist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose Green Revolution wheat varieties saved billions from famine.
Joe DiMaggio 1914–1999Frontier & SportYankees center fielder whose hitting streak and celebrity made him an enduring symbol of mid-century America.
Hedy Lamarr 1914–2000Technology & BuildingActress and inventor who co-developed frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology, the basis for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Joe Louis 1914–1981Frontier & SportHeavyweight boxing champion whose 1938 rematch against Max Schmeling became a symbolic battle against Nazism.
Paul Rand 1914–1996Arts & LettersGraphic designer who created corporate identities for IBM — UPS and ABC.
Jonas Salk 1914–1995Science & MedicineMedical researcher who developed the first safe and effective polio vaccine.
William Westmoreland 1914–2005Government & PoliticsCommander in Vietnam whose attrition strategy and optimistic troop estimates collided with the Tet Offensive.
Saul Bellow 1915–2005Arts & LettersNovelist whose intellectually rich fiction explored individuality, urban life, and the immigrant experience in modern America.
Billie Holiday 1915–1959Arts & LettersJazz singer whose intensely personal phrasing and performances, including 'Strange Fruit,' transformed American vocal music.
J. C. R. Licklider 1915–1990Technology & BuildingThe 1960 paper that described interactive computing before it existed, and the ARPA money that produced the ARPANETThomas Merton 1915–1968Ideas & MediaTrappist monk and writer whose books popularized contemplative spirituality, social criticism, and interfaith dialogue.
Arthur Miller 1915–2005Arts & LettersPlaywright whose Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are cornerstones of American drama.
David Rockefeller 1915–2017Business & LaborBanker and philanthropist who directed the Rockefeller Foundation's global development efforts.
Ethel Rosenberg 1915–1953Crime & NotorietyExecuted in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage, on testimony her brother later recanted.
Paul Samuelson 1915–2009Ideas & MediaFirst American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics, whose textbook defined the field for decades.
Frank Sinatra 1915–1998Arts & LettersCrooner and actor whose voice and charisma made him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Charles Townes 1915–2015Science & MedicinePhysicist who invented the maser and co-invented the laser, earning a Nobel Prize.
Orson Welles 1915–1985Arts & LettersDirector, actor, and broadcaster whose innovations in film, radio, and theater reshaped American visual and dramatic storytelling.
Charlie Christian 1916–1942Arts & LettersBenny Goodman Sextet guitarist who made the electric guitar a solo voice
Walter Cronkite 1916–2009Ideas & MediaCBS Evening News anchor known as the most trusted man in America during a pivotal era of broadcast journalism.Richard Hofstadter 1916–1970Ideas & MediaHistorian who named the paranoid style in American politics and won two Pulitzer Prizes, for The Age of Reform and Anti-Intellectualism in American Life.
Jane Jacobs 1916–2006Technology & BuildingWriter and activist whose defense of mixed, walkable neighborhoods transformed urban planning.
C. Everett Koop 1916–2013Science & MedicineSurgeon general whose public communication on AIDS, smoking, and child health reshaped national health policy.
Robert McNamara 1916–2009Government & PoliticsSecretary of Defense who applied systems analysis to the Pentagon and escalated the Vietnam War.
Gaylord Nelson 1916–2005Reform & RightsSenator and founder of Earth Day who helped make environmental protection a mass political movement.
Claude Shannon 1916–2001Technology & BuildingMathematician and engineer who founded information theory, the basis of all digital communication.
Herbert A. Simon 1916–2001Ideas & MediaPolymath whose theories of bounded rationality and pioneering artificial-intelligence research transformed economics and decision science.
Gwendolyn Brooks 1917–2000Arts & LettersPoet whose precise portrayals of Black life made her the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Phyllis Diller 1917–2012Arts & LettersStand-up comedy
Ella Fitzgerald 1917–1996Arts & LettersSinger whose technical command and interpretations helped define jazz and the Great American Songbook.
Dizzy Gillespie 1917–1993Arts & LettersJazz trumpeter who co-founded bebop and invented Afro-Cuban jazz
Katharine Graham 1917–2001Ideas & MediaPublisher who strengthened The Washington Post and backed its reporting on the Pentagon Papers and Watergate.
Fannie Lou Hamer 1917–1977Reform & RightsCivil rights activist whose testimony at the 1964 Democratic Convention exposed racist voting suppression.
John F. Kennedy 1917–1963Government & Politics35th President whose brief tenure included the Cuban Missile Crisis and the launch of the Apollo program.
Jacob Lawrence 1917–2000Arts & LettersPainter whose Migration Series chronicled the Great Migration of African Americans to the North.
Thelonious Monk 1917–1982Arts & LettersPianist and composer whose distinctive harmonies, rhythms, and repertory became central to modern jazz.
I. M. Pei 1917–2019Technology & BuildingArchitect whose monumental modern buildings reshaped American civic and cultural architecture.
Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. 1917–2007Ideas & MediaHistorian of American liberalism and special assistant to John F. Kennedy
Leonard Bernstein 1918–1990Arts & LettersConductor, composer, and educator who brought classical music to mass audiences and reshaped American musical theater.Clifford Berry 1918–1963Technology & BuildingCo-inventor of the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the first electronic digital computing device.
Howard Cosell 1918–1995Frontier & SportThe lawyer turned broadcaster who reported sport as news and stood by Ali when it cost him.
Gertrude B. Elion 1918–1999Science & MedicinePharmacologist whose rational drug-design work produced treatments for leukemia, infections, gout, and organ rejection.
Richard Feynman 1918–1988Science & MedicineTheoretical physicist known for his work in quantum mechanics and his accessible teaching style.
Betty Ford 1918–2011Government & PoliticsFirst Lady who spoke publicly about her breast cancer and her addiction and founded a treatment center.
Billy Graham 1918–2018Ideas & MediaEvangelist whose mass crusades, media reach, and presidential relationships made him a defining figure in modern American Protestantism.
Katherine Johnson 1918–2020Frontier & SportNASA mathematician whose orbital trajectory calculations supported the Mercury and Apollo crewed flights.
Oral Roberts 1918–2009Ideas & MediaMoved Pentecostal healing services from the revival tent onto national television, and built a university on the proceeds.
Julius Rosenberg 1918–1953Crime & NotorietyRan a Soviet spy ring and was executed for espionage in 1953
Sam Walton 1918–1992Business & LaborFounder of Walmart and Sam's Club who built the world's largest retail empire.
Nat King Cole 1919–1965Arts & LettersJazz pianist and singer of "Mona Lisa", "Unforgettable" and "The Christmas Song"
J. Presper Eckert 1919–1995Technology & BuildingCo-inventor of ENIAC and pioneer of electronic computing alongside John Mauchly.
Maurice Hilleman 1919–2005Science & MedicineVirologist who developed or improved more than forty vaccines, preventing millions of deaths and transforming public health.
Pauline Kael 1919–2001Ideas & MediaThe New Yorker's film critic from 1968 to 1991, who turned reviewing into a first-person argument and picked the fights that defined the field.
Hyman Minsky 1919–1996Ideas & MediaFormulated the financial instability hypothesis explaining how stability breeds speculative crises.
Jackie Robinson 1919–1972Frontier & SportFirst African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era, breaking the color barrier.
J. D. Salinger 1919–2010Arts & LettersAuthor whose fiction, especially The Catcher in the Rye, became a lasting touchstone of adolescent alienation.
George Wallace 1919–1998Crime & NotorietySegregationist governor whose campaigns helped shape racial backlash and modern populist politics.
Isaac Asimov 1920–1992Arts & LettersWriter whose science fiction and popular science helped shape public imagination about robots, technology, and the future.
Ray Bradbury 1920–2012Arts & LettersScience fiction writer whose Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles became American classics.Margaret Cargill 1920–2006Business & LaborHeiress whose anonymous foundation became one of America's largest charitable organizations after her death.
Montgomery Clift 1920–1966Arts & LettersScreen actor who brought an interior, self-doubting style to Hollywood before Brando or Dean
Denton Cooley 1920–2016Science & MedicineHeart surgeon who performed the first successful American heart transplant and implanted the first total artificial heart
Henrietta Lacks 1920–1951Science & MedicineHer cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and became the most used human cell line in science.
Charlie Parker 1920–1955Arts & LettersSaxophonist whose virtuosity and harmonic innovations made him a principal creator of bebop and modern jazz.Albert Schatz 1920–2005Science & MedicineIsolated streptomycin, the first drug effective against tuberculosis, and went to court for the credit.
John Paul Stevens 1920–2019Government & PoliticsLong-serving justice whose opinions shaped civil liberties, administrative law, and limits on executive power.
Marie Tharp 1920–2006Science & MedicineMapped the ocean floor by hand and found the Mid-Atlantic rift valley
Helen Thomas 1920–2013Ideas & MediaPioneering White House correspondent who covered every president from Kennedy to Obama.
Kenneth Arrow 1921–2017Ideas & MediaEconomist whose impossibility theorem and work on general equilibrium, risk, and information reshaped modern economic theory.
Aaron T. Beck 1921–2021Science & MedicineFounder of cognitive behavioral therapy and the Beck Depression Inventory
Ben Bradlee 1921–2014Ideas & MediaEditor who built The Washington Post into a leading national newspaper and directed its Watergate coverage.
Betty Friedan 1921–2006Reform & RightsAuthor of The Feminine Mystique and founding president of the National Organization for Women.
John Glenn 1921–2016Frontier & SportFirst American to orbit Earth and later the oldest person to fly in space at age 77.
Yuri Kochiyama 1921–2014Reform & RightsGrassroots activist who connected Asian American, Black liberation, antiwar, and reparations movements.
John Rawls 1921–2002Ideas & MediaPolitical philosopher whose A Theory of Justice became the most influential work of political philosophy in the 20th century.
Sugar Ray Robinson 1921–1989Frontier & SportBoxer widely regarded as a model of pound-for-pound excellence and a major figure in postwar sports culture.Mamie Till-Mobley 1921–2003Reform & RightsInsisted the country look at what was done to her son, then taught school and campaigned for fifty years.
Rosalyn Yalow 1921–2011Science & MedicineInvented radioimmunoassay with Solomon Berson, refused to patent it, and took the 1977 Nobel alone.
William Gaddis 1922–1998Arts & LettersNovelist of The Recognitions and J R
Judy Garland 1922–1969Arts & LettersActress and singer best known for The Wizard of Oz, whose life and talent became emblematic of Hollywood.
Jack Kerouac 1922–1969Arts & LettersNovelist whose spontaneous style and road narratives became defining texts of the Beat Generation.
George McGovern 1922–2012Government & PoliticsSouth Dakota senator and 1972 presidential nominee who led opposition to the Vietnam War.
Charles M. Schulz 1922–2000Arts & LettersCartoonist who drew Peanuts for fifty years and made Charlie Brown a national figure.
Fred Shuttlesworth 1922–2011Reform & RightsFounder of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
Kurt Vonnegut 1922–2007Arts & LettersSatirical novelist whose Slaughterhouse-Five became an anti-war classic of 20th-century literature.
Howard Zinn 1922–2010Ideas & MediaHistorian and Boston University professor whose A People's History of the United States reshaped historical narratives.Diane Arbus 1923–1971Arts & LettersPhotographer whose square-format portraits remade American documentary photography
Richard Avedon 1923–2004Arts & LettersPut movement into fashion photography, then stripped his subjects bare against white paper.
Bob Dole 1923–2021Government & PoliticsWounded veteran and Senate leader who helped write the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Ahmet Ertegun 1923–2006Arts & LettersCo-founder of Atlantic RecordsJohn Holt 1923–1985Ideas & MediaTeacher and author whose How Children Fail and How Children Learn inspired the homeschooling movement.
Jack Kilby 1923–2005Technology & BuildingCo-inventor of the integrated circuit, a foundational innovation that made modern electronics possible.
Henry Kissinger 1923–2023Government & PoliticsNational security adviser and secretary of state who shaped détente, China policy, and controversial Cold War interventions.
Stephanie Kwolek 1923–2014Science & MedicineInvented Kevlar aramid fiber while working as a DuPont research chemist.
Roy Lichtenstein 1923–1997Arts & LettersPop artist whose comic-strip-inspired paintings became icons of 1960s American art.
Norman Mailer 1923–2007Arts & LettersNovelist and journalist who won two Pulitzer Prizes and helped establish literary nonfiction.Sam Phillips 1923–2003Arts & LettersFounder of Sun Records
Wally Schirra 1923–2007Frontier & SportOnly astronaut to fly in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.
Alan Shepard 1923–1998Frontier & SportFirst American in space and fifth person to walk on the Moon during Apollo 14.
Hank Williams 1923–1953Arts & LettersCountry songwriter whose brief career set the template for the genre's later stars.
Chuck Yeager 1923–2020Frontier & SportAir Force test pilot who first exceeded the speed of sound in level flight in 1947.
John Backus 1924–2007Technology & BuildingLed the IBM team that created FORTRAN and co-developed Backus-Naur notation.
James Baldwin 1924–1987Arts & LettersEssayist and novelist whose searing explorations of race, sexuality, and identity remain profoundly relevant.
Marlon Brando 1924–2004Arts & LettersActor whose method acting revolutionized film performance and influenced generations of actors.
George H. W. Bush 1924–2018Government & Politics41st president who managed the end of the Cold War and assembled the coalition for the Persian Gulf War.
Truman Capote 1924–1984Arts & LettersWriter of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood — an early nonfiction novel.
Jimmy Carter 1924–2024Government & Politics39th president who emphasized human rights, brokered the Camp David Accords, and built a major post-presidential humanitarian legacy.
Shirley Chisholm 1924–2005Government & PoliticsFirst Black woman elected to Congress and first woman to run for a major party's presidential nomination.
Benoit Mandelbrot 1924–2010Science & MedicineDeveloped fractal geometry during a long research career at IBM and Yale.
William Rehnquist 1924–2005Government & PoliticsChief justice who led the Court’s conservative shift toward federalism and limits on congressional power.
Deke Slayton 1924–1993Frontier & SportOne of the original Mercury Seven who later directed astronaut selection and flew on the Apollo-Soyuz mission.
Robert Solow 1924–2023Ideas & MediaMeasured economic growth and found that most of it comes from technological progress, not capital.
Robert Altman 1925–2006Arts & LettersMade overlapping dialogue, drifting cameras and enormous casts into an American film language, lost Hollywood for a decade, and came back at 67.
Baruch Blumberg 1925–2011Science & MedicinePhysician-scientist whose discovery of the hepatitis B virus led to diagnostic tests and a widely used vaccine.
Lenny Bruce 1925–1966Arts & LettersProsecuted into bankruptcy for obscenity, and modern stand-up runs directly from him.
Scott Carpenter 1925–2013Frontier & SportMercury Seven astronaut who became the second American to orbit Earth.
Johnny Carson 1925–2005Arts & LettersHost of The Tonight Show for thirty years and the model for American late-night television.
Douglas Engelbart 1925–2013Technology & BuildingEngineer who invented the computer mouse and demonstrated interactive computing in 1968.
Medgar Evers 1925–1963Reform & RightsNAACP field secretary whose 1963 assassination galvanized the civil rights movement.
Rock Hudson 1925–1985Arts & LettersHollywood leading man and the first major American public figure to disclose an AIDS diagnosis
Frank Kameny 1925–2011Reform & RightsGay rights activist fired by the federal government in 1957
Robert F. Kennedy 1925–1968Government & PoliticsSenator and Attorney General whose 1968 presidential campaign was cut short by assassination.
B.B. King 1925–2015Arts & LettersSinger and guitarist whose expressive style brought electric blues to a worldwide audience and influenced generations of musicians.
Malcolm X 1925–1965Reform & RightsCivil-rights leader whose critique of racism and advocacy of Black dignity reshaped American political thought.
Audie Murphy 1925–1971Government & PoliticsMost decorated American soldier of World War II who later became a film actor.
Flannery O'Connor 1925–1964Arts & LettersSouthern Gothic writer whose darkly comic short stories and novels explored faith and morality.
Robert Rauschenberg 1925–2008Arts & LettersMixed-media artist whose Combines broke down boundaries between painting and sculpture.
Robert Venturi 1925–2018Technology & BuildingArchitect and author of Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture
Gore Vidal 1925–2012Ideas & MediaNovelist and essayist who wrote the United States as an empire in decline
Ralph Abernathy 1926–1990Reform & RightsCo-founder of the SCLC who led it after King was killed
Chuck Berry 1926–2017Arts & LettersGuitarist and songwriter whose music established core sounds, themes, and performance styles of rock and roll.
John Coltrane 1926–1967Arts & LettersSaxophonist and composer whose technical and spiritual explorations transformed modern jazz.
Miles Davis 1926–1991Arts & LettersTrumpeter and bandleader who repeatedly redirected jazz through bebop, cool jazz, modal music, and fusion.
Allen Ginsberg 1926–1997Arts & LettersHowl, Kaddish, and the 1957 obscenity trial
Alan Greenspan 1926–2026Ideas & MediaChaired the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006 across several financial crises.
Gus Grissom 1926–1967Frontier & SportOne of the original Mercury Seven astronauts who died in the Apollo 1 fire.Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 1926–2004Science & MedicineIntroduced the stages-of-grief model and advanced hospice and end-of-life care in America.
Harper Lee 1926–2016Arts & LettersAuthor of To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that shaped America's conversation on race.
Marilyn Monroe 1926–1962Arts & LettersActress and cultural icon whose blend of vulnerability and glamour made her a symbol of Hollywood's golden age.
Pete Rozelle 1926–1996Frontier & SportPersuaded the owners to share television money and built the modern NFL on it.
César Chávez 1927–1993Reform & RightsLabor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union.
Roy Cohn 1927–1986Crime & NotorietyChief counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy and prosecutor of the Rosenbergs
Gordon Cooper 1927–2004Frontier & SportMercury Seven astronaut who flew the final Mercury mission and later commanded a Gemini flight.
Althea Gibson 1927–2003Frontier & SportTennis champion who broke the sport's color barrier and became the first Black player to win major singles titles.
Samuel Huntington 1927–2008Ideas & MediaPolitical scientist whose Clash of Civilizations thesis shaped post-Cold War foreign policy discourse.
Coretta Scott King 1927–2006Reform & RightsCivil rights organizer, peace activist, and founder of the King Center
John McCarthy 1927–2011Technology & BuildingCoined the term artificial intelligence and created the Lisp programming language.
Patsy Mink 1927–2002Reform & RightsFirst woman of color elected to Congress and a principal author and defender of Title IX.
Marvin Minsky 1927–2016Technology & BuildingBuilt the first neural network learning machine, then wrote the book blamed for burying the idea.
Robert Noyce 1927–1990Technology & BuildingCo-inventor of the integrated circuit and co-founder of Intel, earning him the title Mayor of Silicon Valley.
Sidney Poitier 1927–2022Arts & LettersFirst Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, breaking barriers in Hollywood.
Paul Volcker 1927–2019Ideas & MediaBroke 1970s inflation as Federal Reserve chairman through sustained high interest rates.
Edward Albee 1928–2016Arts & LettersWrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, won three Pulitzer Prizes, and never one for that play.
Maya Angelou 1928–2014Arts & LettersPoet and memoirist whose I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings broke new ground in autobiographical writing.
Frank Borman 1928–2023Frontier & SportCommander of Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the Moon, and later CEO of Eastern Air Lines.
Noam Chomsky b. 1928Ideas & MediaLinguist and political activist whose theories revolutionized the study of language and cognitive science.
Philip K. Dick 1928–1982Arts & LettersWrote 45 novels asking whether reality is real and who counts as human, and Hollywood has filmed them ever since.
E. D. Hirsch Jr. b. 1928Ideas & MediaLiterary scholar whose Core Knowledge curriculum emphasized cultural literacy and shared knowledge.
Gordie Howe 1928–2016Frontier & SportMr. Hockey — 26 NHL seasons, 801 goals and six Hart Trophies
Charles David Keeling 1928–2005Science & MedicineMeasured atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa from 1958 until his death, producing the Keeling Curve.
Joan Kroc 1928–2003Business & LaborMcDonald's heiress whose bequests funded NPR, the Salvation Army, and peace studies.
Stanley Kubrick 1928–1999Arts & LettersDirector whose technically ambitious films redefined science fiction, war, horror, and cinematic authorship.
Jim Lovell 1928–2025Frontier & SportCommander of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, whose calm leadership brought the crew home safely.Betty Moore 1928–2023Business & LaborCo-founder of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, one of the largest environmental philanthropies.
John Forbes Nash Jr. 1928–2015Science & MedicineFormulated the Nash equilibrium and proved major results in differential geometry.
James Earl Ray 1928–1998Crime & NotorietyConvicted of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Vera Rubin 1928–2016Science & MedicineMeasured galaxy rotation curves that provided the main observational evidence for dark matter.
Andy Warhol 1928–1987Arts & LettersPop art pioneer whose Campbell's soup cans and celebrity portraits defined contemporary American art.
James Watson 1928–2025Science & MedicineCo-discoverer of the DNA double helix structure, earning a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Elie Wiesel 1928–2016Ideas & MediaHolocaust survivor, author of Night, and Nobel Peace laureate
John C. Bogle 1929–2019Business & LaborFounded Vanguard and launched the first index mutual fund for retail investors.
Frank Gehry 1929–2025Technology & BuildingDeveloped a sculptural architectural language seen in the Walt Disney Concert Hall and other landmarks.
Murray Gell-Mann 1929–2019Science & MedicineTheoretical physicist who discovered quarks and won the Nobel Prize for his standard model of particle physics.
Berry Gordy b. 1929Arts & LettersFounder of Motown, who turned an 800-dollar family loan into the Sound of Young America
Grace Kelly 1929–1982Arts & LettersFilm star turned Princess of MonacoFazlur Rahman Khan 1929–1982Technology & BuildingDeveloped tubular structural systems that made the Sears Tower and John Hancock Center possible.
Martin Luther King Jr. 1929–1968Reform & RightsBaptist minister and civil rights leader whose nonviolent activism ended legal segregation in America.
Ursula K. Le Guin 1929–2018Arts & LettersWriter who used speculative fiction to examine gender, power, culture, and alternative social arrangements.
Gordon Moore 1929–2023Technology & BuildingCo-founder of Intel whose observation became Moore's Law, driving decades of semiconductor progress.
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1929–1994Government & PoliticsFirst Lady who restored the White House as a museum and shaped the public memory of her husband's presidency.
Arnold Palmer 1929–2016Frontier & SportGolfer whose charisma and television popularity helped turn golf into a mass spectator sport.
Barbara Walters 1929–2022Ideas & MediaPioneering broadcast journalist who became the first female co-anchor of a network evening news program.
E. O. Wilson 1929–2021Science & MedicineBiologist whose studies of ants, biodiversity, and sociobiology reshaped ecology, evolution, and conservation debate.