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Early 20th century
Born 1900-1929 — depression, world war and the making of the superpower.
–1699
Colonial era
7
1700–1779
Founding era
34
1780–1819
Early Republic
64
1820–1864
Antebellum & Civil War era
110
1865–1899
Industrial & Progressive era
125
1900–1929
Early 20th century
238
1930–1949
Mid-20th century
204
1950–1969
Late 20th century
113
1970–
Contemporary era
46
238 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.Ernie Pyle 1900–1945Ideas & MediaWar correspondent whose columns on infantry life defined American reporting of the Second World War.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.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.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.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.Ansel Adams 1902–1984Arts & LettersLandscape photographer whose Western images and zone system shaped American photographic practice.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.Carl Rogers 1902–1987Ideas & MediaCreated client-centered therapy and shaped modern counseling practice and training.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.Barry Goldwater 1909–1998Government & PoliticsSenator and presidential nominee whose 1964 campaign helped create the modern conservative movement.Edwin Land 1909–1991Technology & BuildingScientist and co-founder of Polaroid who invented instant photography.Ronald Coase 1910–2013Ideas & MediaDeveloped transaction-cost theory of the firm and the Coase theorem while at Chicago.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.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.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.Ronald Reagan 1911–2004Government & Politics40th president whose conservative domestic program and assertive Cold War strategy reshaped American politics.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.Tip O’Neill 1912–1994Government & PoliticsLong-serving House speaker who became the leading congressional counterweight to Ronald Reagan.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.Larry 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.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.Thomas 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.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.Walter Cronkite 1916–2009Ideas & MediaCBS Evening News anchor known as the most trusted man in America during a pivotal era of broadcast journalism.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.Ella Fitzgerald 1917–1996Arts & LettersSinger whose technical command and interpretations helped define jazz and the Great American Songbook.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.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.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.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.Sam Walton 1918–1992Business & LaborFounder of Walmart and Sam's Club who built the world's largest retail empire.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.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.Charlie Parker 1920–1955Arts & LettersSaxophonist whose virtuosity and harmonic innovations made him a principal creator of bebop and modern jazz.John Paul Stevens 1920–2019Government & PoliticsLong-serving justice whose opinions shaped civil liberties, administrative law, and limits on executive power.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.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.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.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.John 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.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.Baruch Blumberg 1925–2011Science & MedicinePhysician-scientist whose discovery of the hepatitis B virus led to diagnostic tests and a widely used vaccine.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.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.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.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.César Chávez 1927–1993Reform & RightsLabor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union.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.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.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.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.E. D. Hirsch Jr. b. 1928Ideas & MediaLiterary scholar whose Core Knowledge curriculum emphasized cultural literacy and shared knowledge.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.John Forbes Nash Jr. 1928–2015Science & MedicineFormulated the Nash equilibrium and proved major results in differential geometry.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.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.Fazlur 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.Betty Moore 1929–2024Business & 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.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.