Biographies
In Memoriam: Tina Turner
Known as the "Queen of Rock and Roll," Turner was a towering presence across a few musical genres, including R&B; and soul music, in a career spanning five decades.
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In Memoriam: Cormac McCarthy
His novels about wayward characters in the rural American South and Southwest, such as No Country for Old Men and Blood Meridian, are noted for their dark violence, dense prose, and stylistic complexity.
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Editor's Picks
7 People Who Shaped LGBTQIA+ World History
Key figures of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey, American television personality, actress, and entrepreneur whose syndicated daily talk show was among the most popular of the genre. She became one of the richest and most influential women in the United States. Winfrey moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at age six to live with her
Gilles de Rais: History’s First Serial Killer?
Gilles de Rais was a wealthy nobleman and a war hero. Today, though, he is remembered for something much more sinister.
Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.), and a charismatic pioneer of the personal computer era. Jobs was raised by adoptive parents in Cupertino, California, located in what is now known as Silicon Valley. Though he was interested in engineering, his passions of youth
Was Napoleon Short?
Find out if the most-known aspect of Napoleon’s legacy is really true.
Zarathushtra
Zarathushtra, Iranian religious reformer and prophet, traditionally regarded as the founder of Zoroastrianism. A major figure in the history of world religions, Zarathushtra has been the object of much scholarly attention, in large part because of his apparent monotheism (his concept of one god,
Why the discovery of Cleopatra’s tomb would rewrite history
Archaeologists have discovered a tunnel possibly leading to the tomb of Queen Cleopatra, a find that would prove to be priceless for Egyptologists and other scholars.
Cantinflas
Cantinflas, one of the most popular entertainers in the history of Latin-American cinema. An internationally known clown, acrobat, musician, bullfighter, and satirist, he was identified with the comic figure of a poor Mexican slum dweller, a pelado, who wears trousers held up with a rope, a
Spotlight: William Shakespeare
No writer’s living reputation can compare to that of William Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early 17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often and in more countries than ever before. But who was the man behind such enduring and celebrated works?
Quizzes
Who Said It? Famous Quotes Quiz
Can you name the people associated with these famous quotations?
Who's on that Stamp?
This quiz requires attention -- you can't just mail it in.
Words Named After People Vocabulary Quiz
Find out who’s behind leotard, morphine, and more.
Famous Figures in American Military History Quiz
A 16-question salute to American armed forces.
Videos
How did Volodymyr Zelensky become president of Ukraine?
Galleries
Charles Darwin
Aristotle
Kings and Queens of Britain
Featured Categories
Athletes
Learn about Babe Didrikson Zaharias, one of America's greatest multisports stars
Newsreel segment on the death of American sportswoman Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1956.
Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player who is one of the greatest men’s players in the history of the game. His 23 Grand Slam singles titles—which includes an unprecedented 10 Australian Open championships—is a record for men. Djokovic took up tennis at age four and quickly ascended the junior
Serena Williams
Serena Williams, American tennis player who revolutionized women’s tennis with her powerful style of play and who won more Grand Slam singles titles (23) than any other woman or man during the open era. Williams grew up in Compton, California. The family included her parents—Oracene Price, a nurse,
Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani, Japanese professional baseball pitcher and designated hitter (DH) who established himself as the sport’s greatest two-way player in a century following his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut in 2018. In 2021 he became the first player in major league history to be named an All-Star as
Scientists
Marie Curie
Marie Curie, Polish-born French physicist, famous for her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With Henri Becquerel and her husband, Pierre Curie, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics. She was the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She was the
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison, American inventor who, singly or jointly, held a world-record 1,093 patents. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial research laboratory. Edison was the quintessential American inventor in the era of Yankee ingenuity. He began his career in 1863, in the adolescence of
Valerie Thomas
Valerie Thomas, American scientist and inventor who, while working at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), invented a way to transmit three-dimensional images, or holograms, that appear to be real. In addition, she helped to develop processing software to convert scientific
Tim Berners-Lee
Tim Berners-Lee, British computer scientist, generally credited as the inventor of the World Wide Web. In 2004 he was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the inaugural Millennium Technology Prize (€1 million) by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation. Computing
Leaders
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela, Black nationalist and the first Black president of South Africa (1994–99). His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de Klerk helped end the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation and ushered in a peaceful transition to majority rule. Mandela and de
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar, celebrated Roman general and statesman, the conqueror of Gaul (58–50 bce), victor in the civil war of 49–45 bce, and dictator (46–44 bce), who was launching a series of political and social reforms when he was assassinated by a group of nobles in the Senate House on the Ides of
Cixi
Cixi, consort of the Xianfeng emperor (reigned 1850–61), mother of the Tongzhi emperor (reigned 1861–75), adoptive mother of the Guangxu emperor (reigned 1875–1908), and a towering presence over the Chinese empire for almost half a century. By maintaining authority over the Manchu imperial house
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I, queen of England (1558–1603) during a period, often called the Elizabethan Age, when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts. Although her small kingdom was threatened by grave internal divisions, Elizabeth’s blend of shrewdness,