1. Start with a country
Country unlocks both the person list and the historical category list.
World History Database
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Historical biography search
Historical Biography Search: People, Leaders and Life Events
Search historical figures and build chronological biography timelines from structured records. Filter by country, surname or main name, given name, category and event to trace political careers, military service, scientific discoveries and major life events.
Historical figures
Leaders and rulers
Commanders
Politicians
Scientists
Biography timeline
2. Choose a person
Select Name2 first, then optionally choose Name1 when people share the same main name.
3. Choose an event type
Use General, General Sub-Set and Event to follow a specific part of a person’s biography.
Combine selections
Person and event filters can be used separately or together. Combined filters narrow the results.
Featured historical figures
People who changed history
Four representative figures from politics, science and social change. Select a portrait to open the permanent biography page.
Abraham Lincoln
U.S. president during the Civil War and a central figure in preserving the Union and ending legal slavery.
View biography timeline → Alexander Gardner, 1863 · public domain
Marie Curie
Physicist and chemist whose pioneering work on radioactivity transformed modern science.
View biography timeline → Henri Manuel, c. 1920 · public domain
Charles Darwin
Naturalist whose theory of evolution by natural selection transformed modern biology.
View biography timeline → Herbert Rose Barraud, 1881 · public domain
Mahatma Gandhi
Leader of India's independence movement whose campaigns made nonviolent resistance internationally influential.
View biography timeline → London studio portrait, 1931 · public domainBuild a biography search
Begin with Country. Then follow either the person cascade, the category cascade, or both. You do not need to select every dropdown.
How to make selections
Person search
Select a country, then choose a surname or main name. Name1 is optional and helps distinguish people with the same Name2.
Country → Name2 → Name1Biography-event search
Select a country, then narrow its records by broad category, sub-category and a specific event.
Country → General → General Sub-Set → EventCombined search
Use a person selection and an event selection together to find only matching events from that person’s biography.
Person filters + Event filters
Examples:
Select a country, then use the person cascade, the event cascade, or both.
Run a biography search to display a chronological record summary.
| Date | Event | Description and context |
|---|---|---|
| No search has been run yet. | ||
Search historical figures by name, country and life event
The World History Biography search is designed for person-centred research. It finds records linked to a historical figure and displays their events as a chronological biography timeline.
Use name1 for given names such as Winston, Abraham, Julius or Elizabeth. Use name2 for surnames or main person names such as Churchill, Lincoln, Caesar or Tudor. Add a country, general category or event to narrow the results where a name appears in several countries, periods or event types.
For wider field-level searches, use the World History Database Search. For event-centred timelines, use the World History Chronology Search.
Political biographies
- Presidents, prime ministers and ministers
- Monarchs, emperors and royal houses
- Governments, elections and constitutional events
Military biographies
- Commanders, generals and admirals
- Battles, campaigns and wartime decisions
- Treaties, surrenders and armistices
Science and culture
- Scientists, inventors and explorers
- Writers, philosophers and reformers
- Major discoveries, works and public events
About this historical biography database
Compiled and edited by World History Database. Biography timelines are assembled from structured historical-event records and organised to make a person's chronology easier to research. Dates, roles and events should be cross-checked against primary sources and authoritative historical references where exact scholarly citation is required.
Last reviewed: September 2026. The database is continually expanded and corrected as additional records and historical detail are added.
Crawlable biographies
50 important historical biographies
Explore permanent biography pages built from the World History Database. Each page contains a static chronological record list that can be indexed directly, while the main Biography search remains available for deeper filtering.
Winston Churchill1,267 records · 1874–1965Abraham Lincoln198 records · 1846–1865Elizabeth I363 records · 1158–1652Henry VIII934 records · 1491–1553Napoleon Bonaparte9 records · 1791–1891Adolf Hitler1,578 records · 1889–1945Joseph Stalin658 records · 1903–1961Franklin D. Roosevelt258 records · 1882–1945George Washington68 records · 1732–1794John F. Kennedy251 records · 1640–1963Queen Victoria77 records · 1819–1913Margaret Thatcher569 records · 1925–2013Mahatma Gandhi68 records · 1869–2007Nelson Mandela222 records · 1918–2013Martin Luther King Jr.65 records · 1929–1968Vladimir Lenin495 records · 1895–1924Mao Zedong31 records · 1946–1976Mikhail Gorbachev305 records · 1931–1991Otto von Bismarck55 records · 1865–1873Charles de Gaulle184 records · 1890–1970Alexander the Great58 records · 46–1969William the Conqueror1 records · 1066–1066Joan of Arc75 records · 1412–1920Martin Luther105 records · 1483–1546Louis XIV10 records · 1648–1673Louis XVI290 records · 1770–1793Marie Antoinette11 records · 1791–1791Peter the Great7 records · 1198–1958Catherine the Great1 records · 1503–1503Elizabeth II117 records · 1926–2012Mary I235 records · 1516–1558Richard III95 records · 1452–1485Henry VII213 records · 1308–1509Thomas Cromwell159 records · 1485–1540Oliver Cromwell302 records · 1599–1901Isaac Newton8 records · 1701–1703Albert Einstein148 records · 1879–1955Charles Darwin7 records · 1809–1871Marie Curie57 records · 1867–1995Galileo Galilei71 records · 1564–1992Nicolaus Copernicus15 records · 1473–1543Johannes Kepler27 records · 1571–1630William Shakespeare16 records · 1564–1623Leonardo da Vinci5 records · 1452–1519Christopher Columbus1 records · 1502–1502James Cook28 records · 1728–1779Augustus13 records · 6–14Constantine the Great1 records · 1216–1216Akbar36 records · 1542–1596Fidel Castro195 records · 1926–2016
Editorial provenance
Sources and editorial review
Compiled and edited by World History Database
Biography timelines are compiled from the World History Database and checked against established historical and biographical reference sources.
Last reviewed: September 2026.
Reference points include Encyclopaedia Britannica biographies, The National Archives, Library of Congress, and U.S. National Archives. Individual database records may draw on additional specialist sources appropriate to the person, period or event.