Who Was Alive
Dian Fossey
Tribune Publishing, no photographer credited, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Dian Fossey

American zoologist

Born 16 January 1932 · died 26 December 1985, aged 53
Also known as Nyiramachabelli

Who was alive at the same time as Dian Fossey?

  1. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  2. Rabindranath Tagore, 1861 – 1941
  3. Marie Curie, 1867 – 1934
  4. Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 – 1948
  5. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  6. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  7. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, c. 1880 – 1938
  8. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  9. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  10. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  11. Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945
  12. Salvador Dalí, 1904 – 1989
  13. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  14. John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963
  15. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  16. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  17. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929 – 1968
  18. Dian Fossey, 1932 – 1985
  19. Joe Biden, born 1942
  20. Donald Trump, born 1946
  21. George W. Bush, born 1946
  22. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  23. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009
  24. Barack Obama, born 1961

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Dian Fossey was born, Adolf Hitler was 42, Albert Einstein was 52, Ronald Reagan was 20, Nelson Mandela was 13 and Mahatma Gandhi was 62.

When Dian Fossey died, Barack Obama was 24, Donald Trump was 39, Michael Jackson was 27, Vladimir Putin was 33 and Ronald Reagan was 74.

Born during Dian Fossey’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Bill Gates and Jimmy Wales.

Not quite contemporaries: Vladimir Lenin died about 8 years before Dian Fossey was born, Thomas Edison died about a year before Dian Fossey was born, Franz Kafka died about 8 years before Dian Fossey was born and Lionel Messi was born about 2 years after Dian Fossey died.

What happened in Dian Fossey’s lifetime

Where Dian Fossey’s contemporaries were born

Dian Fossey is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (79 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Dian Fossey

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,960 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Dian Fossey. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1959.

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Adolf Hitler 1889 – 1945
  4. Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
  5. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  6. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  7. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  8. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  9. Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
  10. George W. Bush born 1946
  11. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  12. Joe Biden born 1942
  13. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  14. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  15. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  16. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  17. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  18. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk c. 1880 – 1938
  19. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  20. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  21. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  22. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  23. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  24. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  25. Bill Gates born 1955
  26. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  27. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  28. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  29. Shakira born 1977
  30. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  31. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  32. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  33. Bill Clinton born 1946
  34. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  35. Basshunter born 1984
  36. Angela Merkel born 1954
  37. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  38. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  39. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  40. François Hollande born 1954
  41. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  42. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  43. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  44. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  45. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  46. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  47. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  48. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  49. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  50. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  51. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  52. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  53. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  54. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  55. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  56. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  57. Elon Musk born 1971
  58. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  59. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  60. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  61. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  62. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  63. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  64. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  65. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  66. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  67. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  68. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  69. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  70. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  71. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  72. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  73. Madonna born 1958
  74. Kamala Harris born 1964
  75. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  76. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  77. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  78. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  79. Xi Jinping born 1953
  80. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  81. Naruhito born 1960
  82. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  83. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  84. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  85. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  86. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  87. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  88. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  89. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  90. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  91. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  92. Bob Dylan born 1941
  93. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  94. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  95. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  96. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  97. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  98. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  99. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  100. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  101. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  102. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  103. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  104. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  105. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  106. Charles III born 1948
  107. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  108. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  109. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  110. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  111. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  112. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  113. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  114. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  115. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  116. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  117. Eminem born 1972
  118. Beyoncé born 1981
  119. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  120. Narendra Modi born 1950
  121. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  122. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  123. Rafael Correa born 1963
  124. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  125. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  126. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  127. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  128. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  129. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  130. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  131. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  132. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  133. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  134. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  135. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  136. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  137. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  138. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  139. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  140. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  141. Mark Zuckerberg born 1984
  142. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  143. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  144. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955
  145. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  146. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  147. David Hilbert 1862 – 1943
  148. Erwin Schrödinger 1887 – 1961
  149. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  150. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981