Who Was Alive
Freeman Dyson
ioerror, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Freeman Dyson

Theoretical physicist and mathematician

Born 15 December 1923 · died 28 February 2020, aged 96
Also known as Freeman J. Dyson

Who was alive at the same time as Freeman Dyson?

  1. Thomas Edison, 1847 – 1931
  2. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  3. Marie Curie, 1867 – 1934
  4. Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 – 1948
  5. Vladimir Lenin, 1870 – 1924
  6. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  7. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  8. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, c. 1880 – 1938
  9. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  10. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  11. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  12. Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945
  13. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  14. John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963
  15. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  16. Freeman Dyson, 1923 – 2020
  17. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  18. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929 – 1968
  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 Freeman Dyson was born, Adolf Hitler was 34, Albert Einstein was 44, Ronald Reagan was 12, Vladimir Lenin was 53 and Nelson Mandela was 5.

When Freeman Dyson died, Barack Obama was 58, Donald Trump was 73, Vladimir Putin was 67, George W. Bush was 73 and Joe Biden was 77.

Born during Freeman Dyson’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Elizabeth II and Martin Luther King Jr..

Not quite contemporaries: Leo Tolstoy died about 13 years before Freeman Dyson was born, Mark Twain died about 13 years before Freeman Dyson was born, Sarah Bernhardt died months before Freeman Dyson was born and Theodore Roosevelt died about 4 years before Freeman Dyson was born.

What happened in Freeman Dyson’s lifetime

Where Freeman Dyson’s contemporaries were born

Freeman Dyson 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 Freeman Dyson

The 150 best-known contemporaries

4,463 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Freeman Dyson. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1972.

  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. Vladimir Lenin 1870 – 1924
  9. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  10. Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
  11. George W. Bush born 1946
  12. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  13. Joe Biden born 1942
  14. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  15. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  16. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  17. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  18. Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
  19. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  20. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk c. 1880 – 1938
  21. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  22. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  23. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  24. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  25. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  26. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  27. Bill Gates born 1955
  28. Franz Kafka 1883 – 1924
  29. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  30. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  31. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  32. Shakira born 1977
  33. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  34. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  35. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  36. Lionel Messi born 1987
  37. Corbin Bleu born 1989
  38. Bill Clinton born 1946
  39. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  40. Basshunter born 1984
  41. Angela Merkel born 1954
  42. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  43. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  44. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  45. François Hollande born 1954
  46. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  47. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  48. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  49. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  50. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  51. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  52. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  53. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  54. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  55. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  56. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  57. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  58. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  59. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  60. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  61. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  62. Elon Musk born 1971
  63. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  64. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  65. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  66. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  67. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  68. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  69. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  70. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  71. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  72. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  73. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  74. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  75. Lady Gaga born 1986
  76. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  77. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  78. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  79. Madonna born 1958
  80. Kamala Harris born 1964
  81. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  82. Roald Amundsen 1872 – c. 1928
  83. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  84. Woodrow Wilson 1856 – 1924
  85. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  86. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  87. Xi Jinping born 1953
  88. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  89. Naruhito born 1960
  90. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  91. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  92. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  93. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  94. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  95. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  96. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  97. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  98. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  99. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  100. Bob Dylan born 1941
  101. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  102. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  103. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  104. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  105. Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 – 1930
  106. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  107. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  108. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  109. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  110. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  111. Justin Bieber born 1994
  112. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  113. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  114. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  115. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  116. Taylor Swift born 1989
  117. Charles III born 1948
  118. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  119. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  120. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  121. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  122. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  123. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  124. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  125. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  126. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  127. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  128. Eminem born 1972
  129. Beyoncé born 1981
  130. Selena Gomez born 1992
  131. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  132. Narendra Modi born 1950
  133. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  134. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  135. Rafael Correa born 1963
  136. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  137. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  138. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  139. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  140. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  141. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  142. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  143. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  144. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  145. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  146. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  147. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  148. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  149. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  150. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935