Who Was Alive
Irving Berlin
Pach Brothers, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Irving Berlin

American composer and lyricist

Born 11 May 1888 · died 22 September 1989, aged 101
Also known as I. Berlin, Israel Baline, Israel Balin

Who was alive at the same time as Irving Berlin?

  1. Leo Tolstoy, 1828 – 1910
  2. Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844 – 1900
  3. Thomas Edison, 1847 – 1931
  4. Vincent van Gogh, 1853 – 1890
  5. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  6. Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 – 1948
  7. Vladimir Lenin, 1870 – 1924
  8. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  9. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  10. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, c. 1880 – 1938
  11. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  12. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  13. Irving Berlin, 1888 – 1989
  14. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  15. Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945
  16. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  17. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  18. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  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 Irving Berlin was born, Albert Einstein was 9, Vladimir Lenin was 18, Mahatma Gandhi was 18, Leo Tolstoy was 59 and Joseph Stalin was 9.

When Irving Berlin died, Barack Obama was 28, Donald Trump was 43, Michael Jackson was 31, Vladimir Putin was 36 and Ronald Reagan was 78.

Born during Irving Berlin’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Adolf Hitler, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, Ronald Reagan, Nelson Mandela and George W. Bush.

Not quite contemporaries: Karl Marx died about 5 years before Irving Berlin was born, Charles Darwin died about 6 years before Irving Berlin was born, Victor Hugo died about 3 years before Irving Berlin was born and Fyodor Dostoevsky died about 7 years before Irving Berlin was born.

What happened in Irving Berlin’s lifetime

Where Irving Berlin’s contemporaries were born

Irving Berlin 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 Irving Berlin

The 150 best-known contemporaries

4,537 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Irving Berlin. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1939.

  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. Leo Tolstoy 1828 – 1910
  12. George W. Bush born 1946
  13. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  14. Joe Biden born 1942
  15. Vincent van Gogh 1853 – 1890
  16. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  17. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  18. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  19. Friedrich Nietzsche 1844 – 1900
  20. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  21. Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
  22. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  23. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk c. 1880 – 1938
  24. Mark Twain 1835 – 1910
  25. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  26. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  27. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  28. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  29. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  30. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  31. Bill Gates born 1955
  32. Franz Kafka 1883 – 1924
  33. Anton Chekhov 1860 – 1904
  34. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  35. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  36. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  37. Shakira born 1977
  38. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  39. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  40. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  41. Lionel Messi born 1987
  42. Oscar Wilde 1854 – 1900
  43. Corbin Bleu born 1989
  44. Bill Clinton born 1946
  45. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  46. Basshunter born 1984
  47. Angela Merkel born 1954
  48. Otto von Bismarck 1815 – 1898
  49. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  50. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  51. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  52. François Hollande born 1954
  53. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  54. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  55. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  56. Louis Pasteur 1822 – 1895
  57. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  58. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  59. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  60. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  61. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  62. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  63. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  64. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  65. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  66. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  67. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  68. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  69. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  70. Elon Musk born 1971
  71. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  72. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  73. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  74. Friedrich Engels 1820 – 1895
  75. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  76. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  77. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  78. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  79. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  80. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  81. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  82. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  83. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  84. Lady Gaga born 1986
  85. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  86. Sarah Bernhardt 1844 – 1923
  87. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  88. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  89. Madonna born 1958
  90. Kamala Harris born 1964
  91. Alfred Nobel 1833 – 1896
  92. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840 – 1893
  93. Theodore Roosevelt 1858 – 1919
  94. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  95. Marcel Proust 1871 – 1922
  96. Roald Amundsen 1872 – c. 1928
  97. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  98. Jules Verne 1828 – 1905
  99. Woodrow Wilson 1856 – 1924
  100. Rosa Luxemburg 1871 – 1919
  101. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  102. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  103. Xi Jinping born 1953
  104. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  105. Naruhito born 1960
  106. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  107. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  108. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  109. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  110. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  111. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  112. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  113. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  114. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  115. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  116. Bob Dylan born 1941
  117. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  118. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  119. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  120. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  121. Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 – 1930
  122. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  123. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  124. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  125. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  126. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  127. Giuseppe Verdi 1813 – 1901
  128. Dmitri Mendeleev 1834 – 1907
  129. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  130. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  131. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  132. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  133. Charles III born 1948
  134. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  135. Queen Victoria 1819 – 1901
  136. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  137. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  138. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  139. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  140. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  141. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  142. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  143. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  144. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  145. Eminem born 1972
  146. Beyoncé born 1981
  147. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  148. Narendra Modi born 1950
  149. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  150. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984