Who Was Alive
James Baldwin
Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Baldwin

American writer

Born 2 August 1924 · died 1 December 1987, aged 63

Who was alive at the same time as James Baldwin?

  1. Thomas Edison, 1847 – 1931
  2. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  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. James Baldwin, 1924 – 1987
  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 James Baldwin was born, Adolf Hitler was 35, Albert Einstein was 45, Ronald Reagan was 13, Nelson Mandela was 6 and Mahatma Gandhi was 54.

When James Baldwin died, Barack Obama was 26, Donald Trump was 41, Michael Jackson was 29, Vladimir Putin was 35 and Ronald Reagan was 76.

Born during James Baldwin’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: Vladimir Lenin died months before James Baldwin was born, Leo Tolstoy died about 14 years before James Baldwin was born, Mark Twain died about 14 years before James Baldwin was born and Franz Kafka died months before James Baldwin was born.

What happened in James Baldwin’s lifetime

Where James Baldwin’s contemporaries were born

James Baldwin 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 James Baldwin

The 150 best-known contemporaries

4,132 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as James Baldwin. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1956.

  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. Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
  18. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  19. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk c. 1880 – 1938
  20. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  21. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  22. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  23. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  24. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  25. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  26. Bill Gates born 1955
  27. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  28. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  29. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  30. Shakira born 1977
  31. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  32. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  33. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  34. Lionel Messi born 1987
  35. Bill Clinton born 1946
  36. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  37. Basshunter born 1984
  38. Angela Merkel born 1954
  39. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  40. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  41. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  42. François Hollande born 1954
  43. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  44. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  45. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  46. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  47. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  48. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  49. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  50. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  51. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  52. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  53. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  54. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  55. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  56. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  57. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  58. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  59. Elon Musk born 1971
  60. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  61. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  62. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  63. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  64. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  65. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  66. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  67. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  68. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  69. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  70. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  71. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  72. Lady Gaga born 1986
  73. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  74. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  75. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  76. Madonna born 1958
  77. Kamala Harris born 1964
  78. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  79. Roald Amundsen 1872 – c. 1928
  80. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  81. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  82. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  83. Xi Jinping born 1953
  84. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  85. Naruhito born 1960
  86. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  87. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  88. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  89. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  90. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  91. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  92. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  93. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  94. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  95. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  96. Bob Dylan born 1941
  97. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  98. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  99. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  100. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  101. Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 – 1930
  102. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  103. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  104. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  105. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  106. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  107. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  108. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  109. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  110. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  111. Charles III born 1948
  112. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  113. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  114. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  115. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  116. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  117. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  118. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  119. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  120. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  121. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  122. Eminem born 1972
  123. Beyoncé born 1981
  124. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  125. Narendra Modi born 1950
  126. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  127. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  128. Rafael Correa born 1963
  129. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  130. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  131. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  132. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  133. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  134. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  135. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  136. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  137. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  138. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  139. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  140. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  141. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  142. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  143. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  144. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  145. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  146. Mark Zuckerberg born 1984
  147. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  148. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  149. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955
  150. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971