Who Was Alive
Jan Palach
Úřady, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Jan Palach

Czech student

Born 11 August 1948 · died 19 January 1969, aged 20

Who was alive at the same time as Jan Palach?

  1. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  2. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  3. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  4. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  5. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  6. Mao Zedong, 1893 – 1976
  7. Salvador Dalí, 1904 – 1989
  8. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  9. John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963
  10. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  11. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  12. Marilyn Monroe, 1926 – 1962
  13. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929 – 1968
  14. Pope Francis, 1936 – 2025
  15. Joe Biden, born 1942
  16. Donald Trump, born 1946
  17. George W. Bush, born 1946
  18. Jan Palach, 1948 – 1969
  19. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  20. Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
  21. Bill Gates, born 1955
  22. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009
  23. Barack Obama, born 1961
  24. Jimmy Wales, born 1966

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 Jan Palach was born, Donald Trump was 2, Albert Einstein was 69, Ronald Reagan was 37, Nelson Mandela was 30 and George W. Bush was 2.

When Jan Palach died, Barack Obama was 7, Donald Trump was 22, Michael Jackson was 10, Vladimir Putin was 16 and Ronald Reagan was 57.

Born during Jan Palach’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, Bill Gates, Jimmy Wales, Steve Jobs, Angela Merkel and François Hollande.

Not quite contemporaries: Adolf Hitler died about 3 years before Jan Palach was born, Mahatma Gandhi died months before Jan Palach was born, Sigmund Freud died about 9 years before Jan Palach was born and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died about 10 years before Jan Palach was born.

What happened in Jan Palach’s lifetime

Where Jan Palach’s contemporaries were born

Jan Palach is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (78 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Jan Palach

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,032 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Jan Palach. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1959.

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
  4. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  5. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  6. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  7. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  8. George W. Bush born 1946
  9. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  10. Joe Biden born 1942
  11. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  12. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  13. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  14. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  15. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  16. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  17. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  18. Bill Gates born 1955
  19. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  20. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  21. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  22. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  23. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  24. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  25. Bill Clinton born 1946
  26. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  27. Angela Merkel born 1954
  28. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  29. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  30. François Hollande born 1954
  31. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  32. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  33. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  34. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  35. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  36. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  37. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  38. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  39. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  40. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  41. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  42. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  43. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  44. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  45. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  46. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  47. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  48. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  49. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  50. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  51. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  52. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  53. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  54. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  55. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  56. Madonna born 1958
  57. Kamala Harris born 1964
  58. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  59. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  60. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  61. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  62. Xi Jinping born 1953
  63. Naruhito born 1960
  64. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  65. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  66. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  67. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  68. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  69. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  70. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  71. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  72. Bob Dylan born 1941
  73. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  74. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  75. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  76. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  77. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  78. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  79. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  80. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  81. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  82. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  83. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  84. Charles III born 1948
  85. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  86. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  87. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  88. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  89. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  90. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  91. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  92. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  93. Narendra Modi born 1950
  94. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  95. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  96. Rafael Correa born 1963
  97. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  98. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  99. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  100. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  101. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  102. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  103. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  104. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  105. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  106. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  107. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  108. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  109. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  110. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  111. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955
  112. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  113. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  114. Erwin Schrödinger 1887 – 1961
  115. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  116. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  117. Shinzo Abe 1954 – 2022
  118. Herbert Hoover 1874 – 1964
  119. Hermann Hesse 1877 – 1962
  120. Isaac Asimov c. 1920 – 1992
  121. Tim Berners-Lee born 1955
  122. Ingmar Bergman 1918 – 2007
  123. Federico Fellini 1920 – 1993
  124. Mahathir Mohamad born 1925
  125. Jackie Chan born 1954
  126. Boris Yeltsin 1931 – 2007
  127. Ali Khamenei 1939 – 2026
  128. Robin Williams 1951 – 2014
  129. Guillermo Lasso born 1955
  130. Celine Dion born 1968
  131. Kim Il Sung 1912 – 1994
  132. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1918 – 2008
  133. Jacques Chirac 1932 – 2019
  134. T. S. Eliot 1888 – 1965
  135. Kwame Nkrumah 1909 – 1972
  136. Stanley Kubrick 1928 – 1999
  137. Marlon Brando 1924 – 2004
  138. Alexander Lukashenko born 1954
  139. Hirohito 1901 – 1989
  140. Richard Feynman 1918 – 1988
  141. Woody Allen born 1935
  142. Tony Blair born 1953
  143. Bertolt Brecht 1898 – 1956
  144. Yasser Arafat 1929 – 2004
  145. Carl Jung 1875 – 1961
  146. Ho Chi Minh 1890 – 1969
  147. Judy Garland 1922 – 1969
  148. Ban Ki-moon born 1944
  149. Arnold Schwarzenegger born 1947
  150. David Cameron born 1966