Who Was Alive
John McCarthy
"null0", CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

John McCarthy

American computer scientist

Born 4 September 1927 · died 24 October 2011, aged 84

Who was alive at the same time as John McCarthy?

  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. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  17. John McCarthy, 1927 – 2011
  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 John McCarthy was born, Adolf Hitler was 38, Albert Einstein was 48, Ronald Reagan was 16, Nelson Mandela was 9 and Mahatma Gandhi was 57.

When John McCarthy died, Barack Obama was 50, Donald Trump was 65, Vladimir Putin was 59, Nelson Mandela was 93 and George W. Bush was 65.

Born during John McCarthy’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bill Gates.

Not quite contemporaries: Vladimir Lenin died about 3 years before John McCarthy was born, Franz Kafka died about 3 years before John McCarthy was born, Sarah Bernhardt died about 4 years before John McCarthy was born and Theodore Roosevelt died about 8 years before John McCarthy was born.

What happened in John McCarthy’s lifetime

Where John McCarthy’s contemporaries were born

John McCarthy 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 John McCarthy

The 150 best-known contemporaries

4,414 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as John McCarthy. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1969.

  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. Corbin Bleu born 1989
  36. Bill Clinton born 1946
  37. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  38. Basshunter born 1984
  39. Angela Merkel born 1954
  40. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  41. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  42. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  43. François Hollande born 1954
  44. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  45. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  46. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  47. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  48. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  49. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  50. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  51. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  52. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  53. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  54. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  55. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  56. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  57. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  58. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  59. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  60. Elon Musk born 1971
  61. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  62. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  63. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  64. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  65. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  66. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  67. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  68. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  69. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  70. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  71. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  72. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  73. Lady Gaga born 1986
  74. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  75. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  76. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  77. Madonna born 1958
  78. Kamala Harris born 1964
  79. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  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. Justin Bieber born 1994
  108. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  109. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  110. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  111. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  112. Taylor Swift born 1989
  113. Charles III born 1948
  114. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  115. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  116. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  117. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  118. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  119. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  120. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  121. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  122. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  123. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  124. Eminem born 1972
  125. Beyoncé born 1981
  126. Selena Gomez born 1992
  127. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  128. Narendra Modi born 1950
  129. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  130. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  131. Rafael Correa born 1963
  132. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  133. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  134. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  135. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  136. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  137. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  138. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  139. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  140. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  141. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  142. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  143. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  144. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  145. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  146. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  147. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  148. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  149. Mark Zuckerberg born 1984
  150. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973