Who Was Alive
Kōbō Abe
Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kōbō Abe

Japanese writer and photographer

Born 7 March 1924 · died 22 January 1993, aged 68
Also known as Kimifusa Abe, Kobo Abe, Koubou Abe

Who was alive at the same time as Kōbō Abe?

  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. Kōbō Abe, 1924 – 1993
  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 Kōbō Abe was born, Adolf Hitler was 34, Albert Einstein was 44, Ronald Reagan was 13, Nelson Mandela was 5 and Mahatma Gandhi was 54.

When Kōbō Abe died, Barack Obama was 31, Donald Trump was 46, Michael Jackson was 34, Vladimir Putin was 40 and Ronald Reagan was 81.

Born during Kōbō Abe’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 Kōbō Abe was born, Leo Tolstoy died about 14 years before Kōbō Abe was born, Mark Twain died about 14 years before Kōbō Abe was born and Sarah Bernhardt died about a year before Kōbō Abe was born.

What happened in Kōbō Abe’s lifetime

Where Kōbō Abe’s contemporaries were born

Kōbō Abe 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 Kōbō Abe

The 150 best-known contemporaries

4,309 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Kōbō Abe. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1959.

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