Who Was Alive
Roland Barthes
Unknown, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Roland Barthes

French philosopher and essayist

Born 12 November 1915 · died 26 March 1980, aged 64
Also known as Roland Gérard Barthes

Who was alive at the same time as Roland Barthes?

  1. Thomas Edison, 1847 – 1931
  2. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  3. Marie Curie, 1867 – 1934
  4. Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 – 1948
  5. Vladimir Lenin, 1870 – 1924
  6. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  7. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  8. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, c. 1880 – 1938
  9. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  10. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  11. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  12. Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945
  13. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  14. Roland Barthes, 1915 – 1980
  15. John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963
  16. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  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 Roland Barthes was born, Adolf Hitler was 26, Albert Einstein was 36, Ronald Reagan was 4, Vladimir Lenin was 45 and Mahatma Gandhi was 46.

When Roland Barthes died, Barack Obama was 18, Donald Trump was 33, Michael Jackson was 21, Vladimir Putin was 27 and Ronald Reagan was 69.

Born during Roland Barthes’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, Nelson Mandela, George W. Bush, Joe Biden and Elizabeth II.

Not quite contemporaries: Leo Tolstoy died about 5 years before Roland Barthes was born, Mark Twain died about 5 years before Roland Barthes was born, Anton Chekhov died about 11 years before Roland Barthes was born and Lionel Messi was born about 7 years after Roland Barthes died.

What happened in Roland Barthes’s lifetime

Where Roland Barthes’s contemporaries were born

Roland Barthes 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 Roland Barthes

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,917 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Roland Barthes. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1948.

  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. George W. Bush born 1946
  12. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  13. Joe Biden born 1942
  14. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  15. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  16. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  17. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  18. Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
  19. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  20. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk c. 1880 – 1938
  21. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  22. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  23. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  24. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  25. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  26. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  27. Bill Gates born 1955
  28. Franz Kafka 1883 – 1924
  29. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  30. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  31. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  32. Shakira born 1977
  33. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  34. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  35. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  36. Bill Clinton born 1946
  37. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  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. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  46. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  47. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  48. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  49. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  50. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  51. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  52. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  53. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  54. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  55. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  56. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  57. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  58. Elon Musk born 1971
  59. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  60. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  61. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  62. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  63. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  64. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  65. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  66. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  67. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  68. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  69. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  70. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  71. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  72. Sarah Bernhardt 1844 – 1923
  73. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  74. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  75. Madonna born 1958
  76. Kamala Harris born 1964
  77. Theodore Roosevelt 1858 – 1919
  78. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  79. Marcel Proust 1871 – 1922
  80. Roald Amundsen 1872 – c. 1928
  81. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  82. Woodrow Wilson 1856 – 1924
  83. Rosa Luxemburg 1871 – 1919
  84. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  85. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  86. Xi Jinping born 1953
  87. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  88. Naruhito born 1960
  89. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  90. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  91. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  92. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  93. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  94. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  95. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  96. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  97. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  98. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  99. Bob Dylan born 1941
  100. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  101. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  102. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  103. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  104. Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 – 1930
  105. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  106. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  107. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  108. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  109. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  110. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  111. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  112. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  113. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  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. 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. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  126. Narendra Modi born 1950
  127. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  128. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  129. Rafael Correa born 1963
  130. Max Weber 1864 – 1920
  131. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  132. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  133. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  134. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  135. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  136. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  137. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  138. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  139. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  140. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  141. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  142. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  143. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  144. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  145. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  146. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  147. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  148. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  149. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  150. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955