Who Was Alive
Sonja Henie
Toronto Star, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sonja Henie

Norwegian figure skater and actor

Born 8 April 1912 · died 12 October 1969, aged 57
Also known as Norwegian Doll

Who was alive at the same time as Sonja Henie?

  1. Thomas Edison, 1847 – 1931
  2. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  3. Rabindranath Tagore, 1861 – 1941
  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. Sonja Henie, 1912 – 1969
  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 Sonja Henie was born, Adolf Hitler was 22, Albert Einstein was 33, Ronald Reagan was 1, Vladimir Lenin was 41 and Mahatma Gandhi was 42.

When Sonja Henie died, Barack Obama was 8, Donald Trump was 23, Michael Jackson was 11, Vladimir Putin was 17 and Ronald Reagan was 58.

Born during Sonja Henie’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 2 years before Sonja Henie was born, Friedrich Nietzsche died about 12 years before Sonja Henie was born, Mark Twain died about 2 years before Sonja Henie was born and Anton Chekhov died about 8 years before Sonja Henie was born.

What happened in Sonja Henie’s lifetime

Where Sonja Henie’s contemporaries were born

Sonja Henie 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 Sonja Henie

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,585 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Sonja Henie. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1941.

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Adolf Hitler 1889 – 1945
  4. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  5. Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
  6. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  7. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  8. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  9. Vladimir Lenin 1870 – 1924
  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. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  23. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  24. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  25. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  26. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  27. Bill Gates born 1955
  28. Franz Kafka 1883 – 1924
  29. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  30. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  31. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  32. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  33. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  34. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  35. Bill Clinton born 1946
  36. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  37. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  38. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  39. Angela Merkel born 1954
  40. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  41. François Hollande born 1954
  42. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  43. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  44. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  45. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  46. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  47. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  48. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  49. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  50. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  51. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  52. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  53. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  54. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  55. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  56. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  57. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  58. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  59. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  60. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  61. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  62. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  63. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  64. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  65. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  66. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  67. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  68. Sarah Bernhardt 1844 – 1923
  69. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  70. Madonna born 1958
  71. Theodore Roosevelt 1858 – 1919
  72. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  73. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  74. Kamala Harris born 1964
  75. Rosa Luxemburg 1871 – 1919
  76. Marcel Proust 1871 – 1922
  77. Roald Amundsen 1872 – c. 1928
  78. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  79. Xi Jinping born 1953
  80. Woodrow Wilson 1856 – 1924
  81. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  82. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  83. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  84. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  85. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  86. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  87. Naruhito born 1960
  88. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  89. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  90. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  91. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  92. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  93. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  94. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  95. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  96. Bob Dylan born 1941
  97. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  98. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  99. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  100. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  101. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  102. Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 – 1930
  103. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  104. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  105. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  106. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  107. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  108. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  109. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  110. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  111. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  112. Charles III born 1948
  113. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  114. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  115. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  116. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  117. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  118. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  119. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  120. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  121. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  122. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  123. Narendra Modi born 1950
  124. Max Weber 1864 – 1920
  125. Rafael Correa born 1963
  126. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  127. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  128. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  129. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  130. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  131. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  132. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  133. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  134. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  135. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  136. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  137. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  138. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  139. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  140. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  141. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  142. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955
  143. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  144. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  145. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  146. David Hilbert 1862 – 1943
  147. Erwin Schrödinger 1887 – 1961
  148. Ingmar Bergman 1918 – 2007
  149. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  150. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023