Who Was Alive
Steve Biko
Cape Argus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Steve Biko

South African civil rights advocate

Born 18 December 1946 · died 12 September 1977, aged 30

Who was alive at the same time as Steve Biko?

  1. Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 – 1948
  2. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  3. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  4. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  5. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  6. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  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. Steve Biko, 1946 – 1977
  19. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  20. Bill Gates, born 1955
  21. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009
  22. Barack Obama, born 1961
  23. Jimmy Wales, born 1966
  24. Shakira, born 1977

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 Steve Biko was born, Donald Trump was under a year old, Albert Einstein was 67, Ronald Reagan was 35, Nelson Mandela was 28 and Mahatma Gandhi was 77.

When Steve Biko died, Barack Obama was 16, Donald Trump was 31, Michael Jackson was 19, Vladimir Putin was 24 and Ronald Reagan was 66.

Born during Steve Biko’s lifetime: Barack Obama, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, Bill Gates, Jimmy Wales, Shakira, Steve Jobs and Angela Merkel.

Not quite contemporaries: Adolf Hitler died about a year before Steve Biko was born, Sigmund Freud died about 7 years before Steve Biko was born, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk died about 8 years before Steve Biko was born and Marie Curie died about 12 years before Steve Biko was born.

What happened in Steve Biko’s lifetime

Where Steve Biko’s contemporaries were born

Steve Biko 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 Steve Biko

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,400 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Steve Biko. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1962.

  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. Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
  9. George W. Bush born 1946
  10. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  11. Joe Biden born 1942
  12. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  13. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  14. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  15. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  16. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  17. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  18. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  19. Bill Gates born 1955
  20. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  21. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  22. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  23. Shakira born 1977
  24. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  25. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  26. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  27. Bill Clinton born 1946
  28. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  29. Angela Merkel born 1954
  30. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  31. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  32. François Hollande born 1954
  33. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  34. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  35. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  36. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  37. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  38. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  39. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  40. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  41. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  42. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  43. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  44. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  45. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  46. Elon Musk born 1971
  47. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  48. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  49. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  50. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  51. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  52. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  53. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  54. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  55. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  56. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  57. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  58. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  59. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  60. Madonna born 1958
  61. Kamala Harris born 1964
  62. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  63. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  64. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  65. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  66. Xi Jinping born 1953
  67. Naruhito born 1960
  68. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  69. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  70. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  71. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  72. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  73. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  74. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  75. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  76. Bob Dylan born 1941
  77. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  78. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  79. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  80. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  81. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  82. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  83. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  84. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  85. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  86. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  87. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  88. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  89. Charles III born 1948
  90. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  91. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  92. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  93. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  94. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  95. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  96. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  97. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  98. Eminem born 1972
  99. Narendra Modi born 1950
  100. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  101. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  102. Rafael Correa born 1963
  103. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  104. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  105. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  106. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  107. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  108. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  109. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  110. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  111. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  112. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  113. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  114. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  115. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  116. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  117. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  118. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  119. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955
  120. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  121. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  122. Erwin Schrödinger 1887 – 1961
  123. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  124. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  125. Shinzo Abe 1954 – 2022
  126. Herbert Hoover 1874 – 1964
  127. Hermann Hesse 1877 – 1962
  128. Isaac Asimov c. 1920 – 1992
  129. Tim Berners-Lee born 1955
  130. Ingmar Bergman 1918 – 2007
  131. Federico Fellini 1920 – 1993
  132. Mahathir Mohamad born 1925
  133. Jackie Chan born 1954
  134. Boris Yeltsin 1931 – 2007
  135. Ali Khamenei 1939 – 2026
  136. Robin Williams 1951 – 2014
  137. Guillermo Lasso born 1955
  138. Celine Dion born 1968
  139. Kim Il Sung 1912 – 1994
  140. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1918 – 2008
  141. Jacques Chirac 1932 – 2019
  142. T. S. Eliot 1888 – 1965
  143. Kwame Nkrumah 1909 – 1972
  144. Stanley Kubrick 1928 – 1999
  145. Marlon Brando 1924 – 2004
  146. Alexander Lukashenko born 1954
  147. Hirohito 1901 – 1989
  148. Richard Feynman 1918 – 1988
  149. Woody Allen born 1935
  150. Tony Blair born 1953