Browse people · Page 16 of 35
1,666 profilesJ. M. W. Turner
c. 1775 – 19 December 1851
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was an English Romantic painter, printmaker, and watercolourist, celebrated fo...
J. Presper Eckert
9 April 1919 – 3 June 1995
John Presper Eckert Jr. was an American electrical engineer and computer pioneer who, with John Mauchly, co-designed ENI...
J. R. D. Tata
29 July 1904 – 29 November 1993
J. R. D. Tata was an Indian industrialist and aviator who chaired Tata Sons for more than fifty years, expanding the gro...
J. Robert Oppenheimer
22 April 1904 – 18 February 1967
J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967) was an American theoretical physicist who served as director of the Los Alamos Laborat...
J.R.R. Tolkien
3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973
English philologist and author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, widely regarded as the father of modern fantasy...
Jack Kilby
8 November 1923 – 20 June 2005
Jack St. Clair Kilby was an American electrical engineer who invented the integrated circuit while working at Texas Inst...
Jack Ma
10 September 1964 – present
Jack Ma is a Chinese business executive who co-founded the e-commerce group Alibaba. A former English teacher in Hangzho...
Jackie Chan
7 April 1954 – present
Jackie Chan is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film director and stunt performer known for combining acrobatic fighti...
Jackie Robinson
31 January 1919 – 24 October 1972
Jackie Robinson (1919–1972) was an American baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major Leagu...
Jackson Pollock
28 January 1912 – 11 August 1956
Jackson Pollock was an American painter and a major figure in the Abstract Expressionist movement. He is best known for...
Jacqueline du Pré
26 January 1945 – 19 October 1987
Jacqueline du Pré was a British cellist celebrated for her passionate playing and especially her interpretation of Elgar...
Jacques Brel
8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who performed in French and became one of the central figures of post-war c...
Jacques Chirac
29 November 1932 – 26 September 2019
Jacques Chirac was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was twice Prime Minister,...
Jacques Cousteau
11 June 1910 – 25 June 1997
Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, oceanographer and filmmaker. With the engineer Émile Gagnan he co-deve...
Jacques de Vaucanson
24 February 1709 – 21 November 1782
Jacques de Vaucanson was a French inventor famed for his lifelike automata, including the Flute Player and the celebrate...
Jacques Monod
9 February 1910 – 31 May 1976
Jacques Monod was a French biochemist who shared the 1965 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerni...
Jacques-Louis David
30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825
Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) was a French painter and the preeminent artist of Neoclassicism, whose works such as the...
Jafar Panahi
11 July 1960 – present
Jafar Panahi is an Iranian film director and screenwriter associated with the Iranian New Wave. His features, among them...
Jagadish Chandra Bose
30 November 1858 – 23 November 1937
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858-1937) was an Indian physicist, biologist, and pioneer of radio and microwave science. He...
Jahangir Khan
10 December 1963 – present
Jahangir Khan (born 1963) is a Pakistani former squash player widely regarded as one of the greatest in the sport's hist...
Jai Singh II
3 November 1688 – 21 September 1743
Jai Singh II was the Rajput ruler of the kingdom of Amber (later Jaipur) and one of history's great royal patrons of ast...
James Baldwin
2 August 1924 – 1 December 1987
James Baldwin was an American writer whose novels and essays examined race, sexuality and identity in the United States....
James Brown
3 May 1933 – 25 December 2006
James Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, and bandleader widely regarded as the 'Godfather of Soul.' A pion...
James Chadwick
20 October 1891 – 24 July 1974
Sir James Chadwick (1891-1974) was an English physicist who discovered the neutron in 1932, a breakthrough that earned h...
James Clerk Maxwell
13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) was a Scottish physicist whose theory of electromagnetism unified electricity, magnetism...
James Cook
7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779
British naval captain and explorer who charted vast areas of the Pacific, including New Zealand and the east coast of Au...
James Dyson
2 May 1947 – present
James Dyson is a British inventor and industrial designer, the founder of the household-appliance company Dyson. After d...
James Hargreaves
c. 1720 – 22 April 1778
James Hargreaves was an English weaver and carpenter from Lancashire who invented the spinning jenny around 1764, the fi...
James Joyce
2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941
James Joyce was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic who is regarded as one of the most influential writers of t...
James Lind
4 October 1716 – 13 July 1794
James Lind was a Scottish naval physician who conducted one of the first recorded controlled clinical trials, showing in...
James Lovelock
26 July 1919 – 26 July 2022
James Lovelock was a British scientist and inventor best known for the Gaia hypothesis, which treats the Earth's living...
James Watson
6 April 1928 – 6 November 2025
James Dewey Watson was an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist best known for co-discovering the doub...
James Watt
19 January 1736 – 25 August 1819
Scottish inventor and engineer whose improved steam engine powered the Industrial Revolution; the unit of power is named...
Jamini Roy
11 April 1887 – 24 April 1972
Jamini Roy was an Indian painter who rejected his academic Western training in favor of a bold, flat style inspired by B...
Jamsetji Tata
3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904
Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata was an Indian industrialist who founded the Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate, and is o...
Jan Hus
c. 1370 – 6 July 1415
Jan Hus (c. 1370-1415) was a Czech theologian, priest, and church reformer whose preaching against clerical corruption a...
Jan III Sobieski
17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696
Jan III Sobieski (1629-1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death. A celebrated mili...
Jan van Eyck
c. 1390 – 9 July 1441
Early Netherlandish painter whose mastery of oil technique and minute realism set a new standard for European art.
Jane Addams
6 September 1860 – 21 May 1935
Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, social reformer, and pioneer of social work who co-founded Hull House i...
Jane Austen
16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817
English novelist whose keenly observed works, including Pride and Prejudice and Emma, are cornerstones of English litera...
Jane Goodall
3 April 1934 – 1 October 2025
English primatologist and anthropologist, the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, whose 60-year study of wild chimpa...
Jang Yeong-sil
c. 1390 – c. 1442
Jang Yeong-sil (c. 1390 - after 1442) was a Korean inventor and engineer of the early Joseon dynasty who rose from low-b...
Janis Joplin
19 January 1943 – 4 October 1970
Janis Joplin was an American singer-songwriter known for her powerful, blues-inflected voice and electric stage presence...
Jascha Heifetz
2 February 1901 – 10 December 1987
Jascha Heifetz was a Russian-born American violinist widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time. Cele...
Jawaharlal Nehru
14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964
Jawaharlal Nehru was an Indian independence leader and the first Prime Minister of India, serving from 1947 until his de...
Jay-Z
4 December 1969 – present
Jay-Z, born Shawn Corey Carter, is an American rapper and businessman from Brooklyn, New York. He co-founded Roc-A-Fella...
Jayaprakash Narayan
11 October 1902 – 8 October 1979
Jayaprakash Narayan was an Indian independence activist, theorist, and political leader popularly known as JP. Remembere...
Jayavarman VII
c. 1122 – c. 1218
Jayavarman VII (c. 1122 - c. 1218) was king of the Khmer Empire from 1181 until his death and is generally regarded as i...