Browse people · Page 34 of 35
1,666 profilesWalt Whitman
31 May 1819 – 26 March 1892
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist, often called the father of free verse. His conti...
Walter Gropius
18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969
Walter Gropius was a German-American architect and the founder of the Bauhaus school, one of the most influential instit...
Walter Sisulu
18 May 1912 – 5 May 2003
Walter Sisulu was a South African anti-apartheid activist and leader of the African National Congress. He served as the...
Wang Anshi
8 December 1021 – 21 May 1086
Wang Anshi (1021-1086) was a Song dynasty statesman, economist, and poet who served as chancellor under Emperor Shenzong...
Wang Fuzhi
7 October 1619 – 18 February 1692
Wang Fuzhi was a Chinese philosopher, historian, and Ming loyalist of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, also known...
Wang Yangming
31 October 1472 – 9 January 1529
Wang Yangming (1472-1529) was a Chinese Neo-Confucian philosopher, general, and statesman of the Ming dynasty. He develo...
Wang Zhenyi
1768 – 1797
Wang Zhenyi was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, and poet of the Qing dynasty who defied the conventions of her era...
Wangari Maathai
1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011
Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan environmental and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, promoting tree pl...
Warren Buffett
30 August 1930 – present
Warren Buffett is an American investor and businessman who has led Berkshire Hathaway since the 1960s, turning a New Eng...
Wasim Akram
3 June 1966 – present
Wasim Akram is a Pakistani former cricketer and left-arm fast bowler who played international cricket from 1984 to 2003....
Wassily Kandinsky
16 December 1866 – 13 December 1944
Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist widely credited as a pioneer of abstract art. His theoretical w...
Werner Heisenberg
5 December 1901 – 1 February 1976
Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976) was a German theoretical physicist and one of the principal creators of quantum mechanics....
Werner von Siemens
13 December 1816 – 6 December 1892
Werner von Siemens (1816-1892) was a German electrical engineer, inventor, and industrialist who founded the company tha...
Wernher von Braun
23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977
Wernher von Braun (1912-1977) was a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect who was the leading figure in...
Whitney Houston
9 August 1963 – 11 February 2012
Whitney Elizabeth Houston was an American singer and actress renowned for her powerful vocals and one of the best-sellin...
Wilhelm Röntgen
27 March 1845 – 10 February 1923
Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (1845-1923) was a German physicist who discovered X-rays in 1895, a breakthrough that revolutioni...
Willard Libby
17 December 1908 – 8 September 1980
Willard Frank Libby was an American physical chemist who developed radiocarbon dating, a method of determining the age o...
William Byrd
c. 1540 – 4 July 1623
William Byrd (c. 1540-1623) was an English Renaissance composer widely regarded as the greatest English composer of his...
William Faulkner
25 September 1897 – 6 July 1962
William Faulkner was an American novelist and short-story writer from Mississippi, widely regarded as one of the most in...
William Harvey
1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657
William Harvey was an English physician who made the seminal discovery of the circulation of the blood, demonstrating th...
William Henry Perkin
12 March 1838 – 14 July 1907
Sir William Henry Perkin was an English chemist who, at age 18, accidentally discovered mauveine, the first synthetic an...
William Herschel
15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822
William Herschel was a German-born British astronomer and composer who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781, the first p...
William Hogarth
10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764
William Hogarth (1697-1764) was an English painter and printmaker who pioneered sequential satirical art with 'modern mo...
William James
11 January 1842 – 26 August 1910
William James (1842-1910) was an American philosopher and psychologist, often called the 'Father of American psychology'...
William of Ockham
c. 1287 – c. 1347
William of Ockham (c. 1287-1347) was an English Franciscan friar and scholastic philosopher regarded as one of the major...
William Penn
14 October 1644 – 30 July 1718
William Penn (1644-1718) was an English Quaker writer and religious thinker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania as...
William Shakespeare
April 1564 – 23 April 1616
English playwright and poet, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, author of some 39 plays inc...
William Shockley
13 February 1910 – 12 August 1989
William Shockley (1910-1989) was an American physicist who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics with John Bardeen and...
William the Conqueror
c. 1028 – 9 September 1087
William the Conqueror (c. 1028-1087) was Duke of Normandy and, from 1066, the first Norman King of England. His victory...
William Tyndale
c. 1494 – c. 1536
William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536) was an English biblical scholar and reformer who produced the first printed English trans...
William Wallace
c. 1270 – 23 August 1305
Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders of the First War of Scottish Independence a...
William Wilberforce
24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833
William Wilberforce was a British politician and philanthropist who led the parliamentary campaign to abolish the Britis...
Willis Carrier
26 November 1876 – 7 October 1950
Willis Haviland Carrier (1876-1950) was an American engineer best known for inventing modern air conditioning. In 1902 h...
Willy Brandt
18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992
Willy Brandt was a German statesman who served as Chancellor of West Germany from 1969 to 1974. He is best known for his...
Wilma Rudolph
23 June 1940 – 12 November 1994
Wilma Rudolph was an American sprinter who overcame childhood illness, including polio, to become an Olympic champion. A...
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was a South African politician and anti-apartheid campaigner who trained as a social worker be...
Winston Churchill
30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965
British statesman, orator and writer who led the United Kingdom through the Second World War as Prime Minister and won t...
Wisława Szymborska
2 July 1923 – 1 February 2012
Wisława Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist, and translator who received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Known fo...
Wole Soyinka
13 July 1934 – present
Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, poet, and essayist and a leading figure in African literature. Known for plays su...
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791
Austrian composer and child prodigy whose more than 600 works, including The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni, define...
Wolfgang Pauli
25 April 1900 – 15 December 1958
Wolfgang Pauli was an Austrian-born theoretical physicist and one of the pioneers of quantum mechanics. He is best known...
Wong Kar-wai
17 July 1958 – present
Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter and producer known for films including Chungking Express, Happy...
Woodrow Wilson
28 December 1856 – 3 February 1924
Woodrow Wilson was an American statesman and academic who served as the 28th President of the United States from 1913 to...
Xi Jinping
15 June 1953 – present
Xi Jinping is a Chinese politician who has served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party since 2012 and as...
Xu Beihong
19 July 1895 – 26 September 1953
Xu Beihong was a Chinese painter and art educator known for fusing Western realist techniques with traditional Chinese i...
Yang Liwei
21 June 1965 – present
Yang Liwei is a Chinese military pilot and astronaut who became the first person sent into space by the Chinese space pr...
Yaşar Kemal
6 October 1923 – 28 February 2015
Yaşar Kemal (1923–2015) was a Turkish novelist of Kurdish origin, widely regarded as one of Turkey's leading twentieth-c...
Yasser Arafat
24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004
Yasser Arafat was a Palestinian political leader who chaired the Palestine Liberation Organization and was the first pre...