The Americans who matter.
Presidents and pamphleteers, chemists and center fielders, organizers and con artists — each life in a few hundred words, placed in its era and linked to the rest. 1,176 Americans, written and sourced.
◷ Browse the timeline All 45 presidentsPresidents, lawmakers, judges, diplomats and commanders — the people who ran the country and argued about how.
Abolitionists, suffragists, organizers and advocates who changed what Americans were entitled to.
Researchers, physicians and mathematicians who worked out how the world and the body behave.
Inventors, engineers and architects who built the machines, networks and skylines.
Founders and financiers on one side, organizers and union leaders on the other — and the fights between them.
Novelists, poets, musicians, actors, directors and designers who made the country's culture.
Journalists, publishers, scholars, teachers and preachers who shaped what Americans knew and believed.
Explorers, aviators, astronauts and athletes — Americans who went furthest, fastest or highest.
Assassins, demagogues, gangsters and frauds. Influence is not the same as merit, and this corpus records both.
Start here
Full A–Z index →
Theodore Roosevelt 1858–1919Government & Politics26th President known for progressive reforms, conservation efforts, and assertive foreign policy.
Michael Jackson 1958–2009Arts & LettersPerformer whose recordings, choreography, and music videos redefined global pop stardom.
Charles M. Schulz 1922–2000Arts & LettersCartoonist who drew Peanuts for fifty years and made Charlie Brown a national figure.
Dennis Ritchie 1941–2011Technology & BuildingCreated the C programming language and co-developed Unix at Bell Labs.
Franz Boas 1858–1942Ideas & MediaFounded American academic anthropology and argued against racial determinism from Columbia University.
Jim Henson 1936–1990Arts & LettersCreator of the Muppets and a central figure in Sesame Street and family television.Recently added
Rebecca Skloot b. 1972Ideas & MediaSpent a decade reporting the family behind the HeLa cells and turned informed consent into a public argument.
William Gibson b. 1948Arts & LettersNeuromancer and the word cyberspace
Carl Icahn b. 1936Business & LaborCorporate raider and activist investor
Don DeLillo b. 1936Arts & LettersNovelist of American crowds, media saturation and disaster
William Gaddis 1922–1998Arts & LettersNovelist of The Recognitions and J R
Frank Malina 1912–1981Technology & BuildingLed the Caltech student rocket group that became JPL, then left America under investigation and spent a second life as an artist in Paris.