People

• President of the United States from 1945 to 1953Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. As the 34th vice president in 1945, he assumed the presidency upon the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in April. Truman set up the Marshall Plan to rebuild the badly damaged economy of Western Europe. He established the Truman Doctrine and supported the founding of NATO to contain the expansion of Soviet communism. A member of the Democratic Party, he proposed numerous New Deal coalition liberal domestic reforms, but few were enacted by the conservative coalition that dominated the United States Congress.
• Head of state or governmentGeorge H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st president of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 43rd vice president under President Ronald Reagan and previously in various other positions. His son, George W. Bush, served as the 43rd president.
• Head of state or governmentJawaharlal NehruJawaharlal Nehru was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a principal leader of the Indian nationalist movement in the 1930s and 1940s. Upon India's independence in 1947, he served as the country's first prime minister, holding office for 16 years 286 days. Nehru promoted parliamentary democracy, secularism, and science and technology during the 1950s, powerfully influencing India's arc as a modern nation. In international affairs, he steered India clear of the two blocs of the Cold War. A well-regarded author, he wrote books such as Letters from a Father to His Daughter (1929), An Autobiography (1936) and The Discovery of India (1946), that have been read around the world.
• Head of state or governmentTheodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt Jr. was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Previously serving for six months as vice president under William McKinley, Roosevelt became president after McKinley's assassination in 1901. He was 42 years old upon his first inauguration, making him the youngest person to hold the office.
• Head of state or governmentDwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. In his previous military career, he commanded the Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II, including in Operation Torch in North Africa and Operation Overlord on D-Day in Normandy. For his distinguished service in the U.S. Army, Eisenhower was honored with the five-star rank of General of the Army.
• Head of state or governmentRichard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.
• Head of state or governmentXi JinpingXi Jinping is a Chinese politician who is the paramount leader of China. He has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Party Central Military Commission (CMC) since 2012, and as the president of China and chairman of the State Central Military Commission since 2013.
• WHead of state or governmentWoodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat to serve as president during the Progressive Era, when Republicans dominated the presidency and legislative branches. As president, Wilson made significant economic reforms and led the United States through World War I. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations, and his stance on foreign policy came to be known as Wilsonian idealism.
• JHead of state or governmentJohn AdamsJohn Adams was a Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved independence from Great Britain. During the latter part of the Revolutionary War and in the early years of the new nation, he served the Continental Congress of the United States as a senior diplomat in Europe. Adams was the first vice president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. He was a dedicated diarist and regularly corresponded with contemporaries, including his wife and advisor Abigail Adams and his friend and rival Thomas Jefferson.
• Head of state or governmentRecep Tayyip ErdoğanRecep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician who has been the president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which he co-founded in 2001. He also served as mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. Coming from an Islamist background and promoting socially conservative policies, Erdoğan has been Turkey's de facto leader since 2003. Turkey has experienced democratic backsliding and suppression of dissent under Erdoğan.
• Founding Father, U.S. president from 1809 to 1817James MadisonJames Madison was a Founding Father and the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Before his presidency, Madison was a statesman and diplomat. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the "Father of the Constitution" for his pivotal role in drafting and promoting the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
• Head of state or governmentGerald FordGerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.
• Head of state or governmentLyndon B. JohnsonLyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States, serving from 1963 to 1969. He served as the 37th vice president under John F. Kennedy, assuming the presidency upon Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963. Johnson was a Democrat from Texas who served in both the Senate and the House of Representatives for nearly 24 years. His presidency saw the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the creation of Great Society programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and a major escalation of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
• Head of state or governmentNarendra ModiNarendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician who has served as the prime minister of India since 26 May 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is India's third-longest-serving prime minister, and the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.
• Prime Minister of India (1966–1977; 1980–1984)Indira GandhiIndira Priyadarshini Gandhi was an Indian stateswoman who twice served as the Prime Minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 until her assassination in 1984. She was India's first and only female prime minister, and a central figure in Indian politics as the leader of the Indian National Congress (INC). Gandhi also served as chairperson of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) from 1983 to 1984, becoming the first Indian to hold the position. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India, and the mother of Rajiv Gandhi, who succeeded her as prime minister. Her cumulative tenure of 15 years and 350 days, spanning four terms, makes her the second-longest-serving Indian prime minister after her father and the longest-serving female head of government at the time of her death.
• President of Iraq from 1979 to 2003Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was an Iraqi politician and revolutionary who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 1979 until his overthrow in 2003. He also served as prime minister of Iraq from 1979 to 1991 and later from 1994 to 2003. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, and later, the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and its regional organization, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, which espoused Ba'athism, a mix of Arab nationalism and Arab socialism.
• Head of state or governmentBenjamin NetanyahuBenjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu is an Israeli politician and diplomat who has served as Prime Minister of Israel since 2022. Having previously held office from 1996 to 1999 and from 2009 to 2021, Netanyahu is Israel's longest-serving prime minister.
• Head of state or governmentJohn Quincy AdamsJohn Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States, serving from 1825 to 1829. He previously served as the eighth United States secretary of state from 1817 to 1825; minister to Great Britain, Prussia, and Russia; and senator for Massachusetts. After his presidency, Adams uniquely returned to Congress as a member of the lower house until his death in 1848. He was the eldest son of John Adams, the second president, and First Lady Abigail Adams. Among his children were Charles Francis Adams Sr. Initially a Federalist like his father, Adams spent his presidency as a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, and later, in the mid-1830s, became affiliated with the Whig Party.
• Head of state or governmentAndrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. He rose to fame as a U.S. Army general and served in both houses of the U.S. Congress. His political philosophy, which dominated his presidency, became the basis for the rise of Jacksonian democracy. His legacy is controversial: being praised as an advocate for white working Americans and preserving the union of states, and criticized for his racist policies, particularly towards Native Americans.
• Head of state or governmentHerbert HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. Hoover's term as president was dominated by the Great Depression. His ineffectual response to the growing economic calamity made him widely unpopular, and he lost reelection to Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1932 United States presidential election.
• Supreme Leader of Iran from 1989 to 2026Ali KhameneiAli Hosseini Khamenei was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination by Israeli airstrikes in 2026. The patriarch of the Khamenei family prior to his death, Khameini had previously served as the president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. His 36-year tenure makes him Iran's longest-serving supreme leader.
• Head of state or governmentCalvin CoolidgeCalvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929. A Republican lawyer from Massachusetts, he served from 1921 to 1923 as the 29th vice president, under President Warren G. Harding, and from 1919 to 1921 as the 48th governor of Massachusetts. Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative, with a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor that earned him the nickname "Silent Cal".
• UHead of state or governmentUlysses S. GrantUlysses S. Grant was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877, and was the Commanding General of the Union Army, leading it to victory in the American Civil War in 1865.
• Head of state or governmentJames MonroeJames Monroe was a Founding Father and the fifth president of the United States, serving from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as president, as well as the last president of the Virginia dynasty. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe's presidency coincided with the Era of Good Feelings, in which the First Party System era of American politics concluded. He issued the Monroe Doctrine, a policy aimed at limiting European colonialism in the Americas.
• Head of state or governmentJames A. GarfieldJames Abram Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, serving from March 1881 until his death in September that year after being shot in July. A preacher, lawyer, and Civil War general, Garfield served nine terms in the United States House of Representatives and is the only sitting member of the House to be elected president. Before he ran for president, the Ohio General Assembly had elected him to the U.S. Senate, a position he declined upon becoming president-elect.
• WHead of state or governmentWilliam Howard TaftWilliam Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices.
• Head of state or governmentMahmoud AhmadinejadMahmoud Ahmadinejad is an Iranian politician who served as the president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. Ideologically a principlist and nationalist, he was a member of the Expediency Discernment Council. He was also the main political leader of the Alliance of Builders of Islamic Iran, a coalition of conservative political groups in the country, and served as the mayor of Tehran from 2003 to 2005, reversing many of his predecessor's reforms.
• President of the United States from 1837 to 1841Martin Van BurenMartin Van Buren was the eighth president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841. He co-founded the Democratic Party with Andrew Jackson and became Jackson's vice president from 1833 to 1837.
• President of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897Grover ClevelandStephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first Democrat elected president after the American Civil War and the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms.
• Head of state or governmentAndrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. The 16th vice president, he assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a War Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket in the 1864 presidential election, coming to office as the American Civil War concluded. Johnson favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the newly freed people who were formerly enslaved, as well as pardoning ex-Confederates. This led to conflict with the Republican Party-dominated U.S. Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
• Head of state or governmentJames K. PolkJames Knox Polk was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. A protégé of Andrew Jackson and a member of the Democratic Party, he was an advocate of American expansionism and Jacksonian democracy. Polk saw Texas join the Union in his first year in office; the annexation of the formerly independent republic, which had declared independence from Mexico, was one of the precipitating causes that soon led the U.S. into the Mexican–American War. The settlement of that war expanded American territory to the Pacific Ocean. During his term, the dispute with the United Kingdom over the Oregon Territory was resolved as well, creating the present U.S.-Canadian border.
• Head of state or governmentZachary TaylorZachary Taylor was the 12th president of the United States, serving from 1849 until his death in 1850. Before his presidency, Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to the rank of major general and becoming a national hero for his victories in the Mexican–American War. As a result, he won election to the White House despite his vague political beliefs. His top priority as president was to preserve the Union. He died 16 months into his term from a stomach disease. Taylor had the third-shortest presidential term in U.S. history.
• Head of state or governmentJames BuchananJames Buchanan Jr. was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. A Democrat from Pennsylvania, he upheld a pro-slavery interpretation of the U.S. Constitution that did little to reverse the sectional crisis between the North and South. In his final months in office, seven Southern states seceded, forming the Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, starting the American Civil War.
• Head of state or governmentJohn TylerJohn Tyler was the tenth president of the United States, serving from 1841 to 1845, after briefly holding office as the tenth vice president in 1841. He was elected vice president on the 1840 Whig ticket with William Henry Harrison, succeeding to the presidency following Harrison's death 31 days after assuming office as president. Tyler was a stalwart supporter and advocate of states' rights, including regarding slavery, and he adopted nationalistic policies as president only when they did not infringe on the states' powers. His unexpected rise to the presidency posed a threat to the presidential ambitions of Senator Henry Clay and other Whig politicians and left Tyler estranged from both major political parties at the time: the Whigs and the Democrats.
• Head of state or governmentWilliam McKinleyWilliam McKinley was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. McKinley successfully led the U.S. in the Spanish–American War and oversaw a period of American expansionism, with the annexations of Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and American Samoa.
• Head of state or governmentMillard FillmoreMillard Fillmore was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853. He was the last president to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House, and the last to be neither a Democrat nor a Republican. A former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Fillmore was elected vice president in 1848, and succeeded to the presidency when Zachary Taylor died in 1850. Fillmore was instrumental in passing the Compromise of 1850, which led to a brief truce in the battle over the expansion of slavery.
• WHead of state or governmentWarren G. HardingWarren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular presidents at the time of his death. After that, a number of scandals were exposed that greatly damaged his reputation.
• Head of state or governmentWilliam Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry Harrison was the ninth president of the United States from March to April 1841. He died 31 days into his term, making him the shortest serving president and the first president to die in office. Immediately after his death, Vice President John Tyler took over, ending the constitutional crisis that had been triggered by the question of presidential succession in the U.S. Constitution.
• Head of state or governmentFranklin PierceFranklin Pierce was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to national unity, he alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. Conflict between North and South continued after Pierce's presidency, and, following Abraham Lincoln's victory in the 1860 presidential election, the Southern states seceded, resulting in the American Civil War.
• Head of state or governmentRutherford B. HayesRutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th president of the United States, serving from 1877 to 1881. He served as Cincinnati's city solicitor from 1858 to 1861 and was known as a staunch abolitionist who defended refugee slaves in court proceedings. At the start of the Civil War, Hayes left a fledgling political career to join the Union army. He was wounded five times, most seriously at the Battle of South Mountain in 1862. Hayes earned a reputation for bravery in combat, rising in the ranks to serve as brevet major general. After the war, he was a prominent member of the "Half-Breed" faction of the Republican Party. Hayes served in Congress from 1865 to 1867 and was elected governor of Ohio, serving two consecutive terms from 1868 to 1872 and half of a third two-year term from 1876 to 1877 before his swearing-in as president.

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