Biographies
J. Robert Oppenheimer
A new film by Christopher Nolan profiles the complicated life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant physicist who played a key role in the Manhattan Project and its production of the world’s first atomic bombs.
Courtesy of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico
Michel Linssen—Redferns/Getty Images
In Memoriam: Sinéad O'Connor
The Irish singer-songwriter, who died on Wed., July 26, at the age of 56, was as known for her activism as she was for her music.
Michel Linssen—Redferns/Getty Images
Editor's Picks
6 Teenagers Who Made History
Youth wasn’t wasted on these young people.
Who Was the First Woman to Run for President of the United States?
Before women could vote, Victoria Woodhull ran for U.S. president.
6 Important Mughal Emperors
Find out more about the rulers of the Mughal Empire.
Jack Smith
Jack Smith, American career prosecutor who in November 2022 was appointed special counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in charge of two ongoing investigations into possible criminal activity by former U.S. president Donald Trump. One investigation was related to Trump’s retention and
Did Duchess Anastasia Survive Her Family’s Execution?
Find out what really happened to the youngest daughter of Russia’s last tsar.
The 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time
According to our sports editor, at least.
Cardi B
Cardi B, American rapper who vaulted onto the music scene in the late 2010s with the release of the hit single “Bodak Yellow” (2017). With her spirited and unapologetic personality and empowering lyrics, she was especially popular among young women. In 2019 she became the first solo female rapper
9 Mysterious Disappearances of People Other Than Amelia Earhart
People other than Amelia Earhart have disappeared without a trace. Really!
Spotlight: Harry Belafonte
The New York-born Belafonte spent much of his youth in Jamaica, and first achieved fame as a musician, synthesizing Jamaican and American folk music into a unique style called calypso. He would later become an actor, producer, and activist who advocated for humanitarian causes throughout his life.
Quizzes
First Ladies of the United States Quiz
They have been hostesses, helpers, advisers, gatekeepers, guardians, confidantes, and sometimes formidable powers behind the scenes. How much do you know about the first ladies of the United States?
American Civil Rights Movement Quiz
Test your knowledge of Americans’ tumultuous fight to end racial segregation and discrimination.
Words Named After People Vocabulary Quiz
Find out who’s behind leotard, morphine, and more.
One-Hit Wonders Quiz
So-called “one-hit wonders” achieve fame for only a brief period of time. Can you name the artists of these hit songs?
Videos
Who is Mae Jemison, the first African American female astronaut?
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Galleries
Charles Darwin
Royal Weddings
Aristotle
Featured Categories
Poets
Sarojini Naidu
Sarojini Naidu, political activist, feminist, poet, and the first Indian woman to be president of the Indian National Congress and to be appointed an Indian state governor. She was sometimes called “the Nightingale of India.” Sarojini was the eldest daughter of Aghorenath Chattopadhyay, a Bengali
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats, Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer, one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century. He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Yeats’s father, John Butler Yeats, was a barrister who eventually became a portrait painter. His mother, formerly Susan
John Berryman
John Berryman, U.S. poet whose importance was assured by the publication in 1956 of the long poem Homage to Mistress Bradstreet. Berryman was brought up a strict Roman Catholic in the small Oklahoma town of Anadarko, moving at 10 with his family to Tampa, Fla. When the boy was 12, his father killed
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, American poet, memoirist, and actress whose several volumes of autobiography explore the themes of economic, racial, and sexual oppression. Although born in St. Louis, Angelou spent much of her childhood in the care of her paternal grandmother in rural Stamps, Arkansas. When she was
Mathematicians
Galileo
Galileo, Italian natural philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who made fundamental contributions to the sciences of motion, astronomy, and strength of materials and to the development of the scientific method. His formulation of (circular) inertia, the law of falling bodies, and parabolic
Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace, English mathematician, an associate of Charles Babbage, for whose prototype of a digital computer she created a program. She has been called the first computer programmer. Lovelace was the daughter of famed poet Lord Byron and Annabella Milbanke Byron, who legally separated two months
Alan Turing
Alan Turing, British mathematician and logician who made major contributions to mathematics, cryptanalysis, logic, philosophy, and mathematical biology and also to the new areas later named computer science, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and artificial life. The son of a civil
Katherine Johnson
Katherine Johnson, American mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. Her work helped send astronauts to the Moon. Coleman’s intelligence and skill with numbers became apparent when she was a child;
Revolutionaries
Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi, Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. As such, he came to be considered the father of his country. Gandhi is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest
Spartacus
Spartacus, leader in the Gladiatorial War (73–71 bce) against Rome. A Thracian by birth, Spartacus served in the Roman army, perhaps deserted, led bandit raids, and was caught and sold as a slave. With about 70 fellow gladiators he escaped a gladiatorial training school at Capua in 73 and took
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell, English soldier and statesman, who led parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars and was lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1653–58) during the republican Commonwealth. As one of the generals on the parliamentary side in the English Civil War against King
Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture, leader of the Haitian independence movement during the French Revolution (1787–99). He emancipated the slaves and negotiated for the French colony on Hispaniola, Saint-Domingue (later Haiti), to be governed, briefly, by Black former slaves as a French protectorate. Toussaint