Sitting Bull

Military Leader · 1829 – 1909

Geronimo was the Apache leader whose decade-long guerrilla resistance against the United States and Mexico made him the most feared and pursued Native American fighter of the 19th century, requiring 5,000 US troops to finally capture 38 warriors.

• Apache resistance to US expansion
• Guerrilla warfare in the Southwest

Why A contemporary Apache leader who similarly led armed resistance against US expansion in the Southwest.

Statesman · 1732 – 1799

George Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolution and the first President of the United States, whose leadership and restraint shaped the new republic.

• Commanding the Continental Army
• First U.S. President

Why The American founder whose nation's westward expansion created the frontier wars in which Sitting Bull resisted.

Statesman · 1918 – 2013

Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and statesman who, after 27 years in prison, became the country's first democratically elected president and a global symbol of reconciliation.

• Ending apartheid
• 27 years in prison

Why A later figure who similarly led resistance against a dominant power and was imprisoned, becoming a symbol of the struggle for his people's rights.

Queen · 25 – 61

Boudicca was the queen of the Iceni tribe who led a major uprising against Roman rule in Britain around 60–61 CE, sacking Camulodunum, Londinium, and Verulamium before being defeated by the Roman governor Paulinus.

• Revolt against Rome
• Sacking of Londinium

Why Also a military leader · Comparable historical impact

Military Leader · 1768 – 1813

Tecumseh was the Shawnee leader who built the largest Native American confederacy in history to resist US expansion, allied with the British in the War of 1812, and was killed at the Battle of the Thames — becoming the greatest pan-Indian leader America ever faced.

• Pan-Indian confederacy
• War of 1812 alliance with Britain

Why Also a military leader & chief · Active in the same era

Abolitionist · 1800 – 1859

John Brown was the American abolitionist who believed that slavery could only be ended by armed violence, led the raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859, was hanged for treason, and became the most polarizing and prophetic figure of the American antislavery movement.

• Harpers Ferry raid
• Radical abolitionism

Why Also a military leader · Active in the same era

Statesman · 1755 – 1804

Alexander Hamilton was the American Founding Father who designed the United States financial system, co-wrote the Federalist Papers, founded the first national bank, served as the first Secretary of the Treasury, and was killed in a duel by Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804.

• US financial system
• Federalist Papers

Why Also a military leader · Active in the same era

Revolutionary · 1928 – 1967

Che Guevara was the Argentine Marxist revolutionary who helped Fidel Castro seize power in Cuba, theorized guerrilla warfare as the path to revolution in the developing world, and became an iconic symbol of rebellion after his execution in Bolivia in 1967.

• Cuban Revolution
• Guerrilla warfare theory

Why Also a military leader · Active in the same era

Dictator · 1889 – 1945

Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, whose ideology of racial supremacy and aggressive expansionism plunged the world into World War II and caused the Holocaust — the genocide of six million Jews and millions of others.

• Nazi Germany
• World War II

Why Also a military leader · Active in the same era

Admiral · 1758 – 1805

Horatio Nelson was the British naval commander whose victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 destroyed the French and Spanish combined fleet, secured British naval supremacy for a century, and made him the greatest hero of British military history — killed at the moment of his triumph.

• Battle of Trafalgar
• British naval supremacy

Why Also a military leader · Active in the same era

Military Leader · 1769 – 1821

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose during the French Revolution, crowned himself Emperor, and dominated European affairs for over a decade.

• Napoleonic Wars
• The Napoleonic Code

Why Also a military leader · Active in the same era

King · 1787 – 1828

Shaka Zulu was the founder and greatest king of the Zulu Kingdom, a military revolutionary whose new tactics and weapons transformed warfare in southern Africa and forged a small clan into a powerful nation.

• Founding the Zulu Kingdom
• Military innovations

Why Also a military leader · Active in the same era

Aviator · 1897 – 1937

Amelia Earhart was the American aviator who became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, setting multiple speed and altitude records, and who disappeared over the Pacific in 1937 while attempting to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

• First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
• Around-the-world flight attempt

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Human Rights Advocate · 1884 – 1962

Eleanor Roosevelt was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, a human rights champion who chaired the UN commission that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and redefined the role of first lady as an independent political force.

• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Longest-serving First Lady

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

President · 1882 – 1945

Franklin D. Roosevelt was the 32nd President of the United States who led the country through the Great Depression with the New Deal and through most of World War II, serving an unprecedented four terms and reshaping the role of the federal government in American life.

• The New Deal
• World War II leadership

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Emperor · 1892 – 1975

Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia who modernized his country, became the symbol of African resistance to European colonialism after surviving Mussolini's invasion, championed African unity at the UN and as founder of the African Union, and is venerated as a messiah by the Rastafari movement.

• Symbol of African anti-colonialism
• Founder of the African Union

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Writer · 1811 – 1896

Harriet Beecher Stowe was the American author whose novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) galvanized the abolitionist movement in the North and became the best-selling novel of the 19th century, helping precipitate the Civil War.

• Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Abolitionist movement

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Activist · 1887 – 1940

Marcus Garvey was the Jamaican political activist who founded the largest mass movement in Black history — the Universal Negro Improvement Association — championed Pan-Africanism, and inspired generations of Black leaders from Malcolm X to Nelson Mandela with his vision of African dignity and self-determination.

• Universal Negro Improvement Association
• Pan-Africanism

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Abolitionist · 1797 – 1883

Sojourner Truth was the American abolitionist and women's rights activist who escaped slavery and became one of the most powerful orators of the 19th century, famous for her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech challenging the intersection of race and gender oppression.

• Ain't I a Woman? speech
• Abolitionism

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Suffragist · 1820 – 1906

Susan B. Anthony was the American civil rights leader who devoted her life to women's suffrage and abolition, co-founded the National Woman Suffrage Association, was arrested for illegally voting in 1872, and became the face of the movement that won women the vote fourteen years after her death.

• Women's suffrage
• Arrested for voting in 1872

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

President · 1856 – 1924

Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States who led the country through World War I, proposed the League of Nations — the first international organization for collective security — and articulated the principle of national self-determination that reshaped the post-war world.

• Fourteen Points
• League of Nations

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

President · 1809 – 1865

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, who led the nation through its Civil War, preserved the Union, and abolished slavery before his assassination in 1865.

• Leading the Union in the Civil War
• The Emancipation Proclamation

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Astronomer · 1934 – 1996

Carl Sagan was an American astronomer and planetary scientist who became the world's most famous communicator of science, reaching millions through the television series Cosmos and best-selling books that made him a celebrated author as well as a researcher.

• Cosmos
• Science communication

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization

Writer · 1809 – 1849

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer and poet, a master of the macabre, who invented the detective story, helped shape the modern short story and science fiction, and gave the world haunting tales and poems such as "The Raven".

• The Raven
• Detective fiction

Why Active in the same era · From the same civilization