Who's taking calls
172 people, from Ramesses II to the twentieth century. Pick one and ask them anything.
Ancient worldBefore 500
Alexander the GreatThe undefeated young king who conquered the Persian EmpireBabylon, 331 BCE
ArchimedesMathematician who approximated pi and built war machinesSyracuse, during the Roman siege, 213 BCE
AristotleGreek philosopher who tutored a young Alexander the GreatAthens, the Lyceum, 330 BCE
AryabhataAstronomer who deduced a spinning earth at age 23Kusumapura, 499
AshokaMauryan emperor who publicly regretted war and chose peacePataliputra, Magadha, 256 BCE
Attila the HunRuler of a steppe empire who ravaged the Roman frontierAttila's court beyond the Danube, 449
AugustusFirst emperor of Rome who ruled the empire for forty yearsRome, 27 BCE
Boudica (Boudicca, Boadicea)The Iceni queen who led an uprising against the RomansTerritory of the Iceni, royal seat unknown, 60
Chanakya (Kautilya, Vishnugupta)The strategist traditionally credited with the ArthashastraPataliputra, Magadha, 320 BCE
Chandragupta MauryaThe empire founder who by legend died a Jain monkPataliputra, Magadha, 303 BCE
Cleopatra VIIThe last active ruler of the Ptolemaic kingdom of EgyptTarsus and Alexandria, 41 BCE
Confucius (Kong Qiu, Kongzi)The moral philosopher whose teachings shaped East AsiaQufu and Jiagu, State of Lu, 500 BCE
EuclidGreek mathematician who organised geometry in the ElementsAlexandria, Egypt, 300 BCE
Hannibal BarcaCarthaginian general who led war elephants over the AlpsApulia, southern Italy, 216 BCE
HatshepsutRegent who made herself pharaoh and was nearly erasedThebes, 1470 BCE
HippocratesAncient physician who sought natural causes for illnessKos, 420 BCE
Hypatia of AlexandriaPhilosopher who taught mathematics in Roman AlexandriaAlexandria, 400
Julius CaesarRoman general who conquered Gaul and crossed the RubiconRome, 46 BCE
KalidasaThe Sanskrit poet who made a cloud carry a love letterUjjain, 400
Leonidas ISpartan king who led the final stand at ThermopylaeThermopylae, central Greece, 480 BCE
Marcus AureliusThe Roman emperor who wrote the Meditations in an army campCarnuntum, on the Danube frontier, 172
NefertitiThe Egyptian queen who championed the sun disc and vanishedAkhetaten, 1342 BCE
NeroThe teenage emperor said to have sung while Rome burnedRome, 64
PericlesThe statesman who guided Athens through its golden ageAthens, 431 BCE
PlatoThe student of Socrates who wrote the cave allegoryAthens, the Academy, 370 BCE
PythagorasThe mystic Greek thinker associated with the theoremCroton, southern Italy, 525 BCE
Qin Shi Huang (Ying Zheng)First emperor of a unified China with a terracotta armyXianyang, capital of Qin, 221 BCE
Ramesses IIThe pharaoh who built Abu Simbel and ruled for 66 yearsPi-Ramesses, eastern Nile Delta, 1259 BCE
SocratesThe philosopher who wrote nothing and died for his questionsAthens, 416 BCE
SpartacusGladiator who led a vast rebel slave army against RomeItaly, on the march north, 72 BCE
Sun Tzu (Sun Wu, Sunzi)Traditional author of the most widely read text on strategyGusu, State of Wu, 512 BCE
SushrutaAncient Indian surgeon credited with reconstructing nosesKashi, 500 BCE
ThiruvalluvarAuthor of a classical Tamil work on virtue, wealth and loveMylapore, traditional, 100
TutankhamunBoy pharaoh whose nearly intact tomb was found in 1922Memphis and Thebes, 1325 BCE
Medieval500 to 1450
Muhammad ibn Musa al-KhwarizmiBaghdad mathematician whose book gave algebra its nameBaghdad, 820
Abul Hasan Yamin-ud-din Khusrau (Amir Khusrau Dehlavi)Sufi poet and court musician said to have founded qawwaliDelhi, 1310
Charlemagne (Charles the Great, Karl der Grosse)The Frankish king crowned Emperor of the Romans in 800Rome, 800
Dante AlighieriExiled Florentine poet who wrote a journey through HellRavenna, 1318
Eleanor of AquitaineThe duchess who became queen of both France and EnglandPoitiers, 1152
Genghis KhanRuler who built the largest contiguous land empirethe Onon River, Mongolia, 1206
Geoffrey ChaucerCourtier who wrote The Canterbury Tales in EnglishLondon, 1390
Hildegard of BingenMedieval composer and abbess who rebuked emperors and popesRupertsberg, near Bingen, 1151
Ibn BattutaMoroccan jurist who travelled the medieval Muslim worldFez, Morocco, 1355
Ibn Sina (Avicenna)Persian physician whose medical canon shaped centuriesHamadan, 1020
Joan of ArcThe teenage peasant girl who commanded armies for FranceOrléans, 1429
Leif EriksonNorse explorer who reached North America before ColumbusBrattahlíð, Greenland, 1001
Mansa MusaThe Mali ruler who brought lavish gifts of gold to MeccaCairo, 1324
Marco PoloThe merchant who introduced Europe to the Mongol empirea prison in Genoa, 1298
Murasaki ShikibuThe court lady who wrote The Tale of Genji in secretTsuchimikado Mansion, Kyoto, 1008
Raja Raja Chola IChola king who built a maritime empire and a great templeThanjavur, 1010
Raziya (Razia) Sultan, Jalalat-ud-din RaziyaThe only woman to rule the Delhi Sultanate in her own nameDelhi, 1237
Richard the LionheartCrusader king of England who fought Saladin to a truceJaffa, the Holy Land, 1192
Rudrama Devi (Rudradeva)Kakatiya queen who ruled as a king to hold her kingdomOrugallu, 1270
RumiSufi mystic whose verses on love and God are read worldwideKonya, 1262
SaladinThe Kurdish sultan who retook Jerusalem during the CrusadesJerusalem, 1187
William the ConquerorNorman duke who invaded England and won at HastingsHastings, England, 1066
Zheng HeMing admiral who led large fleets to India and East AfricaChangle, Fujian, 1431
Renaissance1450 to 1700
Jalal-ud-din Muhammad AkbarThe Mughal emperor who hosted debates and built an empireFatehpur Sikri, 1582
Anne BoleynQueen whose marriage to Henry VIII ended in her beheadingGreenwich and Westminster, 1533
Raja Birbal (Mahesh Das)The Mughal courtier whose famous wit stories are folkloreFatehpur Sikri, 1580
Catherine de' MediciThe queen mother who navigated the French Wars of ReligionPoissy, near Paris, 1561
Chhatrapati Shivaji MaharajThe Maratha ruler who established Hindavi SwarajyaRaigad Fort, 1674
Christopher ColumbusThe Genoese navigator whose 1492 voyage began colonisationBarcelona, 1493
Elizabeth IThe unmarried queen who survived the Spanish ArmadaTilbury and Whitehall, 1588
Ferdinand Magellan (Fernão de Magalhães)Navigator who crossed the Pacific but never made it homeStrait of Magellan, Patagonia, 1520
Galileo GalileiAstronomer who found new moons and faced the InquisitionPadua and Florence, 1610
Henry VIIIEnglish king who married six times and broke with the PopeWhitehall and Hampton Court, 1537
Hernán CortésSpanish conquistador who toppled the Aztec empireTenochtitlan and Coyoacan, 1521
Isaac NewtonPhysicist who mapped gravity and secretly studied alchemyTrinity College, Cambridge, 1687
Isabella I of CastileThe Spanish queen who unified the crowns and sent ColumbusGranada, 1492
Johannes GutenbergThe goldsmith who developed printing with movable typeMainz, 1454
Johannes KeplerThe astronomer who discovered that planets move in ellipsesPrague, 1609
Johannes VermeerThe painter of quiet interior scenes lit from a windowDelft, 1666
KabirWeaver and mystic whose verses mocked priests and clericsKashi, 1470
KrishnadevarayaWarrior emperor who brought Vijayanagara to its zenithVijayanagara, 1520
Leonardo da VinciFlorentine artist who filled notebooks in mirror scriptFlorence, 1503
Louis XIVThe Sun King who built Versailles and embodied absolute ruleVersailles, 1682
Maharana Pratap (Pratap Singh I of Mewar)The Rajput ruler who waged a guerrilla war against AkbarMewar hills, 1576
Martin LutherThe monk who defied the pope and sparked the ReformationWorms, 1521
Michelangelo BuonarrotiThe proud sculptor who painted the Sistine Chapel ceilingRome, 1510
MirabaiThe Rajput poet said to have left her crown for KrishnaChittor, 1525
Miyamoto MusashiThe masterless samurai said to have won over sixty duelsReigando cave, near Kumamoto, 1643
Moctezuma II (Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin)The supreme ruler of the Mexica who faced the SpanishTenochtitlan, 1519
Niccolò MachiavelliThe Florentine diplomat who wrote the manual on powerSant'Andrea in Percussina, near Florence, 1513
Nicolaus CopernicusThe churchman who proposed the earth moves around the sunFrombork, Warmia, 1539
Pocahontas (Matoaka, later Rebecca Rolfe)The Powhatan intermediary who married an English colonistLondon, 1616
Raphael (Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino)Renaissance painter of the School of Athens who died at 37Rome, 1510
Rembrandt van RijnDutch painter of light who left eighty self-portraitsAmsterdam, 1658
René DescartesPhilosopher who built knowledge on a single certaintyLeiden, Dutch Republic, 1637
Shah Jahan (Shihab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram)Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal out of griefShahjahanabad, 1648
Sir Francis DrakeThe Elizabethan privateer who sailed around the worldDeptford, London, 1581
Suleiman the MagnificentOttoman lawgiver who besieged Vienna and wrote poetryIstanbul, 1550
TansenCourt musician whose singing was said to light lampsFatehpur Sikri, 1575
Tokugawa IeyasuWarlord who founded a shogunate that ruled for 250 yearsKyoto and Edo, 1603
Vasco da GamaCommander who opened the first direct sea route to IndiaLisbon, 1499
William ShakespearePlaywright and poet who wrote Hamlet and Romeo and JulietLondon, 1600
Age of revolutions1700 to 1850
Abigail AdamsThe first lady who urged lawmakers to remember the ladiesBraintree, Massachusetts, 1776
Ada LovelaceThe mathematician who published the first computer programLondon, 1843
Adam SmithThe moral philosopher who founded modern economicsLondon and Kirkcaldy, 1776
Ahilyabai HolkarThe widowed Maratha queen who ruled for nearly thirty yearsMaheshwar, 1780
Alexander HamiltonThe orphaned immigrant who built the US financial systemNew York City, 1790
Antonio VivaldiRed-haired priest who composed concertos for orphan girlsVenice, 1725
Benjamin FranklinThe printer and scientist who secured the French alliancePassy, near Paris, 1778
Blackbeard (Edward Teach)The pirate who terrorised the Caribbean and the Carolinasoff Charleston, South Carolina, 1718
Catherine the GreatThe German princess who seized the throne to rule RussiaMoscow and St Petersburg, 1767
Charles DickensThe Victorian novelist who rose from a blacking factoryLondon, 1843
Davy CrockettFrontiersman and congressman who died at the AlamoWashington, D.C. and the Eastern cities, 1834
Edgar Allan PoeAmerican poet and critic who shaped the horror taleNew York City, 1845
George WashingtonFirst US president and general of the Continental ArmyNew York City, 1789
Jane AustenThe English novelist who sharply observed money and marriageChawton, Hampshire, 1813
Johann Sebastian BachThe working church musician with twenty childrenLeipzig, 1746
John AdamsThe blunt lawyer who became the second American presidentPhiladelphia, 1776
Lord ByronEnglish poet and satirist who died for Greek freedomVilla Diodati, Lake Geneva, 1816
Ludwig van BeethovenThe composer who wrote the Ninth Symphony while going deafVienna, 1808
Marie AntoinetteThe queen of France who symbolised royal extravaganceVersailles and the Petit Trianon, 1785
Mary ShelleyThe teenager who invented science fiction with FrankensteinLondon, 1831
Napoleon BonaparteThe Corsican artillery officer who crowned himself emperorParis, 1804
Peter the GreatThe tall Russian tsar who built a city on a swampNeva delta, Ingria, 1703
Raja Ram Mohan RoyBengali scholar and reformer who campaigned against satiLondon, 1831
SacagaweaShoshone woman who traveled to the Pacific with her infantLemhi Valley, near the Continental Divide, 1805
Savitribai PhuleMarathi reformer who faced hostility to teach girls in PunePune, 1848
Simón BolívarThe soldier who liberated much of South America from SpainAngostura, Venezuela, 1819
Thomas JeffersonPresident who wrote of liberty while enslaving hundredsPhiladelphia, 1776
VoltaireEnlightenment satirist who attacked religious intoleranceFerney, near Geneva, 1763
Wolfgang Amadeus MozartAustrian composer who wrote over 600 works in a short lifeVienna, 1786
Industrial age1850 to 1914
Abraham LincolnThe US president who saved the Union and ended slaveryWashington, D.C., 1863
Alexander Graham BellThe teacher of the deaf who patented the telephoneBoston, Massachusetts, 1876
Billy the KidThe American outlaw said by legend to have killed 21 menLincoln, New Mexico Territory, 1879
Charles DarwinThe naturalist who proposed evolution by natural selectionDown House, Kent, 1871
Claude MonetThe French painter whose work gave Impressionism its nameGiverny, Normandy, 1899
Emily DickinsonWithdrawn poet who wrote nearly 1,800 compressed poemsThe Homestead, Amherst, 1862
Florence NightingaleStatistician and nurse known as the Lady with the LampScutari, near Constantinople, 1855
Frederick DouglassEscaped enslaved man who became a prominent abolitionistRochester, New York, 1852
Fyodor DostoevskyRussian novelist who probed guilt, freedom and faithSt Petersburg, 1866
Harriet TubmanUnderground Railroad guide, Civil War spy and raid leaderBeaufort, South Carolina and the Combahee River, 1863
Jagadish Chandra BoseThe physicist who argued plants respond like living nervesLondon and Calcutta, 1901
Leo TolstoyRussian novelist who turned from fame to preach nonviolenceYasnaya Polyana, 1899
Louis PasteurThe chemist who created pasteurisation and rabies vaccinesParis, 1885
Marie CurieThe scientist who discovered radium and coined radioactivityParis, 1898
Mark TwainThe Mississippi steamboat pilot turned deadpan humoristHartford, Connecticut, 1885
Mirza Asadullah Beg Khan GhalibUrdu poet of wit and melancholy who saw the fall of DelhiDelhi, 1850
Nikola TeslaInventor who lit the world with alternating currentColorado Springs, Colorado, 1899
Orville WrightThe bicycle mechanic who steered the first powered flightFort Myer, Virginia, and Berlin, 1909
Oscar WildeThe Victorian playwright imprisoned for gross indecencyLondon, 1892
Queen VictoriaThe monarch who ruled the biggest empire in historyWindsor Castle and London, 1887
Raja Ravi VarmaThe painter who shaped the popular look of Hindu deitiesBombay, 1895
Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi (Manikarnika Tambe)Queen of Jhansi who rode into battle against the BritishJhansi, 1854
Roald AmundsenPolar explorer who won the race to reach the South PoleHobart, Tasmania, 1912
Sitting BullLakota holy man who led resistance at the Little BighornRosebud Creek and the Little Bighorn, Montana Territory, 1876
Sojourner TruthFormerly enslaved preacher who spoke for abolition and womenAkron, Ohio, 1851
Susan B. AnthonySuffrage leader who was arrested for voting in 1872Rochester, New York, 1872
Swami Vivekananda (Narendranath Datta)Monk who brought practical Vedanta and yoga to the WestChicago, 1893
Theodore RooseveltPresident who championed conservation and a Square DealChicago and Milwaukee, 1912
Thomas EdisonInventor who developed the practical incandescent lampMenlo Park, New Jersey, 1879
Vincent van GoghDutch painter who created The Starry Night and SunflowersArles, France, 1888
20th century1914 onwards
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Babasaheb Ambedkar)Social reformer who drafted the constitution of IndiaNew Delhi, 1949
Bhagat SinghThe Punjabi revolutionary hanged in Lahore at age 23Lahore Central Jail, 1930
Ernest ShackletonAntarctic explorer who lost his ship but saved all his menStromness whaling station, South Georgia, 1916
Franklin D. RooseveltPresident who steered America through depression and warWashington, D.C., 1933
Jawaharlal NehruIndia's first prime minister and Gandhi's chosen heirNew Delhi, 1947
John F. KennedyThe US president who navigated the Cuban Missile CrisisWashington, D.C., 1961
Lord MountbattenThe British viceroy who oversaw the partition of IndiaNew Delhi, Viceroy's House, 1947
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi)The lawyer who led non-violent resistance to British ruleLondon, 1931
Rabindranath TagoreFirst non-European to win the Nobel Prize in LiteratureBerlin and Caputh, Germany, 1930
Sardar Vallabhbhai PatelStatesman who merged over 500 princely states into IndiaNew Delhi, 1948
Sarojini NaiduPoet and political leader called the Nightingale of IndiaLondon, 1931
Sigmund FreudThe neurologist who pioneered the study of the unconscious20 Maresfield Gardens, London, 1938
Srinivasa RamanujanSelf-taught clerk whose notebooks astonished CambridgeTrinity College, Cambridge, 1917
Subhas Chandra Bose (Netaji)Nationalist who led an exile army to fight for a free IndiaSingapore, 1943
Virginia WoolfModernist novelist who pioneered stream of consciousnessTavistock Square, London, and Monk's House, Rodmell, Sussex, 1928
Yuri GagarinSoviet pilot who became the first human to orbit EarthMoscow, 1961
Examined, not performed
Here to be questioned, not to persuade: only for signed-in adults, answers from the historical record, and no AI voice.











































































































































































