Who Was Alive? asks for a year and gives you a list of the historical figures who were alive in it, with their ages at the time. Type 1776, 1492 or the year you were born, and the page lays out a cast of people who, for a moment, shared the same world. Each name links to Wikipedia so you can start reading about anyone who catches your eye.
The delight is the collision of timelines. Two famous people you thought of as centuries apart turn out to have overlapped, and another you assumed was ancient turns out to have been alive while something recent was happening. It is a quick way to feel history in the right proportions.
It is a Neal Agarwal project on neal.fun and works on phones. Allow about five minutes, or an hour if you fall into the Wikipedia links. It is good for students, trivia fans and anyone who likes to be surprised by a date.
Tips for getting the most out of it
- Try your birth year and a year you have always wondered about.
- Follow the Wikipedia links for the rabbit hole.
- Compare two years back to back.
Questions about Who Was Alive?
What is Who Was Alive?
It is a page where you enter a year and see the historical figures who were alive then, along with their ages. Each name links to Wikipedia. You can find it at neal.fun, and odd-sites.com lists it as a five-minute visit. It works on phones as well as computers.
Where does Who Was Alive get its names?
The page links each person to Wikipedia, which suggests that is the reference point. It is a toy for exploring timelines, so check any detail you plan to rely on against the linked article. We check the link daily, so you can see whether it is still alive.
Sites like Who Was Alive?
Histography
An interactive timeline of all of history, powered by Wikipedia.
- Rabbit hole
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oldweb.today
Browse archived pages inside emulated period browsers.
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The Public Domain Review
Strange and wonderful out-of-copyright art, books and ephemera.
- Rabbit hole
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- Alive · checked 15 days ago
Wayback Machine
Type a URL and travel to how it looked years ago.
- Rabbit hole
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- Alive · checked 15 days ago
Damn Interesting
Long-form true stories that are obscure, odd and gripping.
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David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
Tens of thousands of beautifully scanned old maps.
- Rabbit hole
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- Alive · checked 15 days ago