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Notable orphans and foundlings include world leaders, celebrated writers, entertainment greats, figures in science and business, as well as innumerable fictional characters in literature and comics. While the exact definition of orphan and foundlings varies, one legal definition is a child bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents". According to the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...
, the definition of an orphan is anyone that loses one parent, either through death or abandonment.


Figures from classical history and religious scripture


Africa

*
Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...
,
pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until th ...
of the Eighteenth Dynasty *
Hatshepsut Hatshepsut (; also Hatchepsut; Egyptian: '' ḥꜣt- špswt'' "Foremost of Noble Ladies"; or Hatasu c. 1507–1458 BC) was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. She was the second historically confirmed female pharaoh, af ...
, pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt *
Thutmose III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 2 ...
, Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty


Asia

*
Aandaal Andal ( ta, ஆண்டாள்), also known as Kothai, Nachiyar, and Godadevi, was the only female Alvar among the twelve Hindu poet-saints of South India. She was posthumously considered an avatar of the goddess Bhudevi. As with the Alv ...
,
Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...
saint, found in a temple garden *
Antiochus III the Great Antiochus III the Great (; grc-gre, Ἀντίoχoς Μέγας ; c. 2413 July 187 BC) was a Greek Hellenistic king and the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire, reigning from 222 to 187 BC. He ruled over the region of Syria and large parts of the res ...
,
Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...
and the 6th ruler of the
Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire (; grc, Βασιλεία τῶν Σελευκιδῶν, ''Basileía tōn Seleukidōn'') was a Greek state in West Asia that existed during the Hellenistic period from 312 BC to 63 BC. The Seleucid Empire was founded by the ...
*
Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
, Chinese scholar & politician *
Cyrus the Great Cyrus II of Persia (; peo, 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 ), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian empire. Schmitt Achaemenid dynasty (i. The clan and dynasty) Under his rule, the empire embraced ...
, Persian emperor, orphaned in childhood *
Esther Esther is the eponymous heroine of the Book of Esther. In the Achaemenid Empire, the Persian king Ahasuerus seeks a new wife after his queen, Vashti, is deposed for disobeying him. Hadassah, a Jewess who goes by the name of Esther, is chosen ...
, Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus *
Moses Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu ( Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pr ...
, religious leader, given up as an infant *
Sargon of Akkad Sargon of Akkad (; akk, ''Šarrugi''), also known as Sargon the Great, was the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, known for his conquests of the Sumerian city-states in the 24th to 23rd centuries BC.The date of the reign of Sargon is highl ...
, ruler of the Semitic-speaking
Akkadian Empire The Akkadian Empire () was the first ancient empire of Mesopotamia after the long-lived civilization of Sumer. It was centered in the city of Akkad () and its surrounding region. The empire united Akkadian and Sumerian speakers under one r ...
*
Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra, ; la, Sanctus Nicolaus (traditionally 15 March 270 – 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greek descent from the maritime city of Myra in Asia Minor (; modern-day Dem ...
, patron saint of children, orphaned early in childhood * Pulcheria, Roman ruler "Augusta Imperatrix"


Europe

*
Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of ...
, Greek philosopher and scientist, orphaned in early childhood *
Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good E ...
, Emperor of Rome *
Britannicus Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus (12 February AD 41 – 11 February AD 55), usually called Britannicus, was the son of Roman emperor Claudius and his third wife Valeria Messalina. For a time he was considered his father's heir, but that ...
, son of the Roman emperor Claudius and his third wife
Valeria Messalina Valeria Messalina (; ) was the third wife of Roman emperor Claudius. She was a paternal cousin of Emperor Nero, a second cousin of Emperor Caligula, and a great-grandniece of Emperor Augustus. A powerful and influential woman with a reputation ...
*
Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germani ...
, Roman emperor in AD 37–41 *
Cato the Younger Marcus Porcius Cato "Uticensis" ("of Utica"; ; 95 BC – April 46 BC), also known as Cato the Younger ( la, Cato Minor), was an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. His conservative principles were focused on the ...
, Roman Republic, left an orphan and raised by his uncle *
Hadrian Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania ...
, Roman emperor *
Juba II Juba II or Juba of Mauretania (Latin: ''Gaius Iulius Iuba''; grc, Ἰóβας, Ἰóβα or ;Roller, Duane W. (2003) ''The World of Juba II and Kleopatra Selene'' "Routledge (UK)". pp. 1–3. . c. 48 BC – AD 23) was the son of Juba I and client ...
, king of
Numidia Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...
and then later moved to
Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern present-day Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants ...
and his wife
Cleopatra Selene II Cleopatra Selene II ( Greek: Κλεοπάτρα Σελήνη; summer 40 BC – BC; the numeration is modern) was a Ptolemaic princess, Queen of Numidia (briefly in 25 BC) and Mauretania (25 BC – 5 BC) and Queen of Cyrenaica (34 BC – 30 BC). ...
* Julian, Roman Emperor and philosopher *
Oedipus Oedipus (, ; grc-gre, Οἰδίπους "swollen foot") was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby ...
, mythical Greek king, abandoned on a mountain * Pancras, Roman religious figure *
Galla Placidia Galla Placidia (388–89/392–93 – 27 November 450), daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, was a mother, tutor, and advisor to emperor Valentinian III, and a major force in Roman politics for most of her life. She was queen consort ...
, major force in Roman politics *
Romulus and Remus In Roman mythology, Romulus and Remus (, ) are twin brothers whose story tells of the events that led to the founding of the city of Rome and the Roman Kingdom by Romulus, following his fratricide of Remus. The image of a she-wolf sucklin ...
, traditional founders of
Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
, orphaned in infancy *
Sulla Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix (; 138–78 BC), commonly known as Sulla, was a Roman general and statesman. He won the first large-scale civil war in Roman history and became the first man of the Republic to seize power through force. Sulla had t ...
, Roman general and statesman *
Lucius Verus Lucius Aurelius Verus (15 December 130 – January/February 169) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death in 169, alongside his adoptive brother Marcus Aurelius. He was a member of the Nerva-Antonine dynasty. Verus' succession together wit ...
, Roman Emperor


Civic and religious leaders


Africa

*
Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah Abū ʿAlī Manṣūr (13 August 985 – 13 February 1021), better known by his regnal name al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh ( ar, الحاكم بأمر الله, lit=The Ruler by the Order of God), was the sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili i ...
, sixth
Fatimid The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...
caliph and 16th
Ismaili Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor ( imām) to Ja'far al ...
imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, serve ...
*
Jean-Hilaire Aubame Jean-Hilaire Aubame (10 November 1912 – 16 August 1989) was a Gabonese politician active during both the colonial and independence periods. The French journalist Pierre Péan said that Aubame's training "as a practicing Catholic and a cu ...
, Gabonese politician active during both the colonial and independence periods *
Jean-Bédel Bokassa Jean-Bédel Bokassa (; 22 February 1921 – 3 November 1996), also known as Bokassa I, was a Central African political and military leader who served as the second president of the Central African Republic (CAR) and as the emperor of its s ...
, military officer and the
head of state A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...
of the
Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...
and Emperor of Central Africa *
Piet Joubert Petrus Jacobus Joubert (20 January 1831 – 28 March 1900), better known as Piet Joubert, was Commandant-General of the South African Republic from 1880 to 1900. He also served as Vice-President to Paul Kruger from 1881 - 1883. He served in Fir ...
, military leader in
South African Republic The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when i ...
*
Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti- colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous ...
, Kenyan politician and the first
President of Kenya The president of the Republic of Kenya () is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Kenya. The President is also the head of the executive branch of the Government of Kenya and is the commander-in-chief of the Kenya Def ...
*
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Winnie Madikizela-Mandela (born Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela; 26 September 1936 – 2 April 2018), also known as Winnie Mandela, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and politician, and the second wife of Nelson Mandela. She ser ...
, South African activist and politician *
Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...
, president of South Africa, raised as a ward *
Menelik II , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Menelik II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ምኒልክ ; horse name Abba Dagnew ( Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 ...
,
Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia ( gez, ንጉሠ ነገሥት, nəgusä nägäst, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse ( am, ዐፄ, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century ...
*
Mobutu Sese Seko Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa Za Banga (; born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu; 14 October 1930 – 7 September 1997) was a Congolese politician and military officer who was the president of Zaire from 1965 to 1997 (known as the Democratic Republic o ...
,
military dictator A military dictatorship is a dictatorship in which the military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority, and the dictator is often a high-ranked military officer. The reverse situation is to have civilian control of the ...
and
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
*
Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I ( gez, ቀዳማዊ ኀይለ ሥላሴ, Qädamawi Häylä Səllasé, ; born Tafari Makonnen; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia (' ...
,
Emperor of Ethiopia The emperor of Ethiopia ( gez, ንጉሠ ነገሥት, nəgusä nägäst, "King of Kings"), also known as the Atse ( am, ዐፄ, "emperor"), was the hereditary monarchy, hereditary ruler of the Ethiopian Empire, from at least the 13th century ...
*
Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-r ...
, second President of Egypt


Asia

* Abbas, 5th Shah of Safavid dynasty of Iran *
Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...
, rulers of the Mughal Dynasty in India *
Yasser Arafat Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
, Palestinian leader *
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...
, Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey *
Chulalongkorn Chulalongkorn ( th, จุฬาลงกรณ์, 20 September 1853 – 23 October 1910) was the fifth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, titled Rama V. He was known to the Siamese of his time as ''Phra Phuttha Chao Luang'' (พร ...
, monarch of
Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
*
Sayajirao Gaekwad III Sayajirao Gaekwad III (born Shrimant Gopalrao Gaekwad; 11 March 1863 – 6 February 1939) was the Maharaja of Baroda State from 1875 to 1939, and is remembered for reforming much of his state during his rule. He belonged to the royal Ga ...
,
Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...
of
Baroda State Baroda State was a state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India in 1949. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its ...
* Go-Momozono,
Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...
* Go-Sakuramachi, Emperor of Japan *
Go-Toba was the 82nd emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. His reign spanned the years from 1183 through 1198. This 12th-century sovereign was named after Emperor Toba, and ''go-'' (後), translates literally as "later"; an ...
, Emperor of Japan *
Hongwu Hongwu () (23 January 1368 – 5 February 1399) was the era name of the Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming dynasty of China. Hongwu was also the Ming dynasty's first era name. Comparison table Other eras contemporaneous with Hongwu * ...
, Chinese emperor *
Huineng Dajian Huineng (); (February 27, 638 – August 28, 713), also commonly known as the Sixth Patriarch or Sixth Ancestor of Chan (traditional Chinese: 禪宗六祖), is a semi-legendary but central figure in the early history of Chinese Chan Buddhi ...
, Buddhist monk who is one of the most important figures in
Chan Buddhism Chan (; of ), from Sanskrit ''dhyāna in Buddhism, dhyāna'' (meaning "meditation" or "meditative state"), is a Chinese school of Mahayana, Mahāyāna Buddhism. It developed in China from the 6th century Common Era, CE onwards, becoming e ...
*
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
,
5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash tha ...
President of Iraq The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...
*
Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, and ...
, Chinese politician and the
paramount leader Paramount leader () is an informal term for the most important political figure in the People's Republic of China (PRC). The paramount leader typically controls the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), often hol ...
of China *
Chiang Kai-shek Chiang Kai-shek (31 October 1887 – 5 April 1975), also known as Chiang Chung-cheng and Jiang Jieshi, was a Chinese Nationalist politician, revolutionary, and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China (ROC) from 1928 ...
, Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China *
Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; ; xng, Temüjin, script=Latn; ., name=Temujin – August 25, 1227) was the founder and first Great Khan (Emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in history a ...
, Mongol leader *
Emperor Meiji , also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figur ...
, 122nd
Emperor of Japan The Emperor of Japan is the monarch and the head of the Imperial Family of Japan. Under the Constitution of Japan, he is defined as the symbol of the Japanese state and the unity of the Japanese people, and his position is derived from "the ...
*
Mohammad Mosaddegh Mohammad Mosaddegh ( fa, محمد مصدق, ; 16 June 1882 – 5 March 1967) was an Iranian politician, author, and lawyer who served as the 35th Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953, after appointment by the 16th Majlis. He was a member of ...
, Iranian politician, head of a democratically elected government and
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
of Iran *
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
, religious leader, orphaned at age 6 *
Nripendra Narayan Maharaja Nripendra Narayan (4 October 1862 – 18 September 1911) was the Maharaja of the princely state of Cooch Bihar, India, from 1863 to 1911. Early life Nripendra Narayan was only ten months old when his father, Narendra Narayan, died i ...
, Maharaja of the
princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, subject to ...
of Koch Bihar *
Li Peng Li Peng (; 20 October 1928 – 22 July 2019) was a Chinese politician who served as the fourth Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1987 to 1998, and as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Ch ...
, Chinese politician *
Puyi Aisin-Gioro Puyi (; 7 February 1906 – 17 October 1967), courtesy name Yaozhi (曜之), was the last emperor of China as the eleventh and final Qing dynasty monarch. He became emperor at the age of two in 1908, but was forced to abdicate on 1 ...
, Last
Emperor of China ''Huangdi'' (), translated into English as Emperor, was the superlative title held by monarchs of China who ruled various imperial regimes in Chinese history. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was considered the Son of Heav ...
*
Yitzhak Rabin Yitzhak Rabin (; he, יִצְחָק רַבִּין, ; 1 March 1922 – 4 November 1995) was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77, and from 1992 until h ...
, Israeli politician, statesman and general and the fifth
Prime Minister of Israel The prime minister of Israel ( he, רֹאשׁ הַמֶּמְשָׁלָה, Rosh HaMemshala, Head of the Government, Hebrew acronym: he2, רה״מ; ar, رئيس الحكومة, ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief exe ...
* Madho Singh II,
Maharajadhiraja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...
of
Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known a ...
* Seiwa, Emperor of Japan *
Nader Shah Nader Shah Afshar ( fa, نادر شاه افشار; also known as ''Nader Qoli Beyg'' or ''Tahmāsp Qoli Khan'' ) (August 1688 – 19 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian ...
, Iranian rulers *
Reza Shah , , spouse = Maryam Savadkoohi Tadj ol-Molouk Ayromlu (queen consort) Turan Amirsoleimani Esmat Dowlatshahi , issue = Princess Hamdamsaltaneh Princess Shams Mohammad Reza Shah Princess Ashraf Prince Ali Reza Prince Gholam Reza P ...
,
Shah Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
of
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
(Persia) *
Adi Shankaracharya Adi Shankara ("first Shankara," to distinguish him from other Shankaras)(8th cent. CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya ( sa, आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, Ādi Śaṅkarācāryaḥ, lit=First Shanka ...
, scholar, philosopher, reformer,
Advaita Vedanta ''Advaita Vedanta'' (; sa, अद्वैत वेदान्त, ) is a Hindu sādhanā, a path of spiritual discipline and experience, and the oldest extant tradition of the orthodox Hindu school Vedānta. The term ''Advaita'' ...
non-dualism Nondualism, also called nonduality and nondual awareness, is a fuzzy concept originating in Indian philosophy and religion for which many definitions can be found, including: nondual awareness, the nonduality of seer and seen or nondiffe ...
*
Taixu Taixu (Tai Hsu) (), (January 8, 1890 – March 17, 1947) was a Buddhist modernist, activist and thinker who advocated for a reformation and revival of Chinese Buddhism by drawing upon eclectic domestic and foreign sources and ideologies. Biogra ...
, Buddhist modernist, activist and thinker who advocated the reform and renewal of
Chinese Buddhism Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism ( zh, s=汉传佛教, t=漢傳佛教, p=Hànchuán Fójiào) is a Chinese form of Mahayana Buddhism which has shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas including art, politics, literature, philosophy, ...
* Theodora,
empress An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
of the
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
*
Bal Gangadhar Tilak Bal Gangadhar Tilak (; born Keshav Gangadhar Tilak (pronunciation: eʃəʋ ɡəŋɡaːd̪ʱəɾ ʈiɭək; 23 July 1856 – 1 August 1920), endeared as Lokmanya (IAST: ''Lokmānya''), was an Indian nationalist, teacher, and an independence ...
, Indian nationalist,
teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...
,
lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...
and an independence activist *
Minamoto no Yoritomo was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan, ruling from 1192 until 1199.Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "Minamoto no Yoriie" in . He was the husband of Hōjō Masako who acted as regent (''shikken'') after his ...
, founder and the first ''
shōgun , officially , was the title of the military dictators of Japan during most of the period spanning from 1185 to 1868. Nominally appointed by the Emperor, shoguns were usually the de facto rulers of the country, though during part of the Kamaku ...
'' of the
Kamakura shogunate The was the feudal military government of Japan during the Kamakura period from 1185 to 1333. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"''Kamakura-jidai''"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 459. The Kamakura shogunate was established by Minamoto no ...
of
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
* Zhu Rongji, premier of China


Australia/Oceania

*
John Gorton Sir John Grey Gorton (9 September 1911 – 19 May 2002) was an Australian politician who served as the nineteenth Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1968 to 1971. He led the Liberal Party during that time, having previously been a l ...
, The nineteenth
Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the princip ...
*
Kamehameha III Kamehameha III (born Kauikeaouli) (March 17, 1814 – December 15, 1854) was the third king of the Kingdom of Hawaii from 1825 to 1854. His full Hawaiian name is Keaweaweula Kīwalaō Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa and then lengthened to Keaweaweula Kī ...
, King of Hawaii *
John McEwen Sir John McEwen, (29 March 1900 – 20 November 1980) was an Australian politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Australia, holding office from 1967 to 1968 in a caretaker capacity after the disappearance of Harold Holt. He was the ...
, Prime Minister of Australia, at age seven *
William McMahon Sir William McMahon (23 February 190831 March 1988) was an Australian politician who served as the 20th Prime Minister of Australia, in office from 1971 to 1972 as leader of the Liberal Party. He was a government minister for over 21 years, ...
, Prime Minister of Australia, at age 8 and 18 * Frank Rogers, New Zealand politician


Europe

*
Pope Adrian VI Pope Adrian VI ( la, Hadrianus VI; it, Adriano VI; nl, Adrianus/Adriaan VI), born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his d ...
*
Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bo ...
,
King of Wessex This is a list of monarchs of Wessex until AD 886. For later monarchs, see the List of English monarchs. While the details of the later monarchs are confirmed by a number of sources, the earlier ones are in many cases obscure. The names are give ...
from 871 to 899 *
Yuri Andropov Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (– 9 February 1984) was the sixth paramount leader of the Soviet Union and the fourth General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After Leonid Brezhnev's 18-year rule, Andropov served in the ...
, Chairman of the KGB and
General Secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union " Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspape ...
*
Anna of Russia Anna Ioannovna (russian: Анна Иоанновна; ), also russified as Anna Ivanovna and sometimes anglicized as Anne, served as regent of the duchy of Courland from 1711 until 1730 and then ruled as Empress of Russia from 1730 to 1740. Much ...
,
Empress of Russia The emperor or empress of all the Russias or All Russia, ''Imperator Vserossiyskiy'', ''Imperatritsa Vserossiyskaya'' (often titled Tsar or Tsarina/Tsaritsa) was the monarch of the Russian Empire. The title originated in connection with Russia' ...
*
Anne of Brittany Anne of Brittany (; 25/26 January 1477 – 9 January 1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She is the only woman to have been queen consort of France ...
, French queen *
Anne, Queen of Great Britain Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714) was Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland from 8 March 1702 until 1 May 1707. On 1 May 1707, under the Acts of Union, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as ...
, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland *
Eleanor of Aquitaine Eleanor ( – 1 April 1204; french: Aliénor d'Aquitaine, ) was Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 as the wife of King Louis VII, List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of Henry II of England, King Henry I ...
, member of the Ramnulfid dynasty and one of the most powerful women in the
High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...
*
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...
, Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey *
Manuel Azaña Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the last President of the Re ...
, second
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
of the
Second Spanish Republic The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
*
August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 mer ...
, German socialist politician, writer, and orator *
Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in th ...
, British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour politician * Hans Böckler, German politician and trade union leader *
Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Infa ...
, ruler of both the
Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
and the
Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 unt ...
*
Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
, wife of
George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...
,
King of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Baili ...
*
Albert Chmielowski Albert Chmielowski (20 August 1845 – 25 December 1916) - born Adam Hilary Bernard Chmielowski - was a Polish nobleman, painter, disabled veteran of the Uprising of 1863, a professed religious and founder of both the Albertine Brothers and Al ...
, Polish nobleman, noted painter, disabled veteran of the
Uprising of 1863 The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...
* John Church, clergyman, found as a toddler *
Pope Clement VII Pope Clement VII ( la, Clemens VII; it, Clemente VII; born Giulio de' Medici; 26 May 1478 – 25 September 1534) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 November 1523 to his death on 25 September 1534. Deemed "the ...
*
Clovis I Clovis ( la, Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single ki ...
, first
King of the Franks The Franks, Germanic-speaking peoples that invaded the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, were first led by individuals called dukes and reguli. The earliest group of Franks that rose to prominence was the Salian Merovingians, who c ...
*
Gaspard II de Coligny Gaspard de Coligny (16 February 1519 – 24 August 1572), Seigneur de Châtillon, was a French nobleman, Admiral of France, and Huguenot leader during the French Wars of Religion. He served under kings Francis I and Henry II during the It ...
,
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
leader in the
French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the term which is used in reference to a period of civil war between French Catholics and Protestants, commonly called Huguenots, which lasted from 1562 to 1598. According to estimates, between two and four mil ...
, nobleman and
Admiral of France Admiral of France (french: Amiral de France) is a French title of honour. It is the naval equivalent of Marshal of France and was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France. History The title was created in 1270 by Louis IX of France, dur ...
* Saints Cyril,
Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
Christian theologian Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exegesis ...
and
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
*
Edward VI of England Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour and the first ...
, orphaned at age 9 *
Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...
, Queen of England *
Elizabeth of Russia Elizabeth Petrovna (russian: Елизаве́та (Елисаве́та) Петро́вна) (), also known as Yelisaveta or Elizaveta, reigned as Empress of Russia from 1741 until her death in 1762. She remains one of the most popular Russian ...
, Empress of Russia *
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I ( es, Fernando I; 10 March 1503 – 25 July 1564) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, Hungary, and List of rulers of Croatia, Croatia from 1526, and Archduke of Austria from 1521 until his death in 1 ...
,
Holy Roman Emperor The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans ( la, Imperator Romanorum, german: Kaiser der Römer) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period ( la, Imperat ...
,
King of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings beforehand, first gaining the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman ...
,
Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Cr ...
, and
Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...
, and
Archduke of Austria This is a list of people who have ruled either the Margraviate of Austria, the Duchy of Austria or the Archduchy of Austria. From 976 until 1246, the margraviate and its successor, the duchy, was ruled by the House of Babenberg. At that time, thos ...
*
Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (German: ''Friedrich''; Italian: ''Federico''; Latin: ''Federicus''; 26 December 1194 – 13 December 1250) was King of Sicily from 1198, King of Germany from 1212, King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor from 1220 and King of Jer ...
, medieval monarch *
Hans-Dietrich Genscher Hans-Dietrich Genscher (21 March 1927 – 31 March 2016) was a German statesman and a member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), who served as Federal Minister of the Interior from 1969 to 1974, and as Federal Minister for Foreign Affa ...
, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor of Germany *
Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg (28 January 1602–18 August 1651) was Landgravine consort and Regent of Hesse-Kassel. She married the future William V, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel in 1619 and became Landgravine upon his ascension to power in 1 ...
, Landgravine consort and Regent of
Hesse-Kassel The Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel (german: Landgrafschaft Hessen-Kassel), spelled Hesse-Cassel during its entire existence, was a state in the Holy Roman Empire that was directly subject to the Emperor. The state was created in 1567 when the L ...
* Henry VI, King of England and France *
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...
, Fuhrer of Germany, orphaned at 18 *
Salvador of Horta Salvador of Horta ( ca, Salvador d'Horta; es, Salvador de Horta; it, Salvatore da Horta; December 152018 March 1567) was a Spanish Franciscan lay brother from the region of Catalonia in Spain, who was celebrated as a miracle worker during his ...
, Spanish
Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...
lay brother Lay brother is a largely extinct term referring to religious brothers, particularly in the Catholic Church, who focused upon manual service and secular matters, and were distinguished from choir monks or friars in that they did not pray in choir, ...
from the region of
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the no ...
in
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
*
Ivan IV Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Iva ...
, Russian ruler, orphaned at age 8 *
Joan II of Navarre Joan II (french: Jeanne; 28 January 1312 – 6 October 1349) was Queen of Navarre from 1328 until her death. She was the only surviving child of Louis X of France, King of France and Navarre, and Margaret of Burgundy. Joan's paternity was dubiou ...
, Queen of Navarre *
John I John I may refer to: People * John I (bishop of Jerusalem) * John Chrysostom (349 – c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople * John of Antioch (died 441) * Pope John I, Pope from 523 to 526 * John I (exarch) (died 615), Exarch of Ravenna * John I ...
, King of Portugal and the Algarve *
Konstantinos Kanaris Konstantinos Kanaris ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Κανάρης, ; c. 17901877), also anglicised as Constantine Kanaris or Canaris, was a Greek admiral, Prime Minister, and a hero of the Greek War of Independence.Woodhouse, p. 129. Biog ...
,
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
,
admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet ...
and
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...
,
freedom fighter A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...
in the
Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...
*
Rudolf Kirchschläger Rudolf Kirchschläger, GColIH (; 20 March 1915 – 30 March 2000) was an Austrian diplomat, politician and judge. From 1974 to 1986, he served as President of Austria. Early life and education Born in Niederkappel, Upper Austria, Kirschlä ...
, Austrian diplomat, politician, judge and the eighth
President of Austria The president of Austria (german: Bundespräsident der Republik Österreich) is the head of state of the Republic of Austria. Though theoretically entrusted with great power by the Constitution, in practice the president is largely a ceremonial ...
*
Pope Leo X Pope Leo X ( it, Leone X; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521. Born into the prominent political an ...
*
David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party (United Kingdom), Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for lea ...
, Welsh statesman who served as
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern p ...
from 1916 to 1922 *
Louis XIV Louis XIV (Louis Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was List of French monarchs, King of France from 14 May 1643 until his death in 1715. His reign of 72 years and 110 days is the Li ...
, King of France or the Sun King *
Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
, King of France *
Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
, King of France * Maria II, Queen regnant of the
Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchy ruled by a king or queen * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and media Television * ''Kingdom'' (British TV series), a 2007 British television drama ...
*
Mary of Burgundy Mary (french: Marie; nl, Maria; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of ...
, Duchess of Burgundy, reigned over the
Burgundian State The Burgundian StateB. Schnerb, ''L'État bourguignon'', 1999 (french: État bourguignon; nl, Bourgondische Rijk) is a concept coined by historians to describe the vast complex of territories that is also referred to as Valois Burgundy. It de ...
, now mainly in
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
and the
Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
*
Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of S ...
, and of France *
Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...
, Queen of France *
Philip Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the L ...
, German Lutheran reformer *
Angela Merici Angela Merici or Angela de Merici ( , ; 21 March 1474 – 27 January 1540) was an Italian religious educator, who is honored as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. She founded the Company of St. Ursula in 1535 in Brescia, in which women dedi ...
, Italian religious educator *
Louise Otto-Peters Louise Otto-Peters (26 March 1819, Meissen – 13 March 1895, Leipzig) was a German suffragist and women's rights movement activist who wrote novels, poetry, essays, and libretti. She wrote for ''Der Wandelstern'' he Wandering Starand ''Sächsis ...
, German suffragist and women's rights movement activist who wrote novels, poetry, essays, and libretti *
Olof Palme Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until ...
, Swedish politician, statesman and
Prime Minister of Sweden The prime minister ( sv, statsminister ; literally translating to "Minister of State") is the head of government of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are su ...
*
Peter the Great Peter I ( – ), most commonly known as Peter the Great,) or Pyotr Alekséyevich ( rus, Пётр Алексе́евич, p=ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ, , group=pron was a Russian monarch who ruled the Tsardom of Russia from t ...
,
Tsardom of Russia The Tsardom of Russia or Tsardom of Rus' also externally referenced as the Tsardom of Muscovy, was the centralized Russian state from the assumption of the title of Tsar by Ivan IV in 1547 until the foundation of the Russian Empire by Peter I ...
and later the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...
*
Peter II of Russia Peter II Alexeyevich (russian: Пётр II, Пётр Алексеевич, ''Pyotr Vtoroy'', ''Pyotr Alekseyevich'', – ) reigned as Emperor of Russia from 1727 until his untimely death at the age of 14. He was the only son of Tsarevich Alexei ...
, Emperor of Russia *
Peter III of Russia Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a s ...
, Emperor of Russia * Philip IV, of France, called the Fair or the Iron King *
Maximilien Robespierre Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and statesman who became one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. As a member of the Esta ...
, French politician during the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
, orphaned at age 6 *
Baal Shem Tov Israel ben Eliezer (1698 – 22 May 1760), known as the Baal Shem Tov ( he, בעל שם טוב, ) or as the Besht, was a Jewish mystic and healer who is regarded as the founder of Hasidic Judaism. "Besht" is the acronym for Baal Shem Tov, which ...
, Jewish mystic and healer from Poland *
Albrecht von Wallenstein Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein () (24 September 1583 – 25 February 1634), also von Waldstein ( cs, Albrecht Václav Eusebius z Valdštejna), was a Bohemian military leader and statesman who fought on the Catholic side during the Th ...
,
Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
n military & political leader *
Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia Wenceslaus IV (also ''Wenceslas''; cs, Václav; german: Wenzel, nicknamed "the Idle"; 26 February 136116 August 1419), also known as Wenceslaus of Luxembourg, was King of Bohemia from 1378 until his death and King of Germany from 1376 until he ...
,
King of Bohemia The Duchy of Bohemia was established in 870 and raised to the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198. Several Bohemian monarchs ruled as non-hereditary kings beforehand, first gaining the title in 1085. From 1004 to 1806, Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman ...
from 1363 until his death and King of Germany *
William I William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 10 ...
, King of Prussia and the first German emperor


North America

* William Bradford, colonial governor, orphaned at age 7 *
George Clymer George Clymer (March 16, 1739January 23, 1813) was an American politician, abolitionist and Founding Father of the United States, one of only six founders who signed both the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution. He was among the e ...
, early American politician *
Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as ...
, American politician, and
President of the Confederate States The president of the Confederate States was the head of state and head of government of the Confederate States. The president was the chief executive of the federal government and was the commander-in-chief of the Confederate Army and the Conf ...
*
Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
,
African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...
social reformer, abolitionist,
orator An orator, or oratist, is a public speaker, especially one who is eloquent or skilled. Etymology Recorded in English c. 1374, with a meaning of "one who pleads or argues for a cause", from Anglo-French ''oratour'', Old French ''orateur'' (14th ...
, writer, and
statesman A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level. Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to: Newspapers United States * ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a ...
*
Peter Francisco Peter Francisco (born Pedro Francisco; July 7, 1760 – January 16, 1831) known variously as the "India", the "Giant of the Revolution" and occasionally the "Virginia Hercules", was a Portuguese-born American patriot and soldier in the America ...
, soldier, found on a Virginia dock as a young child *
Mariano Gálvez José Felipe Mariano Gálvez (ca. 1794 – March 29, 1862 in Mexico) was a jurist and Liberal politician in Guatemala. For two consecutive terms from August 28, 1831, to March 3, 1838, he was chief of state of the State of Guatemala, within th ...
, Guatemalan politician, foundling adopted and raised by Gálvez family *
Alexander Hamilton Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first United States secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795. Born out of wedlock in Charle ...
, American politician, orphaned at age 13 *
John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor o ...
, American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution * Ben W. Hooper, governor of Tennessee, raised in an orphanage *
Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gre ...
, U.S. president, orphaned at age 9 *
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...
, U.S. president, orphaned at age 14 *
Benito Juarez Benito may refer to: Places * Benito, Kentucky, United States * Benito, Manitoba, Canada * Benito River, a river in Equatorial Guinea Other uses * Benito (name) * ''Benito'' (1993), an Italian film See also * '' Benito Cereno'', a novella by ...
, Mexican president, orphaned at age 3 *
George F. Kennan George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American diplomat and historian. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly hist ...
, American diplomat and historian * Edward Langworthy, American politician, raised in an orphanage *
Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...
, American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th
president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
from 1861 until his assassination in 1865 *
Moctezuma II Moctezuma Xocoyotzin ( – 29 June 1520; oteːkˈsoːmaḁ ʃoːkoˈjoːt͡sĩn̥), nci-IPA, Motēuczōmah Xōcoyōtzin, moteːkʷˈsoːma ʃoːkoˈjoːtsin variant spellings include Motewksomah, Motecuhzomatzin, Montezuma, Moteuczoma, Motecu ...
, ninth ''
tlatoani ''Tlatoani'' ( , "one who speaks, ruler"; plural ' or tlatoque) is the Classical Nahuatl term for the ruler of an , a pre-Hispanic state. It is the noun form of the verb "tlahtoa" meaning "speak, command, rule". As a result, it has been variousl ...
'' or ruler of
Tenochtitlan , ; es, Tenochtitlan also known as Mexico-Tenochtitlan, ; es, México-Tenochtitlan was a large Mexican in what is now the historic center of Mexico City. The exact date of the founding of the city is unclear. The date 13 March 1325 was ...
*
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...
, politician and civil rights activist, raised in an orphanage and foster care * Christopher G. Memminger, German American politician, raised in an orphanage *
James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...
, fifth President of the United States *
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt () (October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the first lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945, during her husband President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four ...
, U.S. First Lady & activist, orphaned at age 10 *
Joseph F. Smith Joseph Fielding Smith Sr. (November 13, 1838 – November 19, 1918) was an American religious leader who served as the sixth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). He was the nephew of Joseph Smith, the founde ...
, American religious leader, orphaned at age 13 *
Tenskwatawa Tenskwatawa (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a ...
, Native American religious and political leader of the
Shawnee The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
tribe *
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...
, American political leader, military general, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States *
Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa (, Orozco rebelled in March 1912, both for Madero's continuing failure to enact land reform and because he felt insufficiently rewarded for his role in bringing the new president to power. At the request of Madero's c ...
, Mexican revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution * Tom Vilsack, American politician, adopted at birth


South America

* Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian leader, orphaned at age 12 * Simón Bolívar, Latin American leader, orphaned at age 8 * Pedro II of Brazil, Pedro II of Brazil * Eva Perón First Lady of Argentina


Writers


Africa

* Ingrid Jonker, South African poet


Asia

* Kobayashi Issa, Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest * Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese novelist and subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968 * Kenzaburō Ōe, Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 * Natsume Sōseki, Japanese novelist * Ouyang Xiu, Chinese essayist, historian, poet, calligraphy, calligrapher, politician, and epigraphy, epigrapher of the Song dynasty


Australia/Oceania

* Thomas Bracken, Irish-born New Zealand poet, journalist and politician


Europe

* Dante Alighieri, simply called Dante, major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages * Alfred Andersch, German writer, publisher, and radio editor * Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author * Achim von Arnim, German poet, novelist and a leading figure of German Romanticism * Bettina von Arnim, German writer and novelist * Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, Spanish Romance literature, post-romanticist poet and writer * Thomas Bernhard, Austrian novelist, playwright and poet * Hayim Nahman Bialik, Jewish poet * Arrigo Boito, Italian poet, journalist, novelist, librettist and composer * Anthony Burgess, English writer and composer * Brontë family, The Brontë Sisters, English poets and novelists * Joseph Conrad, Polish-British author, orphaned at age 11 * Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer of formula fiction romantic novels * Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher * Nikolai Gogol, Russian/ Ukrainian novelist, short story writer and playwright * Yvan Goll, French-German poet * Maxim Gorky, Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist * Karoline von Günderrode, German Romantic poet * Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, German anthropologist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist * Alfred Grosser, German-French writer, sociologist, and political scientist * Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet and philosopher * Joris-Karl Huysmans, French novelist and art critic * Attila József, Hungarian poet * John Keats, English Romantic poet, orphaned at age 14 and raised partly by his grandmother * Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger, German dramatist and novelist * Eugen Kogon, Historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor * Hugh Leonard, Irish dramatist, television writer and essayist, abandoned as an infant * Mikhail Lermontov, Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter * Thomas Mann, German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate * Harry Martinson, Swedish author, poet and former sailor, He was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in Literature. * W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist and short story writer, orphaned at age 10 * Andy McNab, English soldier and novelist, found as a baby on the steps of hospital * Montesquieu, French intellectual, man of letters, political philosophy, political philosopher and judge * Eduard Mörike, German writer * Seán O'Casey, Irish dramatist and memoirist * Georges Perec, French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist * Abbé Prévost, French author and novelist * Anatoly Pristavkin, Russian writer and public figure * Jean Racine, French playwright, orphaned at age 4 * Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, mathematical logic, logician, writer and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate * George Sand, French novelist and memoirist * Albertine Sarrazin, French author * Arno Schmidt, German author and translator * Torquato Tasso, Italian poet of the 16th century * J. R. R. Tolkien, English writer, poet, philologist and university professor, orphaned at age 12 * Leo Tolstoy, Russian author, orphaned at age 9 * William Wordsworth, English Romantic poet, orphaned at age 12


North America

* Edward Albee, American playwright, adopted as an infant * Neal Cassady, was a major figure and muse of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the Psychedelia, psychedelic and Counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture movements of the 1960s * Gregory Corso, was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement * Mary McCarthy (author), Mary McCarthy, American novelist, critic and political activist * Herman Melville, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period * James A. Michener, American author, abandoned as an infant * Sylvia Plath, poet, novelist, and short-story writer * Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer * Edgar Allan Poe, author, orphaned at age 2 * William Saroyan, Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer * Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh-American journalist and explorer, raised in a workhouse * Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector * Dale Wasserman, American playwright, orphaned at age 9 * Pete Wells, American food critic, adopted as an infant


Musicians and singers


Africa

* Cesária Évora, Cape Verdean popular singer * Emmanuel Jal, South Sudanese-Canadian rapper * Miriam Makeba, South African singer and activist


Asia

* Juan Karlos Labajo, Filipino singer, abandoned by father, and mother died at age 12 * Choi Sung-bong, singer of the Republic of Korea


Australia/Oceania

* Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano singer, adopted as an infant


Europe

* Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, orphaned at age 9 * Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist * Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; * Alban Berg, Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School * Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer known for his symphony, symphonies, mass (liturgy), masses, and motets * Josquin des Prez, French composer and singer of the Renaissance music, Renaissance * Christoph Eschenbach, German-born musician * Paul Gerhardt, German theologian, Lutheran minister and hymnodist * George Frideric Handel, German-born Baroque composer becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos * John Koukouzelis, Albanian Orthodox Christian composer * John Lennon, English singer, raised by aunt and uncle * John Lundvik, Swedish singer, songwriter, and former sprinter * Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Swedish pop and jazz singer * Henry Purcell, English composer * Mstislav Rostropovich, Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor * Antonio Salieri, Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher * Franz Schubert, Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras * Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer


North America

* Louis Armstrong, American musician, raised in an orphanage and by his grandmother * Hank Ballard, American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter * Ray Charles, American singer, orphaned at age 15 * Ibrahim Ferrer, Afro-Cuban musician * Ella Fitzgerald, American jazz singer, orphaned in childhood * Kirk Franklin, American gospel musician * James Hetfield, American singer, orphaned by cancer at 16 * Faith Hill, American singer, adopted as an infant * Billie Holiday, American jazz singer, intermittently abandoned in childhood * Al Jolson, American singer, comedian, and actor * B. B. King, American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer * Eartha Kitt, American singer, actress, activist and voice actress * Jenkins Orphanage, American band in US * Mims (rapper), Mims, American hip hop recording artist, orphaned at age 13 * Sonny Moore, American electronic dance music producer, adopted as an infant * Trent Reznor, American singer, abandoned by parents at age 5 and raised by grandparents * Jimmie Rodgers (country singer), Jimmie Rodgers, American country singer * John Rzeznik, American musician, orphaned at age 15 * Bessie Smith, American blues singer, orphaned at age 9 * Tina Turner, American singer, intermittently abandoned in childhood * Tom Waits, American musician, composer, songwriter and actor. His father left when he was 10 * Muddy Waters, American blues musician * Jimmy Wayne, American country music singer, homeless foster teen taken in by a couple in their 70s


South America

* Víctor Jara, Chilean poet, singer-songwriter, teacher, theatre director and political activist * Milton Nascimento, Brazilian singer, songwriter and guitarist


Artists, actors, and entertainers


Africa

* Michaela DePrince, Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer * Ger Duany, actor, among Lost Boys of Sudan * Charlize Theron, South African and American actress and film producer * Natasha Joubert, South African entrepreneur, model and beauty pageant titleholder


Asia

* Rajesh Khanna, Bollywood actor * Nadech Kugimiya, Thai model and actor * I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect * Bianca Umali, Filipino Teen actress, commercial model and recurring dancer, orphaned at 7 * Preity Zinta, Indian film actress * Tracy Perez, Filipino model, industrial engineer, and beauty pageant titleholder


Australia/Oceania

* Cate Blanchett, Australian actress and theatre director * Guy Pearce, Australian actor and musician


Europe

* Leon Battista Alberti, Italian humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguistics, linguist, philosopher and cryptography, cryptographer * Max Beckmann, German painter, drawing, draftsman, printmaker, sculpture, sculptor, and writer * Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress, orphaned at age 12 * Gustave Boulanger, French painter, abandoned at the age of 14 * Rosa Bonheur, French artist, an animalière (painter of animals) and sculptor * Lord Byron, English Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer, who was a poet and
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...
* Caravaggio, list of Italian painters, Italian painter * Charlie Chaplin, English entertainer * Coco Chanel, French fashion designer and entrepreneur * Salvador Dalí, Spanish Surrealism, surrealist painter * Daniel Day-Lewis, English actor * Edgar Degas, French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings * Narcisse Virgilio Díaz, Narcisse-Virgilio Díaz de la Peña, was a French painter of the Barbizon school * Marlene Dietrich, German actress and singer * Juliette Drouet, French actress, orphaned in childhood * Anthony van Dyck, Flemish Baroque artist * Albert Edelfelt, Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt was a Finnish-Swedish Painting, painter noted for his naturalistic style and Realism (arts), Realist approach to art. His father died while he was young. * Barry Evans (actor), Barry Evans, English actor, abandoned as an infant, raised in an orphanage * Caspar David Friedrich, German Romanticism, German Romantic Landscape art, landscape painter * Miloš Forman, Czech-American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before immigrating to the USA in 1968 * Greta Garbo, Swedish-born American film actress * Paul Gauguin, French post-Impressionist artist * Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian Baroque painter * André Heller, Austrian artist, author, poet, singer, songwriter and actor * Alfred Hitchcock, English film director, producer, and screenwriter * Hape Kerkeling, German actor, presenter and comedian * Deborah Kerr, Scottish-born film, theatre and television actress * Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, German painter and architect in Prussia * Adolf Loos, Austrian and Czechoslovak architect and influential European theorist of Modern architecture * Peter Lorre, Austro-Hungarian-American actor * Andrea Mantegna, Italian Renaissance painter * Ian McKellen, English actor * Michelangelo, Italians, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance * Molière, French playwright and actor who and one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature * Lola Montez, Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress (lover), mistress of Ludwig I, King of Bavaria, King Ludwig I of Bavaria * Armin Mueller-Stahl, German film actor, painter and author * Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter and printmaker * Gabriele Münter, German expressionist painter * Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress and theatre director * David Niven, English actor and novelist * Laurence Olivier, English actor * Parmigianino, Italian Mannerism, Mannerist painter and printmaker * Francis Picabia, French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist * Roman Polanski, French-Polish film director, producer, writer, and actor * Oleg Popov, Russian clown and circus artist * Neo Rauch, German painter * Raphael, Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance * Alan Rickman, English actor and director * Géza Röhrig, Hungarian actor and poet, raised in an orphanage * Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish Baroque painter * Heinz Rühmann, German film actor * Margaret Rutherford, English actress * Egon Schiele, Austrian painter * Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prussian architect, city planner, and painter * Oskar Schlemmer, German Painting, painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school * Volker Schlöndorff, German filmmaker * Joseph Edward Southall, English painter associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. * Nicolas de Staël, French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly Abstract art, abstract landscape painting * Guillaume Taraval, French-born Swedish painter * Margarethe von Trotta, Cinema of Germany, German film director * Marie Tussaud, French artist known for her wax sculptures and Madame Tussauds * Ellen von Unwerth, German photographer and director, specializing in erotic femininity * Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress and film director * Roger Vadim, French screenwriter, film director and producer, as well as an author, artist and occasional actor * Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, French painter * Naomi Watts, English actress and film producer * Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director and producer of operas, films and television


North America

* Tallulah Bankhead, American actress, orphaned as an infant * Buffalo Bill, American frontier figure * Charles Bronson, Lithuanian-American film and television actor * Carol Burnett, American actress, comedian, singer and writer, raised by her grandmother * Mary Cassatt, American painter and printmaker * William Castle, American film figure, orphaned at age 11 * Henry Darger, American writer and artist (whose work focused on orphans), orphaned at age 13. * Tommy Davidson, American comedian, orphaned as infant * James Dean, American actor * Benicio del Toro, Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican actor * Cecil B. DeMille, American filmmaker * William C. DeMille, American screenwriter and director * Jane Fonda, American actress, writer, political activism, political activist and Physical fitness, fitness guru * Peter Fonda, American actor, director, and screenwriter * Clark Gable, American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood" or just simply as "The King" * Ava Gardner, American actress and singer * John Garfield, American actor * Judy Garland, American actress, singer and vaudevillian * Bill Graham (promoter), Bill Graham, German-American impresario and rock concert promoter * D. W. Griffith, American film director, writer, and producer * Gene Hackman, American actor and novelist * Oliver Hardy, American actor of Laurel and Hardy * Mariska Hargitay, American actress * Ice-T, American rapper and actor, rapper, orphaned at age 12 * Brian Jungen, Dene-Zaa artist * Danny Kaye, American actor, singer, dancer, comedian, and musician * Veronica Lake, American film, stage, and television actress * Art Linkletter, Canadian-born American radio and television personality and entertainer, abandoned as an infant * Ray Liotta, American actor, film producer and voice actor, adopted at 6 months * George Lopez, American comedian, raised by a grandmother * Myrna Loy, American film, television and stage actress * Lee Majors, American film, television and voice actor, orphaned at age 2 & raised by aunt and uncle * Jayne Mansfield, American actress in film, theatre, television and Playboy Playmate, ''Playboy'' Playmates * Jayne Marie Mansfield, Playboy nude model * Frances McDormand, American actress, adopted as an infant * Marilyn Monroe, entertainer, raised in foster care * Eddie Murphy, American comedian, actor, writer, singer and producer * Steve Oedekerk, American comedian and film producer, adopted as an infant * Mary Pickford, Canadian-American film actress, writer, director, and producer * Priscilla Presley, American actress and entrepreneur * Kelly Preston, American actress * Anthony Quinn, Mexico, Mexican-born American actor, painter and writer * Julia Roberts, American actress and producer * Jane Russell, American film actress and one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols * Gene Siskel, American film critic, orphaned at age 9 & raised by aunt and uncle * Barbara Stanwyck, American actress, raised in foster homes from age 2 * Barbra Streisand, American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker * Lana Turner, American actress * Andy Warhol, American artist who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art * Orson Welles, American actor and director, orphaned at age 15 * Jeffrey Wright is an American actor whose father died when he was a child * Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer, abandoned at age 13


South America

* Ivian Sarcos, Miss World 2011, orphaned at age 8


Athletes


Africa

* Eusébio, Portuguese footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker and first world-class African-born players * Guor Marial, Olympic runner, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan * Victor Moses, professional footballer * Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, African triathlete and advocate for the rights of the disabled


Asia

* Garry Kasparov, Russian chess International Grandmaster, grandmaster, former World Chess Champion * Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, List of India national cricket captains, captain of the India national cricket team for the Indian cricket team in England in 1946, tour to England in 1946 * Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Indian cricketer and former captain of the Indian cricket team * Milkha Singh, known as The Flying Sikh, is an Indian former track and field sprinter


Australia/Oceania

* Layne Beachley, Australian surfing, surfer, she won the world surfing champion, World Championship * Jason Day, Australian professional golfer and PGA Tour member * Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete, and the 1936 Summer Olympics, 1936 Olympic champion * Wendell Sailor, Australian former professional rugby football player


Europe

* Alberto Ascari, Italian racing driver and twice Formula One List of Formula One World Drivers' Champions, World Champion * Oksana Baiul, Ukrainian former competitive figure skater, World and Olympic champion * Franco Baresi, Italian professional football player and coach * Johan Cruyff, Dutch professional football player and coach * Moritz Fürste, German field hockey player, Olympic champion 2008 and 2012 * Sepp Herberger, German football player and manager of the West German national team which won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final * James Mason (chess player), James Mason, Irish-born chess player, journalist and writer * Declan McCormick, English Junior and British Youth Weightlifting Champion * Paavo Nurmi, Finland, Finnish middle-distance running, middle- and long-distance running, long-distance runner * Jochen Rindt, racing driver, the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One * Daley Thompson, English former decathlon, decathlete, Olympic, World- and European champion * Walter Tull, English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent


North America

* Simone Biles, American Olympic gymnast, adopted by her grandparents * Steve Van Buren, professional American football Halfback (American football), halfback * Nicholas Delpopolo, American judoka * Édouard Fabre, Canadian marathon runner * Scott Hamilton (figure skater), Scott Hamilton, figure skater, adopted as an infant * Aaron Hernandez, American football tight end and convicted murderer * Morgan Hurd, American gymnast, adopted as an infant * Carlin Isles, American rugby star, adopted at age 8 * Colin Kaepernick, American civil rights activist and American football quarterback * Lopez Lomong, U.S. Olympic track star, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan * Greg Louganis, American Olympic diver, adopted as an infant * Karl Malone, American basketball player * Billy Mills, American Olympic runner, orphaned at age 12 * Babe Ruth, American baseball star, raised in an orphanage * Gunboat Smith, Irish-American Boxer, grew up in orphanages around the Philadelphia area * Jim Thorpe, American multi-sport Olympic and professional athlete, orphaned as a teen * Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian professional auto racing driver


South America

* Gustavo Kuerten, tennis player from Brazil, nickname as Guga, is a retired list of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, World No. 1 * Rivaldo, Brazilian former professional footballer


Scientists and scholars


Africa

* Maud Chifamba, the youngest university student in Africa, orphaned at age 14 * Ibn Khaldun, North African Arab historiographer and historian lost both of his parents at age of 17


Europe

* Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician, abandoned as an infant * Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist * Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist and one of the founders of modern chemistry * Elizabeth Blackwell, British-born physician * Sabina Baldoncelli, Italian pharmacist * Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist and philosopher * Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist and inventor * Henry Cavendish, British natural philosopher, scientist, and an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist * Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish Renaissance mathematician and astronomer * Benedetto Croce, Italian idealist philosopher, historian and politician * Marie Curie, Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, the List of female Nobel laureates, first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only one to win two. * Charles Darwin, English naturalist, geologist and biologist * René Descartes, French philosopher and polymath * Arthur Eddington, English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician * Willem Einthoven, Dutch Physician, doctor, physiology, physiologist and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine * Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician * Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist * Joseph von Fraunhofer, German optician * Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher of the Continental philosophy, continental tradition * Fritz Haber, German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry * Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism * Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian polymath * Wilhelm von Humboldt, Prussian philosopher and public figure * David Hume, Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist * James Hutton, Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer, naturalist, and experimental agriculturalist * Edward Jenner, English physician and scientist, who was the pioneer of smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine * Irène Joliot-Curie, French scientist List of female Nobel laureates, second woman to win a Nobel Prize * Immanuel Kant, German philosopher who is considered the central figure of modern philosophy * Johannes Kepler, German scientist, raised by grandmother * Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist and List of people considered father or mother of a scientific field, father of modern chemistry * Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch tradesman and scientist * Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German polymath and philosopher * Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics * Ada Lovelace, English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine * James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish scientist in the field of mathematical physics * John McDouall Stuart, Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers * Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor * Gerardus Mercator, Geographer, cosmographer and cartographer * Maria Sibylla Merian, German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator * Gustav Nachtigal, German explorer of Central and West Africa * Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician * Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, writer, and linguist * Richard Owen, English biologist, comparative anatomy, comparative anatomist and paleontology, paleontologist * Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosophy, Christian philosopher * André Patry, French astronomer and discoverer of 9 minor planets in the late 1930s * Emmi Pikler, Hungarian pediatrician and infant-education theorist * Paul Ricœur, French philosopher, for combining Phenomenology (philosophy), phenomenological description with hermeneutics * Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, raised by aunt and uncle * Arthur Rudolph, German rocket engineer * Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, orphaned at age 3 * Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, writer, and activist * Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher * Georg Simmel, German sociologist, philosopher, and critic * Adam Smith, Scottish Ethics, moral philosopher and pioneer of political economy * Baruch Spinoza, Netherlands, Dutch philosopher of Sephardi/Portugal, Portuguese origin * Voltaire, French people, French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian and philosophy, philosopher * Wilhelm Wundt, German physician, physiologist, philosopher, and professor


North America

* John Bardeen, American physicist and electrical engineer * George Washington Carver, American scientist, inventor, orphaned while a slave * Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist * Linus Pauling, American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator * Percy Spencer, American inventor, orphaned in childhood * Robert Taylor (computer scientist), Robert Taylor, American internet pioneer, adopted at age 28 days * Blake R. Van Leer, President of Georgia Tech, engineer and United States Army officer


Business people


Asia

* Ian Karan, Tamil German businessman and politician


Europe

* Roman Abramovich, Russian businessman and politician * Gianni Agnelli, Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat * Anthony Bacon (industrialist), Anthony Bacon, British iron pioneer * Karl Benz, German engine designer and automobile engineer * André Citroën, French industrialist and freemason * Thomas Cook, English founded the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son * Mario Draghi, Italian economist and central banker who served as President of the European Central Bank * Jakob Fugger, German major merchant, mining entrepreneur and banker of Europe * Alfred Krupp, German steel manufacturer and inventor, nickname "The Cannon King" * Christine Lagarde, French Chief executive officer, Managing Director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund * Wilhelm Maybach, German engine designer and industrialist * Rudolf August Oetker, German entrepreneur * Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate * Mary Portas, English retail consultant, and broadcaster, orphaned at age 18 * Vidal Sassoon, British beauty products magnate, placed in an orphanage at age 7 * Hugo Stinnes, German industrialist * Hans Wilsdorf, German-born British founder of noted watch brands Rolex and Montres Tudor SA, Tudor * Ferdinand von Zeppelin, General (Germany), German general and aircraft manufacturer


North America

* Arthur E. Andersen, American accounting firm founder, orphaned as a teen * Leon Leonwood Bean, L.L. Bean, American retail catalog magnate, orphaned at age 12 * William Boeing, American aviation pioneer who founded The Boeing Company * Adolph Coors, German American brewer who founded the Adolph Coors Company * August Duesenberg and Fred Duesenberg, German-born American automobile pioneers, designers, manufacturers and sportsmen * Henry Ford, American founder of Ford Motor Company * Samuel Goldwyn, American film mogul, raised by relatives *
John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor o ...
, American merchant, statesman and prominent Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot of the American Revolution * Howard Hughes, American entrepreneur * Jenna Jameson, American entrepreneur, webcam model and former pornographic film actress * Steve Jobs, American Apple Computer founder, adopted as infant * Howard Lutnick, American CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, orphaned as a teen * John Molson, 18th century Canadian brewer * Tom Monaghan, American Domino's Pizza founder, partially raised in an orphanage * Colonel Sanders, American businessman, founder of KFC, Kentucky Fried Chicken * Carlos Slim, Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist * Henry E. Steinway, German-American piano maker * Levi Strauss, American Jews, American Jewish businessman * Dave Thomas (American businessman), Dave Thomas, American Wendy's entrepreneur adoption advocate, adopted as an infant * Madam C. J. Walker, American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist * Jerry Yang, Taiwanese American Internet entrepreneur and programmer


Otherwise notables


Asia

* Kanō Jigorō, Japanese educator and athlete, the founder of Judo * Oda Nobunaga, powerful ''daimyō'' of
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...
* Swami Rama, Indian yogi, yógī * Natalya Stroeva, Russian model and beauty pageant titleholder * Kazuo Taoka, one of the most prominent yakuza Crime boss, godfathers * Minamoto no Yoshitomo, head of the Minamoto clan and a general of History of Japan, Japanese history * Minamoto no Yoshitsune, nobleman and military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan * Lu Yu, ancient author of ''The Classic of Tea'' * Osama bin Laden, founder of


Australia/Oceania

* Truganini, Tasmanian Aboriginal, Aboriginal Tasmanian


Europe

* Roald Amundsen, Norwegian people, Norwegian polar region, polar Exploration, explorer * Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, British Army officer, founder and first Chief Scout (The Scout Association), Chief Scout of The Scout Association, The Boy Scouts Association * William Blackstone, English jurist and political figure * Zofia Potocka, Greek slave courtesan and a Russian agent, later a Polish noble * George Blake, British Espionage, spy who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union * William Bligh, British Royal Navy, command of {{HMS, Bounty, Governor of New South Wales in Australia and a colonial administrator * Martin Bormann, prominent official in Nazi Germany as head of the Nazi Party Chancellery * Johann Friedrich Böttger, German alchemy, alchemist and the first European to discover the secret of the creation of hard-paste porcelain * Guy Burgess, British radio producer, intelligence officer and Foreign Office official * William Dampier, Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia and pirate * Karl Dönitz, German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II * Adolf Eichmann, German Nazi Germany, Nazi Schutzstaffel, SS-''Obersturmbannführer'' (lieutenant colonel) and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust * Prince Eugene of Savoy, general of the Imperial Army (Holy Roman Empire), Imperial Army and one of the most successful military commanders in Early modern Europe, modern European history * Guy Fawkes, known as Guido Fawkes, member of a group of provincial Catholic Church in England and Wales, English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot * Antoine Galland, French oriental studies, orientalist and archaeologist, most famous as the first European translator of ''One Thousand and One Nights'' * Hermann Gmeiner, Austrian philanthropy, philanthropist and the founder of SOS Children's Villages * Adam Griffith (American football), Adam Griffith, American football player from Poland * Mata Hari, Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I * Kaspar Hauser, German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell * Rudolf Höss, Nazi German ''SS''-''Obersturmbannführer'' (lieutenant colonel) and the longest-serving Nazi concentration camp commandant, commandant of Auschwitz concentration camp, Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in World War II * Wilhelm Keitel, German field marshal who served as chief of the ''Oberkommando der Wehrmacht'' (Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, the OKW) for most of World War II * Otto Lilienthal, German pioneer of aviation * Luigi Lucheni, Italian anarchist who assassination, assassinated the Austrian Empress, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Elisabeth * Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Louis Philippe II, Colonel General (France) and member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon * Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese people, Portuguese explorer * John McDouall Stuart, Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers * Erich Mielke, head of the East Germany, East German Stasi, Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit''), better known as the Stasi * Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates, Nobel Peace Prize laureate * Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, British flag officer in the Royal Navy * Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer * Archduchess Elisabeth Marie of Austria, Elisabeth Petznek, nicknamed "The Red Archduchess" * Albert Pierrepoint, Executioner, hangman in England * Grigory Potemkin, Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great * Joseph Priestley, English theologian, English Dissenters clergyman, multi-subject educator * Grigori Rasputin, Russian peasant and mysticism, mystical faith healer * Johann Philipp Reis, German scientist and inventor, he constructed the first make-and-break telephone * Salvatore Riina, chief of the Cosa Nostra, Sicilian Mafia * Hartmann Schedel, German physician, humanist, historian, and one of the first cartographers to use the printing press * Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeology, archaeologist * Richard Sorge, Main Intelligence Directorate (Russia), Soviet military intelligence Intelligence agency, officer during World War II * Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space * Friedrich von der Trenck, Prussian officer, adventurer, and author * Victor of Aveyron, French feral child * Minik Wallace, Inuk anthropology subject * Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat and humanitarian * Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal


North America

* John Wilkes Booth, American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln * Stoneman Douglas High School shooting#Nikolas Cruz, Nikolas Cruz, perpetrator of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting * Dieter Dengler, United States Navy Naval aviator, aviator * Genie (feral child), Genie, pseudonym for a feral child who was a victim of severe Child abuse, abuse, Child neglect, neglect, and social isolation * Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector and bohemian socialite * Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman and professional scout * Caroline Kennedy, American author, attorney, diplomat and her brother John F. Kennedy Jr., American lawyer and journalist * Billy the Kid, American Old West gunfighter who participated in New Mexico's Lincoln County War * Robert E. Lee, American general known for commanding the Confederate States of America, Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War * Jim Lovell, former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy * Marisol Malaret, Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican TV Host, model and beauty queen * James Naismith, Canadian-American, inventor of basketball * Annie Oakley, American marksman, sharpshooter and exhibition shooting, exhibition shooter * Lee Harvey Oswald, American former United States Marine Corps, U.S. Marine who Assassination of John F. Kennedy, assassinated President John F. Kennedy * Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker, American criminal * Robert Peary, American explorer who claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole * Sager orphans, twice-orphaned American settlers * Raphael Semmes, officer in the Confederate States Navy, Confederate navy during the American Civil War * William Tecumseh Sherman, American soldier, businessman, educator and author * James E. West (Scouting), James West, Scouting leader, raised in an orphanage * Paul R. Williams, American architect * Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer *
Pancho Villa Francisco "Pancho" Villa (, Orozco rebelled in March 1912, both for Madero's continuing failure to enact land reform and because he felt insufficiently rewarded for his role in bringing the new president to power. At the request of Madero's c ...
, Mexican Revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution


South America

* Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy. * João Havelange, Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who served as the seventh List of Presidents of FIFA, President of FIFA * Tiradentes, hero of Brazil and patron of the Military Police


Fictional characters

''See also :Fictional orphans''


In literature

* Captain America * several characters in the ''American Girl'' doll series * Frodo Baggins, ''The Lord of the Rings'' * Bambi * Banner, ''Bannertail'' * Curious George * Violet Baudelaire, Violet, Klaus Baudelaire, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' * James Bond * Natty Bumppo, Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo/Hawkeye, ''Leatherstocking Tales'' * Cinderella * David Copperfield (character), David Copperfield * Cosette, ''Les Misérables'' * Sodapop, Darrel and Ponyboy Curtis, ''The Outsiders (novel), The Outsiders'' * List_of_Inheritance_Cycle_characters#Eragon, Eragon, ''Inheritance Cycle'' * Jane Eyre * Huckleberry Finn * Moll Flanders * Dorothy Gale, ''Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' * Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights), Heathcliff, ''Wuthering Heights'' * Heidi * The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Tom Jones * Kim (novel), Kim * Krabat (novel), Krabat * A Little Princess * Pippi Longstocking * Stephen Maturin, ''Master and Commander'' * Momo (novel), Momo * Mowgli * Baron Munchausen * Pip (Great Expectations), Pip, ''Great Expectations'' * Pollyanna * Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter * Quasimodo * Tom Sawyer * Anne Shirley, ''Anne of Green Gables'' * Snow White * The Lady of the Wheel, Rosa Esposto, ''The Lady of the Wheel'' * Amelia, ''The Star Money'' * Daenerys Targaryen, ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' * Tarzan * Oliver Twist (character), Oliver Twist * Lord Voldemort * Doctor Zhivago (novel), Doctor Zhivago


In popular culture

* The Dictator (2012 film), Admiral General Aladeen, ''The Dictator (2012 film), The Dictator'' * Allen Walker, ''D.Gray-man'' * Alvin and the Chipmunks * Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric, ''Fullmetal Alchemist'' * Batman and Robin (comics), Robin * Erin Hannon, ''The Office (U.S. TV series), The Office'' * Evey Hammond, ''V for Vendetta'' * Finn the Human, ''Adventure Time'' * Fox McCloud, Star Fox (series), Star Fox video games * Goku, ''Dragon Ball'' * James Bond (literary character), James Bond * Kenshiro, ''Fist of the North Star'' * Po (Kung Fu Panda), Po, ''Kung Fu Panda'' * Lex Luthor * Little Orphan Annie * Magneto (Marvel Comics), Magneto, X-Men * Naruto Uzumaki, ''Naruto'' * Paddington Bear * Punky Brewster * Raiden (Metal Gear), Raiden, ''Metal Gear'' video game series * Sailor Jupiter, ''Sailor Moon'' * Captain Marvel (DC Comics), Shazam * Snow White * Sookie Stackhouse * Spider-Man * Princess Leia, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, ''Star Wars (film), Star Wars * Superman


Related lists

See also :Adoptees for lists of notable people who have been adopted (including by step-parents): many adoptees are neither orphans nor foundlings.


References

Fictional orphans Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement Adoptees,