The 1890s produced an unusual number of people who would leave a visible mark on the next century. They were born before radio became a household fixture, before commercial air travel, and before the modern celebrity machine took shape. Some went on to lead countries or armies, while others changed literature, music, art, sports, and popular culture. Their lives also stretched across a period of extraordinary disruption, from two world wars to revolutions, mass media, and rapid technological change.
1. Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay, England, in 1890 and grew up in a household where she was mostly educated at home. During World War I, she worked in a hospital dispensary and learned enough about medicines and poisons to make them a recurring feature of her later mysteries. Hercule Poirot first appeared in 1920, and Miss Marple followed a few years later. Christie became one of the best-selling fiction writers in history, but her own 11-day disappearance in 1926 remains one of the strangest episodes attached to her name.
2. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Born in Texas in 1890 and raised in Kansas, Dwight D. Eisenhower did not look like an obvious future president during the early stages of his military career. He spent years in staff roles and never saw combat during World War I. His ability to manage difficult personalities eventually made him invaluable, especially when he was chosen to command Allied forces in Europe during World War II. After the war, he served two terms as president and oversaw a period shaped by Cold War tension, suburban growth, and the expansion of the interstate highway system.
3. Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh was born in 1890 in French-controlled Vietnam and spent much of his early adult life abroad. He worked in several countries, became involved in communist politics, and gradually emerged as a leading voice in the Vietnamese independence movement. In 1945, he declared the creation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. His role in ending French colonial rule made him a national symbol, though the government he built was also highly authoritarian.
4. Haile Selassie
Before becoming emperor, Haile Selassie was known as Tafari Makonnen. Born in Ethiopia in 1892, he took the throne in 1930 and soon became an international figure when Fascist Italy invaded his country. His appeal to the League of Nations became one of the clearest examples of that organization’s inability to stop aggression. Selassie later returned to power, promoted modernization, and gained a second, unexpected legacy as a central spiritual figure in the Rastafari movement.
5. J.R.R. Tolkien
J.R.R. Tolkien was born in 1892 in what is now South Africa, but he spent most of his life in England. A scholar of Old and Middle English, he was fascinated by the structure and history of language long before he became known as a fantasy novelist. His fictional world grew out of invented languages, family trees, poems, maps, and myths that he developed over many years. The Hobbit arrived in 1937, followed by The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s, and the scale of Middle-earth permanently altered what readers expected from fantasy fiction.
Trending on The Scroller
6. Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong was born in 1893 in Hunan province during the final years of China’s imperial system. He helped establish the Chinese Communist Party and rose to power after years of civil war, foreign invasion, and political turmoil. In 1949, he announced the founding of the People’s Republic of China. His government transformed the country, but campaigns such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution also caused mass famine, persecution, and enormous social damage.
7. Norman Rockwell
Norman Rockwell, born in New York City in 1894, became famous for paintings that seemed to capture small moments from everyday American life. His covers for The Saturday Evening Post showed families, children, workers, soldiers, and neighbors in scenes that were warm, funny, and carefully staged. Later, his work became more openly political. The Problem We All Live With, which depicted Ruby Bridges walking to a newly integrated school, was far removed from the gentle nostalgia of his earlier magazine covers.
8. Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth Jr. was born in Baltimore in 1895 and spent part of his childhood at a reform school. He entered professional baseball as a talented pitcher, then became much more famous for hitting home runs. After moving from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees, he helped turn the Yankees into baseball’s most recognizable franchise. His size, habits, personality, and power at the plate made him one of the first athletes to become a true national celebrity.
Sign up for our newsletter
9. F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald was born in Minnesota in 1896 and became closely associated with the glamour and instability of the Jazz Age. His novels often followed wealthy characters who looked successful from a distance but were restless, lonely, or self-destructive up close. The Great Gatsby sold modestly during his lifetime and only gained its enormous reputation later. Fitzgerald died in 1940 while working in Hollywood, convinced that much of his literary career had already been forgotten.
10. Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart was born in Kansas in 1897 and developed an interest in flying when aviation was still dangerous, expensive, and experimental. In 1932, she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. She also used her public profile to encourage women to enter aviation. Her disappearance over the Pacific in 1937 remains unresolved.
11. Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson was born in New Jersey in 1898 and seemed capable of succeeding in almost any field he entered. He was a college football star, earned a law degree, performed Shakespeare, appeared in films, and became internationally known for his singing voice. Robeson also spoke openly against racism, colonialism, and fascism, which made him a target during the Cold War. The United States government revoked his passport for several years, sharply limiting his ability to travel and perform abroad.
12. George Gershwin
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn in 1898 and began working professionally as a teenager. He wrote popular songs, Broadway music, concert pieces, and works that borrowed freely from jazz without fitting neatly into one category. Rhapsody in Blue premiered in 1924, with Gershwin playing the piano part himself. He died from a brain tumor in 1937 at just 38 years old.
13. C.S. Lewis
C.S. Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898 and served in World War I before beginning an academic career at Oxford. His writing ranged from literary criticism and Christian theology to science fiction and children’s fantasy. The Chronicles of Narnia became his most widely read work, though he also gained a large audience through radio broadcasts and books on religion. He was a close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, even though the two often disagreed about writing, faith, and fantasy.
14. Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway was born in Illinois in 1899 and spent much of his life turning personal experience into both fiction and public image. He worked as an ambulance driver during World War I, reported on conflicts, lived in Paris, traveled widely, and wrote about bullfighting, fishing, war, and failure. His prose was spare, but the emotional life underneath it was often complicated and uneasy. The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the Sea made him one of the most influential writers of the century.
15. Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C., in 1899 and began playing piano while still young. By the 1920s, he had become a major figure in Harlem nightlife, especially through his orchestra’s long association with the Cotton Club. Ellington wrote music around the individual strengths of his players, giving his band a highly distinctive sound. Over several decades, he composed thousands of pieces and helped move big-band jazz far beyond the dance hall.
16. Al Capone
Al Capone was born in Brooklyn in 1899 and rose through organized crime during Prohibition. In Chicago, his operations made money from illegal alcohol, gambling, and other rackets, while newspapers turned him into the public face of the gangster era. Authorities had difficulty proving his connection to violent crimes, but they eventually convicted him of income tax evasion in 1931. His time in prison, including several years at Alcatraz, ended the period when he had been one of the most powerful criminals in the country.
In the mood for more?
Check out 25 Colorized Images from the Late 1890s, or take a look at 35 Vintage Images from the Early 1890s. If you want to see stories from the early 20th century, you can check out 20 Colorized Photos from the First Decade of the 20th Century.
