Who was alive at the same time as J. Robert Oppenheimer?

American theoretical physicist

J. Robert Oppenheimer lived 1904–1967. Here are the famous people whose lives overlapped with theirs.

Lived: 1904–1967
Lifespan: about 63 years
Born in, as it was then: New York, NY
On today’s map: United States

Explore J. Robert Oppenheimer’s world on the timeline →

Did you know?

When J. Robert Oppenheimer was born, Adolf Hitler was already about 15 years old.
J. Robert Oppenheimer was about 24 when Che Guevara was born.
J. Robert Oppenheimer and Albert Einstein (German-born theoretical physicist) shared about 51 years on Earth, one born in the United States and the other in Germany.
Pablo Picasso outlived J. Robert Oppenheimer by about 6 years.

Famous contemporaries of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Rulers and commanders

Adolf Hitler 1889–1945 · 41 yrs shared
Joseph Stalin 1878–1953 · 49 yrs shared
Vladimir Lenin 1870–1924 · 20 yrs shared
Benito Mussolini 1883–1945 · 41 yrs shared
Mao Zedong 1893–1976 · 63 yrs shared
Winston Churchill 1874–1965 · 61 yrs shared

Philosophers and scientists

Albert Einstein 1879–1955 · 51 yrs shared
Sigmund Freud 1856–1939 · 35 yrs shared
Max Weber 1864–1920 · 16 yrs shared
Thomas Edison 1847–1931 · 27 yrs shared
Marie Curie 1867–1934 · 30 yrs shared
John Maynard Keynes 1883–1946 · 42 yrs shared

Religion

Pope John Paul II 1920–2005 · 47 yrs shared

Writers and artists

Pablo Picasso 1881–1973 · 63 yrs shared
Elvis Presley 1935–1977 · 32 yrs shared
Salvador Dalí 1904–1989 · 63 yrs shared
Claude Monet 1840–1926 · 22 yrs shared
Marilyn Monroe 1926–1962 · 36 yrs shared
Leo Tolstoy 1828–1910 · 6 yrs shared

Explorers and others

Che Guevara 1928–1967 · 39 yrs shared
Mahatma Gandhi 1869–1948 · 44 yrs shared
Martin Luther King Jr. 1929–1968 · 38 yrs shared
Walt Disney 1901–1966 · 62 yrs shared
Mother Teresa 1910–1997 · 57 yrs shared
Pelé 1940–2022 · 27 yrs shared

Born within five years of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Salvador Dalí (1904) · Walt Disney (1901) · Jean-Paul Sartre (1905) · Heinrich Himmler (1900) · George Orwell (1903) · Ernest Hemingway (1899) · Frida Kahlo (1907) · Louis Armstrong (1901)

About J. Robert Oppenheimer

J. Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist who served as the director of the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. He is often called the "Father of the Atomic Bomb" for his role in overseeing the development of the first nuclear weapons.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

More people

Adolf Hitler · Albert Einstein · Che Guevara · Mahatma Gandhi · Joseph Stalin · Martin Luther King Jr. · Elvis Presley · Benito Mussolini