2,425 articles
Batu Khan
Batu Khan (Бат хаан), grandson of Genghis Khan through Jochi, led the 1236–1242 western campaign conquering Rus and defeating Hungary at Mohi, then founded the Golden Horde with its capital Sarai on the lower Volga.
Bayan of the Baarin
Bayan of the Baarin, known in Chinese as Bóyán, was a Mongol general of the Yuan dynasty who conquered the Southern Song for Kublai Khan in 1276.
Beant Singh (assassin)
Beant Singh (1950–1984), Sikh bodyguard of Indira Gandhi who, with Satwant Singh, assassinated her on 31 October 1984 in retaliation for Operation Blue Star; he was killed at the scene.
Belay Zeleke
Belay Zeleke (በላይ ዘለቀ, horse name Abba Koster) was an Ethiopian commander who led the Arbegnoch resistance in Gojjam against Italian occupation from 1936 to 1941.
Belisarius (Βελισάριος)
Belisarius (Βελισάριος, c. 505-565) was Justinian I's general, victor over the Vandals and Goths and last recipient of a Roman triumph; known chiefly through Procopius, whose Wars, Buildings, and Secret History give contrasting portraits; the blind-beggar legend first appears in Tzetzes.
Benedict Arnold
Benedict Arnold (1741-1801), American Revolutionary major general and hero of Ticonderoga, Valcour Island, and Saratoga, defected to the British in 1780 in the failed West Point plot, becoming America's synonym for traitor.
Beni Aharon (בני אהרון)
Beni Aharon (בני אהארוץ) is an IDF armored corps brigadier general who commanded the 401st Armored Brigade from 2022 to 2024 and has led Division 146 since 2025.
Benjamin Butler
Benjamin Franklin Butler (1818–1893), Union major general, Massachusetts politician, and "Contraband Decision" author at Fort Monroe; military governor of New Orleans (General Order No. 28), Johnson impeachment manager, and 1884 Greenback presidential candidate.
Benjamin Cleveland
Benjamin Cleveland (1738–1806), also spelled Cleaveland, was a Patriot militia colonel of Wilkes County, North Carolina, a Whig leader at Kings Mountain, and a harsh suppressor of Loyalists who later moved to South Carolina.
Benjamin Grierson
Benjamin Henry Grierson was a Union Civil War general whose 1863 cavalry raid through Mississippi aided Grant's Vicksburg campaign; he later commanded the Buffalo Soldiers.
Benjamin Guinness II
Benjamin Guinness II, also known as Benjamin Lee Guinness, was an Irish-born British Army captain in the Royal Horse Guards, second son of the Dublin brewer Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness.
Benjamin McCulloch
Benjamin McCulloch (1811–1862), "Ol' Ben," Texas Ranger, San Jacinto veteran, Zachary Taylor's chief of scouts, U.S. marshal, and Confederate brigadier general killed at Pea Ridge on March 7, 1862.
Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
Benjamin O. Davis Jr. (1912-2002), West Point 1936 graduate and commander of the Tuskegee Airmen's 99th Fighter Squadron and 332nd Fighter Group, was the first Black general in the U.S. Air Force and led its racial integration, retiring as lieutenant general in 1970.
Benjamin Tallmadge
Benjamin Tallmadge (1754-1835), Washington's director of military intelligence from November 1778, created and ran the Culper Spy Ring in occupied New York under the alias John Bolton using a 763-entry code book, led the 1780 Fort St. George raid, then served as a Federalist congressman from Connecticut, 1801-1817.
Benoît Batraville
Benoît Batraville (died May 1920) was a Haitian guerrilla commander who took supreme command of the Caco resistance to the US occupation of Haiti after Péralte's killing in 1919.
Bento Gonçalves da Silva
Bento Gonçalves da Silva (1788–1847) was a Brazilian military officer and rancher who led the Farroupilha Revolution in Rio Grande do Sul and became the first president of the Rio-Grandense Republic.
Berke
Berke (died 1266), grandson of Genghis Khan and son of Jochi, ruled the Golden Horde 1257–1266, converted to Islam, allied with Mamluk sultan Baibars, and waged war against Hulagu's Ilkhanate over the Caucasus.
Bernard Barker
Bernard Leon Barker (1917-2009), Cuban-born CIA contract agent and Bay of Pigs organizer, led the five Watergate burglars arrested June 17, 1972; his Miami bank deposits and address book tied the break-in to Nixon's re-election campaign.
Bernard Jordan
Bernard Arthur Jordan (1924–2015), British D-Day veteran, Royal Navy officer, and former mayor of Hove, who escaped his care home in 2014 to attend the Normandy 70th anniversary commemorations, later depicted in The Great Escaper.
Bernard Kerik
Bernard Kerik (1955-2025) was the 40th NYPD police commissioner, leading the department through 9/11 after serving as NYC Correction commissioner; later convicted of tax fraud and false statements, imprisoned, pardoned by Trump in 2020.
Bernard Montgomery
Bernard Law Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein (1887-1976), British field marshal; Eighth Army commander at El Alamein 1942, Allied ground forces commander in Normandy 1944, and NATO's first DSACEUR 1951-1958.
Bernardine Dohrn
Bernardine Dohrn (Bernardine Rae Dohrn), born 1942, American activist, Weather Underground leader, SDS national secretary, FBI Ten Most Wanted fugitive, later Northwestern law professor and children's rights advocate.
Bernardo O'Higgins
Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme (1778-1842), Chilean independence leader and first Supreme Director (1817-1823), victor with San Martín at Chacabuco and Maipú, proclaimed Chilean independence in 1818 and founded its early state institutions.
Bertram Ramsay
Admiral Sir Bertram Home Ramsay (1883-1945), British Royal Navy officer, organized the Dunkirk evacuation (Operation Dynamo, 338,226 troops rescued) and commanded Allied naval forces for D-Day (Operation Neptune); killed in a 1945 air crash.
Bertrand du Guesclin
Bertrand du Guesclin (c. 1320–1380), Breton captain and Constable of France under Charles V, victor of Cocherel (1364), kingmaker in Castile for Henri de Trastamare, leader of the French reconquest of the 1370s, buried at Saint-Denis.
Bhagat Singh Sukhdev Rajguru
Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar, and Shivaram Rajguru were HSRA revolutionaries hanged in Lahore in 1931 for the 17 December 1928 shooting of police official Saunders and related anti-colonial actions, commemorated on Shaheed Diwas, 23 March.
Bhawani Singh (भवानी सिंह)
Bhawani Singh (भवानी सिंह, 1931–2011), Brigadier Sawai Bhawani Singh, last titular Maharaja of Jaipur, was an Indian Army officer and Maha Vir Chakra recipient for the 1971 Chachro and Virawah raids in Sindh, later ambassador to Brunei.
Bhupender Singh (officer)
Major Bhupender Singh (IC-35016K), Indian Army Border Roads officer commanding 99 Road Construction Company at Verinag, kidnapped and killed by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen on 23 January 1994; posthumous Shaurya Chakra; father of actress Nimrat Kaur, distinct from Lt Gen Bhupender Singh Thakur.
Bill Bray (bodyguard)
Bill Bray, retired LAPD officer, was Michael Jackson's bodyguard from the Jackson 5 era through the 1990s and a father figure to the singer; estranged in the mid-1990s, he died in November 2005.
Bill Stirling (British Army officer)
Bill Stirling, elder brother of SAS founder David Stirling, was a Scottish SOE officer who helped conceive the Special Air Service, raised 2 SAS in Algeria, and left its command in June 1944 in a dispute over the unit's use after D-Day.