2,425 articles
Ahmed, Salma and Zahra Halane
Ahmed, Salma and Zahra Halane: Somali-origin British siblings from Chorlton, Manchester. Twin sisters Salma and Zahra Halane left home aged 16 in June 2014 to join Islamic State in Syria, reportedly married fighters, and were detained in a Syrian camp by 2020; brother Ahmed is a suspected militant.
Aimo Koivunen
Aimo Allan Koivunen (born 14 November 1917, Alastaro), Finnish alikersantti and long-range patrolman of the Continuation War, survived an accidental overdose of about thirty Pervitin methamphetamine tablets in March 1944 near Kantalahti and a 400-kilometer solo trek in minus 20 to 30 Celsius cold.
Airey Neave
Airey Neave (1916–1979), British Conservative MP for Abingdon and Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary; first British officer to escape Colditz (1942), MI9 escape-line organizer, Nuremberg interrogator, and Thatcher's 1975 campaign manager, assassinated by an INLA car bomb at Westminster on 30 March 1979.
Ajit Doval
Ajit Kumar Doval, Indian Police Service (retired), is India's National Security Adviser since May 2014, reappointed June 2024; former Intelligence Bureau Director (2004-05), Kirti Chakra recipient, and Vivekananda International Foundation founder.
Ajjamada B. Devaiah
Squadron Leader Ajjamada Boppayya Devaiah (AB Devaiah, Devayya), IAF No. 1 Squadron Mystère pilot, killed 7 September 1965 over Sargodha after downing a PAF F-104; posthumous Maha Vir Chakra 1988, the IAF's only one.
Akbar (اکبر)
Akbar (اکبر, 1542-1605), third Mughal emperor, reigned 1556-1605, built the empire's mansabdari administration, tax system, and sulh-e kull religious tolerance policy.
Akbar Bugti
Nawab Akbar Khan Bugti (1927–2006), Baloch tribal chief and Pakistani politician, served as governor and chief minister of Balochistan and federal minister of state, founded the Jamhoori Watan Party, and was killed by Pakistani forces in Kohlu in 2006.
Akechi Mitsuhide (明智光秀)
Akechi Mitsuhide (明智光秀) was the Sengoku warlord who killed Oda Nobunaga at Honnōji in Kyoto on June 2, 1582, then fought Toyotomi Hideyoshi and died defeated. Recent research ties his motive to Nobunaga's reversed Shikoku policy and a plan to restore Ashikaga Yoshiaki's shogunate.
Alaeddin Pasha
Alaeddin Pasha (Alâeddin Paşa), traditionally the first vizier of the Ottoman state under Orhan Bey and credited with the yaya and müsellem corps with Çandarlı Kara Halil; distinct from Alâeddin Bey, Osman Gazi's son.
Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke
Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke (1883–1963), British field marshal and Chief of the Imperial General Staff 1941–46, Churchill's principal military adviser in World War II; shaped Allied strategy, delayed D-Day until 1944, and left famous wartime diaries.
Alan Cunningham
Sir Alan Gordon Cunningham (1887-1983), British general; conquered Italian East Africa in 1941, briefly commanded the Eighth Army during Operation Crusader, and was the last High Commissioner for Palestine, 1945-1948.
Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner
Alan Gardner, 1st Baron Gardner (1742–1809) was a Royal Navy admiral who fought at Quiberon Bay, the Saintes, and the battle of the First of June.
Alan Magee
Alan Eugene Magee was an American staff sergeant and ball turret gunner who survived falling roughly 20,000 feet without a parachute from his B-17 over Saint-Nazaire in 1943.
Alaric I
Alaric I (c. 370–410), Gothic leader and first king of the Visigoths, served Rome before rebelling in 395 and sacking Rome on 24 August 410; he died in Calabria months later.
Alauddin Khalji
Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296–1316), second sultan of the Khalji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate, usurped Jalaluddin in 1296, repelled repeated Mongol invasions between 1297 and 1306, conquered Gujarat, Rajasthan, Malwa, and the Deccan, and ran the economy through strict price and revenue controls that collapsed after his death.
Albert Blithe
Albert Blithe (1923–1967), Philadelphia-born US Army master sergeant of Easy Company, 506th PIR, wounded at Carentan in June 1944; wrongly declared dead in 1948 by Band of Brothers, he actually served in Korea and died on active duty in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Albert Coady Wedemeyer
Albert Coady Wedemeyer (July 9, 1897 – 1989), American four-star general from Omaha, Nebraska, author of the 1941 Victory Plan, commander of US forces in China and chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek from October 1944, and Truman's 1947 fact-finding envoy to China and Korea.
Albert Göring
Albert Günther Göring, younger brother of Hermann Göring, was a German businessman who saved hundreds of Jews and dissidents using his family name, survived a 1944 death warrant, and died penniless in 1966.
Albert Jacka
Albert Jacka (1893-1932), Australian soldier and merchant of the 14th Battalion AIF, first Australian Victoria Cross recipient of World War I at Courtney's Post, Gallipoli, 19-20 May 1915; won the Military Cross and Bar on the Western Front and became mayor of St Kilda.
Albert Kesselring
Albert Kesselring (1885–1960), German field marshal who built the Luftwaffe administration, led air fleets in 1939–41 and German forces in Italy 1943–45; convicted at Venice 1947 for the Ardeatine Caves massacre and reprisal killings, death sentence commuted, released 1952.
Albina Mali
Albina Mali-Hočevar (Albina Mali), Slovenian Yugoslav Partisan courier, fighter, and combat medic born 1925 in Vinica; wounded three times, lost an eye at Turjak 1943, named national hero of Yugoslavia.
Alcibiades
Alcibiades (451/450–404/403 BCE), Athenian general and politician, ward of Pericles and friend of Socrates; advocated the Sicilian Expedition, defected to Sparta, then won at Abydos and Cyzicus for Athens.
Aldrich Ames
Aldrich Hazen Ames (1941-2026), CIA case officer and KGB/SVR mole, volunteered in April 1985, was paid $2.5 million, betrayed at least ten executed U.S. sources, and was sentenced to life in prison in 1994.
Aleida March
Aleida March de la Torre (born 1936), Cuban revolutionary, widow of Che Guevara, clandestine 26 July Movement activist and Santa Clara guerrilla; married Guevara 2 June 1959, mother of four children, director of the Che Guevara Studies Center and author of Remembering Che.
Alek Skarlatos
Alek Skarlatos (born 1992) is a Republican Oregon state representative (District 4, since 2025), former Oregon Army National Guard specialist, and 2015 Paris train attack hero who received the Soldier's Medal and France's Legion of Honour.
Aleksandar Protogerov
Aleksandar Protogerov (Александър Протогеров, 1867–1928) was a Bulgarian general and revolutionary born in Ohrid, a leading figure of the VMRO who renewed it in 1919 and was assassinated in Sofia in its internal struggles.
Aleksander Tõnisson
Aleksander Tõnisson (1875–1941) was an Estonian major general who built the national military units in 1917, commanded the Viru front in the War of Independence, and was executed by the Soviets in 1941.
Aleksandr Vasilevsky
Aleksandr Vasilevsky (Александр Михайлович Василевский), Soviet Marshal and chief of the General Staff 1942–1945; planned Stalingrad, Kursk, Bagration, and the 1945 Manchurian offensive against the Kwantung Army; later Minister of War 1949–1953.
Aleksei Brusilov (Алексе́й Алексе́евич Бруси́лов)
Aleksei Alekseevich Brusilov (Алексе́й Алексе́евич Бруси́лов), 1853–1926, Russian general of cavalry; led the 1916 Brusilov Offensive, taking over 450,000 prisoners and shattering the Austro-Hungarian army, later serving the Red Army as cavalry inspector.
Alex Younger
Sir Alexander William Younger (Alex Younger), 1963–2026, British career MI6 officer and Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service ('C') 2014–2020, longest-serving chief in 50 years; died of pancreatic cancer.