2,425 articles
Lavrentiy Beria (Лавре́нтий Па́влович Бе́рия)
Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria (Лаврентий Павлович Берия, 1899–1953), Soviet secret police chief and Marshal of the USSR, directed the NKVD from 1938 and the Soviet atomic bomb project from 1945; executed for treason in December 1953.
Lawrence Freedman
Lawrence Freedman, born 1948, is a British historian of strategy and nuclear affairs, Professor of War Studies at King's College London and Official Historian of the Falklands Campaign.
Lawrence G. Ferguson
Lawrence G. (Gil) Ferguson, U.S. Army lieutenant general from Tupelo, Mississippi; Air Force Academy 1990 cross-commission into Army; Special Forces officer; commanded 1st SFC and took USASOC command November 24, 2025.
Lázár Mészáros
Lázár Mészáros (Mészáros Lázár; 1796–1858) was a Hungarian hussar officer and statesman who, as the first Hungarian minister of war, organized the honvéd army of 1848–49.
Lê Đức Thọ
Lê Đức Thọ (Phan Dinh Khai, 1911–1990), Vietnamese communist leader and North Vietnam's chief Paris negotiator with Henry Kissinger; co-winner of the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, which he declined, the only person ever to refuse the Peace Prize.
Lee Bong-chang
Lee Bong-chang (이봉창, 1901–1932) was a Korean independence activist who threw grenades at Emperor Hirohito's carriage outside Tokyo's Sakuradamon gate on 8 January 1932, then was executed that October.
Lee Harvey Oswald
Lee Harvey Oswald (1939–1963), Marine veteran and Soviet defector, was arrested for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. The Warren Commission found he acted alone; the 1979 HSCA concluded probable conspiracy.
Leila Khaled (ليلى خالد)
Leila Khaled (ليلى خالد), Palestinian PFLP militant born 1944 in Haifa, famous for hijacking TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and attempting El Al Flight 219 in 1970; later PFLP Political Bureau member living in Amman.
Lena Derriecott Bell King
Lena Derriecott Bell King (1923-2024) was a corporal in the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the only predominantly African American women's battalion to serve overseas in WWII, later honored with the Congressional Gold Medal and portrayed in Tyler Perry's The Six Triple Eight.
Léo Major
Léo Major (1921–2008), French-Canadian sniper of the Régiment de la Chaudière, single-handedly drove German forces from Zwolle on 13–14 April 1945, sparing the city bombardment; twice awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Leonard M. Kravitz
Leonard M. Kravitz, Brooklyn-born Army Pfc. of the 24th Infantry Division, died March 7, 1951 at Yangpyong, Korea, manning a machine gun alone to cover his platoon's withdrawal; awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, upgraded to the Medal of Honor in 2014; uncle and namesake of musician Lenny Kravitz.
Leonard Siffleet
Leonard George Siffleet (1916-1943), Australian sergeant of M Special Unit, executed by beheading at Aitape, New Guinea, on 24 October 1943; his execution photograph, found on a dead Japanese soldier, became one of WWII's best-known images.
Leonard Skierski
Leonard Kazimierz Skierski (1866–1940) was a Polish general who served in the Imperial Russian Army, commanded the 4th Army after the Battle of Warsaw in 1920, and was murdered in the Katyn massacre in 1940.
Leonard Wood
Leonard Wood (1860–1927), American physician-general, Medal of Honor recipient in the Geronimo campaign, commander of the Rough Riders, military governor of Cuba, Army Chief of Staff 1910–1914, and 1920 Republican presidential contender.
Leonid Govorov (Леонид Александрович Говоров)
Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov (Леонид Александрович Говоров, 1897–1955), Soviet Marshal and Hero of the Soviet Union; artillery specialist who commanded the 5th Army at Moscow and the Leningrad Front, breaking the blockade, later headed Soviet air defense.
Leonid Telyatnikov (Леонид Петрович Телятников)
Leonid Petrovich Telyatnikov (Леонід Петрович Телятніков, 1951–2004), Soviet-Ukrainian firefighter, chief of Chernobyl NPP fire unit VPCh-2, commanded the 26 April 1986 Unit 4 firefighting, took a 520 rem dose, Hero of the Soviet Union 1986.
Leonidas I
Leonidas I (Λεωνίδας, died 480 BCE), Agiad king of Sparta who succeeded Cleomenes I and married Gorgo; commanded the Greek defense at Thermopylae in 480 BCE, died there with his 300 Spartans, and became the enduring symbol of heroic sacrifice.
Leonidas Polk
Leonidas Polk (1806–1864), Episcopal bishop of Louisiana and Confederate lieutenant general, West Point classmate of Jefferson Davis; led corps at Shiloh, Chickamauga, and the Atlanta campaign; killed at Pine Mountain, Georgia, June 14, 1864.
Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau
Leopold I of Anhalt-Dessau, the "Old Dessauer" (der alte Dessauer), 1676–1747, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau and Prussian Generalfeldmarschall; reformed the Prussian infantry with the iron ramrod and cadenced step, won Kesselsdorf 1745.
Leopold Joseph von Daun
Leopold Joseph von Daun (1705–1766) was an Austrian field marshal and president of the Hofkriegsrat, best known for repeatedly defeating Frederick II of Prussia in the Seven Years' War.
Leopold Okulicki
Leopold Okulicki, pseudonym Niedźwiadek, was a Polish brigadier general and the last commander of the Home Army, dissolving it in 1945 before his Soviet arrest.
Leopoldo Galtieri
Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri (1926–2003), Argentine army general and de facto president 1981–1982, third junta head; ordered the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas invasion, lost the war, resigned, was sentenced to 12 years in 1986, pardoned by Menem, arrested again in 2002.
LeRoy Homer Jr.
LeRoy Wilton Homer Jr. (1965-2001), First Officer of United Airlines Flight 93, Air Force Academy graduate and Reserve Major, died when the hijacked plane crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; his foundation funds young pilots.
Leroy Petry
Leroy Arthur Petry (born 1979, Santa Fe, New Mexico) is a retired U.S. Army Ranger and Medal of Honor recipient who lost his right hand throwing an enemy grenade away from two fellow Rangers in Paktya, Afghanistan, on May 26, 2008.
Lesley J. McNair
Lesley J. McNair (1883–1944), U.S. Army lieutenant general, commanded Army Ground Forces and trained the ninety WWII divisions; killed by friendly fire near Saint-Lô during Operation Cobra, July 25, 1944.
Leslie Groves
Leslie Groves (1896-1970), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lieutenant general, built the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project from September 1942, selecting Oak Ridge, Hanford, Los Alamos, and Oppenheimer, until the 1947 Atomic Energy Commission takeover.
Levin August von Bennigsen
Levin August von Bennigsen (Leonty Leontyevich Bennigsen, 1745-1826), Hanoverian-born Russian general; commanded at Pultusk, Eylau, Friedland, Borodino, Tarutino, and Leipzig; made count in 1813.
Levison Wood
Levison Wood, British explorer, author, and TV presenter; Parachute Regiment veteran; walked the Nile in 2013-14 and the Himalayas, Americas, and Arabia in Channel 4 and Discovery series.
Lew Wallace
Lewis "Lew" Wallace (1827–1905), Union major general at Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Monocacy, governor of New Mexico Territory, minister to the Ottoman Empire, and author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
Lewis Burwell Puller Jr.
Lewis Burwell Puller Jr. (1945-1994), son of Marine general Chesty Puller, was a Vietnam Marine lieutenant who lost both legs to a booby trap in 1968, became a lawyer and Defense Department attorney, and won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Biography for his memoir Fortunate Son.