Washington, D.C.
United States
Purpose-built capital of the United States. Scene of Lincoln's presidency during the Civil War, Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and the ongoing experiment of American democracy.
Associated figures
George Washington
Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and the first President of the United States. Washington set the precedent of a peaceful transfer of power by voluntarily stepping down after two terms, earning him the title "Father of His Country."
Alexander Hamilton
Born in the Caribbean and orphaned young, Hamilton rose through sheer brilliance to become Washington's chief aide-de-camp and the first Secretary of the Treasury. He designed the financial system of the United States, co-authored The Federalist Papers, and died in a duel with Aaron Burr.
Abraham Lincoln
The 16th President of the United States, who preserved the Union during the Civil War and abolished slavery with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment. Assassinated at Ford's Theatre, he became a martyr for the cause of freedom.
Frederick Douglass
Born into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Douglass escaped to freedom and became the most powerful voice of the abolitionist movement. His autobiographies, speeches, and newspaper made him the most photographed American of the nineteenth century and a towering figure in the struggle for human rights.
Alexander Graham Bell
Scottish-born inventor and scientist whose invention of the practical telephone in 1876 revolutionized human communication forever. His lifelong work with the deaf, inspired by his deaf mother and wife, also made him a pioneer in deaf education.
Harriet Tubman
Born into slavery as Araminta Ross, Harriet Tubman escaped to freedom and then returned to the South thirteen times to lead approximately seventy enslaved people to liberty through the Underground Railroad. She later served as a Union spy and scout during the Civil War, and as an activist for women's suffrage.
Susan B. Anthony
America's foremost crusader for women's right to vote, who spent over fifty years fighting for suffrage and equal rights. Though she did not live to see the Nineteenth Amendment ratified in 1920, it was called the "Susan B. Anthony Amendment" in her honor.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt served as the 26th President of the United States and was a transformative figure in American politics. A war hero, conservationist, trust-buster, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, he expanded the power of the presidency and championed progressive reform.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein revolutionized physics with his theories of special and general relativity, redefined our understanding of space, time, and gravity, and became the most recognizable scientist in history. His equation E=mc² became the most famous formula in science.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt served as the 32nd President of the United States for an unprecedented four terms, leading the nation through the Great Depression and World War II. His New Deal programs reshaped American government, and his wartime leadership helped defeat fascism.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill led Britain through its darkest hours in World War II, rallying the nation with his oratory and refusing to surrender when defeat seemed inevitable. A soldier, journalist, historian, painter, and Nobel Prize-winning author, he was voted the greatest Briton of all time in a 2002 BBC poll.
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and one of the most celebrated aviators in history. Her courage, independence, and mysterious disappearance over the Pacific in 1937 made her an enduring icon of adventure and women's empowerment.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower served as Supreme Allied Commander in Europe during World War II, planning and executing the D-Day invasion of Normandy, then as the 34th President of the United States. He guided America through the early Cold War with a steady hand, built the Interstate Highway System, and warned against the "military-industrial complex."
Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks's refusal to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955, sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and became one of the defining moments of the American civil rights movement. Her quiet courage galvanized a nation and helped dismantle the system of racial segregation in the American South.
Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. was the most prominent leader of the American civil rights movement, advocating for racial equality through nonviolent resistance. His "I Have a Dream" speech, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the march from Selma to Montgomery, and his Nobel Peace Prize made him an icon of justice and human dignity worldwide.