List of Famous Politicians
- Adolf Hitler (German: [ˈadɔlf ˈhɪtlɐ] (listen); 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was a German politician and leader of the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei; NSDAP). He rose to power as Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and later Führer in 1934. During his dictatorship from 1933 to 1945, he initiated World War II in Europe by invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust. Hitler was born in Austria—then part of Austria-Hungary—and was raised near Linz. He moved to Germany in 1913 and was decorated during his service in the German Army in World War I. In 1919, he joined the German Workers' Party (DAP), the precursor of the NSDAP, and was appointed leader of the NSDAP in 1921. In 1923, he attempted to seize power in a failed coup in Munich and was imprisoned. In jail, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"). After his release in 1924, Hitler gained popular support by attacking the Treaty of Versailles and promoting Pan-Germanism, anti-semitism and anti-communism with charismatic oratory and Nazi propaganda. He frequently denounced international capitalism and communism as part of a Jewish conspiracy. By November 1932, the Nazi Party had the most seats in the German Reichstag, but did not have a majority, and no party was able to form a majority parliamentary coalition in support of a candidate for chancellor. Former chancellor Franz von Papen and other conservative leaders persuaded President Paul von Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as Chancellor on 30 January 1933. Shortly after, the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933, which began the process of transforming the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany, a one-party dictatorship based on the totalitarian and autocratic ideology of National Socialism. Hitler aimed to eliminate Jews from Germany and establish a New Order to counter what he saw as the injustice of the post-World War I international order dominated by Britain and France. His first six years in power resulted in rapid economic recovery from the Great Depression, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Germany after World War I, and the annexation of territories inhabited by millions of ethnic Germans, which gave him significant popular support. Hitler sought Lebensraum ("living space") for the German people in Eastern Europe, and his aggressive foreign policy is considered the primary cause of World War II in Europe. He directed large-scale rearmament and, on 1 September 1939, invaded Poland, resulting in Britain and France declaring war on Germany. In June 1941, Hitler ordered an invasion of the Soviet Union. By the end of 1941, German forces and the European Axis powers occupied most of Europe and North Africa. These gains were gradually reversed after 1941, and in 1945 the Allied armies defeated the German army. In the final days of the war, during the Battle of Berlin in 1945, he married his longtime lover Eva Braun. Less than two days later, on 30 April 1945, the two committed suicide to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army; their corpses were burned. Under Hitler's leadership and racially motivated ideology, the Nazi regime was responsible for the genocide of at least 5.5 million Jews and millions of other victims who he and his followers deemed Untermenschen (subhumans) or socially undesirable. Hitler and the Nazi regime were also responsible for the killing of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war. In addition, 28.7 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of military action in the European theatre. The number of civilians killed during World War II was unprecedented in warfare, and the casualties constitute the deadliest conflict in history. Hitler's actions and ideology are almost universally regarded as evil. According to historian Ian Kershaw, "never in history has such ruination—physical and moral—been associated with the name of one man."
- Al Sharpton, whose full name is Alfred Charles Sharpton Jr., was born on October 3, 1954, in Brooklyn, New York. He is a renowned American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, television/radio show host, and former White House advisor. Sharpton's interest in activism began at the tender age of four when he was licensed as a Pentecostal minister. His flair for advocacy continued to burgeon during his teenage years as he became the youth director of New York's Operation Breadbasket, an organization focused on promoting economic fairness for African Americans. Sharpton's influence grew in the 1980s and 1990s as he led several high-profile protests that exposed racial and social injustices. He played significant roles in advocating for justice in cases like the Central Park Jogger case, the Crown Heights Riot, and the case of Amadou Diallo, a Guinean immigrant shot by the New York City Police Department. His relentless activism led to the establishment of the National Action Network (NAN) in 1991, an organization dedicated to promoting political and economic justice, maintaining a direct action approach against racism, and providing extensive support to victims of crime. Apart from his activist role, Sharpton has made significant strides in politics and media. In 2004, he sought the Democratic nomination for President, where he used his platform to raise issues affecting African Americans. On the media front, Sharpton had a stint as a radio talk show host before transitioning to television. He hosted PoliticsNation, a night-time talk show on MSNBC, where he discussed American politics and civil rights. Through his multifaceted career, Sharpton has left an indelible mark on American society, solidifying his legacy as a prolific civil rights leader and influential public figure.
- Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, its bloodiest war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. He preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the federal government, and modernized the U.S. economy. Born in Kentucky, Lincoln grew up on the frontier in a poor family. Self-educated, he became a lawyer, Whig Party leader, Illinois state legislator and Congressman. In 1849, he left government to resume his law practice, but angered by the success of Democrats in opening the prairie lands to slavery, reentered politics in 1854. He became a leader in the new Republican Party and gained national attention in 1858 for debating national Democratic leader Stephen A. Douglas in the 1858 Illinois Senate campaign. He then ran for President in 1860, sweeping the North and winning. Southern pro-slavery elements took his win as proof that the North was rejecting the constitutional rights of Southern states to practice slavery. They began the process of seceding from the union. To secure its independence, the new Confederate States of America fired on Fort Sumter, one of the few U.S. forts in the South. Lincoln called up volunteers and militia to suppress the rebellion and restore the Union. As the leader of the moderate faction of the Republican Party, Lincoln confronted Radical Republicans, who demanded harsher treatment of the South; War Democrats, who rallied a large faction of former opponents into his camp; anti-war Democrats (called Copperheads), who despised him; and irreconcilable secessionists, who plotted his assassination. Lincoln fought the factions by pitting them against each other, by carefully distributing political patronage, and by appealing to the American people. His Gettysburg Address became an iconic call for nationalism, republicanism, equal rights, liberty, and democracy. He suspended habeas corpus, and he averted British intervention by defusing the Trent Affair. Lincoln closely supervised the war effort, including the selection of generals and the naval blockade that shut down the South's trade. As the war progressed, he maneuvered to end slavery, issuing the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863; ordering the Army to protect escaped slaves, encouraging border states to outlaw slavery, and pushing through Congress the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which outlawed slavery across the country. Lincoln managed his own re-election campaign. He sought to reconcile his damaged nation by avoiding retribution against the secessionists. A few days after the Battle of Appomattox Court House, he was shot by John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer, on April 14, 1865, and died the following day. Abraham Lincoln is remembered as the United States' martyr hero. He is consistently ranked both by scholars and the public as among the greatest U.S. presidents.
- Al Gore, a name synonymous with environmental activism, had his roots in politics. Born on March 31, 1948, Gore was raised in Washington D.C., where he was exposed to the political atmosphere from an early age. His father, Albert Gore Sr., was a U.S. Representative and Senator from Tennessee, a legacy that Al Gore would continue. Graduating with a degree in government from Harvard University in 1969, Gore made his entry into politics as a U.S. Representative in 1976. He served as a representative until 1985, then moved onto the U.S. Senate until 1993. Gore's political career reached its zenith when he became the Vice President of the United States under President Bill Clinton in 1993. He served two terms as Vice President, during which he was deeply involved in several policy decisions, particularly those related to the environment. However, despite his successful political journey, Gore is perhaps best known for his work on climate change. Post his vice-presidency, he dedicated himself to raising awareness about global warming, turning into a global advocate for environmental issues. In 2006, Gore released An Inconvenient Truth, a documentary focusing on the dangers of climate change. This film, which was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, catapulted Gore to international fame as an environmentalist. His efforts were recognized globally when he was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), for their collective efforts to disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for counteracting such change. With a life marked by relentless service, Al Gore stands as a testament to the power of conviction and dedication.
- Al Franken, born on May 21, 1951, in New York City, rose to prominence as a comedian, writer, and political commentator before transitioning into politics. A graduate of Harvard University, Franken first gained fame as one of the original writers on the acclaimed television show Saturday Night Live, where he worked from its inception in 1975 until 1980, and again from 1985 to 1995. During his tenure at SNL, Franken won multiple Emmy Awards for his contribution to television writing, further cementing his status as a prominent figure in the entertainment industry. Franken's career took a significant turn in 2008 when he was elected as a United States Senator from Minnesota for the Democratic Party. His transition from comedy to politics was notable, as it demonstrated his ability to leverage his platform and influence to impact public policy. Throughout his tenure in the Senate, Franken was known for his progressive stance on issues such as healthcare, education, and climate change. His time in office was marked by his commitment to fighting for middle-class families, championing women's rights, and advocating for clean energy solutions. However, Franken's political career was not without controversy. In 2017, he resigned from the Senate following allegations of sexual misconduct. This event marked a significant setback in Franken's career, leading him to step out of the public eye. Despite this, Franken continues to contribute to societal discourse through various platforms, including hosting a weekly political podcast.
- Alan Greenspan (; born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006. He currently works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. First appointed Federal Reserve chairman by President Ronald Reagan in August 1987, he was reappointed at successive four-year intervals until retiring on January 31, 2006, after the second-longest tenure in the position (behind William McChesney Martin).Greenspan came to the Federal Reserve Board from a consulting career. Although he was subdued in his public appearances, favorable media coverage raised his profile to a point that several observers likened him to a "rock star". Democratic leaders of Congress criticized him for politicizing his office because of his support for Social Security privatization and tax cuts, which they felt would increase the deficit.The easy-money policies of the Fed during Greenspan's tenure have been suggested by some to be a leading cause of the dotcom bubble, and the subprime mortgage crisis (occurring within a year of his leaving the Fed), which, said the Wall Street Journal, "tarnished his reputation." Yale economist Robert Shiller argues that "once stocks fell, real estate became the primary outlet for the speculative frenzy that the stock market had unleashed". Greenspan argues that the housing bubble was not a product of low-interest rates but rather a worldwide phenomenon caused by the precipitous decline in long term interest rates.
- Alan Lee Keyes (born August 7, 1950) is an American conservative political activist, pundit, author and former ambassador. A doctoral graduate of Harvard University, Keyes began his diplomatic career in the U.S. Foreign Service in 1979 at the United States consulate in Bombay, India, and later in the American embassy in Zimbabwe. Keyes was appointed Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations by President Ronald Reagan, and served as Reagan's Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987; in his capacities as a UN ambassador, among Keyes's accomplishments was contributing to the Mexico City Policy. Keyes ran for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008. He was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in Maryland against Paul Sarbanes in 1988 and Barbara Mikulski in 1992, as well as in Illinois against Barack Obama in 2004. Keyes lost all three elections by wide margins. Keyes hosted a radio call-in show, The Alan Keyes Show: America's Wake-Up Call, from 1994 until 1998 on WCBM. The show was briefly simulcast by National Empowerment Television. In 2002, he briefly hosted a television commentary show on the MSNBC cable network, Alan Keyes Is Making Sense. He has also been a columnist for World Net Daily.
- Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam ( (listen); 15 October 1931 – 27 July 2015) was an aerospace scientist who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. He was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu and studied physics and aerospace engineering. He spent the next four decades as a scientist and science administrator, mainly at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and was intimately involved in India's civilian space programme and military missile development efforts. He thus came to be known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic missile and launch vehicle technology. He also played a pivotal organisational, technical, and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974.Kalam was elected as the 11th President of India in 2002 with the support of both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the then-opposition Indian National Congress. Widely referred to as the "People's President", he returned to his civilian life of education, writing and public service after a single term. He was a recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honour. While delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Kalam collapsed and died from an apparent cardiac arrest on 27 July 2015, aged 83. Thousands including national-level dignitaries attended the funeral ceremony held in his hometown of Rameshwaram, where he was buried with full state honours.
- Aaron Russo was an American producer, actor, director, and writer who was known for producing "The Rose" and "Trading Places." Russo won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1978 for "Bette Midler -- Ol' Red Hair Is Back."
- Adam Peter Rickitt (born 29 May 1978) is an English actor, singer and model. He portrayed the role Nick Tilsley in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from 1997 to 1999, and again from 2002 to 2004. He then joined the pop group 5th Story, set up for The Big Reunion, before joining the Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks in 2017. He married Good Morning Britain presenter Katy Fawcett in 2014.
- Abraham González may refer to: Abraham González (general), (1782 - c. 1838), Argentine soldier who was governor of Tucumán Province, Argentina Abraham González (governor), (1864 – 1913), governor of the Mexican state of Chihuahua Abraham González Uyeda (born 1966), Mexican politician Abraham Arrieta González, Mexican luchador, or professional wrestler Abraham González (footballer) (born 1985), Spanish footballer Abraham González International Airport, an airport in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico
- Airey Middleton Sheffield Neave, (23 January 1916 – 30 March 1979) was a British soldier, lawyer and Member of Parliament. During World War II he was the first British prisoner-of-war to succeed in escaping from Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle, and later worked for MI9. After the war he served with the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials. He later became Tory Member of Parliament for Abingdon. Neave was assassinated in 1979 in a car bomb attack at the House of Commons. The Irish National Liberation Army claimed responsibility.
- Abdel Aziz Ali Abdul Majid al-Rantisi (Arabic: عبد العزيز علي عبد المجيد الحفيظ الرنتيسي; 23 October 1947 – 17 April 2004), nicknamed the "Lion of Palestine", was the co-founder of the Palestinian movement Hamas along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Rantisi was Hamas's political leader and spokesman in the Gaza Strip following the Israeli killing of Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in March 2004. Rantisi opposed compromise with Israel and called for the creation of a Palestinian state (including the whole of the State of Israel) through military action against the Jewish state. On 17 April 2004, the Israeli Air Force killed al-Rantisi by firing Hellfire missiles from an AH-64 Apache helicopter at his car.
- Akhmad-Haji Abdulkhamidovich Kadyrov (Russian: Ахмат-Хаджи Абдулхамидович Кадыров; Chechen: Къадири lабдулхьамидан кlант Ахьмад-Хьажи / Q̇adiri Jabdulẋamidan khant Aẋmad-Ẋaƶi; 23 August 1951 – 9 May 2004), also spelled Akhmat, was the Chief Mufti of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in the 1990s during and after the First Chechen War. At the outbreak of the Second Chechen War he switched sides, offering his service to the Russian government, and later became the President of the Chechen Republic from 5 October 2003, acting as head of administration since July 2000. On 9 May 2004, he was assassinated by Chechen Islamists in Grozny, using a bomb blast during a World War II memorial victory parade. His son, Ramzan Kadyrov, who led his father's militia, became one of his successors in March 2007 as the President of the Chechen Republic.
- Adam Price (born 23 September 1968) is a Welsh politician serving as the leader of Plaid Cymru since 28 September 2018, after defeating both Leanne Wood and Rhun ap Iorwerth in the September leadership election. Since 2016 he has sat in the National Assembly for Wales for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, having previously been a Member of Parliament for the coterminous Carmarthen East and Dinefwr constituency.
- Robert Michael Gates (born September 25, 1943) is an American statesman, scholar, intelligence analyst, and university president who served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Defense from 2006 to 2011. He was originally appointed by President George W. Bush, but was retained for service by President Barack Obama. Gates began his career serving as an officer in the United States Air Force but was quickly recruited by the CIA. Gates served for 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and was Director of Central Intelligence under President George H. W. Bush. After leaving the CIA, Gates became president of Texas A&M University and was a member of several corporate boards. Gates served as a member of the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan commission co-chaired by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, that studied the lessons of the Iraq War. Gates was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush as Secretary of Defense after the 2006 election, replacing Donald Rumsfeld. He was confirmed with bipartisan support. In a 2007 profile written by former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, Time named Gates one of the year's most influential people. In 2008, Gates was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report. He continued to serve as Secretary of Defense in President Barack Obama's administration. He retired in 2011. "He'll be remembered for making us aware of the danger of over-reliance on military intervention as an instrument of American foreign policy," said former Senator David L. Boren. Gates was presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, by President Obama during his retirement ceremony.Since leaving the Obama Administration, Gates has been elected President of the Boy Scouts of America, served as Chancellor of the College of William & Mary, and served as a member on several corporate boards.
- Alberto Fuentes Mohr (born 22 November 1927 – assassinated 25 January 1979) was a Guatemalan economist and politician, one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party. He also served as finance minister and foreign minister during the 1960s.
- Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American politician who served four terms as Governor of New York and was the Democratic Party's candidate for President in 1928. Smith was the foremost urban leader of the Efficiency Movement in the United States and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s. The son of an Irish-American mother and a Civil War veteran father, he was raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan near the Brooklyn Bridge, where he resided for his entire life. Like many other New York politicians of his era, he was also linked to the notorious Tammany Hall political machine that controlled New York City's politics, although he remained personally untarnished by corruption. Smith was a strong opponent of Prohibition, which he did not think could be enforced, and viewed it as an over-extension of the government's constitutional power. He was also the first Catholic to be nominated by a major party. His candidacy mobilized Catholic votes, especially from women, who had only recently received federal suffrage. It also brought out the anti-Catholic vote, which was especially strong among white conservative Democrats in the South, although Smith was still successful within the states of the Deep South.As a committed "wet" who opposed the prohibition laws, Smith attracted two groups: those who wanted their beer, wine and liquor and did not like dealing with criminal bootleggers, and those who were outraged that new criminal gangs had taken over the streets in most large and medium-sized cities. Many Protestants feared his candidacy, including German Lutherans and Southern Baptists, believing that the Pope in Rome would dictate his policies. Incumbent Republican Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover was greatly aided by national prosperity and the absence of American involvement in war; Smith lost in a landslide to him, losing six southern states but carrying the Deep South. Four years later, Smith sought the 1932 nomination but was defeated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, his former ally and successor as Governor of New York. Smith entered business in New York City, became involved in the construction and promotion of the Empire State Building, and became an increasingly vocal opponent of Roosevelt's New Deal.
- Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (Italian: [ˈaldo ˈmɔːro]; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy party. He served as 38th Prime Minister of Italy, from 1963 to 1968, and then from 1974 to 1976. He was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Ministers, holding power for a combined total of more than six years. Due to his accommodation with the Communist leader Enrico Berlinguer, known as the Historic Compromise, Moro is widely considered one of the most prominent fathers of the Italian centre-left and one of the greatest and most popular leaders in the history of the Italian Republic. Moro was considered an intellectual and a patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his party. He was kidnapped on 16 March 1978 by the Red Brigades and killed after 55 days of captivity.
- A hard-working character actor, Albert Dekker had few opportunities to play the lead in a career that spanned four decades and amassed over 70 motion pictures. After spending a decade on stage in New York, Dekker made his way to Hollywood where he landed supporting parts in "The Great Commandment" (1939), "The Man in the Iron Mask" (1939) and "Strange Cargo" (1940). But it was his turn as the mad scientist in the camp classic "Dr. Cyclops" (1940) that brought him wider recognition, leading to larger roles in "Once Upon a Honeymoon" (1942), "In Old California" (1942) and "Wake Island" (1942). Following a brief stint in politics where he represented the 57th district in the California State Assembly, Dekker delivered his most memorable character turns in "The Killers" (1946), "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), "East of Eden" (1955) and "Kiss Me Deadly" (1955). By the end of the 1950s, his film career began to wane, leading to a necessary switch to the small screen. Dekker found new life as a guest star on shows like "Mission: Impossible" (CBS, 1966-1973), "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (NBC, 1964-68) and "Bonanza" (NBC, 1959-1973). He returned to features with a small, but crucial supporting role in "The Wild Bunch" (1969), only to become the victim of a horrific accident when he was found in his bathtub following his death from autoerotic asphyxiation. His sordid death sparked rumors of foul play, though in the end it simply put an abrupt end to a productive but unremarkable career.
- Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (November 29, 1908 – April 4, 1972) was a Baptist pastor and an American politician, who represented the Harlem neighborhood of New York City in the United States House of Representatives from 1945 until 1971. He was the first person of African-American descent to be elected from New York to Congress.Re-elected for nearly three decades, Powell became a powerful national politician of the Democratic Party, and served as a national spokesman on civil rights and social issues. He also urged United States presidents to support emerging nations in Africa and Asia as they gained independence after colonialism. In 1961, after 16 years in the House, Powell became chairman of the Education and Labor Committee, the most powerful position held by an African American in Congress. As chairman, he supported the passage of important social and civil rights legislation under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Following allegations of corruption, in 1967 Powell was excluded from his seat by Democratic Representatives-elect of the 90th United States Congress, but he was re-elected and regained the seat in the 1969 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in Powell v. McCormack. He lost his seat in 1970 to Charles Rangel and retired from electoral politics.
- Alcibiades, son of Cleinias (c. 450–404 BC), from the deme of Scambonidae, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mother's aristocratic family, the Alcmaeonidae, which fell from prominence after the Peloponnesian War. He played a major role in the second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military commander, and politician. During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance several times. In his native Athens in the early 410s BC, he advocated an aggressive foreign policy and was a prominent proponent of the Sicilian Expedition, but he fled to Sparta after his political enemies brought charges of sacrilege against him. In Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, however, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies and felt forced to defect to Persia. There he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall. He then served as an Athenian general (Strategos) for several years, but his enemies eventually succeeded in exiling him a second time. Scholars have argued that had the Sicilian expedition been under Alcibiades's command instead of that of Nicias, the expedition might not have met its eventual disastrous fate. In the years when he served Sparta, Alcibiades played a significant role in Athens's undoing; the capture of Decelea and the revolts of several critical Athenian subjects occurred either at his suggestion or under his supervision. Once restored to his native city, however, he played a crucial role in a string of Athenian victories that eventually brought Sparta to seek a peace with Athens. He favored unconventional tactics, frequently winning cities over by treachery or negotiation rather than by siege. Alcibiades's military and political talents frequently proved valuable to whichever state currently held his allegiance, but his propensity for making powerful enemies ensured that he never remained in one place for long; and by the end of the war that he had helped to rekindle in the early 410s, his days of political relevance were a bygone memory.
- Albert Garza Bustamante (born April 8, 1935) is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Texas. A Democrat, he was a prominent Hispanic member of the House. Bustamante was born and raised in Asherton, Texas, to a family of Mexican migrant workers. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Army, serving for two years as a paratrooper. In 1958, he enrolled in San Antonio College, earning an associate degree. Bustamante then went on to major in education at Sul Ross State College. After earning his degree, he was hired as a teacher at San Antonio's Cooper Jr. High School. In 1968, Bustamante took a job as an aide to Congressman Henry Gonzalez. In his first run for elective office in 1972, Bustamante was elected as a Bexar County, Texas, Commissioner. He then was elected as a county judge in 1978 and served on the state's Jail Standard Commission. Bustamante burst into the national spotlight in 1984, when he challenged nine-term incumbent Chick Kazen in the Democratic primary for Texas's 23rd congressional district. No Republican even filed in this heavily Democratic, Hispanic-majority district, meaning that the Democratic primary was the real election. He defeated Kazen in an upset, all but assuring his election in November. He was reelected three times from this vast district, which spanned 800 miles from his home in San Antonio to El Paso. While in Congress, he served on the Armed Services Committee and helped to keep open several Texan military bases. He served on the Procurement and Military Nuclear Systems Subcommittee, the Subcommittee on Energy, and the Natural Resources Subcommittee. In 1987 and 1988 he supported nuclear test ban amendments, and he voiced concern for environmental and safety problems in the nation's nuclear production plants. He played an important role in delaying funding for a Special Isotope Separation project in Idaho. In 1985 Bustamante was elected president of his Democratic freshman class in the U.S. House of Representatives and was assigned to the Committees on Armed Services and Government Operations. Bustamante changed his support of the administration's policy toward Nicaragua. In 1986 he voted to authorize an aid package for the Contras, but in the following two years he voted against Contra aid. In the 100th Congress, Bustamante was assigned to the Select Committee on Hunger. He worked to increase nutrition funding for Hispanics, and brought attention to the "colonias," or rural slums, where many Hispanic immigrants live in deplorable conditions. In December 1990 Bustamante became a member of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. That same year he voted to approve a civil rights bill and pass a family and medical leave bill over President Bush's veto. He was also a member of the House Task Force on Drugs and Crime, in which he used his power to push for tighter border controls to keep out illegal drugs from Mexico. Bustamante called for deficit reduction, but also believed that more money should be spent on education and health care.
Abu Ali Mustafa
Abu Ali Mustafa ( (listen); Arabic: أبو علي مصطفى; 1938 – 27 August 2001), the kunya of Mustafa Alhaj also known as Mustafa Ali Zibri, was the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from July 2000 until he was assassinated by Israeli forces in a targeted killing on 27 August 2001. Mustafa was succeeded as Secretary General by Ahmad Saadat, and the PFLP subsequently renamed their armed wing in the Palestinian territories the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades.Aleksandar Stamboliyski
Aleksandar Stoimenov Stamboliyski (Bulgarian: Александър Стоименов Стамболийски, variously transliterated such as Aleksandar/Alexander Stamboliyski/Stamboliiski/Stamboliski; 1 March 1879 – 14 June 1923) was the prime minister of Bulgaria from 1919 until 1923. Stamboliyski was a member of the Agrarian Union, an agrarian peasant movement which was not allied to the monarchy, and edited their newspaper. He opposed the country's participation in World War I and its support for the Central Powers. In a famous incident during 1914 Stamboliyski's patriotism was challenged when members of the Bulgarian parliament questioned whether he was Bulgarian or not, to which he shouted in response "At a moment, like the current, when our brothers South Slavs are threatened, I am neither a Bulgarian nor a Serb, I am a South Slav (Yugoslav)!". This statement relates to his belief in a Balkan Federation which would unite the region and supersede many of the national identities which existed at the time. He was court-martialed and sentenced to life in prison in 1915 due to his opposition to Bulgaria joining the Central Powers in WWI. In 1918, with the defeat of Bulgaria as an ally of the Central Powers, Tsar Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son Tsar Boris III who released Stamboliyski from prison. He joined the government in January, 1919, and was appointed prime minister on October 14 of that year. On March 20, 1920, the Agrarian Union won national elections and Stamboliyski was confirmed as prime minister. During his term in office, Stamboliyski made a concerted effort to improve relations with the rest of Europe. This resulted in Bulgaria becoming the first of the defeated states to join the League of Nations in 1920. Though popular with the peasants, he antagonized the middle class and military. Many considered him to be a virtual dictator or a peasant thug. He was ousted in a military coup in June 1923. He attempted to raise a rebellion against the new government, but was captured by the IMRO, who detested him for renouncing Bulgarian claims on the territory of Macedonia, was brutally tortured, and killed. Born to a farmer, Aleksandar Stamboliyski spent his childhood in his birth village of Slavovitsa, the same village where he would later gather several thousand insurrectionists from the region and advance against the town of Pazardzhik. However, before this grand counter-insurgence was to transpire, Stamboliyski had to work himself up the ranks of the nation’s political scene as the leader of the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Union. Although successful in his political ambition of acquiring the highest political office of the state, the unstable political atmosphere of Bulgaria in the early inter-war years ultimately contributed to Stamboliyski’s demise.- Alastair John Campbell (born 25 May 1957) is a British journalist, broadcaster, political aide and author. He worked as Tony Blair's spokesman and campaign director (1994–1997), followed by Downing Street Press Secretary (1997–2000), for Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair. He then became Downing Street Director of Communications and spokesman for the Labour Party (2000–2003). He resigned in August 2003 during the Hutton Inquiry into the death of David Kelly. He published his fifteenth book in 2018. He is the editor at large of The New European and chief interviewer for GQ magazine. He continues to act as a consultant strategist and as an ambassador for Time To Change and other mental health charities. He is an adviser to the People's Vote campaign, demanding a public vote on the final Brexit deal. Since his work for Blair, Campbell has continued to act as a freelance advisor to a number of governments and political parties, including the Prime Minister of Albania, whose socialist coalition won a landslide at the 2013 Albanian election. In June 2017, Edi Rama was re-elected with an even larger mandate, and invited Campbell to continue to act as an adviser for his second term in office.On 26 May 2019, Campbell announced he had voted for the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliamentary elections, and then two days later he announced that he had been informed by the Labour Party that he had been "automatically expelled", citing "voting for or otherwise supporting another party which were 'incompatible' with membership according to Party rules". Campbell stated that he intended to appeal against his expulsion.
- While few details of Al Lewis's beginnings are agreed upon, owing to his penchant for telling tall tales, what is verifiable is that he was a beloved character actor who is remembered mainly for his role as the endearing elderly vampire, Grandpa, on the TV sitcom "The Munsters" (1964-66). So whether or not his birth name was Albert or Alexander Meister, the actor was born in Brooklyn, the son of Eastern European immigrant garment workers, and started on the vaudeville stage and on Broadway in the late '50s. He was cast as Machine Gun Manny in the '60 feature gangster film "Pretty Boy Floyd" just as he was becoming better known as a comic actor on television's "The Phil Silvers Show" and the wildly popular cop sitcom "Car 54, Where Are You?," starring Fred Gwynne, with whom he later appeared in "The Munsters." Other notable roles for Lewis include the acclaimed drama "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" ('69) and the film remake of "Car 54, Where Are You?" ('94). Lewis was also highly political and often appeared on Howard Stern's controversial radio programs advocating free speech. A year after appearing in the low-buget film "Night Terror," Lewis fell into a period of ill health and died at the age of 82.
- Alcee Lamar Hastings (September 5, 1936 – April 6, 2021) was the U.S. Representative for Florida's 20th congressional district. The district includes most of the majority-black precincts in and around Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. A Democrat, Hastings served as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida until his impeachment and removal. Following Senator Bill Nelson's departure from office in January 2019, Hastings became the dean (or longest-serving member) of Florida's congressional delegation. In January 2019, Hastings was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died on April 6, 2021, at the age of 84.
- Sir Alan James Carter Duncan (born 31 March 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Rutland and Melton and was the Minister of State for Europe and the Americas until his resignation on 22 July 2019.He began his career in the oil industry with Royal Dutch Shell, and was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1992 general election. After gaining several minor positions in the government of John Major, he played a key role in William Hague's successful bid for the Conservative leadership in 1997. Duncan received several promotions to the Conservative front bench, and eventually joined the Shadow Cabinet after the 2005 general election. He stood for the Conservative leadership in 2005, but withdrew early on because of a lack of support. Eventual winner David Cameron appointed him Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in December 2005; the name of the department he shadowed was changed to Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform in July 2007, thereafter becoming the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Following the 2010 general election, the new Conservative Prime Minister Cameron appointed Duncan as Minister of State for International Development. He left this post following the government reshuffle in July 2014, and was subsequently appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in September 2014, for services to international development and to UK–Middle East relations. While on the backbenches, Duncan served on the Intelligence and Security Committee between 2015 and 2016.After two years out of government, he returned to frontline politics when new Prime Minister Theresa May appointed him as Minister for Europe and the Americas, and effective deputy to then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, in July 2016. Duncan resigned as Minister of State on 22 July 2019 citing the increasing possibility of Johnson being the UK's next Prime Minister.He became the first openly gay Conservative Member of Parliament, publicly coming out in 2002.
- Ahmad Shah Massoud (Dari Persian/Pashto: احمد شاه مسعود; September 2, 1953 – September 9, 2001) was an Afghan politician and military commander. He was a powerful guerilla commander during the resistance against the Soviet occupation between 1979 and 1989. In the 1990s he led the government's military wing against rival militias and, after the Taliban takeover, was the leading opposition commander against their regime, who he fought against until his assassination in 2001. Massoud came from an ethnic Tajik, Sunni Muslim background in the Panjshir valley of northern Afghanistan. He began studying engineering at Polytechnical University of Kabul in the 1970s, where he became involved with religious anti-communist movements around Burhanuddin Rabbani, a leading Islamist. He was part of a failed uprising against Mohammed Daoud Khan's government. He later joined Rabbani's Jamiat-e Islami party. During the Soviet–Afghan War, his role as a powerful mujahideen insurgent leader earned him the nickname of "Lion of Panjshir" (شیر پنجشیر) among his followers as he successfully resisted the Soviets from taking Panjshir Valley. In 1992 he signed the Peshawar Accord, a peace and power-sharing agreement, in the post-communist Islamic State of Afghanistan, and was so appointed as the Minister of Defense as well as the government's main military commander. His militia fought to defend the capital Kabul against militias led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other warlords who were bombing the city—and eventually the Taliban, who started to lay siege to the capital in January 1995 after the city had seen fierce fighting with at least 60,000 civilians were killed.Following the rise of the Taliban in 1996, Massoud, who rejected the Taliban's fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, returned to armed opposition until he eventually fled to Kulob, Tajikistan, strategically destroying the Salang Tunnel on his way north. He became the military and political leader of the United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan or Northern Alliance, which by 2000 controlled only between 5 and 10 percent of the country. In 2001 he visited Europe and in high-level meetings with the European Parliament urged leaders to pressure Pakistan on its support for the Taliban. He also asked for humanitarian aid to help the people's gruesome conditions under the Taliban. Massoud was assassinated at the instigation of al-Qaeda and Taliban in a suicide bombing on September 9, 2001. Two days later the September 11 attacks in the United States occurred, which led to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation invading Afghanistan, allying with Massoud's forces. His forces eventually won the two-month long war in December 2001, removing the Taliban from power. Massoud was posthumously named "National Hero" by the order of President Hamid Karzai after the Taliban were ousted from power. The date of Massoud's death, September 9, is observed as a national holiday known as "Massoud Day". His followers call him Amer Sāhib-e Shahīd (آمر صاحب شهید), which translates to "(our) martyred commander." Massoud has been described as one of the greatest guerilla leaders of the 20th century and has been compared to Tito, Ho Chi Minh, and Che Guevara. One of the reasons was because he successfully managed to repeatedly defend his local Panjshir Valley from being taken by the Soviets and thereafter by the Taliban.
- Alberto Fujimori Fujimori (Spanish pronunciation: [alˈβeɾto fuxiˈmoɾi]; Japanese: [ɸɯʑiꜜmoɾi]; born 28 July 1938) is a Peruvian former politician who served as the President of Peru from 28 July 1990 to 22 November 2000. His government is credited with the creation of Fujimorism, defeating the Shining Path insurgency and restoring Peru's macroeconomic stability. Fujimori ended his presidency by fleeing Peru for Japan amid a major scandal involving corruption and human rights violations. Even amid his prosecution in 2008 for crimes against humanity relating to his presidency, two-thirds of Peruvians polled voiced approval for his leadership in that period.A Peruvian of Japanese descent, Fujimori took refuge in Japan when faced with charges of corruption in 2000. On arriving in Japan, he attempted to resign his presidency via fax, but his resignation was rejected by the Congress of the Republic, which preferred to remove him from office by the process of impeachment. Wanted in Peru on charges of corruption and human rights abuses, Fujimori maintained a self-imposed exile until his arrest while visiting Chile in November 2005. He was extradited to face criminal charges in Peru in September 2007. In December 2007, Fujimori was convicted of ordering an illegal search and seizure and was sentenced to six years in prison. The Supreme Court upheld the decision upon his appeal. In April 2009, Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison for his role in killings and kidnappings by the Grupo Colina death squad during his government's battle against leftist guerrillas in the 1990s. The verdict, delivered by a three-judge panel, marked the first time that an elected head of state has been extradited to his home country, tried and convicted of human rights violations. Fujimori was specifically found guilty of murder, bodily harm and two cases of kidnapping.In July 2009, Fujimori was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for embezzlement after he admitted to giving $15 million from the Peruvian treasury to his intelligence service chief, Vladimiro Montesinos. Two months later, he pleaded guilty in a fourth trial to bribery and received an additional six-year term. Transparency International considered the money embezzled by Fujimori to be the seventh-most for a head of government active within 1984–2004. Under Peruvian law, all the sentences must run concurrently; thus, the maximum length of imprisonment remained 25 years.In December 2017, President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski granted the 79-year-old Fujimori a humanitarian pardon. The pardon was overturned by Peru's Supreme Court in October 2018 and Fujimori was ordered back to prison. On January 23, 2019, Fujimori was sent back to prison to complete his sentence with his pardon formally being annulled a month later.
- Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein (24 September 1583 – 25 February 1634), also von Waldstein (Czech: Albrecht Václav Eusebius z Valdštejna), was a Bohemian military leader and statesman who fought on the Catholic side during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). His successful martial career made him one of the richest and most influential men in the Holy Roman Empire by the time of his death. Wallenstein became the supreme commander of the armies of the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II and was a major figure of the Thirty Years' War. Wallenstein was born in the Kingdom of Bohemia into a poor Protestant noble family. He acquired a multilingual university education across Europe and converted to Catholicism in 1606. A marriage in 1609 to the wealthy widow of a Bohemian landowner gave him access to considerable estates and wealth after her death at an early age in 1614. Three years later, Wallenstein embarked on a career as a military contractor by raising forces for the Holy Roman Emperor in the Uskok War against the Republic of Venice. Wallenstein fought for the Catholics in the Protestant Bohemian revolt of 1618 and was awarded estates confiscated from the rebels after their defeat at White Mountain in 1620. A series of military victories against the Protestants raised Wallenstein's reputation in the Imperial court and in 1625 he raised a large army of 50,000 men to further the Imperial cause. A year later, he administered a crushing defeat to the Protestants at Dessau Bridge. For his successes, Wallenstein became an Imperial count palatine and made himself ruler of the lands of the Duchy of Friedland in northern Bohemia.An imperial generalissimo by land, and Admiral of the Baltic Sea from 21 April 1628, Wallenstein found himself released from service in 1630 after Ferdinand grew wary of his ambition. Several Protestant victories over Catholic armies induced Ferdinand to recall Wallenstein, who then defeated the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus at Alte Veste and killed him at Lützen. Dissatisfied with the Emperor's treatment of him, Wallenstein considered allying with the Protestants. However, he was assassinated at Eger in Bohemia by one of the army's officials, with the emperor's approval.
- Adam Paul Ebbin (born November 10, 1963) is an American politician from the Commonwealth of Virginia. A Democrat, he is a member of the Senate of Virginia, representing the 30th district in Northern Virginia since January 2012. He previously served eight years in the Virginia House of Delegates. On January 30, 2014, Ebbin announced that he would run for the 8th Congressional district seat being vacated by Congressman Jim Moran in the June 10, 2014, Democratic primary.
- Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke (Somali: Cabdirashiid Cali Sharmaarke, Arabic: عبد الرشيد علي شارماركي) (June 8, 1919 – October 15, 1969), also known as Abdirashid Shermarke, was Prime Minister of Somalia from July 12, 1960, to June 14, 1964, and President of Somalia from July 6, 1967, until his assassination on October 15, 1969. He was the father of Somali Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke.
- Abdullah Öcalan ( OH-jə-lahn; Turkish: [œdʒaɫan]; born about 1947), also known as Apo (short for both Abdullah and "uncle" in Kurdish), is a Kurdish leader and one of the founding members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).Öcalan was arrested in 1999 by the Turkish National Intelligence Agency (MIT) with the support of the CIA in Nairobi and taken to Turkey, where he was sentenced to death under Article 125 of the Turkish Penal Code, which concerns the formation of armed organisations. The sentence was commuted to aggravated life imprisonment when Turkey abolished the death penalty in support of its bid to be admitted to membership in the European Union. From 1999 until 2009, he was the sole prisoner on İmralı island, in the Sea of Marmara. Öcalan now argues that the period of armed warfare is past and a political solution to the Kurdish question should be developed. The conflict between Turkey and the PKK has resulted in over 40,000 deaths, including PKK members, the Turkish military, and civilians, both Kurdish and Turkish.From prison, Öcalan has published several books, the most recent in 2015. Jineology, also known as the science of women, is a form of feminism advocated by Öcalan and subsequently a fundamental tenet of the Apoist movement.
- Ahn Cheol-soo (Korean: 안철수 [an tɕʰʌl.s͈u]; born 26 February 1962) is a South Korean politician, medical doctor, businessperson and software entrepreneur. A two-time former presidential election candidate in 2012 and 2017, Ahn is currently the Bareunmirae Party's candidate for the Seoul mayorship.He ran as an independent candidate for the presidential election in 2012, but withdrew a month before the election took place to support Moon Jae-in whom he ran against in 2017 as the People's Party nominee. He was a founding co-leader and the party leader of the People's Party until his party and Bareun Party merged as Bareunmirae Party in February 2018. Prior to politics, Ahn founded AhnLab, Inc., an antivirus software company, in 1995. He was chairman of the board and Chief Learning Officer of AhnLab until September 2012, and remains the company's largest stakeholder. Prior to entering politics, Ahn served as dean of the Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology at Seoul National University until September 2012.
- Alessandra Mussolini (born 30 December 1962) is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and a former actress and model who served as a Member of the European Parliament for Forza Italia. She was a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 2008 to 2013 and the Italian Senate from 2013 to 2014, she was elected under The People of Freedom which is now part of Forza Italia. She was elected to the European Parliament in 2014. She was the founder and leader of the national conservative political party Social Action; from 2004 until 2008, Mussolini also served as a Member of the European Parliament, and she has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of the Italian Parliament, for The People of Freedom.
- Agathe Uwilingiyimana (Kinyarwanda: [uwiliɲɟijimɑ̂ːnɑ]; 23 May 1953 – 7 April 1994), sometimes known as Madame Agathe, was a Rwandan political figure. She served as Prime Minister of Rwanda from 18 July 1993 until her assassination on 7 April 1994, during the opening stages of the Rwandan genocide. She was Rwanda's first and so far only female prime minister.
- Al McAffrey (born June 6, 1948) is an American politician from Oklahoma who served in the Oklahoma Senate, representing District 46. He has served in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, representing District 88. McAffrey ran for the United States House of Representatives in 2014.
- Abdul Haq (born Humayoun Arsala; April 23, 1958 – October 26, 2001) was an Afghan mujahideen commander who fought against the Soviet-backed People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, the de facto Afghan government in the 1980s. He was killed by the Taliban in October 2001 while trying to create a popular uprising against the Taliban in Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
- Abdelkader Hachani ( (listen); Arabic: عبد القادر حشاني; 26 December 1956 – 22 November 1999) was a leading figure and founding member of the Islamic Salvation Front (or FIS), an Algerian Islamic party.
- Albert Patterson (January 27, 1894 – June 18, 1954) was an attorney in Phenix City, Alabama. He was assassinated outside his law office shortly after he won the Democratic nomination for Alabama Attorney General on a platform of reforming the rife corruption and vice in Phenix City.
- Abraham Baldwin (November 22, 1754 – March 4, 1807) was an American minister, Patriot, politician, and Founding Father. Born and raised in Connecticut, he was a 1772 graduate of Yale College. After the Revolutionary War, Baldwin became a lawyer. He moved to the U.S. state of Georgia in the mid-1780s and founded the University of Georgia.
- Alberto R. Gonzales (born August 4, 1955) is an American lawyer who served as the 80th United States Attorney General, appointed in February 2005 by President George W. Bush, becoming the highest-ranking Hispanic American in executive government to date. He was the first Hispanic to serve as White House Counsel. Earlier he had been Bush's General Counsel during his governorship of Texas. Gonzales had also served as Secretary of State of Texas and then as a Texas Supreme Court Justice. Gonzales's tenure as U.S. Attorney General was marked by controversy regarding warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens and the legal authorization of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques", later generally acknowledged as constituting torture, in the U.S. government's post-9/11 "War on Terror". Gonzales had also presided over the firings of several U.S. Attorneys who had refused back-channel White House directives to prosecute political enemies, allegedly causing the office of Attorney General to become improperly politicized. Following calls for his removal, Gonzales resigned from the office "in the best interests of the department," on August 27, 2007, effective September 17, 2007.In 2008, Gonzales began a mediation and consulting practice. Additionally, he taught a political science course and served as a diversity recruiter at Texas Tech University. Gonzales is currently the Dean of Belmont University College of Law, in Nashville, Tennessee, where he currently teaches Constitutional Law, Separation of Powers, National Security Law and First Amendment Law. He was formerly Of Counsel at a Nashville-based law firm, Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP where he advised clients on special matters, government investigations and regulatory matters. He often writes opinion pieces for national newspapers and appears on national news programs.
- Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician and lawyer. He was the third vice president of the United States (1801–1805), serving during President Thomas Jefferson's first term. Burr served as a Continental Army officer in the American Revolutionary War, after which he became a successful lawyer and politician. He was elected twice to the New York State Assembly (1784–1785, 1798–1799), was appointed New York State Attorney General (1789–1791), was chosen as a U.S. senator (1791–1797) from the State of New York, and reached the apex of his career as vice president. In the waning months of his tenure as president of the Senate, he oversaw the 1805 impeachment trial of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase. As campaign manager for the Democratic-Republican party during the presidential election of 1800, Burr was responsible for the first open, public political campaign.Burr shot his political rival Alexander Hamilton in a famous duel in 1804, the last full year of his single term as vice president. He was never tried for the illegal duel and all charges against him were eventually dropped, but Hamilton's death ended Burr's political career. Burr left Washington, D.C., and traveled west seeking new opportunies, both economic and political--as well as refuge from the controversy surrounding him in the rest of the country. His activities eventually led to his arrest on charges of treason in 1807. He was tried and acquitted multiple times, but the fallout left him with large debts and few influential friends. To avoid vigilante execution and further charges by the state, he left the United States for Europe. He remained overseas until 1812, when he returned to the United States to practice law in New York City, where he spent the rest of his life in relative obscurity.
- Adagooru Huchegowda Vishwanath (born 15 December 1949) is an Indian politician and former president of the Karnataka unit of the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)). He is former member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, and a former Member of Parliament, the 15th Lok Sabha, representing Mysore. Then a member of the Indian National Congress, Vishwanath quit the party to join the JD(S) in 2017, and contested from Hunsur to be elected to the assembly the following year. He has resigned as member of legislative Assembly and speaker has disqualified him from the legislative assembly on 28 July 2019.
- Alberto Lleras Camargo (3 July 1906 – 4 January 1990) was the 20th President of Colombia (1958–1962), and the 1st Secretary General of the Organization of American States (1948–1954). A journalist and liberal party politician, he also served as Minister of Government, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and as Minister of National Education in the administrations of President Alfonso López Pumarejo. He briefly attended the National University of Colombia in Bogotá to study politics, but dropped out later to pursue journalism. Lleras Camargo served as congressman of Colombia. He was also a cousin of later president Carlos Lleras Restrepo. He died in 1990 after suffering a long illness.
- Sir Alan Patrick Herbert CH (24 September 1890 – 11 November 1971), usually known as A. P. Herbert or simply A. P. H., was an English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist who served as an Independent Member of Parliament (MP) for Oxford University from the 1935 general election to the 1950 general election, when university constituencies were abolished. Born in Ashtead, Surrey, Herbert attended Winchester College and New College, Oxford, graduating with a first in Jurisprudence in 1914. He joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as an ordinary seaman after the outbreak of World War I, later serving as an officer with the Royal Naval Division. He fought in the Gallipoli campaign and on the Western Front, becoming his battalion's adjutant in 1917, following which he was injured and did not return to the frontline before the end of the war. Following the war, he published The Secret Battle and joined the permanent staff of Punch in 1924. He also wrote the librettos for several musicals. Herbert was elected as the Independent MP for Oxford University in the 1935 general election. Before the outbreak of World War II, Herbert campaigned for private member's rights, piloted the Matrimonial Causes Act 1937 through Parliament, opposed the Entertainments Duty and campaigned against the Oxford Group. He enlisted in the River Emergency Service in 1938 and served in World War II as a Petty Officer in the Royal Naval Auxiliary Patrol. He captained his river boat, the Water Gipsy, assigned to the River Thames. In 1943, he was part of a parliamentary commission sent to investigate the future of the Dominion of Newfoundland.
- Andimuthu Raja (born as Sathyaseelar on 26 October 1963) popularly known as A Raja is an Indian politician from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) political party. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu and had been elected to house for four times since 1996. Raja is an advocate by profession and he did his masters from Government Law College in Tiruchirappalli. He is an important leader of the DMK party. Raja was born in Velur in Perambalur District in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Raja was first elected to Parliament as a member of Lok Sabha in 1996 from the Perambalur constituency and was reelected from the same constituency in 1999 and 2004 elections and from Nilgris constituency in 2009. He was Minister of State for Rural development from 1996 to 2000, Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare from September 2000 to May 2004 and a cabinet minister for Environment and Forests from May 2004 to May 2007. He became the cabinet minister for Communication and Information Technology from May 2007, following the resignation of Dayanidhi Maran. Raja was investigated in the 2G Spectrum case, along with two other members of the DMK, Dayanidhi Maran and Kanimozhi. All three were acquitted in 2017.
- Abraham Alexander Ribicoff (April 9, 1910 – February 22, 1998) was an American Democratic Party politician. He served as a United States Senator, as the 80th Governor of Connecticut and as President John F. Kennedy's Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. He was Connecticut's first and to date only Jewish governor.
- Mary L. Schapiro (born June 19, 1955) served as the 29th Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). She was appointed by President Barack Obama, unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and assumed the Chairship on January 27, 2009. She is the first woman to be the permanent Chair of the SEC. In 2009, Forbes ranked her the 56th most powerful woman in the world.Schapiro served in various roles as a financial services regulator in the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. From 2006 to early 2009, she was the Chairman and CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the securities industry's self-regulatory organization for broker-dealers and exchanges in the United States.
- Arackaparambil Kurien Antony, better known as A. K. Antony (born 28 December 1940) is an Indian politician and attorney who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, representing the state of Kerala for the fifth consecutive term since 1985. He also currently serves as the Chairman of the Disciplinary Action Committee of the All India Congress Committee, Congress Working Committee, and member of the Central Election Committee. Antony previously served as Defence Minister, making him the person who served the longest in this post in India. He has also been three times as Chief Minister of the state of Kerala.
- Friedrich Adam von Trott zu Solz (9 August 1909 – 26 August 1944) was a German lawyer and diplomat who was involved in the conservative resistance to Nazism. A declared opponent of the Nazi regime from the beginning, he actively participated in the Kreisau Circle of Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and Peter Yorck von Wartenburg. Together with Claus von Stauffenberg he conspired in the 20 July plot, and was supposed to be appointed Secretary of State in the Foreign Office and lead negotiator with the Western Allies if they had succeeded.
- Lieutenant General Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa (24 April 1936 – 26 June 1979) was a Ghanaian soldier, farmer, a traditional ruler (king) and politician. He was the head of state of Ghana and leader of the military government in 1969 and then Chairman of the Presidential Commission between 1969 and 1970. He continued as a farmer and political activist. He was elected Member of Parliament in 1979 but was executed before he could take his seat. He was executed together with two other former heads of state, General Kutu Acheampong and General Fred Akuffo, and five other Generals (Utuka, Felli, Boakye, Robert Kotei and Amedume), in June 1979. He was also popularly referred to by his title Okatakyie Akwasi Amankwaa Afrifa and was in addition the Abakomahene of Krobo in the Asante-Mampong Traditional Area of the Ashanti Region of Ghana.
- Albert Dean Rosellini (January 21, 1910 – October 10, 2011) was an American politician, the 15th governor of the state of Washington for two terms, from 1957 to 1965, and was the first Italian American and Roman Catholic governor elected west of the Mississippi River.During a political career that spanned 40 years, Rosellini was an activist leader who worked to reform the state's prisons and mental health facilities, expand the state highway system, create the University of Washington's medical and dental schools, and build the second floating bridge across Lake Washington. Rosellini is the longest-lived U.S. state governor ever, having reached the age of 101 years, 262 days.
- Adam Daniel Rotfeld (Polish pronunciation: ['adam ˈdaɲɛl ˈrɔtfɛlt] (listen); born 4 March 1938) is a Polish researcher, diplomat, and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland from 5 January 2005 until 31 October 2005 when a change of government took place. He served earlier as the deputy foreign minister. While in that position, Rotfeld established the Warsaw Reflection Group on the UN Reform and the Transformation of the Euro-Atlantic Security Institutions, with participation from leading US and European experts and politicians. From 1991 up to 2002 he served as Director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and in 1989–1991 project leader on Building a Cooperative Security System in and for Europe at SIPRI.
- Alan Wolfe (born 1942) is a political scientist and a sociologist on the faculty of Boston College who serves as director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life. He is also a member of the Advisory Board of the Future of American Democracy Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan foundation in partnership with Yale University Press and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, "dedicated to research and education aimed at renewing and sustaining the historic vision of American democracy".
- Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈalaŋ ɡaβˈɾjel luðˈwiɣ ɡaɾˈsi.a ˈpeɾes]; 23 May 1949 – 17 April 2019) was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru from 1985 to 1990 and again from 2006 to 2011. He was the second leader of the Peruvian Aprista Party and the only party member ever to have served as President.His first presidential term was marked by a severe economic crisis, social unrest and violence. He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2001, losing in a run-off to Alejandro Toledo. In 2006, he was elected to the presidency for a second term. During García's second term, due to the increase in global metal prices, Peru experienced a steady economy, though his tenure also saw increased social conflict regarding indigenous rights and corruption.On 17 April 2019, García shot himself as police officers were preparing to arrest him over matters relating to the Odebrecht scandal; he died hours later.He was known as an immensely talented and charismatic orator, recognized by South American leaders and critics as one of the best orators of the Spanish language.
- Abdul-Halim Salamovich Sadulayev ( (listen) AHB-dool kə-LEEM sy-duu-LY-ev; Chechen: Сайд-Iелийн Абусаламин кІант Iабдул-Хьалим Sadulin Abusalamin-Kant Abdulhalim, Russian: Абдул-Халим Саламович Сайдулаев Abdul-Khalim Salamovich Saydulayev; 2 June 1966 – 17 June 2006) was the fourth President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Sadulayev served little more than a full year as President before being killed in a gun battle with FSB and pro-Russian Chechen forces. Sadulayev was the first Chechen rebel leader effectively attempting to unify the Islamic rebel forces outside Chechnya, as he had won pledges of loyalty not only from Chechen separatists, but also from Islamist groups seeking the overthrow of the Kremlin's authority across the North Caucasus; this formation became known as the Caucasian Front. He was also credited with persuading radical warlord Shamil Basayev not to carry out any major terrorist attacks since Beslan.
- Abdullah Abdullah (Dari/Pashto: عبدالله عبدالله, born 5 September 1960) is an Afghan politician, serving as Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan since September 2014. From October 2001 to April 2005, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Prior to that he was a senior member of the Northern Alliance working as an adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud. He also worked as a medical doctor during the late 1990s. Abdullah ran against President Hamid Karzai in the 2009 Afghan presidential election, coming in second place with 30.5% of the total votes. In 2010, he created the Coalition for Change and Hope (now the National Coalition of Afghanistan), which is one of the leading democratic opposition movements in Afghanistan. In 2011, the coalition was transformed into the National Coalition of Afghanistan. He ran again in the 2014 presidential election and went to the second round with 45% the total vote. His closest rival, Ashraf Ghani, had secured 35% of the total vote. Due to signs of fraud, the results of the second round were heavily contested and led to a deadlock. Despite the controversy regarding the results of the second round of elections, the final certified result by the Independent election commission of Afghanistan shows that Ashraf Ghani received 55.3% of the votes while Abdullah Abdullah secured 44.7% of the vote. After months of talks and US mediation, the two candidates established a national unity government in which Abdullah serves as the Chief Executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
- Joseph Robert Kerrey (born August 27, 1943) is an American politician and lobbyist who served as the 35th Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987 and as a United States Senator from Nebraska from 1989 to 2001. Before entering politics, he served in the Vietnam War as a United States Navy SEAL officer and was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in combat. During the action for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor, he was severely wounded, precluding further naval service. Kerrey was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. He retired from the Senate in 2000 and was replaced by former Governor and fellow Democrat Ben Nelson. From 2001 to 2010, he served as president of The New School, a university in New York City. In May 2010, he was selected to become the head of the Motion Picture Association of America, but he and the MPAA could not reach an agreement, so former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd was chosen instead. In 2012, Kerrey sought election to his old Senate seat to succeed retiring Democratic incumbent Ben Nelson. He lost to Republican nominee Deb Fischer. In 2013, Kerrey joined the Carmen Group lobbying firm.Kerrey is a co-chair for the Advisory Board of Issue One, an organization that describes its mission as "fighting for real solutions to the problem of money in politics". In 1987, Kerrey was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.
- Abdul Rashid Dostum ( (listen) AHB-dəl rə-SHEED dohs-TOOM; Dari: عبدالرشید دوستم, Uzbek Latin: Abdul Rashid Do‘stum, Uzbek Cyrillic: Абдул Рашид Дўстум; born March 25, 1954) is an Afghan politician and general in the Afghan National Army who has served as Vice President of Afghanistan since 2014. An ethnic Uzbek, he is a former communist general and warlord known for siding with winners during different wars in Afghanistan. He is the founder of the political party Junbish-e Milli (National Islamic Movement of Afghanistan). During the Soviet–Afghan War in the 1980s, Dostum was part of the Afghan National Army and the regional commander of the country's north, commanding about 20,000 mostly Uzbek soldiers participating in battles against mujahideen rebels. In 1992, he deserted the Mohammad Najibullah government shortly before its collapse, joining the mujahideen, forming his Junbish-e Milli party and militia and becoming an independent warlord. He subsequently became the de facto leader of Afghanistan's Uzbek community, controlling the country's northern provinces and Mazar-i-Sharif, effectively creating his own proto-state with an army of up to 40,000 men with tanks supplied by Uzbekistan and Russia and jets. He initially supported the new government of Burhanuddin Rabbani in Kabul but in 1994 switched sides and allied with Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. In 1995, he switched sides again and backed Rabbani. In 1997, he was forced to flee after his former aide Abdul Malik Pahlawan took Mazar-i-Sharif, before he fought back and regained control. In 1998, the city was overrun by the Taliban and he fled again. Dostum returned to Afghanistan in 2001 and joined the Northern Alliance after the US invasion, leading his faction in the Fall of Mazar-i-Sharif.After the fall of the Taliban, he joined Hamid Karzai's presidential administration but spent most of his time in Turkey. He also served as Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Afghan Army, a role often viewed as ceremonial. From 2011, he was part of the leadership council of the National Front of Afghanistan along with Ahmad Zia Massoud and Mohammad Mohaqiq. In 2014, he joined Ashraf Ghani's presidential administration as a vice president, but was forced to flee again in 2017 after being accused of sexually assaulting a political rival. In 2018, he narrowly escaped a suicide bombing by ISIL-KP as he returned to Afghanistan at Kabul airport. In 2019, he escaped an hours-long attack by the Taliban on a convoy he was travelling in.
- Albion Keith Parris (January 19, 1788 – February 11, 1857) was the 5th Governor of Maine, a United States Representative from the District of Maine, Massachusetts, a United States Senator from Maine, a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maine, an Associate Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and the 2nd Comptroller of the Currency for the United States Department of the Treasury.
- Lieutenant General Alexander Ivanovich Lebed (Russian: Алекса́ндр Ива́нович Ле́бедь; 20 April 1950 – 28 April 2002) was a Russian military officer and politician who held senior positions in the Airborne Troops before running for president in the 1996 Russian presidential election. He did not win, but placed third behind incumbent Boris Yeltsin and the Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, with roughly 14% of the vote nation-wide. Lebed later served as the Secretary of the Security Council in the Yeltsin administration, and eventually became the governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai, the second largest Russian region. He served four years in the latter position, until his death following a Mi-8 helicopter crash. He participated in most of Russia's military conflicts in the final decade of the Soviet Union, including the Soviet–Afghan War. From 1988 until 1991, General Lebed served as the commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, and later became the deputy head of the Russian Airborne Troops. The general also played a key role in ending the military phase of the conflict in Moldova between Transnistrian separatists and the Moldovan government in 1992, as the commander of the Russian 14th Army. Popular among the army, when he resigned his commission in 1995 to enter politics Lebed was also regarded as being charismatic by the public, in contrast to other Russian politicians in the 1990s, with polls showing his popularity being ahead of Yeltsin's for some time. As the Secretary of the Security Council in the president's administration after the 1996 election he also led the negotiations that ended the First Chechen War. Although Lebed was compared by some Western and Russian analysts to Augusto Pinochet and Napoleon Bonaparte, he was considered to be the most popular candidate for the presidential election of 2000 during the second term of President Yeltsin. After getting elected as governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai in 1998, however, he decided to stay in that position and did not run for president, despite calls for him to do so. General Lebed held the position until his death in the 2002 helicopter crash.
- Aleksander Kwaśniewski (Polish pronunciation: [alɛˈksandɛr kfaɕˈɲɛfskʲi] (listen); born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during Communist rule, he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the Communist government during the 1980s. After the fall of Communism, he became a leader of the left-wing Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, successor to the former ruling Polish United Workers' Party, and a co-founder of the Democratic Left Alliance. Kwaśniewski was elected to the presidency in 1995, defeating the incumbent, Lech Wałęsa. He was re-elected to a second and final term as president in 2000 in a decisive first-round victory. Although he was praised for attempting to further integrate Poland into the European Union, he faced criticism for involving the country in the Iraq War. His term ended on 23 December 2005, when he handed over power to his elected successor, conservative Lech Kaczyński.
- Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem (29 March 1916 – 8 July 1997) was a Bangladeshi jurist and statesman. He was first Chief Justice of Bangladesh from 1972 to 1975. He became the President of Bangladesh in the aftermath of counter-coups in November 1975. He was made Chief Martial Law Administrator. Sayem presided over a cabinet headed by the three chiefs of the armed forces. The cabinet included civilian technocrats and politicians. Sayem resigned on grounds of ill health in April 1977, and was replaced by President Ziaur Rahman.
- Adrienne Louise Clarkson (Chinese: 伍冰枝; pinyin: Wǔ Bīngzhī; née Poy, February 10, 1939) is a Hong Kong-born Canadian journalist and stateswoman who served as Governor General of Canada, the 26th since Canadian Confederation. Clarkson arrived in Canada with her family in 1941, as a refugee from Japanese-occupied Hong Kong, and was raised in Ottawa. After receiving a number of university degrees, Clarkson worked as a producer and broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and a journalist for various magazines. Her first diplomatic posting came in the early 1980s, when she promoted Ontarian culture in France and other European countries. She was in 1999 appointed as governor general by Queen Elizabeth II, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of Canada Jean Chrétien, to replace Roméo LeBlanc as viceroy and she occupied the post until succeeded by Michaëlle Jean in 2005. While Clarkson's appointment as the Canadian vicereine was generally welcomed at first, she caused some controversy during her time serving as the Queen's representative, mostly due to costs incurred in the operation of her office, as well as a somewhat anti-monarchist attitude toward the position. On October 3, 2005, Clarkson was sworn into the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. She subsequently published her memoirs, founded the Institute for Canadian Citizenship, and became Colonel-in-Chief of Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
- Alan Eggleston (born 30 December 1941) is an Australian politician, who was a Liberal member of the Australian Senate from 1996 to 2014 representing Western Australia.
- George John Mitchell Jr. (born August 20, 1933) is an American lawyer, businessman, author, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Mitchell served as a United States Senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995 and as Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995. He briefly served as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maine from 1979 to 1980. Since retiring from the Senate, Mitchell has taken up a variety of positions in politics and business. He held a leading role in negotiations for peace in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, being appointed United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland (1995–2001) by President Clinton and as United States Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (2009–2011) by President Barack Obama. He was a primary architect of the 1996 Mitchell Principles and the 1998 Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, and was the main investigator in two "Mitchell Reports", one on the Arab–Israeli conflict (2001) and one on the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball (2007). Mitchell served as chairman of The Walt Disney Company from March 2004 until January 2007, and later as chairman of the international law firm DLA Piper. He was the Chancellor of Queen's University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, from 1999 to 2009. Mitchell also has served as a co-chair of the Housing Commission at the Bipartisan Policy Center.
- Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, KBE (December 1912 – 15 January 1966) was a Nigerian politician, and the first prime minister of an independent Nigeria.
- William Barnet III has been President and CEO of William Barnet Son., Inc., a synthetic fiber processing business, since 1976.
Muhammad Ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Khattabi
Abd el-Krim el-Khattabi (Arabic: محمد بن عبد الكريم الخطابي) (1882, Ajdir – February 6, 1963, Cairo) was a Moroccan political and military leader. He and his brother Mhemmed led a large-scale revolt by a coalition of Berber-speaking Rif tribes against French and Spanish colonization of the Rif, an area of northern Morocco. The rebels established the short-lived Republic of the Rif. Abd el-Krim's guerrilla tactics influenced Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara.- Alhaji Sir Ahmadu Bello KBE (June 12, 1910 – January 15, 1966) was a Nigerian politician who was the first and only premier of the Northern Nigeria region. He also held the title of the Sardauna of Sokoto. Bello and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa were major figures in Northern Nigeria pre-independence politics and both men played major roles in negotiations about the region's place in an independent Nigeria. As leader of the Northern People's Congress, he was a dominant personality in Nigerian politics throughout the early Nigerian Federation and the First Nigerian Republic.
- Akhilesh Yadav (pronunciation ; born 1 July 1973) is an Indian politician and the president of the Samajwadi Party. He served as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh from 2012 to 2017. Having assumed office on 15 March 2012 at the age of 38, he is the youngest person to have held the office. His first significant success in politics was being elected as the Member of the Lok Sabha for the Kannauj constituency. He currently represents the constituency of Azamgarh in the Lok Sabha, being elected the Member of Parliament in the 2019 General Elections. He is the son of veteran politician Mulayam Singh Yadav, the founder-patron of Samajwadi Party who has served as the Minister of Defence in Government of India and three terms as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh.
- Adolfo Rodríguez Saá (born 25 July 1947) is an Argentine Peronist politician. Born in a family that was highly influential in the history of the San Luis Province, he became governor in 1983, after the end of the National Reorganization Process military dictatorship. He remained governor up to 2001, being re-elected in successive elections. President Fernando de la Rúa resigned in that year, amid the December 2001 riots, and the Congress appointed Rodríguez Saá as president of Argentina. In response to the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression, he declared the highest sovereign default in history and resigned days later amid civil unrest. The Congress appointed a new president, Eduardo Duhalde, who completed the term of office of De la Rúa. Rodríguez Saá ran for the 2003 and 2015 presidential elections but did not win.
- Maulana Sayyid Abul Kalam Ghulam Muhiyuddin Ahmed bin Khairuddin Al-Hussaini Azad pronunciation (11 November 1888 – 22 February 1958) was an Indian scholar, activist and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress during the Indian independence movement. Following India's independence, he became the First Minister of Education in the Indian government Minister of Human Resource Development (until 25 September 1958, Ministry of Education) . He is commonly remembered as Maulana Azad; the word Maulana is an honorific meaning 'Our Master', and he had adopted Azad (Free) as his pen name. His contribution to establishing the education foundation in India is recognised by celebrating his birthday as "National Education Day" across India.As a young man, Azad composed poetry in Urdu, as well as treatises on religion and philosophy. He rose to prominence through his work as a journalist, publishing works critical of the British Raj and espousing the causes of Indian nationalism. Azad became the leader of the Khilafat Movement, during which he came into close contact with the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Azad became an enthusiastic supporter of Gandhi's ideas of non-violent civil disobedience, and worked to organise the non-co-operation movement in protest of the 1919 Rowlatt Acts. Azad committed himself to Gandhi's ideals, including promoting Swadeshi (indigenous) products and the cause of Swaraj (Self-rule) for India. In 1923, at an age of 35, he became the youngest person to serve as the President of the Indian National Congress. In October 1920, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad was elected as a member of foundation committee to establish Jamia Millia Islamia at Aligarh in U. P. without taking help from British colonial government. He assisted in shifting the campus of the university from Aligarh to New Delhi in 1934. The main gate (Gate No. 7) to the main campus of the university is named after him. Azad was one of the main organizers of the Dharasana Satyagraha in 1931, and emerged as one of the most important national leaders of the time, prominently leading the causes of Hindu-Muslim unity as well as espousing secularism and socialism. He served as Congress president from 1940 to 1945, during which the Quit India rebellion was launched. Azad was imprisoned, together with the entire Congress leadership. Amidst communal turmoil following the partition of India, he worked for religious harmony. As India's Education Minister, Azad oversaw the establishment of a national education system with free primary education and modern institutions of higher education. He is also credited with the establishment of the Indian Institutes of Technology and the foundation of the University Grants Commission, an important institution to supervise and advance higher education throughout the country. National Education Day (India) an annual observance in India to commemorate the birth anniversary of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the first education minister of independent India, who served from 15 August 1947 until 2 February 1958. National Education Day of India is celebrated on 11 November every year in India. He also worked for Hindu-Muslim unity through the Al-Hilal newspaper.
Aybak
Izz al-Din Aybak (Arabic: عز الدين أيبك) (epithet: al-Malik al-Mu'izz Izz al-Din Aybak al-Jawshangir al-Turkmani al-Salihi, Arabic: الملك المعز عز الدين أيبك التركماني الجاشنكير الصالحى) was the first of the Mamluk sultans of Egypt in the Turkic Bahri line. He ruled from 1250 until his death in 1257.- Abdus Sattar (1 March 1906 – 5 October 1985) was a Bangladeshi statesman. A leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), he served as the President of Bangladesh from 1981 to 1982, and earlier as the vice president of Bangladesh. A jurist by profession, Sattar held numerous constitutional and political offices in British Bengal, East Pakistan and Bangladesh. He was a cabinet minister, supreme court judge, and chief election commissioner. Sattar was one of the few executive presidents in the country's history. Beset by health problems and old age, his short lived presidency was marked by growing political turmoil and interference from the military. Sattar was overthrown in the 1982 Bangladesh coup d'état.
- William Herbert Gray III (August 20, 1941 – July 1, 2013) was an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who represented Pennsylvania's 2nd congressional district from 1979 to 1991. He also served as chairman of the House Committee on the Budget from 1985 to 1989 and House Majority Whip from 1989 to 1991. He resigned from Congress in September of that year to become president and chief executive officer of the United Negro College Fund, a position he held until 2004. As an African American, he was the fourth-highest-ranking member of the House at the time of his resignation and a minister in Philadelphia. He was co-founder of the government lobbying and advisory firm, Gray Loeffler LLC, headquartered in Washington D.C.
- Abdur Rahman Biswas (1 September 1926 – 3 November 2017) was a Bangladeshi politician. He was the President of Bangladesh from 1991 to 1996. Biswas represented Pakistan at the United Nations General Assembly prior to the independence of Bangladesh.
- Abraham Kuijper (; Dutch: [ˈaːbraːɦɑm ˈkœypər]; 29 October 1837 – 8 November 1920), publicly known as Abraham Kuyper, was Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist theologian and also a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upon its foundation became the second largest Reformed denomination in the country behind the state-supported Dutch Reformed Church. In addition, he founded a newspaper, the Free University of Amsterdam and the Anti-Revolutionary Party. In religious affairs, he sought to adapt the Dutch Reformed Church to challenges posed by the loss of state financial aid and by increasing religious pluralism in the wake of splits that the church had undergone in the 19th century, rising Dutch nationalism, and the Arminian religious revivals of his day which denied predestination. He vigorously denounced modernism in theology as a fad that would pass away. In politics, he dominated the Anti-Revolutionary Party (ARP) from its founding in 1879 to his death in 1920. He promoted pillarisation, the social expression of the anti-thesis in public life, whereby Protestant, Catholic and secular elements each had their own independent schools, universities and social organisations.
- Neal Steven Wolin (born December 9, 1961) is the CEO of the corporate advisory firm Brunswick Group, an equity partner of Data Collective, a board partner of Social Capital, and a limited partner advisor of Nyca Partners. He is the longest-serving Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and also served as Acting Secretary of the Treasury in early 2013. In 2009, following eight years with The Hartford Financial Services Group, Wolin was appointed Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury by President Barack Obama, where he led the U.S. government's financial reform plan during the Great Recession, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He resigned as Deputy Secretary in August 2013. Wolin also served during the Clinton administration for eight years, including as general counsel and Deputy General Counsel of the Treasury, and as a staff member of the United States National Security Council.
- Aedanus Burke (16 June 1743 – 30 March 1802) was a soldier, judge, and United States Representative from South Carolina.
- Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (Persian: اکبر هاشمی رفسنجانی, romanized: Akbar Hāshemī Rafsanjānī pronunciation or Hashemi Bahramani, also known as Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; 25 August 1934 – 8 January 2017) was an influential Iranian politician, writer and one of the founding fathers of the Islamic Republic who was the fourth President of Iran from 3 August 1989 until 3 August 1997. He was the head of the Assembly of Experts from 2007 until 2011, when he decided not to nominate himself for the post. He was also the chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council. During his 40 year tenure, Rafsajani amassed a large amount of power serving as the speaker of parliament, Commander-in-Chief during the Iran Iraq War, President, and chose Ali Khamenei as the supreme leader of Iran. His powerful role and control over Iranian politics earned him the name “Akbar Shah.” Rafsanjani became president of Iran after winning the 1989 election. He served another term by winning the election in 1993. In the 2005 election he ran for a third term in office, placing first in the first round of elections but ultimately losing to rival Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the run-off. He and his family faced political isolation for their support of the opposition in 2009. Rafsanjani entered the race for the 2013 presidential election, but he was disqualified by the Guardian Council. With Hassan Rouhani's election, in which Rafsanjani openly supported him, the Rafsanjani family gradually recovered their political reputation. Rafsanjani died following a heart attack on 8 January 2017 in a hospital in Tehran at the age of 82. Although, government officials attributed his death to cardiac arrest his sudden death prompted speculation that he had been assassinated. His family strongly asserted that he had been murdered. Further investigation revealed that his body was highly radioactive.Rafsanjani has been described as having been a pragmatic Islamic conservative. The Economist called him a "veteran kingmaker". He supported a free market position domestically, favoring privatization of state-owned industries and a moderate position internationally, seeking to avoid conflict with the United States and the West. He was also founder and one of the Board of Trustees of Azad University. In 2003, Forbes estimated his personal wealth to be in excess of USD$1 billion.
- Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin, born de Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan-American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. He was an important leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, serving in various federal elective and appointed positions across four decades. He represented Pennsylvania in the Senate and the House of Representatives before becoming the longest-tenured United States Secretary of the Treasury and serving as a high-ranking diplomat. Born in Geneva in present-day Switzerland, Gallatin immigrated to the United States in the 1780s, settling in western Pennsylvania. He served as a delegate to the 1789 Pennsylvania constitutional convention and won election to the Pennsylvania General Assembly. An opponent of Alexander Hamilton's economic policies, Gallatin was elected to the United States Senate in 1793. However, he was removed from office on a party-line vote after a protest raised by his opponents suggested he did not meet the required nine years of citizenship. Returning to Pennsylvania, Gallatin helped calm many angry farmers during the Whiskey Rebellion. Gallatin returned to Congress in 1795 after winning election to the House of Representatives. He became the chief spokesman on financial matters for the Democratic-Republican Party, leading opposition to the Federalist economic program. Gallatin's mastery of public finance led to his choice as Secretary of the Treasury by President Thomas Jefferson, despite Federalist attacks that he was a "foreigner" with a French accent. Under Jefferson and James Madison, Gallatin served as secretary from 1801 until February 1814. Gallatin retained much of Hamilton's financial system, though he also presided over a reduction in the national debt prior to the War of 1812. Gallatin served on the American commission that agreed to the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. In the aftermath of the war, he helped found the Second Bank of the United States. Declining another term at the Treasury, Gallatin served as Ambassador to France from 1816 to 1823, struggling with scant success to improve relations with the government during the Bourbon Restoration. In the election of 1824, Gallatin was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic-Republican Congressional caucus. Gallatin never wanted the position and was humiliated when forced to withdraw from the race because he lacked popular support. In 1826 and 1827, he served as the ambassador to Britain and negotiated several agreements, such as a ten-year extension of the joint occupation of Oregon Country. After his tenure abroad, Gallatin settled in New York City, helping to found New York University. He also became president of the National Bank's branch in New York City. In 1842, Gallatin joined with John Russell Bartlett to found the American Ethnological Society. With his studies of the languages of Native Americans, he has been called "the father of American ethnology."
- Abdelaziz Bouteflika (pronunciation ; Arabic: عبد العزيز بوتفليقة, romanized: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Būtaflīqa [ʕabd lʕziːz buːtfliːqa]; born 2 March 1937) is an Algerian politician who served as President of Algeria from 1999 until 2019. As President, he presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002 when he took over the project of Liamine Zéroual (Previous president), and he ended emergency rule in February 2011 amidst regional unrest. Prior to becoming president, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1963 until 1979 and as President of the United Nations General Assembly for a 1-year term from 1974. Bouteflika resigned on 2 April 2019 after months of mass protests. With nearly 20 years in power, he was the longest-serving head of state of Algeria.
A. C. Townley
Arthur Charles Townley (December 30, 1880 – November 7, 1959) was an American political organizer best known as the founder the National Non-Partisan League (NPL), a radical farmers' organization which had considerable political success in the states of North Dakota and Minnesota during the second half of the 1910s.- Abraham Bedford Venable (November 20, 1758 – December 26, 1811) was a representative and senator from Virginia. He was the uncle of congressman Abraham Watkins Venable.
- Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati (Persian: احمد جنتی, born 23 February 1927) is an Iranian Shi'i cleric and a conservative politician. Jannati is known for his hatred of secularism, anti-LGBT rhetoric, and his advocacy of discrimination against non-Muslims. He is also a founding member of the Haghani school of thought. Today, Jannati occupies two prominent posts in Iranian politics as chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body charged with choosing the Supreme Leader, and as chairman of the Guardian Council, the body in charge of checking legislation approved by Majlis with the Constitution and sharia, and approving the candidates in various elections.
- Adam Yahiye Gadahn (Arabic: آدم يحيى غدن, Ādam Yaḥyā Ghadan; born Adam Pearlman; September 1, 1978 – January 19, 2015) was an American senior operative, cultural interpreter, spokesman and media advisor for the Islamist group al-Qaeda. Beginning in 2004, he appeared in a number of videos produced by al-Qaeda as "Azzam the American" ('Azzām al-Amrīki, عزام الأمريكي, sometimes transcribed as Ezzam Al-Amerikee). Gadahn, who converted to Islam in 1995 at a California mosque, was described as "homegrown," meaning that he had converted to a religion he believed in so firmly that he was willing to harm his country of origin. American intelligence officials allege that he inspired the 2007 Osama bin Laden video.In 2004, he was added to the FBI Seeking Information – War on Terrorism list. On October 11, 2006, he was removed from that list, and placed on the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Rewards for Justice Program list of wanted criminals. On the same day, Gadahn was indicted based on the testimony of the FBI case agent E. J. Hilbert II, in the Southern Division of the United States District Court for the Central District of California by a federal grand jury for the capital crime of treason for aiding an enemy of the United States. On January 19, 2015, Gadahn was killed in one of a series of unmanned aircraft strikes in Waziristan, Pakistan. Al-Qaeda confirmed Gadahn's death on June 25, 2015.
- Alain Lamassoure (born 10 February 1944 in Pau) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament for the south-west of France. He was a member of Les Républicains, which is part of the European People's Party, and was the chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Budgets from July 2009 until June 2014.He is a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, a member of the delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, and a member of the EPP-ED bureau. He was also a member of the temporary committee on policy challenges and budgetary means of the enlarged Union 2007–2013. Lamassoure is a member of the Reconciliation of European Histories Group.He was in charge of writing parts of the Treaty of Lisbon. Alain Lamassoure is a well-known pro-European. He is a member of the European Movement France, which he has been vice-president of, and has a privileged relationship with the diverse European federalist groups.
- Abel Parker Upshur (June 17, 1790 – February 28, 1844) was a lawyer, planter, slaveowner, judge and politician from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Active in Virginia state politics for decades, with a brother and a nephew who became distinguished U.S. Navy officers, Judge Upshur left the Virginia bench to become the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of State during the administration of President John Tyler, a fellow Virginian. He negotiated the treaty that led to the 1845 annexation of the Republic of Texas to the United States and helped ensure that it was admitted as a slave state. Upshur died on February 28, 1844, when a gun on the warship USS Princeton exploded during a demonstration.
- Afonso Augusto da Costa, GCTE, GCL (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈfõsu ˈkɔʃtɐ]; born in Seia, 6 March 1871; died in Paris, 11 May 1937) was a Portuguese lawyer, professor and republican politician.
- Alben William Barkley (; November 24, 1877 – April 30, 1956) was an American lawyer and politician from Kentucky who served in both houses of Congress and as the 35th vice president of the United States from 1949 to 1953. In 1905, he was elected county attorney for McCracken County, Kentucky. He was chosen County Judge/Executive in 1909 and U.S. representative from Kentucky's First District in 1912. As a Representative, he was a liberal Democrat, supporting President Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom domestic agenda and foreign policy. Endorsing Prohibition and denouncing parimutuel betting, Barkley narrowly lost the 1923 Democratic gubernatorial primary to fellow Representative J. Campbell Cantrill. In 1926, he unseated Republican Senator Richard P. Ernst. In the Senate, he supported the New Deal approach to addressing the Great Depression and was elected to succeed Senate Majority Leader Joseph T. Robinson upon Robinson's death in 1937. During his 1938 re-election bid, his opponent A. B. "Happy" Chandler accused him of using Works Progress Administration employees to campaign for him; Barkley claimed Chandler used state employees in the same way. Neither candidate was charged with any wrongdoing, but in 1939, Congress passed the Hatch Act, making it illegal for federal employees to campaign for political candidates. When World War II focused President Franklin D. Roosevelt's attention on foreign affairs, Barkley gained influence over the administration's domestic agenda. He resigned as floor leader after Roosevelt ignored his advice and vetoed the Revenue Act of 1943. The veto was overridden and the Democratic caucus supported and unanimously re-elected Barkley to the position of Majority Leader. Barkley had a good working relationship with Harry S. Truman, who ascended to the presidency after Roosevelt's death in 1945. With Truman's popularity waning entering the 1948 Democratic National Convention, Barkley gave a keynote address that energized the delegates. Truman selected him as his running mate for the upcoming election and the Democratic ticket scored an upset victory. Barkley took an active role in the Truman administration, acting as its primary spokesman, especially after the Korean War necessitated the majority of Truman's attention. When Truman announced that he would not seek re-election in 1952, Barkley began organizing a presidential campaign, but labor leaders refused to endorse his candidacy because of his age, and he withdrew from the race. He retired but was coaxed back into public life, defeating incumbent Republican Senator John Sherman Cooper in 1954. Barkley died of a heart attack while giving a speech at the Washington and Lee Mock Convention on April 30, 1956.
- Aída M. Álvarez (born 1950) is a Puerto Rican businesswoman and politician. She is the first Latina woman to hold a United States Cabinet-level position, as the Administrator of the Small Business Administration, during Bill Clinton's presidency.
A. Q. M. Badruddoza Chowdhury
Abdul Qasim Mohammad Badruddoza Chowdhury (known as AQM Badrudozza Chowdhury; (listen); born 1 November 1932) served as the President of Bangladesh from 14 November 2001 until his resignation on 21 June 2002. He was the founding secretary-general of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).He is also a physician, and former cultural activist, an author, essayist, playwright, television presenter and an orator of distinction. He was awarded the National Television Award in 1976.- Alexander Barrow I (March 27, 1801 – December 29, 1846) was a lawyer and United States Senator from Louisiana. He was a member of the Whig Party. He was the half-brother of Washington Barrow, sharing the same father. Born near Nashville, Tennessee, to Willie Barrow and his first wife Jane Green, Barrow attended the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York, from 1816 to 1818. Then he studied law and was admitted to the bar, in 1822, commencing practice in Nashville. Soon afterward he relocated to Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, where he continued to practice law. Later he abandoned his legal career to become a planter. Eventually, Alexander Barrow became involved in politics and was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives, where he served for several years. In 1840 Barrow was elected a Whig to the United States Senate, serving from 1841 until his death. There he was Chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds during the 27th Congress and of the Committee on the Militia during the 27th and 28th Congresses. Senator Barrow died in Baltimore, Maryland, on December 29, 1846. His remains were interred in the family cemetery on Afton Villa plantation, near Bayou Sara, Louisiana. Alexander and Mary Ann Barrow had three children, Alexander II, Willie Micajah, and Jane.
- Alexander Vladimirovich Rutskoy (born 16 September 1947) is a Russian politician and a former Soviet military officer who led the putsch against President Boris Yeltsin during Russian constitutional crisis of 1993.
- Lt. Col. Ahmed Ould Bouceif (Arabic: أحمد ولد بوسيف, 1934 – 27 May 1979) was a Mauritanian military and political leader. In April 1979, he seized power in a coup d'état together with Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidallah and other officers, ousting Col. Mustafa Ould Salek from power. He became the 2nd Prime Minister of Mauritania in the new government. He was killed the following month in an airplane crash off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, at which point Haidallah emerged as the regime's main strongman.[1]
Akindele Akinyemi
- Adrian Malik Fenty (born December 6, 1970) is an American politician who served as the sixth mayor of the District of Columbia. He served one term, from 2007 to 2011, losing his bid for reelection at the primary level to Democrat Vincent C. Gray. Though Fenty won the Republican mayoral primary as a write-in candidate, he declined the Republican nomination and said he would likely not seek elected office again. Gray went on to win the general election for Mayor in the largely Democratic District. Since leaving office, Fenty has become a special advisor to the venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz and a member of the business development team at the law firm Perkins Coie. Fenty has held advisory and business development roles with Rosetta Stone, Everfi and CapGemini. He also serves on the Board of Directors at two nonprofits: Genesys Works-Bay Area and Fight for Children. He has also embarked on a career as a paid speaker, part-time college professor, adviser for the state and local government practice of an information technology consulting firm. Previously, Fenty was a D.C. Council member for six years. A Washington, D.C. native, Fenty is a graduate of Oberlin College and Howard University Law School.
- Abraham "Abe" Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was a U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice from 1965 to 1969. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, Fortas became a law professor at Yale University, and then an advisor for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Fortas worked at the Department of the Interior under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and during that time President Harry S. Truman appointed him to delegations that helped set up the United Nations in 1945. In 1948 Fortas represented Lyndon Johnson in the hotly contested Democratic Senatorial Second Primary electoral dispute, and he formed close ties with the president-to-be. Fortas also represented Clarence Earl Gideon before the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark case involving the right to counsel. Nominated by Johnson to the Supreme Court in 1965, Fortas was confirmed by the Senate, and maintained a close working relationship with the president. In 1968, Johnson tried to elevate Fortas to the position of Chief Justice, but that nomination faced a filibuster at least in part due to ethics problems that later caused Fortas to resign from the Court. Fortas returned to private practice, sometimes appearing before the justices with whom he had served.
- Michael Kevin Powell (born March 23, 1963) is an American former Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and current president of the trade association the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA). He was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by President Bill Clinton on November 3, 1997. President George W. Bush designated him chairman of the commission on January 22, 2001. Powell is the son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife Alma Powell.
- Abdurrahman Wahid ( (listen) AHB-doo-RAHKH-mahn wah-HEED; born Abdurrahman ad-Dakhil; 7 September 1940 – 30 December 2009), colloquially known as Gus Dur (listen ), was an Indonesian Muslim religious and political leader who served as the President of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001. The long-time president of the Nahdlatul Ulama and the founder of the National Awakening Party (PKB), Wahid was the first elected president of Indonesia after the resignation of Suharto in 1998. His popular nickname Gus Dur, is derived from Gus, a common honorific for a son of kyai, from short-form of bagus ('handsome lad' in Javanese language); and Dur, short-form of his name, Abdurrahman.
- Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan (Urdu: چودھری اعتزاز احسن; born 27 September 1945) is a Pakistani politician and lawyer who served two times as the Leader of the House in the Senate of Pakistan from 1994 to 1997 and again from 2012 to 2015. He also served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. He was elected a member of the Senate of Pakistan from Punjab in 1994. His tenure ended in March of 2018Born in Murree, Ahsan studied law at the Government College, Lahore and received a LLM from the Downing College, Cambridge. Ahsan became the Planning and Development Minister for Punjab in 1975. After the Operation Fair Play coup, Ahsan became a prominent figure of the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy. Ahsan was elected to the National Assembly from Lahore in 1988 and served as the interior minister of Pakistan under Benazir Bhutto's first government and served until 1990. Ahsan was elected as a member of the Senate in 1994. He re-joined the cabinet after Benazir's re-election, and went on to serve as the Minister for Law, Justice and Human Rights until 1997. He served as the minority leader in the Senate between 1996 and 1999. Ahsan was elected to the National Assembly again in 2002, and went on to serve as the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association between 2007 and 2008. Ahsan was elected to the Senate in 2012 and in 2015 became the minority leader.
- Abhishek Manu Singhvi (born 24 February 1959) is an Indian lawyer and politician. As politician, he is a member of the Indian National Congress (INC) and a current Member of the Parliament of India representing West Bengal in the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament. He is also a spokesperson for the INC.
- Dominic F. Pileggi (born December 15, 1957) is an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as Republican mayor of Chester, Pennsylvania from 1999 to 2002 and as a member of the Pennsylvania 9th Senatorial district from 2002 until January 2016. He was elected judge in the Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Delaware County in 2015.
- Abraham Jefferson Seay (November 28, 1832 – December 12, 1915) was an American lawyer, soldier, judge, and politician. Seay attained the rank of colonel in the Union army during the American Civil War. Later, Seay would serve as an associate justice on Oklahoma Territory's supreme court and as the second Governor of the Oklahoma Territory.
- Albert Bathurst Piddington KC (9 September 1862 – 5 June 1945) was an Australian lawyer, politician and judge. He served on the High Court of Australia for one month in 1913, making him the shortest-serving judge in the court's history. Piddington was born in Bathurst, New South Wales. He studied classics at the University of Sydney, and later combined his legal studies with teaching at Sydney Boys High School. Piddington was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1895, representing the Free Trade Party. He was defeated after a single term, and subsequently returned to his legal practice, becoming one of Sydney's best-known barristers. Piddington was sympathetic to the labour movement, and in April 1913 Andrew Fisher nominated him to the High Court as part of a court-packing attempt. His appointment was severely criticised, and he resigned a month later without ever sitting on the bench. Later in 1913, Piddington was made the inaugural chairman of the Inter-State Commission, serving until 1920. He was appointed King's Counsel in 1921, and remained a public figure into his seventies.
- Sturdy, Broad-shouldered Alan Autry was a former Green Bay Packer who decided, after three years of Sunday tackles, to go into acting, and has since put together a career that has included eight seasons on "In the Heat of the Night" (NBC, 1987-92; CBS, 1992-94) as Bubba Skinner, the police captain resistant to change. His character became more prominent as the series progressed and other actors fell by the wayside and he continued the portrayal into 1995 in the series of TV- movies NBC produced with the original cast.
- Alan Stuart Lowenthal (born March 8, 1941) is an American politician who has been the United States Representative for California's 47th congressional district since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2004, representing the 54th Assembly district, and then as a member of the California State Senate, representing the 27th district from 2004 to 2012. In both posts, he represented the city of Long Beach and its surrounding suburbs.
- Ahmed Aboutaleb (Berber languages: ⴰⵃⵎⴻⴷ ⴰⴱⵓⵟⴰⵍⴻⴱ; Arabic: أحمد أبو طالب; born 29 August 1961) is a Moroccan–born Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and journalist. He is the Mayor of Rotterdam since 5 January 2009.
- Ajmal Masroor (Bengali: আজমল মাসরুর; born 19 October 1971) is a Bangladeshi-born British Imam, broadcaster and politician. He is well known for being a television presenter on political discussions and on Muslim channels.
- Sheikh Ahmed Ismail Hassan Yassin (1937 – 22 March 2004) (Arabic: الشيخ أحمد إسماعيل حسن ياسين ash-shaykh Aḥmad Ismāʻīl Ḥasan Yāsīn) was a Palestinian imam and politician. He was a founder of Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian paramilitary organization and political party. Yassin also served as the spiritual leader of the organization. Hamas gained approval in Palestinian society by establishing charitable bodies to fund hospitals, education systems, libraries and other services, but it has also claimed responsibility for a number of suicide attacks targeting Israeli civilians, and was designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union, Israel, Japan, Canada, and the United States.Yassin, a quadriplegic who was nearly blind, had used a wheelchair since a sporting accident at the age of 12. He was killed when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile at him as he was being wheeled from early morning prayers. His killing, in an attack that claimed the lives of both his bodyguards and nine bystanders, was internationally condemned. Two hundred thousand Palestinians attended his funeral procession.
- Tun Haji Abdul Razak bin Dato' Hussein SMN KStJ (11 March 1922 - 14 January 1976) was the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, serving from 1970 to 1976. Tun Razak was the Prime Minister responsible in setting up Barisan Nasional, which is the ruling coalition of political parties that held power in Malaysia till 10 May 2018, with Barisan Nasional losing the 14th Malaysia General Election under his son Najib Razak, taking over from its predecessor, the Alliance. He is also renowned for launching the Malaysian New Economic Policy (MNEP).
- Rt. Hon. Aaron Mike Oquaye, (born April 4, 1944) is a Ghanaian politician and is the Speaker of the Parliament of Ghana. Oquaye was sworn in as the Speaker of Parliament on 7 January 2017. A member of the New Patriotic Party, he was the Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya from 2005 to 2013. He was Ghana's High Commissioner to India from 2001 to 2004, then Minister of Energy from 2005 to 2006 and Minister of Communications from 2006 to 2009. He served as the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament from 2009 to 2013.
- Alessandro Pavolini (September 27, 1903 – April 28, 1945) was an Italian politician, journalist, and essayist, notable for his involvement in the Fascist government, during World War II, and also, for his cruelty against the opponents of fascism.
- Abraham Fischer (4 September 1850 – 16 November 1913) was a South African statesman. He was the sole Prime Minister of the Orange River Colony in South Africa, and when that ceased to exist joined the cabinet of the newly formed Union of South Africa.
- Abner Joseph Mikva (January 21, 1926 – July 4, 2016) was an American politician, federal judge, lawyer and law professor. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Mikva served in the United States House of Representatives representing Illinois's 2nd congressional district (1969–1973) and 10th congressional district (1975–1979). He was appointed as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit by President Jimmy Carter, serving from 1979 to 1994. He served as the White House Counsel in 1994-95 during Bill Clinton's presidency. In his later career, Mikva taught law at University of Chicago Law School, Georgetown Law Center and Northwestern University. He mentored future President of the United States Barack Obama during his early years in law. In 2014 Obama honored Mikva with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- Adebayo Adedeji (21 December 1930 – 25 April 2018) was a Nigerian economist and academic. A full-fledged Professor at the age of 36 years, he was Nigeria's Federal Commissioner for Economic Development & Reconstruction from 1971 to 1975. He was responsible for the economic development and reconstruction of post-civil war Nigeria. In June 1975, he was appointed Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and remained in this position until July 1991. Adedeji wrote the Lagos Plan of Action of 1980 that was adopted by the UN and OAU. On his return to Nigeria, he founded the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies (ACDESS), a non-governmental independent continental non-profit, think-tank dedicated to multi-disciplinary and strategic studies on and for Africa. He received the national honor of Commander of the Federal Republic.[1] In December 2010, after turning 80, he retired from public life and spent the last years of his life quietly in his home town of Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria.
