Some famous people play a big part in the world’s history as we know it. In other words, we are pretty sure the world would not be the same if it was not for them. Paradoxically, the iconic role of such people – in making history – tends to affect our perception of them. We might inadvertently forget the possibility of a live human being outliving the era of which they became a symbol. In such a way, famous people might surprise you by being your contemporaries. This very question was addressed by the Redditor Enginearz, asking: “What famous person from history is still alive?” Numerous comments helped to bring to mind the names of people who made history and are still with us as of 2023.
More info: Reddit
#1
Mumwifealcoholic said:
Ruby Bridges – she was one of the first black kids to go to an all-white school. There is a famous picture of that first day.
awkward873 said:
She wasn’t one of the first, she was the first.
Copeteles commented:
[The girl was the first] in the USA.
MrsAshleyStark said:
Everyone seems to think that the civil rights movement and all events surrounding it were centuries ago because all the photos we’re shown are in b&w. Ruby is only 68.
VulfSki said:
Yeah, people really forget how recent that was. Same with slavery. On the scale of human history that just happened, and we still see the lingering effects today all over the US for sure.
HarmonicWalrus said:
Just to add, her teacher Mrs. Henry is still alive too! She’s 90 years old now.
Image credits: mumwifealcoholic
#2
random_username_96 said:
Jane Goodall and David Attenborough
spudsnacker agreed:
Without these two, there are no nature documentaries
DJ1066 commented:
Sir David Attenborough. The man’s a knight. Call him what he is.
Image credits: random_username_96
#3
Ashtar-the-Squid commented:
John Hemingway: The last surviving airman of the battle of Britain. He is 103 years old.
Ivan Martynushkin: He helped with the liberation of Auschwitz. He is 99 years old.
Benjamin Ferencz: He was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. He is 102 years old.
Gothmom85 replied:
I hate that people who survived, helped, or fought against the Holocaust are now slowly almost gone from this planet. With all the denial out there, it legitimately worries me.
Along with enraging me. I was privileged to take care of many survivors as a CNA in a Jewish facility. Several of which suffered from dementia. Let me tell you, the days or nights when the disease forced them to relive that horror were the toughest I ever faced, just trying to help them through it. I wish there was a way to take that fear and pain and force any denier to experience it instead. They were, each in their own way, some of the kindest, sweetest and most patient people I’ve ever met. I know of one who’s still living and sharing her story and you couldn’t ask for a better human being.
fshrbg said:
Ben Ferencz was just given a congressional gold medal.
Image credits: Ashtar-the-Squid
#4
valeyard89 commented:
Keith Richards cannot be killed with conventional weapons
RbrCanty said:
There’s a funny article from the onion about Keith Richards’ maid being mentally prepared to find his body everyday since 1976.
Image credits: anon
#5
Back2Bach said:
Jimmy Carter – 98 years old
Most_Basic_Takes commented:
Yeah well Scooby doo can do-do, but Jimmy Carter is smarter
Image credits: Back2Bach
#6
aslrules said:
Julie Andrews.
dazzlinreddress said:
She’s a musical legend
Image credits: aslrules
#7
HMKingHenryIX said:
Paul and Ringo
A_Man_Who_Writes commented:
Which is crazy to think about. Two pioneers of modern music are still alive. Two guys who influenced virtually every musician since, and by extension influenced all of popular culture. You can see them, talk to them, touch them, etc.
YouGoThatWayIllGoHom said:
Only slightly germane to the topic at hand, but the Paul McCartney and Wings album “Band on the Run” contains a song called “Picasso’s Last Words.”
The lyrics are indeed what are thought to be Picasso’s last words, but that’s not the part that hit me.
What hit me was that it was a contemporary tribute. The song was recorded in the fall of 1973. Picasso died in April 1973.
When I saw that I was like “wow I was at least 100 years off,” lol … We tend to think of famous artists as coming from forever ago since their work is so timeless.
But, like, I remember the day Salvador Dali died (1989). He had a Pacemaker. That’s … Very Much Modern.
Image credits: HMKingHenryIX
#8
ChrisTinnef commented:
Traute Lafrenz, the last living member of the German anti-Nazi resistance group “White Rose” (most well-known members were the siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl, who were executed by the Nazis when they were identified).
StockingDummy added:
She went on to have a long career in medicine and she’s now retired in South Carolina.
Successful-Pea3309 commented:
103 years old! That’s interesting.
OldGodsAndNew said:
On the flip side, I’ve been trying to find out if there are any Nazis still alive. Helmut Oberlander, Gerhard Sommer and Oskar Groening all died in the last 5 years and were probably the last surviving officers/military officials, but there’s at least 1 woman – Irmgard Furchner – who was a concentration camp secretary and just got found guilty a month ago.
Image credits: ChrisTinnef
#9
Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Last human to hold the title of Tsar, as leader of the Kingdom of Bulgaria. He was exiled along with his family when the Soviets invaded Bulgaria in 1944. In 1990, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Simeon returned from exile to Bulgaria and July 2001, was democratically elected prime minister. The private citizen is now 85.
Image credits: DirectionNew5328
#10
William Shatner doesn’t look it but that dude is in his 90s wth
Image credits: flubberFuck
#11
psontake commented:
Lech Walesa
wufoo2 said:
Gold medalist in geopolitics
Image credits: psontake
#12
Harrison Ruffin. Who? He’s John Tyler’s grandson. John Tyler the 10th president of the US’ grandson.
Image credits: Defconwrestling
#13
mukaltin commented:
Buzz Aldrin, and I’m not even American
the_digital_merc said:
I ran sound for him during a speaking event he did back in the early 2000s. He gave me a set of wings. I was like 22. Coolest thing ever.
xenedra0 commented:
I was at an event for pilots a few years back and he came waltzing in with his son – sat down at the table right next to me. It was so surreal. Even more surreal was watching his son trying to make him behave, like he was a child. For example, Buzz wanted to throw a frisbee he had across the room and his son had to keep knocking his hand back. Seems he’s only still here physically speaking, not so much mentally anymore 🙁
Image credits: mukaltin
#14
snowflake247 said:
Yuri Oganessian. He’s the only currently living man with an element on the periodic table named after him.
controlc-controlv said:
Oganesson
mfb- commented:
Element names are likely “forever” – his name will be in chemistry and physics books for as long as we have books (printed, digital or otherwise).
Image credits: snowflake247
#15
SENDCUTECATPICS said:
Carol Burnett.
MissHibernia said:
She was just featured on Finding Your Roots
dangler001 said:
Took me a little while to recognize her in Better Call Saul
#16
charcuterie10108 said:
Robert Plant – Led Zeppelin lead singer
GTOdriver04 said:
As are Jimmy Page, and John Paul Jones. Thankfully.
teneggomelet commented:
He’s only 73. Still almost hits the high notes, too.
Image credits: charcuterie10108
#17
Muh2021account commented:
Steve Wozniac. The guy basically invented the personal computer.
10throwaway123456789 replied:
Let me put it another way, I don’t think there’s a man that has done more to advance the democratization that comes with personal computing yet Steve Jobs never had any respect for him.
Kichigai commented:
I love Woz, but he gets a little too much credit for that. Chuck Peddle deserves more credit. Peddle designed the 6502 CPU that was at the heart of most 8-bit home computers (including ones designed by Woz), and built the Commodore PET.
What Woz did (and no disrespect to Woz) was design a cost-reduced version by rigging up certain components to pull double duty (at the cost of performance) so they could reduce the number of chips on the board, and thus bring down the cost.
Now that’s no small feat of engineering, but without the 6502 and Peddle’s early micros as proof of concepts, it all would have been moot because the other two major processors at the time were the Intel 8080 and the Motorola 6800, which cost ~$175 and $300, respectively, against the 6502’s price of $25.
Image credits: Muh2021account
#18
Ratzink said:
Micky Dolenz of the Monkees.
FYI the Monkees hold the record for the most number 1 albums in a single year according to Billboard Music Charts.
monkeemama17 said:
Micky is the only one of them alive. Davy died on 2012. Peter died in 2019. Mike died in 2021. Micky will only be 78 this year.
BobSacramanto commented:
I fell in love with them watching reruns of their show on Nickelodeon back in the 90’s.
#19
LucyVialli said:
Kissinger
Picklopolis commented:
Tom Lehrer was spot on when he said that Kissinger receiving the Nobel peace prize made political satire obsolete.
Image credits: LucyVialli
#20
Fullhoneymoveon said:
Noam Chomsky
enginearz commented:
Excellent answer!
Image credits: Fullhoneymoveon
#21
IMakeTheEggs commented:
Tippi Hedren. Remember ‘The Birds’? Still with us.
suffaluffapussycat replied:
Kim Novak too. Vertigo.
alphaxion commented:
Have you ever seen Roar? Utter madness of a film.
It starred her, her husband, and a young Mel Griffiths (her daughter). An elephant broke her leg during the filming, it’s an intense film with a lot of actual injuries (majority not on screen) so it takes a strong will to watch through it.
StubbornAndCorrect said:
Perhaps best known now for training a group of Vietnamese refugee women to do nail care, launching an industry that became a lifeline for thousands of Vietnamese families after the war.
edit: should clarify to “hired people to train them”. it’s a good story you should look it up.
Eggnogcheesecake said:
Dakota Johnson’s grandmother.
Image credits: IMakeTheEggs
#22
Willie Mays!
This guy was an All Star baseball player in 1954.
He played against baseball players who only appear in black and white photos or with civil war looking pants.
#23
RandomlySet said:
Tim Berners-Lee… basically invented the tinterwebs, and most people would probably think it was Gates or Jobs
alphaxion commented:
Well, not really the internet as that was formed in the 50s and 60s out of ARPANet. He invented the HTTP protocol that runs over the internet.
Footwarrior commented:
Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn are still around. They invented the TCP/IP protocol that is at the core of the Internet. Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML and HTTP, the foundations of the World Wide Web.
zooted_ said:
Saying one guy invented the internet is such a crazy oversimplification.
Image credits: RandomlySet
#24
The_Great_Squijibo said: Speaking of space, Valentina Tereshkova is still alive. First woman in space, the youngest woman ever in space at 26 years old and, the only woman ever to do a solo mission. HazelFrederick said: Valentina Tereshkova: first woman in space, last Vostok cosmonaut, a fierce ally of Vladimir Putin. Kris_from_overworld commented: She is responsible for a constitutional amendment that allows Putin to stand for election for 20 next years. It’s known as “Obnuleniye” (reset to zero)
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Image credits: HazelFrederick
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