People
Historical Figures and Influential People in History
Explore rulers, generals, thinkers, scientists and reformers who shaped world history. Search for a specific person, or browse by era, region, country and A–Z.
Historical Figures Beginning with M
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12 results
Mao Zedong
1893–1976Industrial AgeEast AsiaChina
He led the revolution that made modern China — and then launched campaigns that killed tens of millions of his own people in peacetime.
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Marco Polo
1254–1324Medieval PeriodEuropeItaly
He spent seventeen years at the court of Kublai Khan, returned to Venice, and described a world so different from anything Europeans had seen that most people assumed he was lying.
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Marcus Aurelius
121–180Classical WorldEuropeItaly
He spent his reign doing the opposite of what he wrote — a philosopher king who believed in peace, presiding over almost constant war.
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Marcus Livius Drusus
-124–-91Classical WorldEuropeItaly
He proposed reforms that might have prevented the Social War, was assassinated before they could pass, and his death triggered the very conflict he had tried to avoid.
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Marcus Tullius Cicero
-106–-43Classical WorldEuropeItaly
He used his speeches to destroy Rome's most dangerous men — and when he ran out of enemies to expose, Rome's most dangerous men came for him.
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Margaret Thatcher
1925–2013Modern HistoryEuropeUnited Kingdom
She remade Britain's economy, broke the unions, and won three consecutive elections — and the country has been arguing about what she did ever since.
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Mark Antony
-83–-30Classical WorldEuropeItaly
He was Rome's most powerful man after Caesar's death, threw in his lot with Cleopatra, and lost everything — though whether through love, miscalculation, or bad luck depends on who you ask.
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Martin Van Buren
1782–1862Industrial AgeAmericasUnited States
He engineered Andrew Jackson's rise to power, became president himself, inherited the financial crash that followed Jackson's policies, and lost his re-election campaign to a man whose main qualification was being a war hero.
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Mikhail Gorbachev
1931–2022Modern HistoryEuropeRussia
He set out to save the Soviet Union through reform, and instead presided over its peaceful dissolution — an outcome he didn't intend and never entirely accepted.
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Millard Fillmore
1800–1874Industrial AgeAmericasUnited States
He signed the Compromise of 1850 hoping to settle the slavery question for a generation, and instead bought the country a decade to prepare for a war it couldn't avoid.
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Mithridates VI
-135–-63Classical WorldMiddle EastTurkey
He survived multiple poisoning attempts by making himself immune through small doses, held Rome at bay for decades, and died by his own hand when nothing else would kill him.
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Moctezuma II
1466–1520Medieval PeriodAmericasMexico
He ruled the most powerful empire in Mesoamerica, received the Spanish as possible gods, and within two years had died and his world had ceased to exist.
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