Charles de Gaulle
Called on the French to fight on from London in 1940, led Free France and founded the Fifth Republic in 1958.
| Lived | 1890 – 1970 |
| Known as | President of France |
| Birthplace or main place | Lille |
| Places on the map | Paris, London |
LilleSee the world of Charles de Gaulle in the interactive map
Who ruled these places in his lifetime
| Place | At birth (map of 1880) | At death (map of 1960) |
|---|---|---|
| Lille | France | same |
| Paris | France | same |
| London | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | United Kingdom |
From the border maps nearest to each date; borders are approximate.
Events in his lifetime
| Year | Event | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 1940 | German troops occupy Paris | Paris |
| 1940 | The Blitz: German bombing of London | London |
| 1944 | Liberation of Paris | Paris |
Battles and sites of the time
- Sarajevo · 1914
- Battle of Tannenberg · 1914
- Battle of Verdun · 1916
- Battle of the Somme · 1916
- Versailles · 1919
- Normandy Landings · 1944
Further reading
Contemporaries
| Lived | Person | |
|---|---|---|
| 1890 – 1969 | Ho Chi Minh | Vietnamese revolutionary leader |
| 1892 – 1975 | Haile Selassie I | Emperor of Ethiopia |
| 1874 – 1965 | Winston Churchill | British prime minister |
| 1889 – 1964 | Jawaharlal Nehru | First prime minister of India |
| c. 1897 – 1978 | Jomo Kenyatta | First president of Kenya |
| 1879 – 1955 | Albert Einstein | Physicist |
| 1878 – 1953 | Joseph Stalin | Soviet leader |
| 1909 – 1972 | Kwame Nkrumah | First leader of Ghana |
| 1869 – 1948 | Mahatma Gandhi | Leader of Indian independence |
| 1876 – 1948 | Muhammad Ali Jinnah | Founder of Pakistan |
Last updated 9 November 2026. Sources: border data from historical-basemaps, land and rivers from Natural Earth; texts written for Chronica Maps from standard reference works. How we make the maps.