What famous people were doing at 70

At 70, here is where people from history were and what they were doing. Here are 60 of the 116 moments on the site. Pick anyone to see their whole life lined up with yours.

1. Ferdowsi ~1010 · Ghazni, Afghanistan
   Completes the Shahnameh, about 50,000 couplets, after some 30 years
2. Al-Jazari ~1206 · Diyarbakır, Turkey
   Completes his Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, describing 100 machines
3. Fibonacci ~1240 · Pisa, Italy
   Pisa awards him a salary for his services to the city
4. Marco Polo January 1324 · Venice, Italy
   Dies
5. Giotto January 1337 · Florence, Italy
   Dies
6. Erasmus July 1536 · Basel, Switzerland
   Dies
7. Guru Nanak September 1539 · Kartarpur, Pakistan
   Dies
8. Nicolaus Copernicus ~1543 · Nuremberg, Germany
   On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is published, just before he dies
9. Benjamin Franklin July 1776 · Philadelphia, USA
   Signs the Declaration of Independence at 70
10. Hans Christian Andersen August 1875 · Copenhagen, Denmark
    Dies
11. John A. Macdonald ~1885 · Canada
    The transcontinental railway is completed
12. Susan B. Anthony ~1890 · Washington, D.C., USA
    Becomes a leader of the merged national suffrage association
13. Joseph Lister ~1897 · London, England
    Made a baron
14. J.P. Morgan October 1907 · New York City, USA
    Leads bankers in stopping a financial panic
15. Mary Cassatt ~1914 · France
    Stops painting as she goes blind
16. George Eastman ~1924 · Rochester, New York, USA
    Gives away half his fortune
17. Rudyard Kipling January 1936 · London, England
    Dies
18. Arturo Toscanini ~1937 · New York City, USA
    NBC creates an orchestra for him
19. Winston Churchill July 1945 · London, England
    Voted out of office weeks after victory in Europe
20. Muhammad Ali Jinnah August 1947 · Karachi, Pakistan
    Becomes Pakistan's first governor-general
21. Douglas MacArthur September 1950 · Incheon, South Korea
    Leads the landing at Incheon
22. Alcide De Gasperi ~1951 · Paris, France
    Signs the treaty founding the European Coal and Steel Community
23. Coco Chanel February 1954 · Paris, France
    Makes a comeback at 70
24. Boris Pasternak May 1960 · Peredelkino, Russia
    Dies
25. Norman Rockwell ~1964 · Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USA
    Paints The Problem We All Live With, showing Ruby Bridges
26. Duke Ellington ~1969 · Washington, D.C., USA
    Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
27. Golda Meir March 1969 · Jerusalem, Israel
    Becomes prime minister at 70
28. Carl Barks ~1971 · California, USA
    Begins painting oil paintings of his ducks, which become sought-after
29. Vittorio De Sica April 1972 · Los Angeles, USA
    The Garden of the Finzi-Continis wins the Oscar for foreign language film
30. Salvador Dalí ~1974 · Figueres, Spain
    Opens the Dalí Theatre-Museum
31. Charles Eames ~1977 · USA
    Releases the short film Powers of Ten
32. Frank Sinatra ~1985 · Washington, D.C., USA
    Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
33. Jack Kirby ~1987 · Los Angeles, USA
    Gets much of his original artwork back from Marvel after a public campaign
34. Gertrude Elion December 1988 · Stockholm, Sweden
    Shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
35. Saul Bass ~1990 · USA
    Designs titles for Goodfellas
36. Satyajit Ray March 1992 · Kolkata, India
    Receives an honorary Oscar from his hospital bed
37. Bill Gaines June 1992 · New York City, USA
    Dies
38. Paul Newman March 1995 · USA
    Earns an Oscar nomination for Nobody's Fool
39. Joe Kubert ~1996 · USA
    Publishes Fax from Sarajevo, about the Bosnian war
40. Abdus Salam November 1996 · Oxford, England
    Dies
41. Nina Simone ~2003 · Philadelphia, USA
    The Curtis Institute gives her an honorary degree days before her death
42. Joan Didion November 2005 · New York City, USA
    The Year of Magical Thinking wins the National Book Award
43. Luciano Pavarotti February 2006 · Turin, Italy
    Sings "Nessun dorma" at the Winter Olympics, his last performance
44. Ratan Tata January 2008 · New Delhi, India
    Unveils the Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car
45. Ada Yonath December 2009 · Stockholm, Sweden
    Becomes the first Israeli woman to win a Nobel Prize, in chemistry
46. Abbas Kiarostami ~2010 · Italy
    Releases Certified Copy
47. Carlos Slim ~2010 · Mexico City, Mexico
    Named the world's richest person
48. John Lewis February 2011 · Washington, D.C., USA
    Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
49. Dennis Ritchie October 2011 · Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, USA
    Dies
50. Richard Thaler ~2015 · USA
    Appears as himself in The Big Short
51. Itzhak Perlman November 2015 · Washington, D.C., USA
    Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom
52. David Letterman October 2017 · Washington, D.C., USA
    Receives the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
53. Moto Hagio ~2019 · Tokyo, Japan
    Named a Person of Cultural Merit
54. Niki Lauda May 2019 · Zurich, Switzerland
    Dies
55. Roger Deakins February 2020 · Los Angeles, USA
    Wins a second Oscar for 1917
56. Phil Tippett ~2021 · USA
    Releases Mad God, a stop-motion film he worked on for 30 years
57. Richard Branson July 2021 · New Mexico, USA
    Flies to the edge of space on his own spacecraft at 70
58. Hilary Mantel September 2022 · Exeter, England
    Dies
59. Alan Moore October 2024 · England
    Publishes The Great When, the first of his Long London novels
60. Victor Ambros October 2024 · Stockholm, Sweden
    Shares the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine