People appearing on C-SPAN

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Obama previously served as a U.S. senator representing Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and as an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Russia from 1999 to 2000 and again from 2008 to 2012. He has been described as the de facto leader of Russia since 2000.

Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement. The period encompassing his presidency is known as the Reagan era.

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented Delaware in the United States Senate from 1973 to 2009 and also served as the 47th vice president under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017.

William Henry Gates III is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend Paul Allen. Following Microsoft's initial public offering in 1986 and the subsequent increase in its stock price, Gates became the world's then-youngest billionaire in 1987, at age 31. Forbes magazine ranked him as the world's wealthiest person for 18 out of 24 years between 1995 and 2017, including 13 years consecutively from 1995 to 2007. Gates became the first centibillionaire in 1999, when his net worth briefly surpassed US$100 billion. According to Forbes, as of February 2026, his net worth stood at US$107.7 billion, making him the 18th-wealthiest individual in the world.

William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician and lawyer who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979 and as the governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. His centrist "Third Way" political philosophy became known as Clintonism, which dominated his presidency and the succeeding decades of Democratic Party history.

President of France from 2012 to 2017 (born 1954)

Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the office. As prime minister, she implemented policies that came to be known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style.

Albanian-Indian Catholic nun and missionary (1910–1997)

George Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st president of the United States, serving from 1989 to 1993. Bush was Ronald Reagan's vice president from 1981 to 1989. He was the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States.

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he represented California in both houses of the United States Congress before serving as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office, as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th president of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. A General of the Army, Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. His successful leadership in Operation Torch (1942–1943) and Operation Overlord was pivotal to the Allied victory in World War II.

Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías was a Venezuelan politician, revolutionary, and military officer who was the president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when it merged with several other parties to form the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he led until his death.

President of Turkey since 2014

Lyndon Baines Johnson, also known as LBJ, was the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. Johnson was vice president under John F. Kennedy from 1961 until Kennedy's assassination in 1963, when he assumed the presidency. Before becoming vice president, he served in both houses of the U.S. Congress, representing Texas as a member of the Democratic Party.

Charles III is King of the United Kingdom and 14 other Commonwealth realms.

Narendra Damodardas Modi is an Indian politician who has served as the prime minister of India since 2014. Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the member of parliament (MP) for Varanasi. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindutva paramilitary volunteer organisation. He is the longest-serving prime minister outside the Indian National Congress.

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema and he is the second highest-grossing film director of all time. Among other accolades, he has received three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, four BAFTA Awards, twelve Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award, as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, an honorary knighthood in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015, and the National Medal of Arts in 2023. According to Forbes, he is one of the world's wealthiest celebrities. He is one of 22 people to achieve EGOT status.

Italian politician and media tycoon (1936–2023)

English computer scientist (born 1955)

president of the United States from 1923 to 1929

Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian and American actor, businessman, politician, and former professional bodybuilder who served as the 38th governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

British politician (born 1966)

Palestinian political leader (1929–2004) and Former President of the Palestinian National Authority (1994-2004)

Diana, Princess of Wales was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III and mother of Princes William and Harry. Her activism and glamour made her an international icon and earned her enduring popularity.

Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist (1932–2016)

11th and 13th prime minister of Pakistan (1953–2007)

president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011 and since 2023

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019

Stephen Edwin King is an American author. Dubbed the "King of Horror", he is widely known for his horror fiction and has also explored other genres, among them suspense, crime, science-fiction, fantasy, and mystery. He has written approximately 200 short stories, most of which have been published in collections.

American politician and diplomat (1923–2023)

Czech statesman, playwright, and former dissident, the last president of Czechoslovakia and the first president of the Czech Republic (1936–2011)

American poet, author, and civil rights activist (1928–2014)

Warren Edward Buffett is an American investor and philanthropist who is the chairman and former CEO of the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. As a result of his success, Buffett is one of the best-known investors in the world. According to Forbes, as of January 2026, Buffett's estimated net worth stood at US$148.9 billion, making him the ninth-richest person in the world.

United States Senator from Vermont

President of Egypt from 1981 to 2011

Turkish novelist, academic and Nobel laureate (born 1952)

English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author (born 1941)

Clinton Eastwood Jr. is an American actor, filmmaker and musician. After achieving success in the Western TV series Rawhide, Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's Dollars Trilogy of spaghetti Westerns during the mid-1960s and as antihero cop Harry Callahan in the five Dirty Harry films throughout the 1970s and 1980s. These roles, among others, have made Eastwood an enduring cultural icon of masculinity. Elected in 1986, Eastwood served for two years as the mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. In 2020, Hanks was ranked as the fourth-highest-grossing American film actor of all time. His numerous awards include two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards; he has also been nominated for five BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award. He received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2002, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2014, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2020.

American politician (1936–2018)

African American novelist, essayist, and academic (1931–2019)

Peruvian, Spanish and Dominican novelist and writer (1936–2025)

Chancellor of West Germany and reunified Germany (1982–1998)

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010

Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her 1955 refusal to move from her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in defiance of Jim Crow racial segregation laws, which sparked the Montgomery bus boycott. She is sometimes known as the "mother of the civil rights movement".

Indian-born British-American novelist (born 1947)

Israeli politician (1923–2016) –Former President of Israel (2007–2014) and Prime Minister of Israel (1977, 1984–1986, 1995–1996)

South African writer (1923–2014)

German politician (SPD), chancellor of West Germany (1969–1974) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Bangladeshi banker, Nobel Peace Prize recipient and the former Chief Adviser of Bangladesh

Prime Minister of Israel from 2001 to 2006

Vice President of the United States from 2017 to 2021

Dame Valerie Jane Morris Goodall was an English primatologist and anthropologist. Regarded as a pioneer in primate ethology, and described by many publications as "the world's preeminent chimpanzee expert", she was best known for more than six decades of field research on the social and family life of wild chimpanzees in the Kasakela chimpanzee community at Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. Beginning in 1960, under the mentorship of the palaeontologist Louis Leakey, Goodall's research demonstrated that chimpanzees share many key traits with humans, such as using tools, having complex emotions, forming lasting social bonds, engaging in organised warfare, and passing on knowledge across generations, which redefined the traditional view that humans are uniquely different from other animals.

Halle Maria Berry is an American actress. She began her career as a model and beauty contestant becoming Miss Ohio USA in 1986, first runner-up in Miss USA 1986 and placing sixth in Miss World 1986. Her early film roles include Boomerang (1992), The Flintstones (1994) and Bulworth (1998). She later produced and starred in the television film Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999), for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award.

American author (1922–2007)

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian filmmaker and deep-sea explorer. His films combine cutting-edge film technology with classical filmmaking techniques and have grossed over $10 billion worldwide, making him the second-highest-grossing film director of all time. A major figure in the post-New Hollywood era, Cameron has received numerous accolades, including three Academy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for six British Academy Film Awards.

French politician (born 1968)

Russian chess grandmaster and activist

Pakistani soldier and politician (1943-2023)