Famous People Who Majored in History

You may not realize that many famous people began their careers with history degrees. Below are just some of the many notables.

 

Famous people who majored in history

In the Media:

Charles Kuralt (Author/Former CBS Reporter)
Charlie Rose (Journalist/TV Talk Show Host)
Wolf Blitzer (Journalist/Author/CNN Reporter)
Bill O'Reilly (TV Personality/Author)

In Business:

Martha Stewart (Businesswoman/Author)
Lee Iacocca (Industrialist/Former CEO of Chrysler/Author)
Sam Palmisano (CEO of IBM Corporation)
Chris Hughes (Co-founder of Facebook)
Meredith Whitney (Businesswoman)
Michael Moritz (Venture Capitalist and former Journalist)
Martha R. Ingram (Businesswoman)
Drew Gilpin Faust (Historian/First Female President of Harvard University)

In Entertainment:

Steve Carell (Actor/Writer/Producer)
Conan O'Brien (Comedian/Writer)
Julia Child (Chef)
Larry David (Comedian/Writer)
Katharine Hepburn (Actress)
John Lithgow (Actor)
Will Forte (Actor/Comedian)
Janeane Garofalo (Comedian/Actress)
Ellen Barkin (Actress)
Edward Norton (Actor)
Sacha Baron Cohen (Actor/Writer)
Tony Danza (Actor)
John Lithgow (Actor/Author)
Tamlyn Tomita (Actress/Singer)

In Sports:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Former Pro Basketball Player)
Grant Hill (Pro Basketball Player)
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Olympic Medalist in Track & Field)

 

More famous people who majored in history

Writers/Musicians:

Ayn Rand (Novelist)
Art Garfunkel (Singer/Songwriter)
Lauryn Hill (Singer/Actress)
Jimmy Buffett (Singer/Songwriter)

Presidents:

Joseph Biden
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Woodrow Wilson
John F. Kennedy
Richard Nixon
George W. Bush
Dwight Eisenhower

Other Leaders:

W.E.B. DuBois (Co-founder of the NAACP) 
Henry Kissinger (Ambassador/Secretary of State)
Winston Churchill (British Prime Minister)

Politicians:

George McGovern (Senator/Author/Historian)
Gordon Brown (Prime Minister of Great Britain)
Cory Booker (Senator)

In the Legal Field:

Elena Kagan (U.S. Supreme Court Justice)
Eric Holder (Former Attorney General of the United States)
Anthony Kennedy (U.S. Supreme Court Justice)
Sonia Sotomayor (Supreme Court Justice)
Neal Katyal (Lawyer/Professor)