WhoWasWhen app icon For iPhone

Who was when?

Answer “who ruled in this year?” in an instant — kings, popes, consuls and presidents, joined by the artists, writers, and scientists who lived alongside them.

WhoWasWhen showing the rulers of 1789 with portraits and their ages
3,500+
Historical figures
267
Popes
200
Artists & thinkers
890+
Events

Everything the question needs

A single search box, three ways to ask, and instant answers — even offline.

📆

Search by year

Type a year to see who ruled it — and how old each of them was right then. Wildcards like 177* match a decade, ranges like 1500-1600, a minus sign for BC, e.g. -44.

🫅

Search by ruler

Find a person by name across every reign and title — accent- and case-insensitive, so napoleon finds Napoléon. Portraits and Wikipedia summaries load right in the app.

🎨

Beyond rulers

History's most famous artists, composers, writers, scientists, and philosophers — 1888 artist finds van Gogh at 35, painting alongside Monet and Degas.

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Search by event

Look up historical events by name and see exactly when they happened and what surrounded them.

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On this day

The search screen greets you with an event that happened on today's date — a tap away from its full story.

Discover

A featured ruler and event every visit (shuffle for more), plus what happened 100, 200, 300… years ago.

🎯

Quiz yourself

Endless multiple-choice trivia generated from the data — Who was Pope in 1500? When was van Gogh born? Rulers, events, notable people, or any title; best scores tracked, confetti included.

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Lineages & timelines

Every holder of a title — all the Popes, all the English Monarchs — as a list or a scrollable visual timeline with century markers.

⭐️

Favorites

Save any ruler or event to your own collection; it persists across launches, no account needed.

Jump between years

Travel to the start or end year of any reign or event and keep exploring — one tap moves you through time.

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Instant & offline

The full history database ships inside the app, so search, quiz, and timelines are local and immediate — no network required.

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Private by design

Read-only and account-free. WhoWasWhen collects no data and tracks nothing.

A look inside

The same fast, no-friction search whether you ask with a year, a name, or an event.

The search syntax

One box understands all of these.

1789
A single year — see every ruler in office and every event that year.
177*
A wildcard — matches the whole decade (1770–1779).
1500-1600
A range of years.
-44
A BC year (44 BC).
1789 france
A year plus text — narrow a year to a place or title.
1888 artist
A year plus a calling — every artist (or writer, scientist, composer, philosopher) alive that year, with their age.
napoleon
A name — every reign and title of that person.
french revolution
An event by name.