Governors
This general category includes a selection of more specific topics.
Governors Encyclopedia Articles
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Frederick Lugard
Frederick Lugard administrator who played a major part in Britain’s colonial history between 1888 and 1945, serving in East Africa, West Africa, and Hong Kong. His name is especially associated with Nigeria,...
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge 30th president of the United States (1923–29). Coolidge acceded to the presidency after the death in office of Warren G. Harding, just as the Harding scandals were coming to light. He restored...
James K. Polk
James K. Polk 11th president of the United States (1845–49). Under his leadership the United States fought the Mexican War (1846–48) and acquired vast territories along the Pacific coast and in the Southwest....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush 43rd president of the United States (2001–09), who led his country’s response to the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and initiated the Iraq War in 2003. Narrowly winning the electoral...
William McKinley
William McKinley 25th president of the United States (1897–1901). Under McKinley’s leadership, the United States went to war against Spain in 1898 and thereby acquired a global empire, which included Puerto...
Antigonus I Monophthalmus
Antigonus I Monophthalmus, (Greek: “One-Eyed”) Macedonian general under Alexander the Great who founded the Macedonian dynasty of the Antigonids (306–168 bce), becoming king in 306. An exceptional strategist...
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt 26th president of the United States (1901–09) and a writer, naturalist, and soldier. He expanded the powers of the presidency and of the federal government in support of the public interest...
Henrique Capriles
Henrique Capriles, Venezuelan politician who ran as the united opposition presidential candidate against Venezuela’s longtime leader Hugo Chávez in 2012 and lost. When Chávez died in March 2013, the opposition...
James Monroe
James Monroe fifth president of the United States (1817–25), who issued an important contribution to U.S. foreign policy in the Monroe Doctrine, a warning to European nations against intervening in the...
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison ninth president of the United States (1841), whose Indian campaigns, while he was a territorial governor and army officer, thrust him into the national limelight and led to his election...
János Hunyadi
János Hunyadi, Hungarian general and governor of the kingdom of Hungary from 1446 to 1452, who was a leading commander against the Turks in the 15th century. Hunyadi is first mentioned, probably as a small...
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland 22nd and 24th president of the United States (1885–89 and 1893–97) and the only president ever to serve two discontinuous terms. Cleveland distinguished himself as one of the few truly...
Tacitus
Tacitus Roman orator and public official, probably the greatest historian and one of the greatest prose stylists who wrote in the Latin language. Among his works are the Germania, describing the Germanic...
Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams politician of the American Revolution, leader of the Massachusetts “radicals,” who was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774–81) and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He...
Robert M. La Follette
Robert M. La Follette American leader of the Progressive movement who, as governor of Wisconsin (1901–06) and U.S. senator (1906–25), was noted for his support of reform legislation. He was the unsuccessful...
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson draftsman of the Declaration of Independence of the United States and the nation’s first secretary of state (1789–94) and second vice president (1797–1801) and, as the third president...
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan 40th president of the United States (1981–89), noted for his conservative Republicanism, his fervent anticommunism, and his appealing personal style, characterized by a jaunty affability...
Warren Hastings
Warren Hastings the first and most famous of the British governors-general of India, who dominated Indian affairs from 1772 to 1785 and was impeached (though acquitted) on his return to England. The son...
Lord William Bentinck
Lord William Bentinck British governor-general of Bengal (1828–33) and of India (1833–35). An aristocrat who sympathized with many of the liberal ideas of his day, he made important administrative reforms...
Trajan
Trajan Roman emperor (98–117 ce) who sought to extend the boundaries of the empire to the east (notably in Dacia, Arabia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia), undertook a vast building program, and enlarged social...
Robert Clive
Robert Clive soldier and first British administrator of Bengal, who was one of the creators of British power in India. In his first governorship (1755–60) he won the Battle of Plassey and became master...
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton 42nd president of the United States (1993–2001), who oversaw the country’s longest peacetime economic expansion. In 1998 he became the second U.S. president to be impeached; he was acquitted...
Martin Van Buren
Martin Van Buren eighth president of the United States (1837–41) and one of the founders of the Democratic Party. He was known as the “Little Magician” to his friends (and the “Sly Fox” to his enemies)...
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft 27th president of the United States (1909–13) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921–30). As the choice of Pres. Theodore Roosevelt to succeed him and carry on the progressive...
Enrique Peña Nieto
Enrique Peña Nieto, Mexican politician of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (Partido Revolucionario Institucional; PRI) who served as the president of Mexico (2012–18). Prior to becoming president,...
Earl Warren
Earl Warren American jurist, the 14th chief justice (1953–69) of the United States who presided over the Supreme Court during a period of sweeping changes in U.S. constitutional law, especially in the...
Hadrian
Hadrian Roman emperor (117–138 ce), the emperor Trajan’s cousin and successor, who was a cultivated admirer of Greek civilization and who unified and consolidated Rome’s vast empire. He was the third of...
Vespasian
Vespasian Roman emperor (ad 69–79) who, though of humble birth, became the founder of the Flavian dynasty after the civil wars that followed Nero’s death in 68. His fiscal reforms and consolidation of...
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter 39th president of the United States (1977–81), who served as the country’s chief executive during a time of serious problems at home and abroad. His perceived inability to deal successfully...
William Bligh
William Bligh English navigator, explorer, and commander of the HMS Bounty at the time of the celebrated mutiny on that ship. The son of a customs officer, Bligh joined the Royal Navy in 1770. After six...
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson 17th president of the United States (1865–69), who took office upon the assassination of Pres. Abraham Lincoln during the closing months of the American Civil War (1861–65). His lenient...
Cicero
Cicero Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, and writer who vainly tried to uphold republican principles in the final civil wars that destroyed the Roman Republic. His writings include books of rhetoric, orations,...
Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney American politician who served as governor of Massachusetts (2003–07) and who later represented Utah in the U.S. Senate (2019– ). He was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee in 2012....
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, jurist and statesman who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1910–16), U.S. secretary of state (1921–25), and 11th chief justice of the United...
Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson 28th president of the United States (1913–21), an American scholar and statesman best remembered for his legislative accomplishments and his high-minded idealism. Wilson led his country...
John Winthrop
John Winthrop first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the chief figure among the Puritan founders of New England. Winthrop’s father was a newly risen country gentleman whose 500-acre (200-hectare)...
William Penn
William Penn English Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom, who oversaw the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a refuge for Quakers and other religious minorities of Europe....
Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Colombian politician who served as president of Colombia (2002–10). Uribe earned a law degree from the University of Antioquia, Medellín, and later studied management and administration at...
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt 32nd president of the United States (1933–45). The only president elected to the office four times, Roosevelt led the United States through two of the greatest crises of the 20th...
Ptolemy I Soter
Ptolemy I Soter Macedonian general of Alexander the Great, who became ruler of Egypt (323–285 bc) and founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty, which reigned longer than any other dynasty established on the soil...