On April 30, 1789, George Washington made history when he was inaugurated as the first President of the United States, under the newly created Constitution. Over the following four centuries, 44 other people have inhabited what quickly came to be considered the world’s most powerful role. With unprecedented power, the president leads a contemporary global superpower, including the most expensive military and largest economy in the world.

This visualization explores the history of American leadership, displaying a timeline of every past president and charting their lives from birth, through education, career and presidency. It also looks at some key numerical insights related to the presidency, taken from data in the visualization, and finally displays some interesting ‘firsts’ from past presidents.