Born on October 16, 1886 (Plonsk, Poland)
Died on December 1, 1973 (Tel Aviv, Israel)

Prime Minister of Israel
Political activist

Revered among Israeli leaders, David Ben-Gurion is often referred to as Israel's "father." More than the architect of the state of Israel, Ben-Gurion served as the country's first prime minister and led his nation through two wars: the 1956 Suez Canal crisis when Israel captured the Sinai Peninsula, and the Six-Day War of 1967 during which Israel took territory from Syria, Jordan, and Egypt displacing more than one million Palestinian Arabs. Ben-Gurion helped Israel establish itself as a legitimate country, weathering the intense criticism of those who expected Israel to return the Palestinian lands that were captured during the wars, and refusing to bow to the demands of powerful Western countries, such as Britain, France, and the United States, at the...