He was voted out of office the very day Nazi Germany surrendered — then returned to lead Britain again at 77, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature along the way.
Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874, prematurely, in a cloakroom at Blenheim Palace during a party. His mother, the American socialite Jennie Jerome, had just arrived when her labour began unexpectedly. He spent much of his childhood feeling neglected by both parents, finding solace in his nanny, Mrs. Everest, whom he adored.
Churchill's early career was marked by audacious adventure. Before entering politics, he charged with cavalry at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, survived a prisoner-of-war escape in the Boer War that made him a celebrity, and wrote several books about his exploits — all before the age of 30.
As First Lord of the Admiralty in World War I, Churchill championed the naval campaign to force open the Dardanelles and attack Turkey. The campaign ended in catastrophe, with massive Allied casualties. He was forced to resign in disgrace — yet when World War II began, he was restored to the same post, with the Admiralty signaling the fleet: 'Winston is back.'
Churchill became Prime Minister on May 10, 1940 — the same day Germany launched its invasion of France and the Low Countries. In the weeks that followed, as France collapsed and the British Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk, Churchill rallied a nation contemplating surrender with speeches that have echoed through history.
On the very day Germany surrendered — May 8, 1945 — Churchill celebrated VE Day to thunderous crowds in London. Weeks later, in a general election, the British public voted him and the Conservatives out of power in a landslide. Churchill was devastated. He reportedly told his wife it might be a 'blessing in disguise.' She replied: 'At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised.'
Churchill won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953, primarily for his six-volume memoir 'The Second World War' and his four-volume 'History of the English-Speaking Peoples.' He was also a serious and commercially successful painter, producing over 500 paintings in his lifetime.
He suffered multiple strokes while in his second term as Prime Minister (1951–1955) — the severity of which was hidden from the public. He finally resigned at 80 but remained in Parliament until 1964. When he died on January 24, 1965, he lay in state for three days, and 300,000 people filed past his coffin.