This document provides a short history of information visualization through examples of influential figures. It describes Charles Minard's visualization of Napoleon's 1812 campaign, William Playfair's creation of the line graph, bar chart and pie chart between 1786-1801, Florence Nightingale's polar area diagram in 1858 showing mortality rates in the Crimean War, John Snow's 1854 map showing clusters of cholera cases in London near a water pump, and Harry Beck's innovative 1933 diagram of the London Underground system. The document suggests these examples helped establish key foundations of the field of information visualization.