Simply put, it's taking a well-known person from Real Life history and using this person as a character in a story. This does mean any work of that kind, whether it's Historical Fiction, a Hollywood History story, a piece of Alternate History, or a well-researched and accurate biopic of events. Needless to say, there isn't necessarily any similarity in personality between the real person and the character in the story. They may even be classical composers who were secretly sleeper agents for extraterrestrials. Whatever works.
Naturally this covers a lot of works (save for non-fiction), but given how often people can disagree about real history and our present, it would be hard to draw a line between which fictional works would fit and which fictional works wouldn't. Thus all are included.
Note that despite this trope having "Historical" in the name, present-day living people are also included in this list, as long as they have a very significant social impact or cultural legacy that will cause them to be remembered in future media. Please remove troping in these people's pages as you browse.
Obviously, the vast majority of (in)famous historical figures are long deceased. If a story mentions real-life dead people by characters living in the present-day, or if they're featured in historical flashbacks, then they also double as Posthumous Characters. Also compare this trope with Public Domain Character, Anonymous Ringer, Roman ŕ Clef, and Real-Person Fic.
Examples:
- Anime & Manga
- Comic Books
- Fan Works
- Film
- Literature
- Live-Action TV
- Theatre
- Video Games
- Webcomics
- Western Animation
- Other Media
Subtropes:
- Allohistorical Allusion
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy
- The Dead Rise to Advertise
- Fictionalized Death Account
- Historical Badass Upgrade
- Historical Beauty Update
- Historical Character's Fictional Relative
- Historical Domain Crossover
- Historical Downgrade
- Historical Figures in Archival Media
- Historical Gender Flip
- Historical Hero Upgrade
- Historical Hilarity
- Historical In-Joke
- Historical Person Punchline
- Historical Ugliness Update
- Historical Villain Downgrade
- Historical Villain Upgrade
- In the Past, Everyone Will Be Famous
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed
- Real Person Cameo
- Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman
- Young Future Famous People
