40 Historical People that Everyone Should Know

Darwin did not discover evolution, what he discovered was "evolution through natural selection". Before Darwin, there were other scientists who were working on evolution, like Lamarck.

Edison borrowed, stole, or bought patents from a lot of other inventors - Joseph Swan invented a light bulb several months before Edison (it just didn't catch on because it was less efficient)

Not when apparently everyone should know all forty

Since Macedonia was one of the many states within the Greek world at the time, and its capital (and Alexander's birthplace) was inside the current frontiers of Greece, I don't understand why you feel the distinction necessary.

Keller, Earhart and Thatcher are definitely not someone that everyone should know about. The effect of their deeds and popularity is mostly limited to their respective countries. I'd say that the rest are reasonably famous historical figures, although as usual, the choice is very skewed (Cook but not Magellan or Vasco da Gama. Dickens, Austen or Twain but not Dante, Moliere or Ghoethe. Elisabeth I but not Louis XIV or Catherine the Great). It's very telling that out of those 40 historical people, only 19 did not have English as their language. The World is bigger than that. four writers in English, four US Presidents, two UK Prime Ministers,... . I'd say that Dante, Moliere, or Ghoethe would have made for a more diverse setup. It would also have been nice to include figures such as here are four presidents from the UK and two prime ministers of the UK.

But Adolf Hitler wan't German

and German can also be an ethnicity.

He was born in Austria. But you can become a citizen of another country, and Austria is german, so it doesn't really matter.

And some of them are appalling dictators. Nice balance

Missed one. That was Laozi

Not quite right, at the time nobody was aware of Gravity as such. That is why it would not be possible to 'Explain it'. It was Newton that realised what drew one body to another, and why the planets and sun etc. behave the way they do. He also called this force 'Gravity'. So the question 'Who discovered Gravity?' is correct.

The Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years but history is pretty much the accomplishments of a few American and British men in the last 300 years. We're really living right at the start of history relatively speaking.

There's no such date. What you call 0 A.D. is actually 1 B.C.

That is why the quotation marks are there, bud.

The lamest quiz ever! Hitler is there, but Nelson Mandela is not. Terrible! (just to mention ONE example)

Pedantry I know but Soviet is a bit dodgy as demonym for USSR; first Soviet leader made me think of the Petrograd Soviet first. Perhaps Bolshevik or USSR leader might be better.

Everyone needs to quit being so disrespectful to the people on this list. Just because someone wasn't as great of an influence to you, doesn't mean they weren't to someone else.

Shakespear is not correct though.

I have 27 General Knowledge quizzes in jetpunk and none of them get the comments like this and many others. Maybe my questions are too factual and not as controversial and contentious as these.

I saw his corpse in Moscow. He looked great for having been married to Yoko Ono.

Someone tell me why I should be expected to know who Helen Keller is. The others I can just about see why they're on the list, but not her

Well, for starters, she helped raise awareness for millions of people with natural ailments. So, unless you have something against the blind and deaf, I personally think helping millions of people around the world would be a decent thing to do, wouldn't it?

Given the title, I concur completely with the number of athletes that appear on this quiz.

I made a quiz similar to this. If you enjoyed this quiz, please check mine out.

40/40 with 4:30 remaining, and I'm a 3-year-old from Lesotho.

Eh, Keller wasn't really an influential person in history at all. I mean, it's not like she changed the world for the millions of blind and deaf people, who already struggle as it is.

Summed it up pretty well. Another Brit who learnt about her at school and has heard mentionof her periodically on tv, though I still couldn't remember her name in the time limit.