Most Important People in History

Also, a future quiz suggestion? Maybe Most Influential Cities In History?

I'm furious I missed Ford, Lennon, Pasteur, and Borlaugh, I'm still happy with a 71 though

I'm not critizising i'm just saying that I would have added him: Che Guevara

For the most part, great job! I have a few disagreements about the placements on the list, but I'll put those aside to admire how much work was put into making this.

There were 2 clues that I thought could be better though. Ashoka expanded the Mauryan Empire by conquering Kalinga, but I feel like the work he did to expand Buddhism is both more well known and more important and thus should be highlighted in the clue.

I also feel that the Pasteur clue is somehow too vague--the way it's phrased, I somehow thought it was a doctor or epidemiologist. It might be a good idea to highlight his work in microbiology and popularizing the germ theory of disease.

First of all, great job! In a subjective, yet fun list like this, it's nice to see some people from all over the world. As a non-native speaker I had lots of troubles with some spellings (e.g. Catharine the great, Genghis Khan). As for the people you chose: For me Bach is rated higher than Beethoven. If you really want to include a sportsmen, I would have chosen Eddy Merckx, Jesse Owens or Nadya Comaneci. People that are missing in my opinion: Louis XIV, Ada Lovelace, Tim-Berners-Lee, Charles Babbage, Fibonacci.

Mahavira was the 24th Tirthankara. Jainism had existed long before him. But he compiled the previous teachings and his spirituality into texts which we study today.

So weird only 3% of people have ever heard of Walt Disney. Unless there's something particularly vague about the clue...

Great quiz, however, I feel some clues could be just slightly more descriptive.

I hate it when you misread or miss one of the clues to an answer you know and then miss it.

Massively disagree on a lot of these but that is just opinion.

Interesting list, but my first thought for "invented birth control" would be Marie Stopes or Margaret Sanger. Gregory Pincus invented the birth control Pill, which isn't quite the same thing. Perhaps the clue could be clarified?

Great! Love it. (: Just a comment - will you consider adding Steve Jobs? Thanks!

Surprised only 3% of the people guessed Walt Disney.

It is nearly impossible to be completely objective and fair in such selections, but I think it is still a very good and well-thought list. Although it is a reactional and an alternate list to the book by Michael H. Hart, it is still influenced by it; especially apparent in the inclusion of Michelangelo, Beethoven and Shakespeare but not Mozart, for example. I notice that the political figures in the list from the 20th century are predominantly those who were the leaders of superpowers and/or founding presidents of countries with large populations, such as Jinnah or Sukarno. Nevertheless, I strongly believe that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk should also be in the list, not only because he was a victorious military general or the founding father of Republic of Turkey, but also because he set an example to many Muslim countries struggling to gain their independence against great powers (such as Pakistan) and aiming to achieve a modern state through following his reforms (such as Iran).

I think it would help if you made the list more vague. I mean, we all know who you mean when you say '20th century athlete'.

There are person in this list that are amazingly low, some are amazingly high, some important ones are left, some are in the list, but maybe shouldn't be there, but more less is not that bad (i didn't say it's good). But, MARCONI AND EDISON OVER TESLA, COME ON...

Most famous Marconi's invention was stolen from Tesla (which is proved), so it's nonsense to put him in this list instead of Tesla.

Edison was surely material for this list, but not more important than Tesla. Because Edison is realy high on the list, my opinion is that, you should have put Tesla on the list also.

This is a personal gripe but I think you massively underrate many military figures throughout history. For example a conqueror such as Cnut massively shaped European history by introducing a Danish nobility to England that would help to shape the culture of that island for the rest of time. It is undoubtable that he was more influential than someone like Pele.

This is not a complaint about the people on the quiz; I know you get enough of those. But some of the clues are super vague? e.g. "Helped overthrow the Shogunate in Japan" weren't there quite a lot of people who did that? "Pop musician" aren't there quite a lot of those? "20th century athlete" ditto?

Mightn't greater specificity help? e.g. "Renaissance physicist and astronomer from Pisa" for Galileo, "19th century British novelist and social critic" for Dickens, "20th century Brazilian footballer" for Pele?

This list atrocious... Issac Newton not in the top 10?

Guru Nanak founded Sikhism (30,000,000 followers worldwide)

Mahavira was an early Jain (6,000,000 followers, mainly in India)

Just saying…

Can’t believe nobody mentioned Bob Marley. I’ve travelled the world over, and an almost universal human trait is appreciation of reggae music, culture and Bob’s simple message of love and unity. Jah Rastafari… xx

Honestly I think this list is very very good. I would add Deng Xiaoping. Single biggest architect of modern China after Mao, his "reforming and opening up" set the stage for China to be the major superpower of the 21st century.

(Just a question) isn't Socrates the father of western philosophy?

This quiz is sooo arbitrary. "A" composer? "A" musician? "An" athlete? "(i)nfluenced pop culture more than anyone else?" Really? Not only are a number of these answers one out of a number of random possibilities, but alternate spellings of correct answers weren't accepted. Here are questions that could be added: "The best poet," ""The prettiest woman," and "The nicest person." These quizzes aren't meant to be random opinions.

Some of the items are too vague, eg about pop musicians or athletes. Re blog, no problem with Eurocentricism, etc, European men have influenced the world more than others.

I'm taking Justinian over a couple of these guys

Something I just can't understand is omission of Tesla. You added both Edison and Marconi, both were put really high, yet they contributed far less than Tesla did.

Of all the mathematicians and scientists you added, you left out Gauss!?!?

You clearly forgot artists so you just decided to put them at the end.

If you are looking for an influential sports figure, it would have to be either Ali or Jordan over Pele.

So many things I disagree with that I have to call this bad...just bad

It's not the first time I see Hitler above Stalin in such rating- can someone give me the logic for that?

Stalin was in power for longer, killed more people, made USSR into a global power that lasted for 60 years, decided the modern borders of half of Eurasia, resettled millions of people, forever changing the demographics of many regions, set up the Cold War and Iron Curtain etc. Basically defined the world's geopolitics for 50 years to come.

Most of Hitler's deeds, although very significant and horrible, seem to have smaller reach in terms of time scale, number of people and amount of area affected, unless you decide that starting WWII makes him automatically more influencial than Stalin, which if you do, I would like to hear some arguments for, not necessarily that I want to challenge you on this but because I would like to know your line of reasoning.

Nice quiz, it got me thinking differently for a change. I reckon 50% of the answers I got correct came from playing Sid Meier's Civilisation games when I was younger :)

Seriously, “pop artist” and “20th century athlete”. Do you know how many of those there are?

I know a lot of people have said this but some of these clues are super vague, especially the last 10 or so. Even providing things like the kind of sport the athlete plays or where the musician and novelist are from may be incredibly helpful; it at least gives a starting point for guesses as opposed to "guess literally every athlete from the 20th century"

Lots of fun - but I'd have appreciated some alternate spellings for names that aren't originally English or written in Latin script. For instance Omar is at least as common as Umar for the name of the caliph.

Don't care so much about the people on the list and the order they're in, but listing "pop star" and "20th century athlete" are about as vague as one can get. How is anyone supposed to pore through every pop artist ever to settle specifically on John Lennon? More clue needed. Same with Pele. You gotta give more specific clues.

Shakespeare over Cervantes. Dickens over Dostoevsky. Delusion.

Nice list. Personally would’ve added Oppenheimer, as the development of the atomic bomb is arguably the most significant scientific development of the 20th century, for scientific and geopolitical reasons. There were a few other inclusions/omissions I found odd, but overall a solid list!

made important discoveries about electromagnetism is on there twice

The greatest achievement in all of human history was landing on the moon. Why? Because there is nothing more important that people do than explore. That should be represented.

Interesting list, and impressive work.

I could've done with some more time, but I was taking it pretty slow.

Funny story, William the Conqueror was occasionally called "William the Bastard" because he was born out of wedlock.

The true Father of Western Philosophy (according to Google so you can't get mad at me) was Socrates.

Question 15: Unified China

This is quite ambiguous, as China had fractured and united over and over through millennia. we can say that every emperor who united China is a correct answer.

Also can you accept Taizong for Taizong of Tang? It's self explanatory.

Can't believe Banting (discoverer of insulin) and Bell (inventor of telephone) are not on the list. Ok I'm biased because I'm Canadian but still.

I could make a case for these names ahead of some on this list: Cook, Bach, Mendeleev, Presley, Nightingale, Tokugawa, al-Majriti

Not going to bother arguing with the actual picks too much since it's subjective but can we not get some better clues than "pop musician", "20th century athelte" and "arguably influenced popular culture more than anyone else" which just require me to blindly guess who you're thinking of?

Good list. Except there should be Maradona, not Pele :)

I'm very interested why the only athlete on the list was Pele. He's a fine inclusion, but my understanding about Pele is that he was just really really good at soccer. Meanwhile, I was trying athletes like Jackie Robinson and Jesse Owens who transcended their respected sports by being a symbol of something greater than athletics.

I would put Sukarno a lot lower then it is here. Not anti-Indonesian, but without him, Indonesia would still probably become independent. Just maybe in the end 40s-begin50s and not mid 40s

If we include people who died recently (Mandela in 2014), then steve jobs should probably be on this list

I think there should be at least one African independence leader. Some good options ranked in order of significance (in my opinion) are Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Thomas Sankara and Mobutu Sese Seko. I think pretty much all of them would outrank Haile Selassie, who I think is only really known in his country. Granted, only my first two options are even moderately known among other people, but I still think most of the others are more important than Selassie.

Otherwise, I agree that Nehru should be added and Jinnah removed. As an Indian, I am probably the wrong person to say this, but Nehru lived much longer and was able to properly mold India into what he wanted it to be, unlike Jinnah to Pakistan.

I also think Meiji should be used instead of the other Japanese you mentioned here.

My two cents: Francis Bacon's influence on the development of science is sometimes overstated. Galileo was far more important.

Please allow type-in "Piotr".

Some people that could’ve been added:

Oppenheimer. He helped invent the nuclear bomb so he pretty much indirectly helped start the Cold War.

Osama bin Laden. He was behind 9/11 and caused the war on terror

I think there is a lot of much important people in history and they are missed, also cannot agree to some descitptions like „pop singer” or creating influence to pop culture… tried Madonna, Michael Jackson, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, I think it all fits. Also tried a lot of novelists, awarded Nobel prize or very influential and haven’t got it

Please remember, that Marie Curie name was Skłodowska! I think it’s very sad that polish woman and patriot, who always said that Poland is important for her and asking to call her full name Sklodowska-Curie is disrespected this way