100 Most Significant Figures in American History

Can you guess who is considered the 100 most significant figures in American history by the Smithsonian?
Source doesn't rank the nominees, but does organize them into groups by topic.
These figures had influence on American history - they are not necessarily Americans by birth.
Quiz by Kestrana
Rate:
Last updated: October 23, 2016
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedOctober 23, 2016
Times taken494
Average score51.0%
Report this quizReport
10:00
Enter answer here
0
 / 100 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
Trailblazers
1492
Christopher Columbus
Namesake river in NY
Henry Hudson
Defined the "New World"
Amerigo Vespucci
Jamestown
John Smith
Explored the Atlantic Coast
Giovanni da Verrazzano
The Sierra Club
John Muir
Corps of Discovery
Meriwether Lewis and William Clark
Native American Guide
Sacagawea
Explorer of the West
Kit Carson
Went to the Moon
Neil Armstrong
 
 
Political Rebels
"I Have a Dream..."
Martin Luther King Jr.
Confederate General
Robert E. Lee
"Common Sense"
Thomas Paine
Seized Harper's Ferry
John Brown
Narrative of the Life of
an American Slave
Frederick Douglass
Founded NAACP
W.E.B. Du Bois
Women's Suffrage Leaders
Susan B. Anthony
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Leader of the Shawnee
Tecumseh
Lakota Holy Man
Sitting Bull
 
 
Presidents
Emancipation Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln
First President
George Washington
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson
Panama Canal
Theodore Roosevelt
Union General
Ulysses S. Grant
Cold War, Iran-Contra
Ronald W. Reagan
"War on Terror"
George W. Bush
"New Deal", WWII
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
League of Nations
Woodrow Wilson
US Constitution
James Madison
 
 
Strong Women
Jamestown, English Court
Pocahontas
First Lady During WWII
Eleanor Roosevelt
First Female President?
Hillary Clinton
McCain's VP candidate
Sarah Palin
The first First Lady
Martha Washington
Deaf-Blind Author-Activist
Helen Keller
Ain't I a Woman? activist
Sojourner Truth
Hull House
Jane Addams
The Age of Innocence
Edith Wharton
Actress, All About Eve
Bette Davis
 
 
Outlaws
Revolutionary War Traitor
Benedict Arnold
Shot by the coward, Ford
Jesse James
Lincoln's Assassin
John Wilkes Booth
St. Valentine's Day Massacre
Al Capone
Lincoln County War
Billy the Kid
Tammany Hall
William M. “Boss” Tweed
"Helter Skelter"
Charles Manson
Dead Man's Hand
Wild Bill Hickok
Dallas, TX Sniper
Lee Harvey Oswald
His exploits helped create the FBI
John Dillinger
Artists
"Prairie School" Architect
Frank Lloyd Wright
Campbell's Soup Can
Andy Warhol
Landscape Architecture
Frederick Law Olmsted
"Art for Art's Sake" Painter
James A. M. Whistler
Drip Painting
Jackson Pollock
The Birds of America
John James Audubon
Painted flowers & the Southwest
Georgia O’Keeffe
Photographer, married to above
Alfred Stieglitz
Philadelphia art teacher
Thomas Eakins
Created modern Santa Claus
Thomas Nast
 
 
Religious Figures
Latter Day Saints
Joseph Smith Jr.
Founded the "Quaker State"
William Penn
Created Salt Lake City
Brigham Young
Free Will Baptist Movement
Roger Williams
Banished from Massachusetts
Anne Hutchinson
Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God
Jonathan Edwards
Scientology
L. Ron Hubbard
7th Day Adventist
Ellen G. White
Salem Witch Trials
Cotton Mather
Christian Science
Mary Baker Eddy
 
 
Pop Culture Icons
Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
"Jailhouse Rock"
Elvis Presley
"Like a Virgin"
Madonna
"All Along the Watchtowers"
Bob Dylan
"Thriller"
Michael Jackson
Mustachioed silent actor
Charlie Chaplin
"Purple Haze"
Jimi Hendrix
"Some Like It Hot"
Marilyn Monroe
Ol' Blue Eyes
Frank Sinatra
Jazz Trumpeteer,
Singer and Actor
Louis Armstrong
 
 
Empire-Builders
US Steel
Andrew Carnegie
Detroit
Henry Ford
Standard Oil
John D. Rockefeller
General Electric
J.P. Morgan
Mickey Mouse
Walt Disney
Light Bulb
Thomas Alva Edison
Yellow Journalism
William Randolph Hearst
The "Spruce Goose"
Howard Hughes
Microsoft
Bill Gates
NY Central Railroad
Cornelius Vanderbilt
 
 
Athletes
The Great Bambino
Babe Ruth
"Rumble in the Jungle"
Muhammad Ali
Broke baseball's color barrier
Jackie Robinson
Invented Basketball
James Naismith
Governator of California
Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Georgia Peach
Ty Cobb
Chicago Bulls
Michael Jordan
WWF Wrestler
Hulk Hogan
Native American Olympian
and pro footballer, basketballer
Jim Thorpe
Won "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match
Billie Jean King
+1
Level 60
Oct 23, 2016
Since there were a lot of critiques about the Atlantic's list, I looked for a different set of scholars to provide different views.
+1
Level 68
Oct 23, 2016
Very good quiz. How come Helen Keller and James Whistler require a first name when others don't?
+1
Level 60
Oct 23, 2016
Because when you're editing 100 answers you might miss a couple. ;-) They have been fixed.
+1
Level 82
Oct 23, 2016
Nice response :) top quiz too
+1
Level 85
Oct 24, 2016
Interesting list -- Sarah Palin???

I have a few quizzes like this but for historical figures worldwide.

+1
Level 60
Oct 24, 2016
The list was compiled in 2014, so I think at the time Sarah Palin was a much more relevant figure. She seemed like she might become a power/figurehead for the GOP and as their first female VP nominee, she marked a turning point in the establishment.
+1
Level 50
Oct 25, 2016
highly debatable obviously, but nice quiz. got a few extra ones by trying random names
+1
Level 50
Mar 17, 2021
When I typed in Eleanor Roosevelt FDR popped up too.