|
Rank
|
Clue
|
Person
|
|
100
|
Sultan of the Ottoman Empire during its apex in the 16th century
|
Suleiman I
|
|
99
|
Explorer who established the first sea link between Europe and Asia
|
Vasco da Gama
|
|
98
|
Jazz trumpeter and singer, civil rights activist
|
Louis Armstrong
|
|
97
|
Biologist who developed the first effective polio vaccine
|
Jonas Salk
|
|
96
|
Operatic singer, one of the first international recording stars
|
Enrico Caruso
|
|
95
|
Actor, comedian, and filmmaker known for his silent films
|
Charlie Chaplin
|
|
94
|
Moniker referring to the unknown first person to have AIDS
|
Patient Zero
|
|
93
|
First lady of the US, diplomat and civil rights activist, first chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights
|
Eleanor Roosevelt
|
|
92
|
Founder of the profession of nursing
|
Florence Nightingale
|
|
91
|
Filmmaker of Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and Schindler’s List
|
Steven Spielberg
|
|
90
|
Inventor of the daguerreotype, the first widely used process of photography
|
Louis Daguerre
|
|
89
|
Activist for women’s suffrage in the US. The constitutional amendment that granted this was nicknamed after her.
|
Susan B. Anthony
|
|
88
|
Physicist who led the development of the atomic bomb
|
J. Robert Oppenheimer
|
|
87
|
Biologist whose book Silent Spring brought environmentalism into the mainstream
|
Rachel Carson
|
|
86
|
Modernist author of Ulysses and Finnegan’s Wake
|
James Joyce
|
|
85
|
President of the US in the 1980s, icon of conservatism
|
Ronald Reagan
|
|
84
|
Inventor of radio
|
Guglielmo Marconi
|
|
83
|
Tsar who developed the Russian Empire into a major European power
|
Peter the Great
|
|
82
|
Physicist who pioneered theories of atomic structure and quantum mechanics
|
Niels Bohr
|
|
81
|
South African civil rights activist and president
|
Nelson Mandela
|
|
80
|
Monarch who led England during a golden age in the 16th century
|
Elizabeth I
|
|
79
|
Totalitarian Soviet dictator during World War II and the early Cold War
|
Joseph Stalin
|
|
78
|
Monarch of Castile who supported Columbus’s voyages and ended Muslim rule in Iberia
|
Isabella I
|
|
77
|
17th-century philosopher known for socio-political theories such as the social contract
|
Thomas Hobbes
|
|
76
|
The most influential band in the history of popular music
|
The Beatles
|
|
75
|
Biologist who co-invented the birth control pill
|
Gregory Pincus
|
|
74
|
Physicist who created the first nuclear reactor
|
Enrico Fermi
|
|
73
|
Human rights activist, extremely popular member of the British royal family
|
Diana, Princess of Wales
|
|
72
|
Military leader who led several South American countries to independence
|
Simón Bolívar
|
|
71
|
US civil rights activist and conductor on the Underground Railroad
|
Harriet Tubman
|
|
70
|
European church leader who established the independence of the church from secular authority
|
Pope Gregory VII
|
|
69
|
Physician who first described the circulatory system in detail
|
William Harvey
|
|
68
|
Political leader in the early United States, inventor of the lightning rod and bifocal glasses
|
Benjamin Franklin
|
|
67
|
Inventor who pioneered television technology
|
Vladimir Zworykin
|
|
66
|
Pioneering filmmaker of The Birth of a Nation and Intolerance
|
D. W. Griffith
|
|
65
|
Physicist who did pioneering work in quantum mechanics, known for the uncertainty principle
|
Werner Heisenberg
|
|
64
|
Painter who pioneered Cubism, an art movement in which subjects are portrayed from multiple angles at once
|
Pablo Picasso
|
|
63
|
18th-century author of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice
|
Jane Austen
|
|
62
|
Filmmaker and entrepreneur, pioneer of animation
|
Walt Disney
|
|
61
|
Physicist who developed theories of electromagnetism and invented the electric generator
|
Michael Faraday
|
|
60
|
US President during the Great Depression and World War II, known for liberal social policies
|
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
|
|
59
|
Enlightenment philosopher whose writings deal with the limitations of human knowledge
|
Immanuel Kant
|
|
58
|
French folk heroine and martyr during the Hundred Years’ War
|
Joan of Arc
|
|
57
|
Singer known as “The King of Rock and Roll”
|
Elvis Presley
|
|
56
|
Activist for women’s suffrage in the US, writer of the Declaration of Sentiments
|
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
|
|
55
|
Explorer whose expedition was the first to circumnavigate the earth
|
Ferdinand Magellan
|
|
54
|
European explorer who published his account of his travels along the Silk Road and throughout Asia
|
Marco Polo
|
|
53
|
Physicist who pioneered the study of radioactivity
|
Marie Curie
|
|
52
|
Prime Minister of Britain during World War II and the early Cold War
|
Winston Churchill
|
|
51
|
Physician who developed the first vaccine, for smallpox
|
Edward Jenner
|
|
50
|
Sex educator and activist for birth control in the US
|
Margaret Sanger
|
|
49
|
Soviet leader who instituted social reforms and played a pivotal role in bringing the Cold War to and end
|
Mikhail Gorbachev
|
|
48
|
Enlightenment feminist philosopher and activist for women’s rights in Britain
|
Mary Wollstonecraft
|
|
47
|
19th-century inventor who designed the first programmable computer (which was mechanical, not electronic)
|
Charles Babbage
|
|
46
|
Renaissance philosopher whose political theories excuse acts of evil for political ends
|
Niccolò Machiavelli
|
|
45
|
Duke of Normandy who conquered England
|
William the Conqueror
|
|
44
|
Inventor of the first practical telephone
|
Alexander Graham Bell
|
|
43
|
Communist revolutionary leader, first chairman of the People’s Republic of China
|
Mao Zedong
|
|
42
|
Biologist who established the rules of heredity, consider the father of modern genetics
|
Gregor Mendel
|
|
41
|
Software developer and entrepreneur, co-founder of Microsoft
|
Bill Gates
|
|
40
|
Inventors of the first successful heavier-than-air powered aircraft
|
Wright Brothers
|
|
39
|
Medieval poet who wrote the Divine Comedy, proponent of vernacular poetry
|
Dante Alighieri
|
|
38
|
Renaissance philosopher who dealt with logic and deduction, credited with developing the scientific method
|
Francis Bacon
|
|
37
|
Enlightenment philosopher known for his wit, criticism of the church, and advocacy for freedom of speech and religion
|
Voltaire
|
|
36
|
Physician and biologist who discovered penicillin, the first antibiotic
|
Alexander Fleming
|
|
35
|
Communist leader of the Russian Revolution, first chairman of the Soviet Union
|
Vladimir Lenin
|
|
34
|
Enlightenment philosopher whose writings on self-determinism and republicanism spurred the French Revolution
|
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
|
|
33
|
US civil rights leader known for activism through nonviolence and civil disobedience
|
Martin Luther King, Jr.
|
|
32
|
17th-century rationalist philosopher known for methodological skepticism, mathematician who invented coordinate geometry
|
Rene Descartes
|
|
31
|
Biologists who discovered the structure of DNA
|
James Watson
|
|
Francis Crick
|
|
30
|
Classical composer whose dramatic music was pivotal in the the transition to the Romantic Era
|
Ludwig van Beethoven
|
|
29
|
Entrepreneur who was the first to mass-produce automobiles
|
Henry Ford
|
|
28
|
Baroque composer often considered the greatest composer of all time
|
Johann Sebastian Bach
|
|
27
|
19th-century French emperor and highly successful military leader
|
Napoleon Bonaparte
|
|
26
|
Prodigious composer whose work is often considered the best of the Classical Era
|
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
|
|
25
|
Inventor of the steam engine which was fundamental to the Industrial Revolution
|
James Watt
|
|
24
|
Medieval philosopher who sought to reconcile Catholic Church doctrines with classical philosophy
|
Thomas Aquinas
|
|
23
|
President of the US during the American Civil War, instrumental in the abolition of slavery in the US
|
Abraham Lincoln
|
|
22
|
Conqueror who ruled the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history
|
Genghis Khan
|
|
21
|
Military leader in the American Revolution; first president of the United States
|
George Washington
|
|
20
|
Enlightenment philosopher known as the father of economics, laid the foundations of free market economic theory
|
Adam Smith
|
|
19
|
Renaissance artist known for sculptures such as David and the Pietà and paintings in the Sistine Chapel
|
Michelangelo
|
|
18
|
17th-century philosopher known as the father of liberalism, known for writings on the natural rights of people
|
John Locke
|
|
17
|
Leader of the nonviolent revolution that led to India’s independence
|
Mahatma Gandhi
|
|
16
|
Leader of Nazi Germany
|
Adolf Hitler
|
|
15
|
Political leader and early president of the US, principal writer of the Declaration of Independence
|
Thomas Jefferson
|
|
14
|
Inventor of the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and the first practical electric light bulb
|
Thomas Edison
|
|
13
|
Scientist known as the father of microbiology, proved germ theory correct, developed processes to prevent the growth of bacteria
|
Louis Pasteur
|
|
12
|
Psychologist who founded psychoanalysis, a clinical method for psychological treatment through dialogue with a patient
|
Sigmund Freud
|
|
11
|
Renaissance polymath, painter of the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, inventor who designed many mechanical devices
|
Leonardo da Vinci
|
|
10
|
Renaissance scientist who developed foundational laws of physics, discovered Jupiter’s moons, proponent of heliocentrism
|
Galileo Galilei
|
|
9
|
Renaissance polymath who developed the heliocentric model, in which the earth orbits the sun, and the quantity theory of money
|
Nicolaus Copernicus
|
|
8
|
Physicist who developed the theory of relativity
|
Albert Einstein
|
|
7
|
19th-century philosopher and sociologist, proponent of socialism and communism
|
Karl Marx
|
|
6
|
Explorer who established contact between Europe and the Americas, beginning the era of trans-Atlantic colonization and trade
|
Christopher Columbus
|
|
5
|
English Renaissance playwright and poet, known for plays such as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet
|
William Shakespeare
|
|
4
|
Naturalist who introduced the theories of evolution and natural selection
|
Charles Darwin
|
|
3
|
Church leader who started the Protestant Reformation
|
Martin Luther
|
|
2
|
Scientist and mathematician who developed calculus and foundational laws of motion and gravitation
|
Isaac Newton
|
|
1
|
Inventor who developed processes to mass-produce books using a movable-type printing press
|
Johann Gutenberg
|
plenty of other valid criticisms, too. Kind of a disappointing list considering everyone who worked on it.
Fine quiz, all the same.
Theodore Roosevelt was also vastly more influential to history than Princess Diana by at least a factor of 1,000. But less influential than FDR.
On the other, there's the presence of absurd pop idols (Caruso, Lady Di) that will be just a footnote a century after their deaths, or people with very limited influence outside a particular country (William I, Tubman, Stanton).
Agree with your second point though. This list clearly has a bias toward the 20th century, leaving out tons of people from earlier centuries who deserve to be on here. In particular, I find the dearth of authors disappointing. No Dickens, Chaucer, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Mary Shelley, Orwell, Jonathan Swift, Twain, etc.? People seem to really underestimate the role of literature/storytelling in shaping philosophy and human thought :/
And Kal already mentioned a lot of political leaders, but I think Frederick and Catherine the Great, Robespierre, Louis XIV, Charles V, and Sun Yat-Sen also deserve to be mentioned.
I agree with Gutenberg, Newton, and Luther, but beyond that I think it's extremely Eurocentric. Genghis Khan is listed as less influential than Leonardo da Vinci. Of course any list like this will be controversial, and I had fun on this quiz so I'm not mad.
I think I would probably have included Mussolini for starting the fascist movement, Bismarck for making Germany and setting up Europe for WWI, Timur for killing a fifth of all humans at the time, Sun Yat-sen for heading the founding of the Republic of China, and Alan Turing for inventing modern computers and shortening WWII greatly.
Almost forgot about my quiz but managed to get 92 in this one
I mostly agree with this list. A little scientist-centric, and I might reorder a few things, but all of these people were pretty significant.