|
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
|
