8/3/2019 The 100 Most Influential People in History

1/4

The 100 Most Influential People in Historyby Michael H. Hart

Rank Name Influence

100 Mahavira founder of Jainism

99 Justinian IRoman emperor; reconquered Mediterranean empire;accelerated Catholic-Monophysite schism

98 Homer epic poet

97 Charlemagne Holy Roman Empire created with his baptism in 800 AD

96 Menes unified Upper and Lower Egypt

95 Mikhail Gorbachev Russian premier who helped end Communism in USSR

94 Queen Elizabeth I

British monarch; restored Church of England to power after

Queen Mary

93 Zoroaster founder of Zoroastrianism

92 Mencius philosopher; founder of a school of Confucianism

91 Henry Ford developed automobile

90 Francis Bacon philosopher; delineated inductive scientific method

89 Mao Zedong founder of Maoism, Chinese form of Communism

88 Peter the Great forged Russia into a great European nation

87 Cyrus the Great founder of Persian empire

86 Vasco da Gama

navigator; discovered route from Europe to India around

Cape Hood

85 Sui Wen Ti unified China

84 Lenin Russian ruler

83 Mani

founder of Manicheanism, once a world religion which

rivaled Christianity in strength

82 Gregory Pincus endocrinologist; developed birth-control pill

81 John F. Kennedy president of United States

80 Thomas Malthus economist; wroteEssay on the Principle of Population

79 Nicoli Machiavelli wrote The Prince (influential political treatise)

78

Jean-Jacques

Rousseau French deistic philosopher and author

77 Leonhard Eulerphysicist; mathematician; differential and integral calculusand algebra

8/3/2019 The 100 Most Influential People in History

2/4

76 Enrico Fermi initiated the atomic age; father of atom bomb

75 Johannes Kepler astronomer; planetary motions

74 Voltaire writer and philosopher; wrote Candide

73 Lao Tzu founder of Taoism

72Johann SebastianBach composer

71Wilhelm ConradRoentgen discovered X-rays

70 Edward Jenner discoverer of the vaccination for smallpox

69 Sigmund Freud founder of Freudian school of psychology; psychoanalysis

68

William the

Conqueror laid foundation of modern England

67 Julius Caesar Roman emperor66 Joseph Stalin revolutionary and ruler of USSR

65 Queen Isabella I Spanish ruler

64 Thomas Jefferson 3rd president of United States

63 Hernando Cortes conquered Mexico for Spain

62 Francisco Pizarro Spanish conqueror in South America; defeated Incas

61

Nikolaus August

Otto built first four-stroke internal combustion engine

60 Joseph Lister

principal discoverer of antiseptics which greatly reduced

surgical mortality

59 Max Planck physicist; thermodynamics

58 Gregor Mendel Mendelian genetics

57 John Calvin Protestant reformer; founder of Calvinism

56 Ernest Rutherford physicist; pioneer of subatomic physics

55 William Harvey discovered the circulation of the blood

54 St. Augustine Early Christian theologian

53 Asoka king of India who converted to and spread Buddhism

52

'Umar ibn al-

Khattab Second Caliph; expanded Muslim empire

51 Pope Urban II called for First Crusade

50 Michelangelo painter; sculptor; architect

8/3/2019 The 100 Most Influential People in History

3/4

49 Rene Descartes Rationalist philosopher and mathematician

48 Simon Bolivar

National hero of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and

Bolivia

47 Louis Daguerre an inventor/pioneer of photography

46 Werner Heisenberg discovered the principle of uncertainty

45

Ludwig van

Beethoven composer

44 John Locke philosopher and liberal theologian

43 Alexander Fleming

penicillin; advances in bacteriology, immunology and

chemotherapy

42

Alexander Graham

Bell inventor of telephone

41 Oliver Cromwell British political and military leader

40 Plato founder of Platonism

39 Adolf Hitler conqueror; led Axis Powers in WWII

38 Guglielmo Marconi inventor of radio

37William T.G.Morton pioneer in anesthesiology

36

Antony van

Leeuwenhoek microscopes; studied microscopic life

35 Thomas Edison inventor of light bulb, phonograph, etc.34 Napoleon Bonaparte French conqueror

33 Alexander the Great conqueror

32 John Dalton

chemist; physicist; atomic theory; law of partial pressures

(Dalton's law)

31WilliamShakespeare

literature; also wrote 6 volumes about philosophy andreligion

30 Adam Smith economist; expositor of capitalism; religious philosopher

29 Genghis Khan Mongol conqueror

28

Orville and Wilbur

Wright inventors of airplane

27 Karl Marx founder of Communism

26 George Washington first president of United States

25 Martin Luther founder of Protestantism and Lutheranism

8/3/2019 The 100 Most Influential People in History

4/4

24

James Clerk

Maxwell physicist; electromagnetic spectrum

23 Michael Faraday physicist; chemist; discovery of magneto-electricity

22 James Watt developed steam engine

21

Constantine the

Great Roman emperor who made Christianity the state religion

20Antoine LaurentLavoisier father of modern chemistry; philosopher; economist

19 Nicolaus Copernicus astronomer; taught heliocentricity

18 Augustus Caesar ruler

17 Shih Huang Ti Chinese emperor

16 Charles Darwinbiologist; described Darwinian evolution, which hadtheological impact on many religions

15 Moses major prophet of Judaism

14 Euclid mathematician; Euclidian geometry

13 Aristotle influential Greek philosopher

12 Galileo Galilei astronomer; accurately described heliocentric solar system

11 Louis Pasteur scientist; pasteurization

10 Albert Einstein physicist; relativity; Einsteinian physics

9

Christopher

Columbus explorer; led Europe to Americas

8 Johann Gutenberg developed movable type; printed Bibles

7 Ts'ai Lun inventor of paper

6 St. Paul proselytizer of Christianity

5 Confucius founder of Confucianism

4 Buddha founder of Buddhism

3 Jesus Christ founder of Christianity

2 Isaac Newton physicist; theory of universal gravitation; laws of motion

1 Muhammad Prophet of Islam; conqueror of Arabia