1. The first Homosapienses
2. Muhammed
3. Jesus
4. Paul
5. Newton
6. Hitler
7. Stalin
8. Mao
9. Djengis Khan
10. Buddha
11. Aristotle
12. Roosevelt
13. Churchill
14. Einstein
15. Gavrilo Princip

Other opinions?

1) Discoverer of fire
2) Discoverer of soap
3) Discoverer of metallurgy
4) Saul of Tarsus
5) Augustus Caesar
6) Muhammad
7) Christopher Columbus
8) Johannes Gutenberg
9) Louis Pasteur
10) James Watt

You seem to rate military achievements somewhat higher than I.

Roosevelt over Churchill? I don't think either should get in there but come on.

One guy who does not get his due and probably should be in the top twenty is Charles Steinmetz.

Nice touch with Princip, OP. Here are a few others I thought of;

John Adams
Mohandas Gandhi
Constantine
Pericles

Those things were probably done multiple times in multiple places...

How come Tesla is not on that list......

Jesus and Paul come above Mohammed.

In a very rough timeline order, I'd say...

Moses
Aristotle
Buddha
Augustus
Jesus
Paul
Constantine
Muhammed
Thomas Aquinas
Copernicus
Martin Luther
Columbus
Henry VIII
Elizabeth 1
George Washington
Gutenberg
Descartes
Newton
Napoleon
Adam Smith? (not sure about this - might be confusing influence with expression of what would have happened anyway)
Faraday
Lister
Darwin
Lincoln
Babbage
Marx
Einstein
Lenin
Hitler
Stalin
Churchill
Turing
JFK
Thatcher
Gorbechov
Berners-Lee

And I think Mandela will continue to be an influence or a moral/spiritual kind, long after his death

Tom Paine might be a good shout no?

George Marshall over both of them.

Yeah, you're right. Probably just answering the wrong question with those three.

I can't see including leaders from WWII, outside of Hitler & Stalin, on any list of most influential people in history.

Roosevelt & Churchill didn't appreciably change the world. They were caught up in the actions of those who did, and were prominent individuals at the time. But Hitler (and to a lesser extent Stalin, although more for his events around the war than in it) drove those events, which had a noticeable and lasting effect on the world.

George Kennan as well.

I'm not particularly fond of lists but do admit that they are fun, even if of limited use. But that aside, to leave Confucius/Mencius off any list is a grave error; more likely due to myopia than any intentional disregard - So too for Lao Tzu (possibly a somewhat mythical person). Emperor Mao could be also added; Peter the Great; And Euclid; Pythagoras also, if Russell is to be believed. Pythagoras introduced mysticism and the orphic (which became metaphysics) into western philosophy and bent its spine (it was much more rationalistic pervious). It has been crooked ever since with immense repercussions to western intellectual thought.

-Zeno

Newton
Einstein
Galileo
Darwin
Mohammed
Jesus
Gutenburg
Constantine
Leo Tzu
Buddha
Confucious
Aristotle
Locke
Descartes
Paine
Augustus Ceasar
Williiam the Conqueror
Queen Elizabeth I

I find it interesting which groups are found at the top of our list. Scientists, Religious leaders, Philosophers, and Politicians. Is there one class, above the others which deserves top billing?

I'd vote science. No matter what the world has become to date, as a result of these influences, their impact will wane over time. Science will continue to have profound impact forever. These fundamental discoveries are the foundation of current empires and future worlds, no matter how they ultimately manifest.

Any comment on the fact there's only one female on the list, and what conditions made her exceptional?

Of the Marshall Plan? Certainly changed all subsequent history. Redrew the maps of our world. And I think most of the ecominic distribution. He impacted the health and wealth of too many to count. No doubt, he deserves a place.

What would have happened if USA had become fascist in the 30´s? Roosevelt was at least a "good guy". Churchill had the English Channel speaking for him (water, not allowing blizkrieg with tanks), but some credit has to be given to him too, for saving Europe, imo.

I put him on my list. They only reason he wasn't higher, is that some of his ideas were concieved earlier, in Athens I think. He wrote the book that was a foundation of our government. Which certainly changed America, who then changed the world. (I feel like I'm playing six ways to Kevin Bacon) ala Howard Stern



Government, even in it's best state is but a necessary evil. In it's worst state, it's intolerable...Thomas Paine.

Churchill did have the channel as moat around the castle walls. But didn't need anyone speaking for him. That man could talk anybody into anything. Here's tiny England all alone, at war with this megalithic monster and terrible tank producer. Plus all of Germany's conquerees and their conscripts and production capacity. It's only a matter of time before that channel begins looking like a creek. Then here's ravaged, bombed to ashes, England, with two things going for them. Their hope for survival lies in radar, and Churchhill.

'We will fight them in the streets. We will fight them on the seas. We will fight them on the beaches and in the air. And we will never, ever give up!' (paraphrased)

And the classic:"Never have so many owed so much to so few."

* England has not been conquered by a foreign invader since William the Conqueror in 1066. (ironically William I was from Normandy)

When I first became interested in WWII. I'd listen to recordings of his speeches and shiver. I can't imagine anyone ever making a more stirring, rouse them to arms (!) speech. I doubt not, the hearts and minds of all England belonged to Churchill in those terrible days. He bade those boys gather courage and launch aircraft into bullet blazen skies, knowing he was sending them to thier death. If England had fallen it might have been the tipping point that made the war unwinable for us.


Had America gone fascist in the 30's we'd be speaking German by now. It could've happened. There were several pro-nazi groups around. And Englands King Edward VIII was a fascist sympathizer. It's not all that incredible to contemplate. Lucky for us, King Edward married an american divorcee and abdicated the crown, leaving it to his stuttering brother King George VI. (those damn americans! always causing trouble) I can't imagine a nazified America. There would've been too much resistance. (and too many privately owned guns) for it to last. We're not the type to go lightly, we'd have rebelled, and kicked those fascists the hell back to Germany.. Bloody Saxons.

What potential American leader was a fascist? You imply that Roosevelt saved the US from fascism, but was it really a threat?

Churchill - while a brilliant rhetorician - did not save England. Hitler's pettiness (starting to bomb London instead of the RAF in revenge for the attack on Berlin(?)) and preemptive strike on Russia is what saved England from invasion. Not Churchill's pretty words.

Three to add:

Milton Friedman
John Von Neumann
David Ben Gurion

If not for Churchhills pretty words there would've been no England to save.

This imo was the most important event of the war. Had Hitler concentrated his forces in the west we may not have been able to invade North Africa when we did, let alone Normandy. Imagine what prolonged stalemate in Europe would have caused.

Would Germany have perfected it's jet and rocket programs? If it did could the allies have maintained air superiority over Europe? Would the allies have had to defeat Japan so they could concentrate all of their forces in Europe? Would nuclear weapons have come into play in Europe?

Hitler was crazy and severely overreached with his Russian invasion. Had he not invaded Russia I still think the allies would have won, but it would have taken alot longer.

Ok, but if the president of the US had been a calculating covard? Maybe sacrificing Europe with a separate peace with Germany, letting the Russians do the job? He´d have concentrated on Japan, bringing down the own losses (temporarily). Maybe even waiting for the Bomb (but remember, Roosevelt listened to Einstein, was that granted?).

You can see that the president of the USA, Roosevelt, made his mark. Think about what the conservative presidents of those days might have caused.

Maybe it´s the teamwork between Roosevelt and Churchill I value.

Why not Theodor Herzl instead of David Ben Gurion?

-Zeno