Eh, yes and no. Liberty in the capacity we understand it does have a long history, but insofar as it is considered a desirable political outcome because of its usefulness, Bentham and Mill are pretty significant. Utilitarianism as a whole was pretty fresh as an ethical perspective at the time of their writing. Prior to this, talk of rights and liberty was framed in a more abstracted and absolutist (often even religious) sense. The industrial understanding of liberty and public culture owes a lot to these two. That's why I think they're particularly significant, even though they certainly did not invent liberalism (with a small "L").

The House of Rothschild and their banking empire that has and still does finanance most governments around the world through their private fortune that dates back before Napoleonic times. THey have created an economic system that we all participate in today with little knowledge of their involvement. These are also the people that control the Federal Reserve bank

Saul (a.k.a. Paul) - true founder of Christianity

Genghis Khan - empire bigger than Roman, Alexander, China put together

Gutenberg - printing led to Protestant Reformation

William Shatner

Tesla - AC/DC

John Adams (picked Washington to command, outsourced writing to Jefferson)

Benedict Arnold (victory in Saratoga was critical)

Mohammed and Abraham

J.P. Morgan - invented the "central bank"

Most underrated Christian historical figure: Perpetua (not as important as Saul, Constantine, and Jesus, but probably top 5)

like you use soap

Thomas Jefferson should be way up there, imo, for creating (or having a huge role in creating) modern democracy which has, obviously, since spread to a good portion of the world.

William Shatner?

William Shatner does not belong on this list. He belongs on the "the greatest people evar" list

Did you hear his cd, where he discusses (sings) songs about people who criticize him? It's hilarious. Talks about never-was-people calling HIM has-been. And more...

Some religious figures changed the course of human history and influenced lives of billions for thousands of years. There are very few political leaders that did anything of that kind.
People ITT are largely overestimating roles of political leaders in 20th century on the human history as a whole. Just like they overestimating roles of some scientists (due to inevitable discoveries).

As a group, religious figures surely beat every other group. Faith beats the physical power of political and military leaders. Faith beats facts when it comes to human affairs.

no mention of John. D or Rothschild yet?...

also let's not forget Alec Baldwin and Charlie Sheen.

And Bobby Baldwin. I think Bobby´s room is named after him. That´s influence!

Saul/Paul can't be greater than Jesus. Without Jesus there is no Saul/Paul.

Plus Jesus trained most of the disciples. Read the early chapters of the Book of Galatians. Paul had to confirm his teachings with 3 other Apostles to make sure he was on the right track....He didn't fly solo.

That's like saying Hitler's dad is more influential than Hitler, or Socrates more influential than Plato ONLY because Socrates taught him. These people are influential in their own right. Jesus would be gone if it wasn't for Paul. He made Christianity what it is in founding the Church. Obviously Jesus is supremely important, but Paul more or less as much maybe even more.
If you look to Persian Wars we only have Herodotus to tell us what happened... hence his account more or less is 'gospel' if you'd pardon the pun.
Because if this its hard to negate/demote Paul as it is this word and development that matters

The History Channel confirms this.

The transporter of the Enterprise inspired the invention of the internet in terms of being able to literally "be there with someone" half a world away.

The cellphone looks suspiciously like the communication devices in Captain Kirk's Star Trek.

The first space shuttle was called the U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain Kirk's ship.

When time travel finally becomes possible, Star Trek and Captain Kirk will have been the primary inspiration (like Kennedy inspired the moon landings).

Using webcams, people can now have a face to face conference even though they are thousands of miles apart. This started in Star Trek and Captain Kirk.

When time travel finally becomes a reality it is because of Star Trek and Captain Kirk's vision.

There were vending machines in Kirk's Enterprise long before there were vending machines everywhere.

Captain Kirk fought MMA style when everyone else (like John Wayne and Steve McQueen) were fighting cowboy style. This was 30 years before the UFC.

CATSCANs which are now common in most hospitals was inspired by Dr. McCoy's medical scanner thingy, which Captain Kirk gave him permission to use.

The Tricorder is the reason why they have the radioactivity detectors that are critical in determining the level of danger emanating from those broken nuclear reactors in post-tsunami Japan.

Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama use leadership, delegation, and organizational methods that Kirk used to effectively manage his highly diverse crew.

Captain Kirk drank drinks (trania, Romulan Ale) that tasted like RedBull.

The computer inside the Enterprise was just like Google.

They didn't have real books in the Enterprise. Just e-books.

Take the religion debate to RGT, please. Everybody's said their piece, we don't need to debate the various merits of Jesus/Paul/whatever else.

I deleted the entire off topic posts - it was the only completely fair way to do it. Now, not everything in every post deleted was technically off topic or not allowed under the umbrella of history but as pointed out by Zurvan, and I agree, debating the merits of religious figures is something that fits precisely into RGT, so a firm restriction will be applied here. Slop shall not be allowed, it just continually leads to off topic issues and debate, especially in regards to religious and current political issues -Thus the firm restrictions that will be applied. It is the only way to have a history forum that does not degenerate in a religious war and a current events/political frenzy. There are two forums, RGT and Politics for that. Thanks for the cooperation.

-Zeno

Imhotep never gets any love, top 10 imo

Ha tried to mention House of Rothschild....They have an age named after them

Morse
Bell
Marconi
Farnsworth

Wouldn't it be Roddenberry and not Shatner who would be responsible?

Farnsworth as in TV? I'd say cracking in the radio people was probably ok, but after that the inventions were inevitable (not to razzle on the achievement) but it's not revolutionary enough to be hugely influential. Maybe as a group you can crack them in

Take the religon debate to RGT, please.

Yes, first that fictional post, and then having it quoted too, with a twist. That wasn´t totally all right, imo. But maybe Zeno has mercy? This time.