I’ve updated the lists of the Most Important People of All Time. This list contains the names of the people in world history who have had a significant influence on the course of our civilization, or changed the world or their culture in some important way. In addition to adding five new lists to the meta-list, I’ve added a significant amount of new text to the biographical sketches and timelines for each entry.
The meta-list contains the names of several hundred individuals; the oldest (Menes [Narmer?]) was born about 3200 BCE, while the two youngest (Sergei Brin and Larry Page) were born in 1973. On this list you will find kings and queens, generals and dictators, religious figures, elected officials, explorers, philosophers, scientists, artists, writers, musicians, activists, inventors, and entrepreneurs. The list includes dozens of Nobel Prize winners, including 14 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize. There are 18 US presidents on the list, and nine British monarchs. The list even contains the names of four people who probably never existed: Abraham, Moses, Homer, and Laozi (Lao Tzu). Although most of the people on the list have long since died, 17 are still living.
I don’t judge; I don’t categorize based on “good” or “evil.” If a name is on at least three of the original source lists (which I’ve collected from various books, magazines, and websites), then it goes on the meta-list.
The meta-list is presented in two forms. One is organized by rank, that is, with the people on the most lists at the top. The other is organized chronologically by date of birth. Here are the links:
Most Important People of All Time – Ranked
Most Important People of All Time – Chronological
Here are some lists from the meta-list:
TOP-RANKED MEN
1. Mohandas K. Gandhi
2. Albert Einstein
3. Sir Isaac Newton
4. Charles Darwin
5. Leonardo da Vinci
6. William Shakespeare
7. Abraham Lincoln
8. Karl Marx
9. Alexander the Great
10. Jesus
11. Galileo Galilei
12. George Washington
13. Napoleon Bonaparte
14. Adolf Hitler
15. Nelson Mandela
16. Martin Luther King, Jr.
TOP-RANKED WOMEN
1. Marie Curie
2. Elizabeth I of England
3. Joan of Arc
4. Cleopatra
5. Mother Teresa
6. Florence Nightingale
7. Catherine the Great of Russia
8. Victoria I of England
9. Rosa Parks
10. Margaret Thatcher
11. Isabella of Spain
12. Jane Austen
13. Indira Gandhi
14. Anne Frank
15. Oprah Winfrey
TOP 10 WHO ARE STILL ALIVE
1. Bill Gates
2. 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso)
3. Oprah Winfrey
4. Tim Berners-Lee
5. Paul McCartney
6. George W. Bush
7. Barack Obama
8. Lech Wałęsa
9. Billie Jean King
10. Aung San Suu Kyi
This meta-list is filled with surprising facts. Did you know, for example, that Martin Luther King, Jr. and Anne Frank were born in the same year? The same is true for Adolf Hitler and Charlie Chaplin. Were you aware that, in addition to making the first affordable automobile and developing the assembly line, Henry Ford also published a series of antisemitic articles and books? Did you know that Charles Babbage, who designed (but failed to build) the first true computer, also invented the cowcatcher for the front of locomotives? Did you know that Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, was one of the first presidents of the National Geographic Society? Did you know that Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great caused his troops to mutiny when he moved to Persia and adopted Persian dress and customs? A surprising number of people on the list spent part of their lives in forced exile, often for their political beliefs, from Dante, Voltaire, Rousseau, and Karl Marx to Napoleon, Haile Selassie, and Benazir Bhutto.
Other tidbits: both Ho Chi Minh and the Ayatollah Khomeini were published poets. Hitler was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Florence Nightingale popularized the pie chart. Joseph Stalin once worked as a meteorologist. John Dalton, best known for developing the first atomic theory, also published a grammar textbook. Rembrandt went bankrupt. Eleanor of Aquitaine was married to both the King of France and the King of England (but not at the same time). Alan Turing, who developed the Turing test and helped break German codes in World War II, was sentenced to “chemical castration” because he was gay. And both Madonna and Stephen Hawking (with his daughter) wrote children’s books.
As with all meta-lists, I don’t control the original sources, and so I can’t be personally blamed for the many omissions that readers will note, although I share the concern that the list is probably too American, too Eurocentric, too male, too white. All I can promise is that as more people make lists that address these inequities, I will add them to the meta-list in the hopes of reflecting the true diversity of those who influenced our world.