100 most influentialThis is a list chosen by Michael H. Hart, from the book ‘100 most influential people in the world’. He chose people on a ranking of who had done the most to influence the world. I recommend reading the book as it offers an interesting insight into the influence of different individuals. As the author notes, ‘Influential’ does not include a judgement on whether they influenced the world for the better or worse


Top 100 List

  1. Muhammad (570 – 632 AD) Prophet of Islam.
  2. Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727) – British mathematician and scientist.
  3. Jesus of Nazareth (c.5BC – 30 AD) Spiritual teacher and central figure of Christianity.
  4. Buddha (c 563 – 483 BC) Spiritual Teacher and founder of Buddhism.
  5. Confucius (551 – 479 BC) – Chinese philosopher.
  6. St. Paul (5 – AD 67) – Christian missionary and one of the main writers of the New Testament.
  7. Ts’ai Lun (AD 50 – 121) Inventor of paper.
  8. Johann Gutenberg (1395 – 1468) – Inventor of the printing press.
  9. Christopher Columbus (1451 – 1506) – Italian explorer landed in America.
  10. Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955) German/ US scientist discovered Theory of Relativity.
  11. Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895) French biologist. Developed a cure for rabies and other infectious diseases.
  12. Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642) Italian scientist – confirmed the heliocentric view of the universe.
  13. Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) – Greek philosopher and polymath
  14. Euclid (c. 325 – 265 BC) – Greek mathematician
  15. Moses (c 1391 – 1271 BC) A key figure of Jewish / Christian history gave 10 Commandments of Old Testament
  16. Charles Darwin (1809 -– 1882) –Scientist who proposed and popularised theory of evolution.
  17. Shih Huang Ti (259 – 210 BC) – King of the state of Qin who conquered and united different regions of China in 221 BC.
  18. Augustus Caesar (63 BC-AD 14) – First Emperor of Rome
  19. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) Renaissance mathematician and astronomer who believed Sun was the centre of the Universe – rather than earth.
  20. Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743 – 1794) French chemist and biologist who had a leading impact on the chemical revolution.
  21. Constantine the Great (272 AD – 337) Roman Emperor who accepted Christian religion.
  22. James Watt (1736 – 1819) Scottish engineer. Watt improved the Newcome steam engine creating an efficient steam engine
  23. Michael Faraday (1791 – 1867) – English scientist who contributed in fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry.
  24. James Clerk Maxwell (1831-1879) Scottish physicist. Maxwell made a significant contribution to understanding electromagnetism
  25. Martin Luther (1483-1546) Sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church – starting the Protestant Reformation.
  26. George Washington (1732 – 1799) – Leader of US forces during American Revolution and 1st President of US.
  27. Karl Marx (1818 -– 1883) – German Communist philosopher.
  28. Orville and Wilbur Wright Orville (1871 – 1948) – Wilbur (1867 – 1912) – Created and flew the first aeroplane.
  29. Genghis Kahn (1162 – 1227) – Military and political leader of the Mongols.
  30. Adam Smith (1723-1790) Scottish social philosopher and pioneer of classical economics.
  31. William Shakespeare (1564- 1616) English poet and playwright.
  32. John Dalton (1766 – 1844) English chemist and physicist. Made contributions to atomic theory.
  33. Alexander the Great (356 -– 323 BC) – King of Macedonia and military leader.
  34. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 –- 1821) – French military and political leader.
  35. Thomas Edison (1847 – 1931) – Inventor and businessman helped introduce electricity and electric light bulbs.
  36. Antony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) Dutch chemist – founder of microbiology.
  37. William T.G. Morton (1819 – 1868) American dentist who pioneered the use of anaesthetic.
  38. Guglielmo Marconi (1874 – 1937) Italian engineer who helped develop radio transmission.
  39. Adolf Hitler (1889 – 1945) – Dictator of Nazi Germany.
  40. Plato (424 –- 348 BC) – Greek philosopher.
  41. Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) – Leader of Parliamentarians in English civil war.
  42. Alexander Graham Bell (1847 – 1922) – Scottish inventor of the telephone.
  43. Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) Scottish biologist who discovered penicillin.
  44. John Locke (1632-1704) English political philosopher. Locke promoted a theory of liberal democracy and a social contract.
  45. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) German composer of the classical and romantic period.
  46. Werner Heisenberg (1901–1976) German theoretical physicist – one of the pioneers of Quantum mechanics
  47. Louis Daguerre (1787–1851) French artist and photographer, who is credited with the invention of the camera.
  48. Simon Bolivar (1783 – 1830) – Liberator of Latin American countries
  49. Rene Descartes (1596 – 1650) French philosopher and mathematician. “I think, therefore I am.”
  50. Michelangelo (1475 – 1564) Renaissance sculptor, painter and architec
  51. Pope Urban II (1042 – 29 July 1099) Influential Pope who ordered the first Crusade to the Holy Land and set up the Papal Court
  52. Umar ibn al-Khattab (584 CE –  644 CE) Powerful Muslim Caliphate and senior companion of Muhammad. An influential figure in Sunni Islam.
  53. Asoka (c. 260 – 232 BC) Powerful Indian King who established large empire by conquest before converting to Buddhism and pursuing a peaceful approach
  54. St. Augustine (354 – 430) Influential Christian saint and writer, who shaped much of Western Christian thought.
  55. William Harvey (1578 – 3 June 1657) English physician who made contributions to understanding how blood circulated in the body.
  56. Ernest Rutherford (1871 –  1937) NZ born British physicist who made discoveries in atomic physics. His work on splitting the atom was influential for the development of atomic science.
  57. John Calvin (1509 – 27 May 1564) Christian theologian who developed a strict brand of Protestant Christianity which stressed the doctrine of predestination.
  58. Gregor Mendel (1822 –  1884) Czech/Austrian scientist and friar – who founded modern science of genetics.
  59. Max Planck (1858 – 1947) German theoretical physicist who developed a theory of Quantum physics and discovered energy quanta.
  60. Joseph Lister (1827 – 1912) British surgeon who pioneered the use of sterilisation and antiseptic surgery.
  61. Nikolaus August Otto (1832 – 1891) German engineer who developed compressed charge internal combustion engine to run on petrol
  62. Francisco Pizarro (1471 – 1541) Spanish Conquistador who claimed Inca lands for Spain.
  63. Hernando Cortes (1485 – 1547) Spanish Conquistador who conquered the Aztec lands of modern-day Mexico.
  64. Thomas Jefferson (1743 – 1826) 3rd President of US. Principle author of the US Declaration of Independence.
  65. Queen Isabella I (1451 – 1504) Queen of Castille, who helped create a powerful and unified state of Spain whose influence spread to the Americas.
  66. Joseph Stalin (1878 – 1953) Absolute ruler of the Soviet Union from 1924 to his death. Led the Soviet Union in WWII.
  67. Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC) Roman ruler who oversaw the demise of the Roman Republic to be replaced with a Roman Emperor. Militarily strengthened the power of Rome.
  68. William the Conqueror (1028 – 1087) First Norman King of England
  69. Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939) An Austrian neurologist who founded psychoanalysis, which involved the investigation of the subconscious, dreams and human mind.
  70. Edward Jenner (1749 – 1823) Developed the world’s first vaccine (the smallpox vaccine). Known as the father of immunology.
  71. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen  (1845 – 1923) German physicist who discovered electromagnetic waves or X-rays.
  72. Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) Composer and organist who created some of the world’s most beautiful music.
  73. Lao Tzu (6th Century BC – ) Author of Tao Te Ching and founder of Taoism
  74. Voltaire (1694 –  1778). A key figure of European Enlightenment. His satirical writings played a role in the French Revolution.
  75. Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630) German mathematician and astronomer who created laws of planetary motion.
  76. Enrico Fermi (1901 – 1954) Italian-American physicist who created the first nuclear reactor
  77. Leonhard Euler (1707 – 1783) Swiss mathematician who made prolific discoveries in calculus and graph theory.
  78. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) – French philosopher, author of Social Contract
  79. Nicoli Machiavelli (1469 –  1527) Italian diplomat and Renaissance writer considered the father of political science.
  80. Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834) English scholar who raised concern over growing population.
  81. John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963) 38th President of the US. Served at the height of the Cold War and helped defuse Cuban Missile Crisis.
  82. Gregory Pincus (1903 – 1967) American biologist who created the oral contraceptive pill.
  83. Mani (216 – ) Iranian founder of Manichaeism, a gnostic religion which for a time was a rival to Christianity.
  84. Lenin (1870 – 1924) Leader of the Russian Revolution and new Communist regime from 1917 to 1924.
  85. Sui Wen Ti (541 –  604) Founder of China’s Sui Dynasty and reunifying China in 589
  86. Vasco da Gama (1460s –1524) Portuguese explorer, first European to reach India and establish a route for imperialism.
  87. Cyrus the Great  (600 – 530 BC) Founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian Empire. Relatively enlightened ruler.
  88. Peter the Great (1721 – 1725) Russian Emperor who expanded the Tsarist Empire to make Russia European power.
  89. Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976) Leader of the Communist Revolution and dictator of China from 1949-1974.
  90. Francis Bacon (1561 –  1626) Creator of the scientific method and key figure in Scientific Revolution of the Enlightenment.
  91. Henry Ford (1863 – 1947) Owner of Ford Motor Company. Revolutionised mass-production techniques
  92. Mencius (385–303BC) Chinese philosopher one of the principal interpreters of Confucianism.
  93. Zoroaster (c. 1200 BC)  Iranian prophet who founded the religion of Zoroastrianism.
  94. Queen Elizabeth I (1533 – 1603) Queen of England from 1558 to her death in 1603. Cemented England as a Protestant country, defeated Spanish Armada.
  95. Mikhail Gorbachev (1931 – ) Leader of Soviet Communist Party who pursued reform – perestroika and glasnost to open Eastern Europe to democracy.
  96. Menes c. 3000 BC Egyptian pharaoh who united Upper and Lower Egypt to found the First Dynasty.
  97. Charlemagne (742 – 814) United Europe to form the Carolingian Empire. First western Emperor since the fall of Rome.
  98. Homer Greek poet who wrote Iliad and Odyssey
  99. Justinian I  (482 –   565) Emperor of Eastern Roman Empire
  100. Mahavira (6th century BC)  Principal figure of Jainism.