1000-2000
2007-04-25 08:30:14 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ History
I am not sure if by greatest you mean 'most influential' or 'greatest good to humanity', but I will assume the latter
In no particular order
1. Isaac Newton - Without Newtonian physics, Heliocentricism would have been impossible to prove. Galileo, Kepler, and Copernicus would have been mere oddities in history
2. Thomas Jefferson - Truly the founding father of America. The reason America became a Republic and not a Christian monarchy is due virtually entirely in part to this man.
3. Charles Darwin - Discovered the grand unified theory of biology i.e Evolution. Demonstrated for the first time the awesome power of science to fully explain our universe
4. St. Thomas Aquinas - were it not for this man, Christians would still be refusing to bathe, would be calling science "the lust of the eyes", and would still not give a lick about the material world, only the hereafter. This man snuck reason back into the minds of the west, starting a chain reaction which would eventually culminate in the insubordination of religious tyranny to secular law
5. Gutenberg - invented the printing press. The improved flow of information became a crucial aspect for the development of the modern era
6. Henry Ford - Invented the assembly line. Made cars cheaply available to the masses. Did more to improve the standards of living in America than any politician with all his legislation could hope for
7. William Shakespeare - The depth of his influence on literature is hard to describe in a paragraph. Very few men, even fewer playwrites, have their names and every piece of work they ever wrote remembered as household names hundreds of years later, with entire schools of academics devoted to studying his works.
8. Wolfgang Mozart - See my above comment for Shakespeare, only replace the word literature with music, and playwrite with musician.
9. Duke of Wellington - While a talented but otherwise unremarkable general, this was the man who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo. Had Napoleon not lost this battle, it is likely that the course of European history would have been dramatically different, and not necessarily for the better
10. Albert Einstein - No man has ever had as much influence in the field of Physics as Albert Einstein. It was hard enough believing that anyone could eclipse Newton. But this man has forever changed the way man looks at the universe.
2007-04-25 09:47:00 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Albert Einstein: Science
Thomas Edison: Inventor
Margaret Thatcher: Female Leader
John F. Kennedy: Male Leader
Mikhael Gorbachev: Role in ending the cold war
Martin Luther: Revolutionary
Leonardo Da Vinci: Artist
Edwin Aldrin:
Neil Armstrong
Michael Collins
The last three for having the courage to go into the dark unknown.
2007-04-25 09:43:34 · answer #2 · answered by ·will¹ªm ºn vacation! 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Elizabeth the First
Shakespear
Ghandi
Thomas Jefferson
Jonas Salk
Sir Alexander Fleming
Louis Pasteur
Sir Winston Churchill
Charles Darwin
Thomas Edison
2007-04-25 09:20:39 · answer #3 · answered by gromit801 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Albert Einstein
Bill Gates
Martin Luther King, Jr
Michael Jackson
J.K. Rowling
Adolf Hitler
Winston Churchill
Oprah
George Washingston
Princess Diana
2007-04-25 08:46:10 · answer #4 · answered by conroy_williams 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Alexander Fleming (discovered penicillin)
William The Conqueror
Charles Darwin
Alexander Hamilton
Gallileo
Albert Einstein
Dr Craig Venter-cracked the DNA code
Abraham Lincoln
Ghandi
Bill Gates
2007-04-25 09:44:51 · answer #5 · answered by Jackie Oh! 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1. Abraham Lincoln - preserved democracy
2. George Washington - many reasons related to the founding of democracy
And, not in any, order:
Mahatma Gandhi - non-violence
Eleanor Roosevelt - the UNs Universal Declaration of Human Rights and womens rights
Thomas Jefferson - the US constitution
Charles Darwin - earthshaking change in Mankinds view of itself
Carolus Linnaeus - the biological world is comprehensible
Isaac Newton - the physical world is comprehensible
Galileo - the universe is comprehensible
Copernicus - earthshaking change in Mankinds view of our place in the universe
Bonus: Thomas Willis - founded neuroscience with the idea that the physical brain controls the physical body, but this still hasn't reached full fruition yet as the brains relationship to behavior and free will remains under study (i.e. are there genes that make one gay or is it a choice made by a mind/soul?)
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Edit:
Elvis, Shakespeare, and Christopher Colombus are pretty good, but Hitler has got to go!
2007-04-25 08:53:26 · answer #6 · answered by 62,040,610 Idiots 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gutenberg
Martin Luther
Leonardo DaVinci
Galileo
Copernicus
Isaac Newton
Charles Darwin
Karl Marx
Albert Einstein
Winston Churchill
2007-04-25 09:16:48 · answer #7 · answered by WolverLini 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Discovery: Galileo, Newton, Einstein
Politics: Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gandhi
Art / Literature: Beethoven, Michelangelo, Shakespeare
No mere entertainer is worthy of such a list.
2007-04-25 09:36:30 · answer #8 · answered by jimbob 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Greatest" in my humble opinion, would be, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Jack Kerouac, St. Francis, Mother Teresa, Alexander Hamilton, Shakespeare, Harry Houdini, and Soren Kierkegaard. That's a knee jerk list, but I think it's pretty good. I was going for greatest as in most value, not the greatest fame necessarily.
2007-04-25 08:47:00 · answer #9 · answered by phildarthebuildar 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no particular order
Martin Luthur King Jr.
Nelson Mandela
Abraham Lincoln
Hariet Tubman
Ghandi
julius Ceaser
Mother Theresa
Michael Jackson
Cashius Clay
Bill Gates
2007-04-25 09:32:37 · answer #10 · answered by Guy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋