Very often we talk about the successes achieved in humanity as a collective feat, of teamwork. It is considered that without this group component many historical events and inventions would not have been possible individually.
However, from my point of view, this is still a half-truth. There are hundreds of illustrious and famous people who have decisively influenced the world, whether with their ideas, inventions, actions or discoveries. These historical figures have marked the development of History causing society to be transformed for better or worse.
Below you can find a list of the most important historical figures and influential, mentioning and highlighting their most relevant characteristics and successes.
1. Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882)
This famous English naturalist was the one who postulated that all species of living beings have evolved over time from a common ancestor through a process called “natural selection.” His theory of evolution forms the basis of the modern evolutionary synthesis and constitutes a logical explanation that unifies observations about the diversity of life and is the basis of the science of Biology.
2. Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
He is considered by the academic world as the first scientist and researcher of all time, whose influence has endured for two thousand years. He was a scholar, a wise man, an eminence in different areas of the sciences and humanities: politician, philosopher, logician and scientist in Ancient Greece. He is recognized as the first founder of logic and biology, and his works have been used as the basis of scientific development for centuries.
3. Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821)
Ambition, will, bravery, intelligence, arrogance, cruelty, greatness… are names that could perfectly describe this character in history. Despised by some, exalted by others, exalted, vilified, contradictory sentiments that can be read and heard about him. With its military intelligence was able to conquer Eastern and Western Europe reaching North Africa.
4. Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC)
Political and military leader of the great Roman Empire, leading to being the first living Roman leader whose face appeared on a coin On circulation. Apart from his political and military career, this historical figure stood out as a speaker and writer on topics such as Roman republican religion, astronomy or Latin.
Along with Socrates and Aristotle, he is considered one of the most influential philosophers in the thought of modern Europe Unlike Socrates, Plato wrote and preserved all of his works, introducing a new style for the time: dialogue. The contrast of different points of view and the psychological characterization of the interlocutors represented an alternative tool to poetic or oracular expression.
6. Albert Einstein (1879 – 1955)
“The mind is like a parachute, it only works if we have it open.” German physicist He is considered the most important and popular scientist of the 20th century In 1905, while still an unknown young researcher, he published his theory of spatial relativity. Ten years later, he would present the theory of general relativity, which completely reformulated the concept of gravity.
7. George Washington (1723 – 1799)
He was the first president of the United States between 1789 and 1797, Commander in Chief of the revolutionary Continental Army in the US War of Independence against England (1775-1783) and one of the authors of the American Constitution In the US he is considered the Father of the Nation.
8. William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
English poet, playwright and actor, recognized as the most important writer of the English language and one of the most illustrious authors of universal literature. His reputation did not reach global success until well into the 19th century. Already in the 20th century, all of his works were adapted on many occasions and in all types of settings: cinema, books and theater.
9. Christopher Columbus (1436 – 1506)
His greatest achievement and success was the discovery of America by the West on October 12, 1492, upon landing on Guanahani Island, currently known as the Bahamas. Before this, he was a navigator, cartographer, admiral, viceroy and Governor General of the West Indies serving the Crown of Castile.
10. Isaac Newton (1643 – 1727)
English mathematician, philosopher, alchemist, theologian and physicist. Author of “the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Matemática”, more commonly known as Principia, where describes the law of universal gravitation and established the foundations of classical mechanics through the laws that bear his name.
11. Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
This controversial historical figure was a neurologist, considered the founder of psychoanalysis, as well as several theories that have endured, especially in the Social Sciences and in the world of the arts. Despite his controversial psychological theories, with sex as a central theme, Freud is considered one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, despite his addiction to cocaine that led to his death in 1939.
12. Louis Pasteur (1822 – 1895)
He was a French chemist whose discoveries had an enormous impact on the various fields of natural sciences. Honor is owed to him for the “pasteurization” technique. Besides, categorically rejected the theory of spontaneous generation and developed the germ theory of infectious diseases.
Related article: “The 30 best phrases of Louis Pasteur”
13. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791)
Composer and pianist of Austrian origin, master of Classicism, is considered one of the most influential people in the world of music of all times. His music has been used in films, series, theater and even video games. Mozart’s work covers all musical genres, including around 700 works.
14. Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968)
He was an American pastor of the Baptist church who carried out crucial work in the United States. at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans and who also participated as an activist against general poverty and the Vietnam War. He is one of the leaders in the fight against racism in the United States.
Related article: “The 70 best famous phrases of Martin Luther King”
15. Muhammad Ali (1942 – 2016)
He is probably the most famous person of the 20th century, as magazines like The Times and The Esquire have declared him that way on numerous occasions. He changed the rules of the game in the world of boxing by breaking ties with the mafia that controlled the business to impose his fight not only inside the ring, but outside of it. being the spokesperson against universal racial segregation and refusing to go to the Vietnam War, which led to his imprisonment.
16. Pythagoras (569 BC – 475 BC)
Greek philosopher and mathematician, is considered the father of pure mathematics He contributed significantly to the advancement and development of Hellenic mathematics, geometry and arithmetic, derived mainly from numerical relationships, applied to the theory of weights and measures, music or astronomy.
17. Genghis Khan (1162 – 1227)
At the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongol armies led by Genghis Khan, staged one of the most important military expansions in history In just over twenty years, they conquered a good part of northern China, then occupied by King Xi Xia and the Yurchen empire, and destroyed the Muslim empire in Juarezm, located in Central Asia.
18. Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
Socialist thinker and revolutionary activist of German origin Rarely has the work of a philosopher had such vast and tangible historical consequences as those of Karl Marx: from the Russian Revolution of 1917 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, almost half of humanity lived in countries maintained by political governments. who declared themselves heirs of his thought.
19. Lenin (1870 – 1924)
Known as Lenin, his original name is Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. Directly influenced by Marxism, he was a political theorist, revolutionary and communist of Russian origin Being part of the most radical core of the socialist movement, he became the main leader of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which gave rise to the Soviet Union.
20. Jesus of Nazareth (1 – 33)
Also known as Jesus, Christ or Jesus Christ, He is the central figure of Christianity and one of the most influential figures in Western culture. It is probably the most studied theological entity in the entire history of humanity. The religious movement that began transformed into Christianity, which currently has more than 2.1 billion parishioners.
Passing as a low-profile private in the German army during World War I, his frustration and anger led Adolf Hitler to rule Germany from 1933 to 1945. causing World War II, 17 million dead and being the main person responsible for the Jewish Holocaust. He remains the most enigmatic historical figure of the 20th and 21st centuries.
22. Muhammad (570 – 632)
He was the prophet and founder of the last monotheistic religion: Islam. Muhammad, also known as Muhammad, is called the “seal of the prophets” because he is considered the last in a long chain of messengers sent by God to transmit and update his message. It is estimated that currently About 1.2 billion followers practice Islam
23. Michelangelo (1475 – 1564)
Was a Italian architect, sculptor and painter of the Renaissance style He is considered one of the greatest artists in history since he triumphed in each and every one of the arts in which he dedicated his time and work, since his main characteristic was perfectionism.
24. Bill Gates (1955)
American computer scientist and businessman, he is the founder of the computer company Microsoft. The fortune of this precocious programmer who at 31 was already a multimillionaire, comes from the success of its overwhelming operating system, MS-DOS (1981) that would evolve into the ubiquitous Windows system. Curiously, Gates would never finish his studies.
25. Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943)
Inventor, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer and physicist of Serbian origin living in the United States. He is considered as the most illustrious promoter of the birth of commercial electricity He is also famous for his numerous revolutionary achievements in the field of electromagnetism, developed in the early 19th and early 20th centuries. Currently, one of the best electric car manufacturers is named after him (Tesla Motors).
26. Thomas Alva Edison (1847 – 1931)
Perhaps he is the most paradoxical case of all the historical figures mentioned. Thomas Edison, famous for being the creator of more than a thousand inventions such as the light bulb, the incandescent lamp, the phenograph or the film projector, He was only able to attend school for a period of three months
27. Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
Kant has been and continues to be one of the thinkers who best defines the spirit of the Enlightenment era; an intellectual who tried to convert the scientific optimism derived from Newton’s discoveries into a philosophical system at the level of scientific methodology, totally detached from religion and yet capable of providing a universally valid ethics and a theory about our capacity for know the reality. For it, He combined ideas from David Hume’s empiricism and rationalism of René Descartes, two philosophical currents that seemed irreconcilable.
28. Alexander the Great (356 BC – 323 BC)
Alexander the Great was responsible for one of the most impressive conquest processes in History, starting from the humble country of Ancient Macedonia and reaching the Indian subcontinent with his troops. Furthermore, this military leader brought Egypt, a superpower of the Ancient world, into control of Greco-Roman society.
29. Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986)
de Beauvoir is possibly the most influential philosopher in the field of gender studies and feminism; She was the one who delved the most and best into the concept of being “man” and “woman”, questioning whether gender roles arose from pure biology of the bodies. This idea is captured in his most famous book: The Second Sex.
30. Alexander Fleming (1881 – 1955)
We can thank Fleming for the invention of one of the most valuable medical resources of recent centuries: penicillin. Thanks to this product, the door was opened to antibiotics, which help us fight bacterial infections and have contributed to drastically reducing human mortality.
