Ten Most Influential People of the 20th Century

[Sydneyfan]

I can't remember whether this post has come up before and I apologise if it has. I was just thinking of the 20th Century's Most Influential People and made a quick list of my Top Ten. Though it's a very difficult task to pick out ten people out of billions who lived last century and say that they made more of an impact than others!
Here's my Top Ten.

1. Sir Winston Churchill Elected midway through the Second World War and was a rock of strength for British people and Allies round the world.

2. Joseph Stalin Key player in the Soviet Revolution and the preceding decades including WWII, a ruthless character.

3. Adolf Hitler The most ruthless, evil character in a century which produced several ruthless, evil characters. The World would have been a scary place if this man fulfilled his dreams.

4. Henry Ford Interesting pick considering he was not a politican or leader. Inventor of the car which has dramatically changed the way the world operates much like the Wright Brothers did with their invention of the airplane.

5. Albert Einstein Brilliant scientist who's findings changed a lot of previous theories in the field of science. Best known theory was the Theory of Relativity.

6. Sir Howard Florey Not as well known as the others in this list, though he's impact was immeasurable. Aussie Scientist who discovered Penicillin and thus saved Millions of lives since.

7. J. Robert Oppenheimer Scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project during WWII, which eventually developed the Atomic bomb. Co-Creator of the Nuclear age, the world hasn't quite been the same since.

8. Mao Zedong Creator of the People's Republic of China, previously known for his Long March throughout China. Led China until his death, ruthless leader. During his reign instigated the Cultural Revolution.

9. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Very well-liked liberal President of the United States. Charasmatic (sp?) leader, criticised by some for handling of Cuban Missile Crisis. Assassinated in somewhat suspicious circumstances.

10. John Lennon He and his mates from Liverpool, England revolutionised the way music is played. Most bands today directly or indirectly influenced by their music. Assassinated by deranged fan in 1980.

Other notable figures who didn't make my top ten: Vladimir Lenin, Fidel Castro, Emperor Hirohito (sp?), Pol Pot, the Wright Brothers, Franklin Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Ayatollah Khomeni, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Mahatma Gandhi, Sigmund Freud, Margaret Thatcher, Mikhail Gorbachov, and many more.

[Santos L Helper]

Fritz Haber has had the biggest influence on mankind in the 20th century.

[Darky]

There was a thread started by Jod23 late last year, commemorating the anniversary of John Lennon's death, and ending up as a big barney about who was influential this century and who wasn't. It makes for some very good reading and debate.

[Shinboners]

Originally posted by Sydneyfan
4. Henry Ford Interesting pick considering he was not a politican or leader. Inventor of the car which has dramatically changed the way the world operates much like the Wright Brothers did with their invention of the airplane.

10. John Lennon He and his mates from Liverpool, England revolutionised the way music is played. Most bands today directly or indirectly influenced by their music. Assassinated by deranged fan in 1980.


Henry Ford did not invent the car. His main contribution was creating a system that allowed for the mass production of cars.

As for John Lennon in the top 10? He shouldn't even be in the top 50. Revolutionising the way music was played? Purlease....it's not as if musicians are only influenced by the Beatles and it's not as if the Beatles were the first to play pop music....but that's another argument in another thread. Plenty of other's in your "other notables" list would get into the top 10 ahead of Lennon, but you should have slipped in the mother of modern feminism, Simone de Bouvoir.

[Shinboners]

Originally posted by Sydneyfan
9. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Very well-liked liberal President of the United States. Charasmatic (sp?) leader, criticised by some for handling of Cuban Missile Crisis. Assassinated in somewhat suspicious circumstances.


Oh, forgot about this one. John F. Kennedy? Yeah, he had a pretty decent speech writer, but what impact did he really have on the world? Apart from the creation of the myth of Camelot, there was nothing that JFK did that had any everlasting impact on the world (apart from the consipracy theory industry).

[Santos L Helper]

Fritz Haber came up with method to produce synthetic ammonia and nitrates. It is estimated that if this process had not been invented we would have 2 BILLION less people in the world.
Here lies the conflict. He provided the means to feed all these people, but in the process has ensured that many will also starve through over population. Increased nitrogen in the natural nitrogen cycle is also having devastating effects on the environment.
Where do your values lie? We have the means to feed people and in the process destroy the environment.

So there you have it. The most influential person for mankind in the 20th Century.

[Briedis]

John Lennon was not just a revolutionary of the modern music. He heped give people a voice in this world and to stand up for their beliefs. He would definately be in my top 10.

[sigscotty]

Lenin and Gorbachov should be ahead of Stalin.

I may just see it that way because i have studied Russian/Soviet history in Lenin and Gorbachov's respective time periods, without a whole lot in between.

[London Dave]

I'd go for the bloke who gave Princip the gun in Sarajevo, or the Archdukes chauffeur who drove the wrong way allowing him to get shot. The events that can be traced back to that day in 1914 make one wonder.

I think Florey (who devised a method to mass produce penicillin, if I recall correctly), which was probably more important than 'discovering' it, is an interesting but not undeserving choice. Did Oliphant do a lot of work with him, or was he a physicist? Can't recall now.

John Lennon....not in a top ten, but Vlad Lenin would be.

Notable mentions to the person/s who invented bar codes, the microchip, and whoever taught you to read and write.

[Bloodstained Angel]

Heres my list

1. Gabriel Princip

A young Bosnian radical who assasinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. This event sparked off the First World War which is still the single most imporatnt event of the 20th Century. This war swept away the old world forever and brought in an almost entirely new one.

2. Guiseppe Marconi

The inventor of radio and hence radio and telecommunications in general. Completely transformed the whole nature of how we communicate with each other. John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, would enjoy similar recognition for very much the same reasons.

3. Howard Florey

For his work with penicillan, completely revolutionised the treatment of disease. One of those most directly responsible for nearly doubling human life expectancy in the 20th Century.

4. Albert Einstein

Oppenheimer and Co. may have made the bomb, but Einstein, in attempting to discover the true nature of time and space in the universe came up with the theory that made it all possible.

5. Henry Ford

He didn't invent the motor car but he made it cheap and accessable for everybody. A great thinker as well, his most enduring achievement was to pay his workers very good wages, so they could afford to buy the consumer products American manufacturing was turning out in the millions. More or less invented that peculiar 20th Century phenonomen - the well off working class.

6. Winston Churchill

The stand out wartime leader. He alone recognised Facism as the dangerous scourge it really was long before anybody else did. His single greatest achievement was probably charming the pants off Roosevelt and persuading him to bring the USA into the war on the side of the British.

7. Friz Haber

Like Santos said - the person most responsible for doubling the world's food supply.

8. Adolf Hitler

The ultimate tyrant, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and Soeharto were just as evil, but Hitler wreaked havoc on a global scale. Only someone as evil as Hitler could have united such disperate allies as the USA, the UK and the USSR.

9. Steve Jobs

He didn't invent the Personal Computer, but as CEO of Apple in the 70's and 80's he is more responsible than any other individual in bringing the power of the computer into our everyday lives. The PC now dominates the way we organise our lives, the way we do business with each other, even the way we communicate with each other and the way we entertain ourselves. It all started with Mr Jobs and the humble AppleII PC.

10. Scott Joplin

The father of modern pop music. Recorded "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1914 and sold millions of copies when the song was pressed onto a disc that could be played on a gramaphone. No longer was music just the preserve of an elite who had access to pianos and sheet music - music was alive and real and could reach into every single persons life. Joplin and the stunning success of Ragtime led directly to Jazz in the 1920's, the first real pop music craze - the rest (including da Beatles :rolleyes: ) is history.

Close but no cigar :

Ghandi - not the main player in the fight for Indian independance, and his great legacy of non violent resistance seems to be slipping away these days :(

Lenin - Leader of the world's first worker's state, no more no less.

Vincent Serf - inventor of the Internet, but the Net is not as 'influential' as many believe it to be.

Definite No-No's :

John Lennon - oh please, he neither invented pop music or did very much to advance it artistically. Had a big mouth and a few half baked ideas. Encapsulated and symbolised what the 1960's were all about, but influential ? hmmmm

John F. Kennedy : great rhetoric but a dillitant and would have gone down in flames had he stuck around. Comitted USA to Vietnam and started the arms race - not good. Glamourous guy with a glamourous wife but thats all.

MaoZedong - Just another tyrant, his legacy is now thoroughly discredited.

Gorbachev - First Soviet leader to recognise the bleeding obvious - the system stank and was in terminal trouble. No kudos for that I reckon.

Pablo Picasso - most famous artist of the century but his work lacks depth and emotional involvement. More famous for being a 'celebrity' than for any real artistic merit in his work.

cheers

[Bee]

Originally posted by Bloodstained Angel
Heres my list

Pablo Picasso - most famous artist of the century but his work lacks depth and emotional involvement. More famous for being a 'celebrity' than for any real artistic merit in his work.

cheers

You're joking right? How do you come to that conclusion?

I knew I'd start disagreeing with you again soon.:D

[Bloodstained Angel]

Don't get me wrong Bee

I enjoy his work as much as you do, I think he is a supremely skilled picture maker, BUT his work lacks depth and his choice od subject matter reveals much about his art.

How many times did he do "nude by a Window' or "Reclining Nude" or "Still Life with Nude"

it gets a bit much after a while and with Picasso, one cannot help but ask if that is all he really wants to say ?

Its no accident that Picasso's Guernica is easily his most famous work, it is actually about something, the artist on this occasion is trying to make a point, trying to say something.

For once in his career Picasso's choice of subject matter does justice to his technical skills as a painter.

The rest of his work, whilst beautiful, fails to involve the spectator beyond appreciation of the formal aesthetic attributes that the artist has been able to bring to the canvas.

Of course at the end, Picasso was trivialised as a 'celebrity' and became famous as an icon of so-called 'modern art'

Compare Picasso with his contemporaries in Mexico : Riviera, Orozco, Kahlo - now this is art with guts and balls, a universe away from Picasso's bourgoise nudes, still lives, interiors, animals, and circus clowns

cheers

[Bee]

Originally posted by Bloodstained Angel
Don't get me wrong Bee

I enjoy his work as much as you do, I think he is a supremely skilled picture maker, BUT his work lacks depth and his choice od subject matter reveals much about his art.

How many times did he do "nude by a Window' or "Reclining Nude" or "Still Life with Nude"

it gets a bit much after a while and with Picasso, one cannot help but ask if that is all he really wants to say ?

Its no accident that Picasso's Guernica is easily his most famous work, it is actually about something, the artist on this occasion is trying to make a point, trying to say something.

For once in his career Picasso's choice of subject matter does justice to his technical skills as a painter.

The rest of his work, whilst beautiful, fails to involve the spectator beyond appreciation of the formal aesthetic attributes that the artist has been able to bring to the canvas.

Of course at the end, Picasso was trivialised as a 'celebrity' and became famous as an icon of so-called 'modern art'

Compare Picasso with his contemporaries in Mexico : Riviera, Orozco, Kahlo - now this is art with guts and balls, a universe away from Picasso's bourgoise nudes, still lives, interiors, animals, and circus clowns

cheers

Fair enough. You either love Picasso or you hate him. There is no in between with him.

I don't like all Picasso especially the Saltimbanque period (the circus - clown stuff). But I love the Cubism, some of the Blue Period and his stuff that was mainly done after the 1920's depicting women and how he "recomposed" the body.
My favourite Picasso is "The Dream".

The funny thing to watch is people's reactions when they come to my house. It ranges from "You have very interesting taste in art' to "What the **** is that?"

[Jars458]

Most influential well known people of the 20th Century for ME were:

1) Kenny Dalglish

best soccer player ever.

2) Mahatma Ghandi

truly showed what can be achieved through peaceful resistance.

3) Maxwell Cooper

Gotta love those beers - much of what I have done on Weekends for the last 12 years has been influneced by him

4) Thatcher/Reegan

Taught me how bad and uncaring right wing policiticians are.


5) Tony Soprano

Sopranos - best show on TV - violence sex drugs action -wow

6) - Fred Nile

Taught me to dislike religion and especially its extremists even more

7) - Darren Jarman

There can be only one

8) - The Dukes of Hazzard

Fast cars with doors that don't open are cool

9) Catherine Oxenburg

Classy Chicks with blonde hair and sleek skin and tight arses are great

10) Hitman / QT

There is hope / no hope for today's youth

;)

[Danny Chook Fan Club]

I think you've got to have Vlad before that nutcase Stalin. Without getting into an argument about the Bolsheviks and their true motives (that's for another time), I think Lenin believed in what he was doing and the ideals of Marx & Engels. Vlad also had the biggest say in starting it off, Stalin was the opportunist who slipped in after Lenin died.

Stalin was nothing more than a raving lunatic, and a contender for the biggest monster in history.

[Shinboners]

Originally posted by Briedis
John Lennon was not just a revolutionary of the modern music. He heped give people a voice in this world and to stand up for their beliefs. He would definately be in my top 10.

John Lennon gave people a voice? If you're talking about him being a protest musician, then Bob Dylan would have to rank above Lennon, and some would probably rank Woodie Gunthrie above Dylan.

[Satay Mat]

Originally posted by Bloodstained Angel
Heres my list

1. Gabriel Princip

A young Bosnian radical who assasinated Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. This event sparked off the First World War which is still the single most imporatnt event of the 20th Century. This war swept away the old world forever and brought in an almost entirely new one.



bit OTT IMHO BSA.

Narrowing down the start of WWI to the assasination of the Archduke is a tad simplistic.....try nationalism as the cause for WWI. Princip pulled the trigger but it is a fairly safe bet that the whole thing would have happenned anyway withor without him.

To think that the whole world was peaceful and living in harmony until one guy shot another guy does not add up....Europe was heading for war regardless.

Satay Mat

[Sydneyfan]

Thanks for the posts everyone. I scratched up my list pretty quickly and as you can see, my Modern History could do with a bit of improvement ;), I made a couple of bloopers.

The main criteria I used when picking those 10 was the legacy they left with them, not necessarily what they achieved. JFK for example, may not have accomplished as much as others on the list though I believe that he left a very large legacy in the US and the rest of the world, still being very well regarded in the States, and besides my list was short on Yanks! ;) :D

Here's a link to Time's various Top 100 lists which were the result of surveys which readers completed during the turn of the century, some very interesting results, not surprisingly it's very American-focused though.
http://www.time.com/time/time100/index.html

[Cyclops]

Top ten most influential people? So we're not picking guys who simply represent an ongoing movement, but who changed the course of events or did things we might not have expected.

1. Joe Stalin-no Soviet Leader murdered more citizens than him. In fact he's the biggest murderer in history. He also affected world history in a number of ways, such as the "Revolution in One Country" policy before WW2, the partitioning of Europe after WW2, decisive intervention in China, Korea etc. Very bad man.

2. Adolf Hitler-weight for age a bigger killer than Stalin. Rearmed Germany, started WW2 (which I do not think was inevitable, not on that scale) and when they started to win it, succesivly declared war on Russia and then the US to ensure defeat. Horrible horrible man, the world is so much worse thanks to him.

3. Mohandas "Mahatma" Ghandhi- not for escaping British rule-lots of colonies did that, but he did it quickly and peacefully. The blood flowed after he died, but I reckon it could have been so much worse. Failed to ensure a united India, but stopped complete disintegration. Top bloke, I'd buy him a beer if he drank.

4. President Woodrow Wilson. Cajoled isolationist America into WW1 ensuring Entente victory. The Kaiser could have won if the Yanks stayed out, and in 1916 that was a possibility.

5. Pope John XXIII. No seriously, he's the first Pope since the council of Trent (16th Century) to try to modernize the Catholic Church. In his brief reign he initiated Vatican II. Huge change for all churches.

6. Nelson Mandela. Not quite as hard a job as Ghandhi, but pulled it off without a massacre. A living miracle.

7. Marshal Pilsudski. Polish Commander who stopped the Red Army at the gates of Warsaw in 1920-21. Soviet armies under the talented Tuckhachevsky were winning the civil war and rolling toward Germany-Pilsudski delayed the "Iron Curtain" by 30 years, and preserved Poland.

8. Florey-enough said.

9. Lenin-made the Russian Revolution much worse than it already was, and laid the foundations for Stalin.

10. Peter Daicos.

[Olmy]

It's pretty subjective to have a top 10 list, as you could argue a case for many different individuals having had a huge effect on different groups of people at different stages.

Also worth a mention is Leon Trotsky, who helped mastermind the Russian revolution of 1917. Although history remembers Lenin as the main pursuant, Trotsky certainly played a major role in procedings before being knocked off, for fears that he was running his own agenda.

Josef Goebles - Hitler's renowned mastermind minister for propaganda. Although political propaganda had been in use since anyone could remember, Goebles arguably turned it into an art-form, which although despised, has influenced, or been copied by every aspiring politician ever since.

[Chilli Afterglow]

Originally posted by Shinboners


Henry Ford did not invent the car. His main contribution was creating a system that allowed for the mass production of cars.

<snip>


And thus providing America with the economic clout build a military that effectively rules the world.

A very good pick SF.

[London Dave]

Continiuing with the thougt Chlli, jP Morgan...Andrew Carnegie (though from mostly the century before, what they built helped kickstart the US powerhouse)

Satay, dont think anyone disputes Europe was heading for war, just that this blokes act set the wheels in motion.

[Chilli Afterglow]

Originally posted by Shinboners


<snip>

As for John Lennon in the top 10? He shouldn't even be in the top 50. Revolutionising the way music was played? Purlease....it's not as if musicians are only influenced by the Beatles and it's not as if the Beatles were the first to play pop music....but that's another argument in another thread.

<snip>



I think I actually take SF's point here. Maybe they Beatles aren't responsible for any great leaps in how music is played...

BUT...

They at least provided a bulk of the fuel that spawned a cultural revolution. From the prudish, conservative values of the early 60's to the Flower Power days of the end of that decade, which in many ways has liberated us sexually as a society.

To my mind, this all comes back to the influence of the Beatles.

[The Starchild]

I'm quite stunned by the people you've all put in.

If I was asked who were the 3 most influential people of ALL time for Australia I'd have Bill Gates in there.

Gates might not have any invention of his own, but he has been a brilliant tactician and businessman and his movements are largely responsible for what we're doing right now. Microsoft is in the top 10 companies in the world, the rest are all car manufacturers or the like. Gates surely must be 1st, others that should be in would be the inventor of the microchip and the inventor of the combustion engine. Their names might not be famous but they had more influence on the world than friggin Churchill, Kennedy, Stalin, Polpot or any other political freak, easy.

[Santos L Helper]

I still can't believe that Fritz Haber only get's one other mention. I'm assuming it's because most of you haven't heard of him or it's too hard to comprehend the impact synthetic fertiliser has had because we take it for granted.
Remember scientists and researchers have estimated that his ammonia synthesis is responsible for over two billion extra people on the planet. Now think of all the problems that poses too. I'd say he's had more influence overall than any politician or computer wizz. Everybody has to eat and everybody is responsible to a piece of the environment. How many in the third world own cars, computers or are carrying the influence of the rise in communism? Some......yes. I would hazard a guess which says eating, having arable land and changes to the nitrogen cycle (eg global warming & eutrophication) influences more people.

Yeah........Go Fritz!!

[Bulldog1954]

1) Kingsley Hunter
2) Liam Gallagher
3) Simon Minton-Connell
4) Bracksy!!!!
5) Kerryane Kennily
6) Denise Drysdale
7) Baby John Burgess
8) Ian Turpie
9) Tamsyn Lewis
10) Stacy Keibler

[Olmy]

Originally posted by The Starchild

If I was asked who were the 3 most influential people of ALL time for Australia I'd have Bill Gates in there.


Good get. I was thinking about including him myself.

[Fat Red]

Originally posted by Satay Mat


bit OTT IMHO BSA.

Narrowing down the start of WWI to the assasination of the Archduke is a tad simplistic.....try nationalism as the cause for WWI. Princip pulled the trigger but it is a fairly safe bet that the whole thing would have happenned anyway withor without him.

To think that the whole world was peaceful and living in harmony until one guy shot another guy does not add up....Europe was heading for war regardless.

Satay Mat

I don't want to pretend to be an expert on this when I'm not, but my understanding is that WW1 need not have happened, at least when and how it did, and that the Franz Ferdinand assassination did trigger it.

Unlike WW2, which was definitely a fight picked by Hitler, no one really wanted this war, except maybe the Austrian subject peoples, and they were just looking for independence, not a big war like this one.

But once this happened Serbia and Austria got in a position that they couldn't back off from, Germany and Russia were dragged in, then France and Britain and on it went from there.

Until then the balance of power in Europe had held for a long time. It probably would have had to end soon, but Austria could well have fallen apart without the war, and that would have removed much of the immediate source of conflict in Europe.

So I agree that Princip is a very important character in 20th century history.

[Pessimistic]

They started out in WW1 obeying some antiquated aristocratic 'honour' code (which also allowed them to get rid of a few thousand 'rowdy' peasants).

Technology provided a few surprises and even the toffs were shocked by what happened. They tried to bill it as the war to end all wars but in reality it just laid the foundations for WW2

I use Blackadder goes forth as my main reference.