20 Most Important People of the 21st Century

The 21^st century is only 20 years old, but (in a complete repudiation of my last post’s caution) here are some predictions of folks who might make the list of most important people of the 21^st century.

And, as before, although I hope this would be obvious, inclusion on the list doesn't mean you're a good person – bin Laden was a key player of the early 21^st century, but we all recognize that sometimes the most important people are also the vilest.

Finally, the entrants are divided into five categories, and then arranged (roughly) chronologically by the dates of their main accomplishments.

Politicians and Activists

 

Osama bin Laden (Saudi Arabia): Mastermind of the 9/11 attack that diverted America and the world’s attention to fighting terrorism, particularly in the Middle East. 

Angela Merkel (Germany): Led the fledgling European Union through many of its stormiest crises.

Xi Jinping (China): Massively increased China’s economic dominance, and held more power than any other leader in 40 years, even rewriting parts of the constitution.

Donald Trump (USA): Derailed America both at home and abroad in a culmination of far-right policies imitated by strongmen around the globe.

 

Scientists and Inventors

 

Elon Musk (South Africa, Canada, USA): Designer in charge of SpaceX, Tesla, and other scientific ventures.

Klaus Lackner (USA): Scientist exemplifying all those who are working on carbon capture technology, to reverse climate change.

“Satoshi Nakamoto” (Japan?): Unknown identity who implemented the previously theoretical blockchain technology and launched bitcoin.

Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier (USA&France): Geneticists who unlocked the enormous power of CRISPR-CAS9 gene editing.

 

Magnates and Businesspeople

 

Jeff Bezos (USA): Leader of Amazon which in the early decades of the century boomed into one of the world’s largest and most influential corporations.

Steve Jobs (USA): Revamped Apple’s image with the iPod, followed by the first widespread touchscreen smartphone.

Takeshi Uchiyamada (Japan): Leader of Toyota as they became Japan’s largest company, and developer of the Prius.

Mark Zuckerberg (USA): Head of Facebook who made social media the center of many people’s lives.

 

Intellectuals and Influencers

 

Jimmy Wales (USA): Inventor of Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia.

Michael Pollan (USA): Author who investigates the relationship developed countries have with overly processed food and food culture for the future.

Thomas Piketty (France): Economist who provides the data behind concepts like income inequality, “the 1%”, and the “wealth tax”.

Ta-Nehisi Coates (USA): A leading voice on black identity and the continuing realities of systemic racism in America.

 

Artists and Icons

 

Ai Weiwei (China – exiled): Multidisciplinary sculptor, architect, painter, and filmmaker known for bold commentary with his pieces.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche (Nigeria): Representative of a new wave of globally-read African literature maturing beyond older postcolonial meditations.

Malala Yousafzai (Pakistan): Icon of women’s rights and especially girls’ education rights in oppressive countries.

Lin-Manuel Miranda (USA): Musician and author who wrote and performed Hamilton, creating a phenomenally popular impact on American theater, music, and culture.

100 Most Important People of the 20th Century

It's been twenty years, but now that the dust has settled somewhat, I think I can come up with an adequate list of the century's top innovators and outsized influencers.

Of course the trickiest inclusions are those towards the end of the decade. By 1999 Jeff Bezos wasn't yet a big deal, for example. Nor, more soberingly, was Osama bin Laden - even though both were active in the late 20th century. For this list, then, the impact had to be during the 20th century. Steve Jobs, for example, is on for the Macintosh - not for the iPhone of the 21st century.

And of course, although I hope this would be obvious, inclusion on the list doesn't mean you're a good person - Hitler was a key player of the 20^th century, but we all recognize that sometimes the most important people are also the most vile.

Finally, the entrants are divided into five categories, and then arranged (roughly) chronologically by the dates of their main accomplishments.

100 Most Important People of the 20^th Century

 

Politicians and Activists

 

Emmeline Pankhurst (UK): Leader of the British women’s suffrage movement.

Vladimir Lenin (Russia/USSR): Leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the USSR.

Mohandas Gandhi (India): Nonviolent advocate to end the British occupation of India.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (USA): President who ushered America through the Depression and World War II.

Adolph Hitler (Germany): Fascist dictator and force behind World War II and the Holocaust.

Winston Churchill (UK): Prime Minister during World War II and the early Cold War.

David Ben-Gurion (Israel): Modern advocate of Zionism and founder and leader of Israel.

Mao Zedong (China): Founder of the Chinese Communist Party and architect of the disastrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

Jawaharlal Nehru (India): India’s first post-independence leader who oversaw the Partition.

Faisal of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia): Monarch of Saudi Arabia as it modernized and developed its oil.

Dag Hammarskjold (Sweden): United Nations Secretary General largely responsible for the organization's  early successes.

Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam): Communist leader of North Vietnam whose fight led to French withdrawal.

Che Guevara (Argentina, Cuba): Guerrilla revolutionary in Cuba, Angola, and others.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (USA): Nonviolent pastor and American Civil Rights activist.

Ayatollah Khomeini (Iran): Cleric leader of the Iranian Revolution.

Ronald Reagan (USA): President who resuscitated conservative politics and economics in the west.

Lech Walesa (Poland): Labor leader who opposed Soviet influence in Eastern Europe, later President.

Liu Xiaobo (China): Dissident and democratic activist involved in Tiananmen Square.

Michael Gorbachev (USSR/Russia): Soviet leader whose reforms dismantled the USSR and helped end the Cold War.

Nelson Mandela (South Africa): Anti-Apartheid activist and first President of free South Africa.

 

Scientists and Inventors

 

Orville and Wilbur Wright (USA): Inventors of heavier-than-air flight.

Albert Einstein (Germany, USA, others): Physicist who developed the theory of relativity.

Leo Baekeland (Belgium): Chemist who made breakthroughs in developing plastic.

Edwin Hubble (USA): Astronomer who figured out there was a universe beyond the Milky Way galaxy.

Werner Heisenberg (Germany): Physicist who developed quantum mechanics.

Robert Goddard (USA): Invented the first practical liquid-fuel rocket.

Philo Farnsworth (USA): Invented the electrical television system.

Alexander Fleming (UK): Developed antibiotics with the discovery of penicillin.

Enrico Fermi (Italy, USA): Radiation physicist and developer of nuclear power.

Alan Turing (UK): Inventor of the modern programmable computer and AI theorist.

Jacques Cousteau (France): Marine explorer, educator, and conservationist, who helped develop the underwater breathing apparatus.

William Shockley (USA): One of the key inventors of the silicon microchip.

Jonas Salk and Maurice Hilleman (USA): Vaccinologists who developed the main vaccines of the century.

James Watson and Francis Crick (UK&USA): Discovered the structure of DNA, unlocking genetics research.

Louis and Mary Leakey (UK): Paleontologists who helped discover humanity’s origins in East Africa.

Jane Goodall (UK): Primatologist who pioneered new methods in field work and conservation.

Norman Borlaug (USA): Geneticist who increased global food security with the Green Revolution.

Rachel Carson (USA): Launched the environmental movement with improved understanding of ecology and the dangers of human meddling in the ecosystem.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins (USA): First humans to travel to the moon.

Tim Berners-Lee (UK): Invented the World Wide Web.

 

Magnates and Businesspeople

 

Willis Carrier (USA): Developed and marketed modern electrical air conditioning.

Henry Ford (USA): President of Ford Motors who developed the modern assembly line to make mass-market cars.

Amadeo Giannini (USA): Invented branch banking and began giving loans to regular customers.

Coco Chanel (France): Invented the boutique and helped launch the global fashion industry.

Walt Disney (USA): Created the Disney Company with innovations in media and tourism.

David Sarnoff (USA): Helped create broadcast television and oversaw many early milestones.

Juan Trippe (USA): Ushered in commercial air travel and the importance of jet aircraft.

Stephen Bechtel (USA): President of the Bechtel Corporation, building megaprojects from the Hoover Dam, to transit systems, to oil pipelines around the globe.

William Levitt (USA): Real estate developer who produced the suburban housing of America while spreading segregation.

Estee Lauder (USA): Launched the modern, scientifically-sound, cosmetics business.

Leo Burnett (USA): Created modern advertising by increasing the importance of visuals and branding.

Ray Kroc (USA): President of McDonalds who largely developed fast food culture.

Walter Reuther (USA): Labor leader who oversaw the period of America’s strongest union membership and used his clout to secure lots of liberal reforms.

Thomas Watson Jr. (USA): Leader of IBM during its key mid-century developments.

Charles Merrill (USA): President of Merrill-Lynch who got Americans to become shareholders, and to invest in Wall Street.

Akio Morita (Japan): Led Sony and oversaw the world of transistors and affordable electronic goods.

Steve Jobs (USA): Co-founder and President of Apple, launching the Macintosh.

Bill Gates (USA): Co-founder and President of Microsoft, developing the Windows operating system.

Sam Walton (USA): President of Walmart, who developed the box store and helped kill the mom-and-pop stores.

Rupert Murdoch (Australia, USA): International media mogul in newspapers, books, movies, and television.

 

Intellectuals and Influencers

 

Sigmund Freud (Austria, UK): Invented psychoanalysis and understanding of dreams, the subconscious, and mental health.

Margaret Mead (USA): Pioneering cultural anthropologist who fought predominating racist theories of the time.

Lewis Terman (USA): Developed the modern IQ test, and popularized the concepts of standardized testing and personality tests in general.

Margaret Sanger (USA): Activist, founder of Planned Parenthood, and educator who advocated safe abortions and birth control, and helped develop the contraceptive pill.

Kurt Gödel (Austria/Czechia, USA): Mathematician who developed the incompleteness theorems, landmarks in mathematics and logic.

John Maynard Keynes (UK): Economist who wove in vital safety nets into capitalist systems to avoid and ease economic disasters.

Jean Piaget (Switzerland): Created the field of child psychology, explaining the different developmental stages of a child’s mind and behaviors.

John von Neumann (Hungary, USA): Mathematical polymath who created game theory to explain human behavior in everything from economics to how we interact in social settings.

Simone de Beauvoir (France): Leader of the second-wave feminist movement for women’s civil rights.

Clark Kerr (USA): University administrator who oversaw the creation of ‘multiversity’ tiered education as a way meeting the growing demand for higher education, which was then copied around the globe.

Pope John XXIII (Italy): Oversaw the formation of the Second Vatican Council which introduced significant modern reforms into the Catholic Church.

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Austria, UK): Philosopher whose revolutionary work on language largely upended centuries of metaphysical philosophy.

Hannah Arendt (Germany, USA): Political philosopher who tried to understand the role of development of Nazism in Germany and “the banality of evil”.

Frantz Fanon (France): Author and advocate of decolonization and post-colonial culture and society.

Paulo Freire (Brazil): Educator who showed how formal systems of education can be made to not serve as systems of oppression, creating 'critical pedagogy'. 

John Rawls (USA): Political philosopher who made groundbreaking defenses of democratic systems.

Wangari Maathai (Kenya): Developed a successful NGO, the Green Belt Movement, that focused on sustainable land manage on a country-wide scale.

Noam Chomsky (USA): Pioneering linguist who helped bring down the then-widely influential theories of behaviorist psychology.

The XIV Dalai Lama (Tibet/China): Buddhist leader with global influence in peace movements and advocate for religious freedom, especially in China.

Jared Diamond (USA): Anthropologist and geographer who succinctly summarized why certain parts of the world developed complex civilization while others did not.

 

Artists and Icons

 

Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan (USA): Inspirational icons for disability education and rights.

Harry Houdini (Hungary, USA): Escape artist and illusionist who exposed spiritualists and psychics.

Pablo Picasso (Spain): Painter who developed Cubism and helped launch modern art.

Igor Stravinsky (Russia, France, USA): Modernist composer who redefined western classical music.

James Joyce (Ireland): Innovative novelist who created literary modernism.

Louis Armstrong (USA): Jazz pioneer and innovator which led to the blues and other musical forms.

Le Corbusier (Switzerland, France): Modern architect who revolutionized building design.

Charlie Chaplin (UK, USA): Silent film star and comedian who helped create and popularize Hollywood.

Jesse Owens (USA): Iconic Olympian who won four gold medals at the Berlin games in a triumph for black representation in sport.

Anne Frank (Netherlands): Teenage diarist who became an icon of the Holocaust.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (USA): Developed and popularized western musical theater.

The Beatles [John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr] (UK): Resuscitated rock music and introduced a new maturity of lyrics and form.

Andrei Sakharov (USSR): Dissident scientist who stood up to the Kremlin and the nuclear arms race.

Jim Henson (USA): Developed the idea of using children’s television as an educational medium.

Amitabh Bachchan (India): The king of Bollywood as it grew up from the Golden Era.

Pele (Brazil): Internationally renowned Brazilian football (soccer) star and record-holder.

Bruce Lee (USA, Hong Kong): Globally popularized martial arts and the Wuxia film genre.

Diana, Princess of Wales (UK): Beloved "People's Princess" who helped redefine British royalty.

Harvey Milk (USA): Iconic politician who represented and fought for gay rights.

Steven Spielberg (USA): Film director who invented the modern blockbuster, action-adventure films.

So there you have it! If I goofed, do let me know.