The period from 1900 to present, arguably, has been the most consequential in human history. From the explosion in population (1.5 billion in 1900 – over 8 billion now) to the revolution in literacy (20% in 1900 to 90% today), to the political legacies of fascism, communism, and colonialism and leaps and bounds in scientific development – it has been a wild 125 years. Who are the 125 folks that best represent those monumental developments?
These
people are grouped roughly chronologically, and in five categories: Politicians
& Activists, Scientists & Inventors, Magnates & Businesspeople,
Intellectuals & Influencers, and Artists & Icons. It is a modified
version of my lists from five years ago. Here, then, are 125 people / groups
who represent the biggest changes we’ve undergone, along with 10 honorable
mentions at the end.
Politicians
and Activists
THE
SUFFRAGIST
Emmeline
Pankhurst (UK): Leader of the British women’s suffrage movement, and
inspiration to others around the world.
THE
BOLSHEVIK
Vladimir
Lenin (Russia/USSR): Leader of the Russian Revolution which ended centuries of
autocracy, and founder of the USSR.
THE
PEACEFUL PROTESTOR
Mohandas
Gandhi (India): Nonviolent advocate to end the British occupation of India and
symbol of peace movements.
THE NEW
HOPE
Franklin
Delano Roosevelt (USA): President who ushered America through the Depression
and World War II.
THE
FASCIST
Adolph
Hitler (Germany): Fascist dictator and force behind World War II and the
Holocaust.
THE
DICTATOR
Jospeh
Stalin (USSR): Soviet premier who killed millions of his own people in purges
and famines, helped modernize the Soviet Union and win World War II, and
created a cult of personality.
THE
PRIME MINISTER
Winston
Churchill (UK): Prime Minister who got Britain to “keep calm and carry on” during
World War II and the positioned the nation as an ally during the early Cold
War.
THE
ZIONIST
David
Ben-Gurion (Israel): Modern advocate of Zionism, later the founder and first
leader of an independent Israel.
THE REVOLUTIONARY
Mao
Zedong (China): Founder of the Chinese Communist Party and architect of the
disastrous Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.
THE
FOUNDING FATHERS
Jawaharlal
Nehru and BR Ambedkar (India): India’s first post-independence leaders who
oversaw the Partition and a constitution that abolished caste discrimination.
THE
KING
Faisal
of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia): Monarch of Saudi Arabia as it modernized and
developed its oil industry.
THE
SECRETARY
Dag
Hammarskjold (Sweden): United Nations Secretary General largely responsible for
the organization's early successes.
THE
GUERRILLA
Ho Chi
Minh (Vietnam): Communist leader of North Vietnam whose fight led to French and
American withdrawal.
THE
CIVIL RIGHTS ICON
Martin
Luther King, Jr. (USA): Nonviolent pastor and American Civil Rights activist,
famed for his oration.
THE
FUNDMENTALIST
Ayatollah
Khomeini (Iran): Cleric leader of the Iranian Revolution which erased progress
and Westernization in Iran.
THE
MOVIE STAR
Ronald
Reagan (USA): President who resuscitated conservative politics and economics in
the west.
THE
STEADFAST
Lech
Walesa (Poland): Labor leader who opposed Soviet influence in Eastern Europe,
later President of free Poland.
THE DISSIDENT
Liu
Xiaobo (China): Dissident and democratic activist involved in Tiananmen Square,
representing Chinese hopes for freedom.
THE
MODERNIZER
Michael
Gorbachev (USSR/Russia): Soviet leader whose reforms dismantled the USSR and
helped end the Cold War.
THE
PRISONER
Nelson
Mandela (South Africa): Anti-Apartheid activist who spent 30 years in jail, and
was the first President of a free South Africa.
THE
TERRORIST
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.
THE
PARTY LEADER
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.
THE
DISRUPTER
Donald
Trump (USA): Derailed America both at home and abroad in a culmination of
far-right policies then imitated by strongmen around the globe from Hungary to
Brazil.
THE
COLD WARRIOR
Vladimir
Putin (Russia): Launched the war against Ukraine which led to global
disruption, a strengthening of NATO, and a wary Europe – ending two decades of
peace on the continent.
THE
THEOCRAT
Narendra
Modi (India): The Hindutva nationalist who steered his nation towards
increasing religious intolerance against Muslims, with widespread civil unrest
and violence becoming hallmarks of India during his reign.
Scientists
and Inventors
THE
FLIGHT PIONEERS
Orville
and Wilbur Wright, Robert Goddard, and Frank Whittle (USA & UK): Inventors
of heavier-than-air flight, the first practical liquid-fuel rocket, and the jet
engine – each a major revolution in transportation, and all in less than 30
years.
THE
GENIUS
Albert
Einstein (Germany, USA, others): Physicist who developed the theories of
relativity, radically altering our understanding of the universe.
THE
CHEMIST
Leo
Baekeland (Belgium): Chemist who made breakthroughs in developing plastic.
THE
EXPLORER
Roald
Amundsen (Norway): Polar explorer who first reached the South Pole, and one of,
if not the, first to reach the North Pole.
THE
ASTRONOMER
Edwin
Hubble (USA): Astronomer who figured out there was a universe beyond the Milky
Way galaxy.
THE
PHYSICIST
Werner
Heisenberg (Germany): Physicist who developed quantum mechanics, giving us vast
insight into the strange subatomic world.
THE
TINKERER
Philo
Farnsworth (USA): Invented the electrical television system.
THE
BIOLOGIST
Alexander
Fleming (UK): Developed antibiotics with the discovery of penicillin, saving
untold millions of lives.
THE
RADIATION PIONEERS
Marie
Curie & Enrico Fermi (Poland, France & Italy, USA): Radiation physicists
who discovered radioactive elements and developed nuclear power.
THE
WALKING DISASTER
Thomas
Midgely Jr. (USA): Put lead in gasoline – poisoning millions and dropping the
global IQ by millions of points – and then created Freon, which created the
hole in the ozone layer.
THE
PROGRAMMER
Alan
Turing (UK): Inventor of the modern programmable computer, and AI theorist.
THE
OCEAN EXPLORERS
Jacques
Cousteau and Marie Tharp (France & USA): Cousteau was a marine explorer,
educator, and conservationist, who helped develop the underwater breathing
apparatus, while Tharp studied the ocean floors to unlock the mystery of plate
tectonics.
THE COMPUTER
SCIENTISTS
William
Shockley and Robert Noyce (USA): Key inventors of the silicon microchip and
modern circuit boards, which transformed room-sized machines into desktops and
laptops.
THE
VACCINOLOGISTS
Jonas
Salk and Maurice Hilleman (USA): Vaccinologists who developed the main vaccines
of the century: polio, measles, mumps, hepatitis, and chickenpox.
THE
GENETICISTS
James
Watson and Francis Crick (UK & USA): Discovered the structure of DNA,
unlocking genetics research.
THE PREHISTORIANS
Louis
and Mary Leakey and Jane Goodall (UK): Paleontologists who helped discover
humanity’s origins in East Africa, and the primatologist who pioneered new
methods in field work and showed us how similar we are to our evolutionary
cousins.
THE
FARMER
Norman
Borlaug (USA): Geneticist who increased global food security with the Green
Revolution, saving tens of millions of lives.
THE
ENVIRONMENTALIST
Rachel
Carson (USA): Launched the environmental movement with improved understanding
of ecology and the dangers of human meddling in the ecosystem.
THE
ASTRONAUTS
Yuri Gagarin,
and Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins (Russia & USA): First
humans to travel to space and to the moon.
THE
WEBMASTER
Tim
Berners-Lee (UK): Invented the World Wide Web, fundamentally altering human
communication.
THE
GUIDING LIGHT
Shuji
Nakamura (Japan): Developed the blue LED light, which made modern electronic
screens possible, and was vastly more energy efficient than standard electric
bulbs.
THE
CLIMATE SCIENTIST
Klaus
Lackner (USA): Scientist exemplifying all those who are working on carbon
capture technology, and other ideas, to reverse climate change.
THE
CRYPTO BRO
“Satoshi
Nakamoto” (Japan?): Unknown identity who implemented the previously theoretical
blockchain technology and launched bitcoin.
THE
GENE SPLICERS
Jennifer
Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier (USA & France): Geneticists who unlocked
the enormous power of CRISPR-CAS9 gene editing.
THE
CODER
Geoffrey
Hinton (USA): Hailed as the ‘Godfather’ of AI, Hinton did much of the research
that made the AI breakthrough possible.
Magnates
and Businesspeople
THE
KING OF COOL
Willis
Carrier (USA): Developed and marketed modern electrical air conditioning,
allowing for climate control from homes to computer banks, and from
submersibles to the space station.
THE
INDUSTRIALIST
Henry
Ford (USA): President of Ford Motors who developed the modern assembly line to
make mass-market cars.
THE
BANKER
Amadeo
Giannini (USA): Invented branch banking and began giving loans to regular
customers.
THE
FASHION ICON
Coco
Chanel (France): Invented the boutique and helped launch the global fashion
industry.
THE OIL
MEN
Fred,
Charles, and David Koch (USA): Fred Koch revolutionized the oil business back
in the 1930s, which his sons inherited – along with his arch-conservativism –
creating America’s second largest private business.
THE
ENTERTAINER
Walt
Disney (USA): Created the Disney Company with innovations ranging from
animation and nature documentaries, to theme parks and tourism.
THE
JET-SETTER
Juan
Trippe (USA): Ushered in commercial air travel and the importance of jet
aircraft.
THE
BUILDER
Stephen
Bechtel (USA): President of the Bechtel Corporation, building megaprojects from
the Hoover Dam to transit systems, to oil pipelines around the globe.
THE
DEVELOPER
William
Levitt (USA): Real estate developer who produced the suburban housing of
America while spreading segregation with redlining.
THE
BEAUTICIAN
Estee
Lauder (USA): Launched the modern, scientifically-sound and safe, cosmetics
business.
THE
AD-MAN
Leo
Burnett (USA): Created modern advertising by increasing the importance of
visuals, mascots, and branding.
THE
FAST-FOOD KING
Ray
Kroc (USA): President of McDonalds who largely developed fast food and
drive-thru culture, with terrible health and climate repercussions.
THE
UNION REP
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.
THE
CORPORATE INNOVATOR
Thomas
Watson Jr. (USA): Leader of IBM during its key mid-century developments, both
in technology and modern corporate culture.
THE
INSURER
Charles
Merrill (USA): President of Merrill-Lynch who got Americans to become
shareholders, and to invest in Wall Street.
THE
ELECTRICIAN
Akio
Morita (Japan): Led Sony and oversaw the world of transistors and affordable
electronic goods.
THE
I.T. GUY
Bill
Gates (USA): Co-founder and President of Microsoft, developing the Windows
operating system.
THE
GAMER
Shigeru
Miyamoto (Japan): The game designer and force behind the success of Nintendo –
which became a juggernaut in the multibillion-dollar world of gaming.
THE
PRICE CUTTER
Sam
Walton (USA): President of Walmart, who developed the box store and helped kill
the mom-and-pop stores.
THE
FIREBRAND
Rupert
Murdoch (Australia, USA): International conservative media mogul in newspapers,
books, movies, and television.
THE
STARTUP
Jeff
Bezos (USA): Leader of Amazon which in the early decades of the 21st
century exploded into one of the world’s largest and most influential
corporations.
THE
TECH GURU
Steve
Jobs (USA): Launched Macintosh in the 80s, and then revamped Apple’s image with
the iPod, followed by the first widespread touchscreen smartphone – the iPhone.
THE MAD
SCIENTIST
Elon
Musk (South Africa, Canada, USA): Erratic billionaire in charge of SpaceX,
Tesla, Twitter, and the largest array of satellites in the world.
THE CAR
SALESMAN
Takeshi
Uchiyamada (Japan): Leader of Toyota as they became Japan’s largest company,
and developer of the Prius – the first significant shift away from gas cars to
hybrid and electric.
THE
INFLUENCER
Mark
Zuckerberg (USA): Head of Facebook who made social media the center of many
people’s lives.
Intellectuals
and Influencers
THE
PSYCHOLOGIST
Sigmund
Freud (Austria, UK): Invented psychoanalysis and understanding of dreams, the
subconscious, and mental health.
THE
ANTHROPOLOGISTS
Margaret
Mead and Franz Boas (USA): Pioneering cultural anthropologists who fought
predominating racist theories of the time as well as the idea of ‘primitive’
cultures.
THE
TESTER
Lewis
Terman (USA): Developed the modern IQ test, and popularized the concepts of
standardized testing and personality tests in general.
THE
ACTIVIST
Margaret
Sanger (USA): Activist, founder of Planned Parenthood, and educator who
advocated safe abortions and birth control, and helped develop the
contraceptive pill.
THE
MATHEMATICIAN
Kurt
Gödel (Austria/Czechia, USA): Mathematician who developed the incompleteness
theorems, landmarks in mathematics and logic.
THE
TEETOTALER
Bill
Wilson (USA): Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, who began shifting cultural
norms towards understanding addiction as a disease and not a character flaw or
failing.
THE
ECONOMIST
John
Maynard Keynes (UK): Economist who wove in vital safety nets into capitalist
systems to avoid and ease economic disasters.
THE
NUTURER
Jean
Piaget (Switzerland): Created the field of child psychology, explaining the
different developmental stages of a child’s mind and behaviors.
THE
POLYMATH
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.
THE
FEMINIST
Simone
de Beauvoir (France): Leader of the second-wave feminist movement for women’s
civil rights.
THE
EDUCATOR
Clark
Kerr (USA): University administrator who oversaw the creation of tiered
education as a way meeting the growing demand for higher education, which was
then copied around the globe.
THE
REFORMER
Pope
John XXIII (Italy): Oversaw the formation of the Second Vatican Council which
introduced significant modern reforms into the Catholic Church.
THE
PHILOSOPHER
Ludwig
Wittgenstein (Austria, UK): Philosopher whose revolutionary work on language
largely upended centuries of metaphysical philosophy.
THE INQUISITOR
Hannah
Arendt (Germany, USA): Political philosopher who tried to understand the role
of development of Nazism in Germany and “the banality of evil”.
THE
INDIGNANT
Frantz
Fanon (France): Author and advocate of decolonization who influenced global
post-colonial culture and society.
THE
PEDAGOGUE
Paulo
Freire (Brazil): Educator who showed how formal systems of education can be
made to not serve as systems of oppression, creating 'critical pedagogy'.
THE POLITICAL
THEORIST
John
Rawls (USA): Political philosopher who made groundbreaking defenses of
democratic systems.
THE
ECOLOGIST
Wangari
Maathai (Kenya): Developed a successful NGO, the Green Belt Movement, that
focused on sustainable land manage on a country-wide scale.
THE
SPIRITUAL GUIDE
The XIV
Dalai Lama (Tibet/China): Buddhist leader with global influence in peace
movements and advocate for religious freedom, especially in China.
THE
GEOGRAPHER
Jared
Diamond (USA): Anthropologist and geographer who succinctly summarized why
certain parts of the world developed complex civilization while others did not
– ending centuries of misguided Western theories of superiority.
THE
ENCYCLOPEDIST
Jimmy
Wales (USA): Inventor of Wikipedia, who maintains the free online encyclopedia
rather than selling out.
THE
FOODIE
Michael
Pollan (USA): Author who investigates the relationship developed countries have
with overly processed food and food culture for the future.
THE
TAXMAN
Thomas
Piketty (France): Economist who provides the data behind concepts like income
inequality, “the 1%”, and the “wealth tax”.
THE
ESSAYIST
Ta-Nehisi
Coates (USA): A leading voice on black identity and the continuing realities of
systemic racism in America in the 21st century.
THE
QUEENS
RuPaul
and Laverne Cox (USA): The drag and transgender stars who have brought
visibility to their communities, leading to increasing tolerance and
acceptance.
Artists
and Icons
THE
TENACIOUS
Helen
Keller and Anne Sullivan (USA): Inspirational icons for disability education
and rights.
THE
MAGICIAN
Harry
Houdini (Hungary, USA): Escape artist and illusionist who exposed spiritualists
and psychics.
THE
PAINTER
Pablo
Picasso (Spain): Painter who developed Cubism and helped launch modern art.
THE
COMPOSER
Igor
Stravinsky (Russia, France, USA): Modernist composer who redefined western
classical music.
THE
NOVELIST
James
Joyce (Ireland): Innovative novelist who created literary modernism.
THE
BANDLEADER
Louis
Armstrong (USA): Jazz pioneer and innovator which led to the blues and other
musical forms.
THE
ARCHITECTS
Le
Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Switzerland, France & Germany, USA):
Modern architects who revolutionized building design with their international
styles.
THE
ACTOR
Charlie
Chaplin (UK, USA): Silent film star and comedian who helped create and
popularize Hollywood.
THE
OLYMPIAN
Jesse
Owens (USA): Iconic Olympian who won four gold medals at the Berlin games in a
triumph for black representation in sport.
THE DIARIST
Anne
Frank (Netherlands): Teenage diarist who became an icon of the Holocaust.
THE
MUSIC MEN
Richard
Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (USA): Developed and popularized western
musical theater – especially Broadway.
THE
ROCK N ROLLERS
Chuck
Berry and The Beatles [John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo
Starr] (USA & UK): Created rock music and then resuscitated the genre,
while introducing a new maturity of lyrics and form.
THE
DISSIDENT
Andrei
Sakharov (USSR): Dissident scientist who stood up to the Kremlin and the
nuclear arms race, and who worked to scale back nuclear proliferation.
THE TV
STAR
Jim
Henson (USA): Developed the idea of using children’s television – and puppetry
– as a data-driven early childhood educational medium.
THE
MOVIE STAR
Amitabh
Bachchan (India): The king of Bollywood as it grew up from the Golden Era.
THE
FOOTBALLER
Pele
(Brazil): Internationally renowned Brazilian football (soccer) star and
record-holder.
THE
MARITAL ARTIST
Bruce
Lee (USA, Hong Kong): Globally popularized martial arts and the Wuxia film
genre.
THE
PRINCESS
Diana,
Princess of Wales (UK): Beloved "People's Princess" who helped
redefine British royalty.
THE GAY
ICON
Harvey
Milk (USA): Iconic politician who fought for gay rights and representation.
THE
DIRECTOR
Steven
Spielberg (USA): Film director who invented the modern blockbuster,
action-adventure films.
THE
ICONOCLAST
Ai
Weiwei (China – exiled): Multidisciplinary sculptor, architect, painter, and
filmmaker known for bold commentary with his pieces.
THE NEW
VOICE
Chimamanda
Ngozi Adiche (Nigeria): Representative of a new wave of globally read African
literature maturing beyond older postcolonial meditations.
THE
WOMEN’S WARRIOR
Malala
Yousafzai (Pakistan): Icon of women’s rights and especially girls’ education
rights in oppressive countries.
THE POP
STAR
Taylor
Swift (USA): The musical icon who has shattered all the previous records, and
become a phenomenon of early 21st century singer-songwriting.
THE
GOAT
Simone
Biles (USA): Highly decorated Olympic gymnast, who has used her platform to
draw attention to how we treat the physical and mental health of athletes.
Honorable
Mentions
THE
CONSERVATIONIST
John
Muir (USA): The National Parks were a radical idea, and one which straddles the
late 19th and early 20th centuries, championed, in large
part, by Muir.
THE
SCOUTS
Robert
and Agnes Baden-Powell (UK): The brother-sister duo invented the Boy Scouts,
and the Girl Scouts, respectively – encouraging a new type of civic engagement,
and beloved by millions.
THE
LAST MAN
Ishi
(Yahi): The native man who emerged from the wilderness into modern civilization
– exemplar of a vanishing group of isolated peoples.
THE
BROADCASTER
David
Sarnoff (USA): Began in radio, before helping create broadcast television and
overseeing many early milestones as head of RCA and NBC.
THE
DANCER
Martha
Graham (USA): The founder of modern dance, which transformed the art form.
THE
SELFIE ARTIST
Frida
Kahlo (Mexico): The now-iconic painter challenged her viewers with her steady stare,
and allowed us to see her inner conflicts laid bare.
THE REBEL
Che
Guevara (Argentina, Cuba): Guerrilla revolutionary in Cuba, Angola, and others,
he became a symbol of communist revolutions.
THE
WORDSMITH
Noam
Chomsky (USA): Pioneering linguist who helped bring down the then-widely
influential theories of behaviorist psychology.
THE
STEADY HAND
Angela
Merkel (Germany): Led the fledgling European Union through many of its
stormiest crises.
THE
BROADWAY STAR
Lin-Manuel
Miranda (USA): Musician and author who wrote and performed Hamilton, creating a
phenomenally popular impact on American theater, music, and culture during the
2010s.
