may I nominate Adolf Hitler? Just kidding :)

He's already on the list. He certainly was influential to the world.

He'd HAVE to be on the list, damn bastard, he's arguably Top 10 in the last century for influence, both direct and indirect.

So who's that "Ali," which one, and then let's add the names on the waiting list (with Madonna on it...oh well, can't win 'em all...hopefully she doesn't go too high or I might have an annuerism) and cast 3 more votes.

Thhat's 3 more each, to try and get to 100, as we're at 58 right now and those names will take us to about the 70s-touching 80 mark, just about.

Alright:

Picasso
Ben Franklin

Saving my third incase I think of someone epic.

"Final 4:
Alexander (the GREAT)
Peter (the GREAT)
Cyrus (the GREAT)
Catherine (the GREAT)

These are the only 4 people in history who are now named first name the great. So by that logic are the 4 greatest."

You missed Alfred the Great...

And The Great Houdini

And The Great Gatsby.

And Gregory the Great, Leo the Great, Albert the Great, Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus=Charles the Great),

And The Great Wall of China.

Oh, wait...

Giotto

Hammurabi
Moses
Homer
Sun Tzu
Confucius
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Alexander the Great
Euclid
Caesar
Augustus
Jesus
Trajan
Mohammed
Xuanzong
Athelstan the Glorious
William the Conqueror
Richard I
Gengis Khan
Edward I
Marco Polo
Edward III
Henry V
Babur
Leonardo Da Vinci
Michaelangelo
Copernicus
Martin Luther
Galileo Galilei
Elizabeth I
Shakespeare
Isaac Newton
William III
Zumbi
William Penn
Rousseau
Robespierre
Adam Smith
Benjamin Franklin
Washington
John Marshall
Mozart
Napoleon Bonaparte
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Shaka Zulu
Charles Darwin
Sitting Bull
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nikola Tesla
Henry Ford
Marie Curie
Karl Marx
Fydor Dyostoevsky
Gandhi
Vladimir Lenin
Winston Churchill
Pablo Picasso
Albert Einstein
Alexander Fleming
Ernest Hemmingway
Francisco Franco
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Adolph Hitler
Erwin Rommel
Josef Stalin
Salvador Dali
Augusto Pinochet
William Burroughs
Nelson Mandela
Pope John Paul II
Arthur C. Clarke
Madonna

My two votes up there now are Elizabeth I and Aristotle (to join Plato and Socrates for that "Holy Trinity of Greek Philosophy") and I'll save my last pick for later.

73 now up there, so that leave 27 to be added.

When we start, each person will start with 3 or 1 , whichever, and we'll vote until someone hits 100 to win it, and then see the rankings.

Ali is the person who comes up in Wikipedia if you type "Ali."

I will suggest three more people:

Dante Alighieri
Athanasius of Alexandria
Ludwig Feuerbach

Can someone tell me, of all the Popes, what John Paul II did that was so important?

@obiwan: where are the people I nominated?

Specifically, where's Emperor Wu?

sargon of akkad

A few nominations:

Umar ibn al-Khattab (the second Caliph, far more historically important and IMHO more interesting than Ali)
Timur i-Lenk (greatest mass murderer of the pre-modern world. While the Ghengisid Mongols as a whole probably killed more people, that was done under a series of leaders and campaigns spanning many decades)
Hernan Cortez
John Brown (the anti-government terrorist)
Ibn Battuta (the Muslim Marco Polo, but without all the lying)

I suspect John Paul II was picked because of his anti-communist agitating, which did much to break Communism's grip over Eastern Europe.

@pastoralan:

I added most of them, I think...I think I left a few off because I wasn't sure which, went on Wikipedia and there were a BUNCH of "Emperor Wus," so...

Maybe give me the dates...? Who else besides he and Ali is missing (nad I think you nominated a bunch anyway, and the limit was really 5, but whatever.)

@abgemacht:

...

I don't know, I think he did some peace...stuff...or something, he was influential enough that it was a big deal when he died for a bit, some folks were talking about even making him a saint...so he must've done something, but I'm NOT AT ALL one who would know...does anyone...?

Sargon
Hammurabi
Moses
Homer
Sun Tzu
Confucius
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Alexander the Great
Euclid
Caesar
Augustus
Jesus
Trajan
Athanasius
Mohammed
Ali
Xuanzong
Athelstan the Glorious
William the Conqueror
Dante
Richard I
Gengis Khan
Edward I
Marco Polo
Edward III
Henry V
Babur
Leonardo Da Vinci
Michaelangelo
Copernicus
Martin Luther
Galileo Galilei
Elizabeth I
Shakespeare
Isaac Newton
William III
Zumbi
William Penn
Rousseau
Robespierre
Adam Smith
Benjamin Franklin
Washington
John Marshall
Mozart
Napoleon Bonaparte
Ludwig Feuerbach
Carl Friedrich Gauss
Shaka Zulu
Charles Darwin
Sitting Bull
Friedrich Nietzsche
Nikola Tesla
Henry Ford
Marie Curie
Karl Marx
Fydor Dyostoevsky
Gandhi
Vladimir Lenin
Winston Churchill
Pablo Picasso
Albert Einstein
Alexander Fleming
Ernest Hemmingway
Francisco Franco
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Adolph Hitler
Erwin Rommel
Josef Stalin
Salvador Dali
Augusto Pinochet
William Burroughs
Nelson Mandela
Pope John Paul II
Arthur C. Clarke
Madonna

77 down, 23 left...

@Tolstoy:

Don't you think John Brown's maybe a weak pick? Just an abolitionist and anti-government fighter in his say, he affected only America, and even that impact...well, ABE LINCOLN still isn't on the list, or Teddy R. or Tommy J., don't you think this fellow's a bit...by comparison...?

Actually, though, you raised the issue of terrorism...

Is Osama bin Laden a potential candidate? As much as I'd love to crack his head with a Louisville slugger, second only to Hitler in that regard, he HAS affected the world immensely with his evil...?

By the way, good nod to Hernando Cotez, hugely important figure, he, Pizzao, and Columbus for "discovering" the wole thing and starting the migration invasion (for whites, more of the former, for the natives...)

@obiwan

Brown isn't that weak of a pick. There is strong evidence that after Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, the Civil War was inevitable. Many historians say there could have been a peaceful resolution up to that point. After, no. I would say that the American Civil War was noteworthy in world history.

William Wilberforce - for getting slave trade stopped?

Still, even if we accept that:

Bigger than Abe Lincoln?
Teddy Roosevelt?
Thomas Jefferson?
Dwight Eisenhower (WORLD IMPLICATIONS THERE...)
Eleanor Roosevelt?

For starters, just in America...I just don't think he's worthy with all those biugger figures left out so far, sort of like if you have Rodney King on their but not Martin Luther King (ANOTHER person who I think deserves the spot, and FAR MORE than Brown, for all he might've done.)



On a side note, what about Magellan, The wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong, Columbus...not really any explorers yet...

Well, certainly he's more important than Clarke and Madonna. Plus, Columbus has almost no business being on this list. Many, many more explorers did more than he.

I picked John Brown because I think in addition to being very important in American history, he was a very interesting figure - the poster child for single-minded fanaticism in the service of a just and worthy cause not necessarily having the best results. He'll definitely be a pick for me when you start a "Five people from history you'd like to have coffee with" thread.

Certainly more interesting than the hypocritical racist empty-suit railroad lawyer/lobbyist guy...

"Eleanor Roosevelt?"

Good God. Whatever did Eleanor Roosevelt do to justify even a suggestion for nomination to the list? And while Ike was the only 20th century President I liked and seemed to be a capable military leader, I certainly can't see him landing on a "100 greatest" list. I really don't think the world would be a dramatically different place if he'd died in childhood, a claim which should be makeable for anyone placing on a list like this.

But look at the criteria, interst is #4.

IMPORTANCE and INFLUENCE...

Do they even KNOW who Brown is in England?
The rest of Europe?
South America?
Asia?

Just saying...and, again, like them or call them robbers, those Presidents DID a LOT MORE...and then Columbus I suggest not due to what he did, but what came from what he did, he really jump started the whole race to the Americas.

You don't think the world would've been drastically different without IKE?

...

D-DAY???
SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER???

I mean, we have ROMMEL up there and he LOST...