GOORAMA!

Kung Fu superstar Bruce Lee was more than just a martial artist, more than just an actor and entertainer. He was a pioneer who trained in both striking and grappling, in standing and ground fighting, in an era when most martial artists only focused on one area. He was the first to use modern, progressive training methods, didn’t rely on tradition, and emphasized physical fitness, which was not always common in the martial arts community. He became an international icon and managed to enter the houses of millions around the world and popularized Asian martial arts in the West more than any other martial artist in history. He became the idol of countless kids around the globe during the sixties and seventies, and his legend continues to gain many fans from today’s younger generations, over forty years after his death. Recently, the most powerful man of Mixed Martial Arts and the UFC’s president, Dana White, stated that Bruce Lee has influenced the fastest-growing sport in the world more than anyone else and called him the “father of MMA.”

George Washington, considered by historians to be one of the most significant and prominent American figures in history, was the first president of the United States and one of its founding fathers. He was also the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and contributed the most to the country’s freedom, perhaps except for Thomas Jefferson, who penned the Declaration of Independence. He was also one of the men who helped replace the outdated Articles of Confederation with the Constitution, which remains the supreme law of the nation. According to MIT, he’s the most influential and famous American president even though his general rank here is quite disappointing.

We have no doubt that if this list’s standard and measure of greatness was children’s love from around the world then Walt Disney would have the top spot. The man who gave birth to some of the most adored cartoon characters in all animation, including Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, is the most influential and effective businessperson of all time and we can’t argue much with their logic on this one. Walt Disney holds the record for winning the most Academy Awards with twenty-two, but the most important thing he achieved is a business empire based on the visions of his creative imagination. And since his time his characters have been entertaining millions of people, young and old, all around the world, regardless of their socioeconomic background, religious beliefs, skin color, or nationality.

His overall rank is quite disappointing especially if one takes into account his immense contributions to humankind and how his remarkable discoveries have prevented illness and saved the lives of millions since his day, but in a society that values wealth, political power, entertainment, and technology more than science and its life-altering breakthroughs, the “father of microbiology” is ranked only at number 146, even though he gets the nod as the most influential chemist in history. He’s best remembered for inventing the process of pasteurization that is named after him and has helped billions of babies around the world to grow up healthy by drinking fresh milk without bacteria.

Marilyn Monroe is widely considered to be the most famous sex symbol in the world and one of the very first globally known female celebrities in history. Her legacy and incomparable influence on the entertainment world can be traced to the simple fact that a long list of female celebrities have tried to imitate or impersonate her look and sex appeal. Whether in photos, TV shows, or music videos these women, including Madonna, Britney Spears, Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, Lindsay Lohan, Scarlett Johansson, Paris Hilton, and Jennifer Lopez, to name just a few, cannot hold a candle to the charm and personality of the original. In 2009, TV Guide Network named her Film’s Sexiest Woman of All Time, while People magazine classified her as the most powerful female pop cultural icon of the twentieth century. Even more surprising, according to MIT’s study she’s the most popular and influential actor of all time, beating even the male giants of the big screen Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, James Dean, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino, among many others.

Imhotep was an Egyptian polymath who excelled in various fields of human activity, particularly architecture and engineering. He was the designer and architect of the astonishing Pyramid of Djoser, which was built in the 27th century BCE for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser. According to the available archaeological findings, this is the very first Egyptian pyramid and stood 62 meters (203 ft) tall when first built, an incredibly high architectural creation for its time and after. During his lifetime, Imhotep earned many honors and titles of a social and religious character which no other commoner had attained before including Chancellor of the King of Egypt, First in Line after the King of Upper Egypt, High Priest of Heliopolis, and Administrator of the Great Palace. He was one of very few people in Egyptian history who achieved a divine status after his death though he was born a commoner.

The handsome Argentine doctor with an aristocratic heritage who ended up a revolutionary, a guerrilla leader, a diplomat, Fidel Castro’s right-hand man, and a dominant figure in the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, ranks ahead of other towering activists such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., due to his immense popularity among teenagers and students around the world. His incredibly famous photo, Guerrillero Heroico, which appears on this list, has been cited by the Maryland Institute College of Art and Time magazine as the most famous photograph in the world and has simultaneously made Che Guevara a global symbol of rebellion and popular culture. A strange combination, indeed.

Charles Darwin was an English polymath who studied several sciences during his lifetime but it was his theory of evolution by natural selection, the foundation of modern evolutionary studies, which gave him the legacy of being one of history’s most famous scientists ever. Darwin was an agnostic, a fact that had a pivotal influence on his thinking, and he shocked the strict, religious Victorian society of his day by suggesting a completely different theory from that of the Bible (Creationism in Genesis), noting that animals and humans share a common ancestry. His secular, even anti-Christian, beliefs in the biological roots of humankind and its evolution frustrated and appalled the masses, who were easily manipulated by Church authority and dogma, but his ideas surprisingly appealed to the upper classes and other professional scientists, who saw Darwin as a rebel and a new icon of free thinking. Whether you agree or disagree with his theories, Darwin is considered one of the most influential figures in human history, according to MIT’s research.

Way before Eleanor Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis, Rosalynn Carter, Hillary Clinton, and Michelle Obama, there was Nefertiti. Make no mistake, Nefertiti was a queen consort, which meant that she was the wife of a reigning king, and so she can’t be compared with the likes of Cleopatra, Elizabeth I of England, and the Byzantine empress Irene of Athens. She was what we would define today as a first lady. However, Nefertiti’s power and influence on her husband Akhenaten, the Egyptian pharaoh, was immense and many historians believe that she was the one who commanded the ancient Kingdom of Egypt and made every major decision behind the scenes. Her historical influence was highly appreciated by MIT’s study, which named her the most famous companion of all time and the second-most-famous female of all time behind that other great woman of Egypt, Cleopatra.

Hippocrates of Kos, as he is better known in medical circles, was an ancient Greek physician who’s widely considered to be the father of Western medicine and the one who established medicine as a profession. He was the founder of the famous Hippocratic School of Medicine that helped to revolutionize medicine in the ancient world. Hippocrates laid the foundation for modern medicine with his methods and teachings (ground-breaking and radical for his time), while his immense influence can be traced to the oath that every doctor, nurse, and physician’s assistant has been taking for many years all over the Western World, the Hippocratic Oath. Some historians believe that the oath was written by Hippocrates himself or one of his students.

The ancient Greek historian from Halicarnassus was the first historian to gather together his materials consistently and methodically, and then to organize and report them into a historiographical narrative. For this reason he is regarded as the “Father of History” and the one who elevated history as a subject to a social science. Even if you’re not a fan of history, you should still be thankful to Herodotus for being the man who investigated and recorded the Greco-Persian Wars in his masterpiece The Histories, which heavily inspired Frank Miller and Zack Snyder to produce one of the best graphic novels and war films, respectively, in contemporary history: 300.

They called him the “Father of Modern Science,” the “Father of Modern Physics,” and ultimately the “Father of Modern Observational Astronomy,” but Galileo Galilei was more than just a great scientist and astronomer; he was a rebel. He was the one who popularized the theory of many ancient Greek thinkers and scientists such as Philolaus, Aristarchus of Samos, and Hypatia, that the Earth revolves around a relatively stationary sun at the center of the solar system, which put him in serious trouble because the irrational authority of the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church persecuted him and tried him for his “radical” and “satanic” ideas and teachings. He is best remembered for saying one of the most iconic quotes in history during his trial: “And yet it moves,” referring to the Earth.

To some people Christopher Columbus is a hero, the greatest explorer who ever lived, and the major figure who started the European colonization of the New World, while other people consider him nothing but an invader who spread the Christian religion to the indigenous tribes of America at any cost. One way or another, Columbus is widely regarded as the founder of what we know and define today as the United States of America and his influence on history, good or bad, is unquestionable since he had the most significant role in the European exploration, conquest, and colonization of America.

Even though most people consider Michelangelo just a painter, the truth is that the second-most-influential artist of the Renaissance behind Leonardo da Vinci was also an excellent sculptor and architect with the ultimate masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, David, to his name. However, most of us know him as one of the greatest painters who ever lived, if not the greatest, and rightfully when one considers that the Sistine Chapel ceiling, The Crucifixion of St. Peter, and The Conversion of Saul among other masterpieces are his creations.

The most famous child prodigy in history is also, according to MIT research, the most influential and popular composer in history. He started making music and composing at the age of five and by the time of his death, only thirty years later, he had already composed over 600 works. His compositions continue to influence Western music even today and another great composer of the classical period, Joseph Haydn, wrote that posterity will not see such a talent again for 100 years, a false statement after all, since posterity hasn’t seen such a talent for over 220 years since the death of the great Amadeus Mozart.

Archimedes was a Greek mathematician and inventor among other things, who is rightfully considered one of the most brilliant minds of all time and the “godfather of invention.” His contributions to geometry revolutionized the subject and his methods influenced every mathematician and inventor who followed including Leonardo da Vinci, Newton, and Leibniz. He combined a genius for mathematics with insights into the nature of the physical universe, a mix that produced the foundations of hydrostatics, statics, and the explanation of the principle of the lever as well as many innovative machines, including siege engines and the screw pump that is named after him.

The immense influence and impact of Homer on the world can be traced to the simple fact that his two masterpieces, The Iliad and The Odyssey, have been read, studied, and spread by countless millions of people throughout the centuries in schools, universities, and Hollywood films and TV shows. The ancient Greek poetic giant, who made the “immortal” figures Achilles, Paris, and Odysseus famous through his epics, ranks ahead of William Shakespeare and Dante Alighieri as the greatest writerwho ever lived according to MIT.

Leonardo da Vinci’s name is equated with genius and the cultural movement of the Renaissance, from where he got the nickname “Renaissance Man.” However, it’s really hard to define da Vinci’s actual profession since he mastered way too many things during his lifetime from sculpture to painting, architecture to music, mathematics to anatomy, and engineering among others. He was without a doubt the most diversely talented man of his time and many historians believe that a mind and personality like his comes only once every thousand years. Because of the multiple interests that spurred him to pursue various fields of knowledge, da Vinci is widely considered the archetype of the term genius and the greatest inventor who ever lived.

Alexander the Great is without a doubt one of the greatest military generals who ever lived and his empire was one of the biggest the ancient world ever knew. He remained undefeated on the battlefield until his death and he was the man who spread Greek culture and civilization to the biggest part of the then-known world. He founded over twenty cities which were named after him, most notably Alexandria in Egypt, and he is one of the very few human beings who managed to start and mark a whole era of human history: the Hellenistic period. He became the absolute standard and measure of greatness for many military leaders who followed and his name remains synonymous with dominance.

Jesus Christ is not the most influential or popular figure in history according to MIT but, with a global population of over 7 billion, only 2 billion of which are Christian, this shouldn’t surprise us. Still Jesus is the most famous religious figure in history ahead of Moses and Muhammad but third overall behind Aristotle and Plato, who seem to have influenced more people throughout the centuries mainly because their ideas and lessons were not restricted by religious faith.

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher from Stagirus, northern Greece, who was born in 384 BCE. He’s widely considered one of the three greatest philosophers of all time, along with Socrates and Plato, while his teachings and theories migrated across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East through the conquests of his most famous student, Alexander the Great. He’s one of the very few historical figures who enjoys great respect and immense popularity on every continent and has been revered in Judaism, Christian theology, and Islam, where most Muslim intellectuals refer to him as “The First Teacher.” According to MIT’s research, he is the most influential human being who ever lived, while his teachings and theories are considered the most effective on a global scale regardless of religion, location, sex, class, or race. Did you learn something new from our “25 most influential people” list? If so, you may also like these 25 Strange Facts From History You Probably Didn’t Learn In School
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