A list of people who were influential in changing the world during the 20th Century.
Top 100
- Winston Churchill – Leader of Great Britain during World War Two
- Adolf Hitler – Leader of Nazi Germany 1933-45
- Nelson Mandela – First President of post-apartheid South Africa
- Joseph Stalin – Leader of Soviet Union from 1924 to 1953
- Martin Luther King – Prominent Civil rights activist in the US
- Queen Elizabeth II – British monarch from 1950s onwards.
- Mikhail Gorbachev – Leader of Soviet Union from 1985-91. Oversaw transition to democracy and collapse of Berlin Wall.
- Woodrow Wilson – US President during First World War and supporter of The League of Nations.
- Chairman Mao – Leader of Communist China and instigator of Cultural Revolution.
- Mother Teresa – Humanitarian and charity worker
- Bill Gates – Founder of Microsoft
- Nikola Tesla (1856 –1943) Serbian/American physicist – Prolific inventor and developed AC electric current.
- Tim Berners Lee – Inventor of the world wide web
- Princess Diana – Wife of Prince Charles and noted humanitarian worker.
- Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) Scottish biologist who discovered penicillin.
- Boris Yeltsin – First Russian leader of the post-Communist era.
- Margaret Thatcher First female Prime Minister of UK during 1980s
- Charles de Gaulle – Leader of Free French forces in WWII and President in 1960s.
- George Orwell – Political writer. Famous for Animal Farm and 1984.
- John M Keynes – Revolutionary economist advocating government intervention to end depressions.
- Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)The co-founder of Apple Computers, and a leading exponent of the personal computer revolution.
- Konrad Adenauer – First leader of Germany after fall of Hitler’s regime.
- Mahatma Gandhi – Leader of Indian independence movement.
- Albert Einstein – Scientist whose theory of relativity paved the way for the atomic bomb.
- Ataturk – Father of modern Turkey.
- Pablo Picasso – Influential twentieth-century artists.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt – US President during 1930s and WWII
- Pope John Paul II – High profile pope during 1980s and 1990s.
- Mohammed Ali – Boxer and figure for civil rights movement.
- Ronald Reagan (1911 – 2004) – US President ’80 – ’88.
- Aung San Suu Kyi – Leader of Burmese opposition.
- John F. Kennedy – US president 1961-63 until his assassination.
- Wright Brothers – made first aeroplane flight in 1903.
- Lyndon Johnson – US president 1963-68 introduced civil rights legislation.
- Indira Gandhi – Indian female Prime Minister
- Eva Peron – First lady of Argentina
- Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 – 1969) – Allied commander, and US President
- Benazir Bhutto – Pakistan PM
- Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) US President during ‘Progressive Era ’01-’09.
- Desmond Tutu – South African apartheid campaigner
- Kofi Annan – United Nations secretary general
- Dalai Lama – 14th Dalai Lama. The political and spiritual leader of Tibet.
- Barack Obama – US president.
- Milton Friedman (1912 – 2006) American free-market economist.
- Albert Schweitzer – humanitarian and philosopher
- Otto Hahn (1879-1968) – German chemist who discovered nuclear fission
- Malcolm X – Black power activist
- Neil Armstrong (1930 – 2012) US astronaut. First man to walk on moon.
- Lech Walesa – Leader of Solidarity movement in Poland during 1980s /90s
- Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) Fascist dictator of Italy.
- Marie Curie – Nobel prize winning scientist
- Stephen Hawking (1942 – ) English theoretical physicist, and author polarising scientific theories.
- Elvis Presley – Pop star
- John Logie Baird (1888–1946) Scottish inventor of the television.
- Rosa Parks – Civil rights campaigner, fighting against segregation in the deep south of America
- Emile Zatopek – Olympic athlete
- Rachel Carson (1907 – 1964) American conservationist and pioneering environmentalist.
- Pele – Greatest footballer of century
- Jesse Owens – Iconic 100 meter runner, who upset Hitler’s Olympic games.
- Rosalind Franklin (1920 – 1958) Discovering DNA
- John Lennon – Musician and member of the Beatles
- Henry Ford – Businessman who developed mass production.
- Tsar Nicholas II (1868 – 1918) The last Russian Emperor
- General Patton – US General
- Haile Selassie – Leader of Ethiopia
- Madonna – Pop idol
- Oprah Winfrey – chat show host and influential US TV presenter.
- David Lloyd George (1863 – 1945) Prime Minister of the UK from 1916 to the end of the war.
- Billie Jean King – US tennis player and campaigner for equal rights for women
- Richard Branson – UK entrepreneur
- Anne Frank – Wrote an influential diary about hiding from Nazi persecution.
- Marilyn Monroe – Movie star
- Sri Aurobindo – Early political leader of India and later spiritual philosopher.
- Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Advocate of meditation.
- Tony Blair – UK Prime Minister
- Hilary Clinton – US Foreign secretary of state.
- Coco Chanel – Fashion designer
- Virginia Woolf – Author
- Germaine Greer – Author
- Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941) The last German Emperor;
- Paul McCartney – Musician
- J. Nehru – Indian Politician and first Prime Minister of Independent India
- Gavrilo Princep (1894- 1918) Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife.
- Vladimir Putin – Russian politician
- Lawrence of Arabia – British officer and supporter of the Arabs
- J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967), American physicist who worked on the development of the Atomic bomb.
- Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli leader.
- Bernard Montgomery – British general during WWII
- Salvidor Dali – modern artist
- Harry Truman (1884 – 1972) American President from January 1945
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929–1994 ) Wife of John F. Kennedy. Cultural and fashion icon of the 1960s.
- Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) Actress. Voted greatest female screen legend of all time.
- Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961), Second Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1953-61.
- Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) British suffragette. Pankhurst was one of the most high profile campaigners for women’s suffrage.
- Lord Baden Powell (1857 – 1941) Founder of the Scouting movement
- Alexander Bell (1847 – 1922) – Scottish inventor of the telephone.
- Muhammad Yunus (1940 – ) Bangladeshi banker and economist
- Paul Samuelson (1915 – 2009) American economist, who popularised Keynesian theory.
- Emperor Hirohito (1901 – 1989) Japanese Emperor during Second World War.
- J.K.Rowling – Author of Harry Potter series
Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “People who changed the world in the Twentieth Century”, Oxford, UK – www.biographyonline.net. Last updated 2 March 2018.
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