The 100

In 1986, Michael H. Hart published a book called The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. His book was a ranking of the 100 people who he felt had had the most impact on human history. His book was hotly debated and his book concept was widely copied.

The book was reprinted in 1992 with several noticeable revisions made to the original list of 100 people and their associated rankings. Chief among these revisions was the demotion of figures associated with Communism like Lenin and Joseph Stalin, and the introduction of Mikhail Gorbachev. This edition also substituted Edward de Vere for William Shakespeare.

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Further reading

• The 100, Michael H. Hart, Carol Publishing Group, July 1992, paperback, 576 pages, ISBN 0806513500

Rank	Name	Influence
1	Muhammad	founder of Islam, conqueror of Arabia
2	Isaac Newton	physicist, theory of universal gravitation, laws of motion
3	Jesus Christ	founder of Christianity
4	Buddha	founder of Buddhism
5	Confucius	founder of Confucianism
6	St. Paul	proselytizer of Christianity
7	Ts'ai Lun	inventor of paper
8	Johann Gutenberg	developed movable type, printed Bibles
9	Christopher Columbus	explorer, led Europe to Americas
10	Albert Einstein	physicist, relativity, Einsteinian physics
11	Louis Pasteur	scientist, pasteurization
12	Galileo Galilei	astronomer, accurately described heliocentric solar system
13	Aristotle	influential Greek philosopher
14	Euclid	mathematician, Euclidean geometry
15	Moses	major prophet of Judaism
16	Charles Darwin	biologist, described evolution
17	Shih Huang Ti	Chinese emperor
18	Augustus Caesar	Roman ruler
19	Nicolaus Copernicus	astronomer, taught heliocentricity
20	Antoine Laurent Lavoisier	father of modern chemistry, philosopher, economist
21	Constantine the Great	Roman emperor who made Christianity the state religion
22	James Watt	developed steam engine
23	Michael Faraday	physicist, chemist, discovery of Electromagnetic induction
24	James Clerk Maxwell	physicist, electromagnetic spectrum
25	Martin Luther	founder of Protestantism and Lutheranism
26	George Washington	first president of United States
27	Karl Marx	founder of Communism
28	Orville and Wilbur Wright	inventors of the airplane
29	Genghis Khan	Mongol conqueror
30	Adam Smith	economist, expositor of capitalism
31	Edward de Vere	Possibly wrote works attributed to William Shakespeare
32	John Dalton	chemist, physicist, atomic theory, law of partial pressures (Dalton's law)
33	Alexander the Great	conqueror
34	Napoleon Bonaparte	French conqueror
35	Thomas Edison	inventor of light bulb, phonograph, etc.
36	Antony van Leeuwenhoek	microscopes, studied microscopic life
37	William T.G. Morton	pioneer in anesthesiology
38	Guglielmo Marconi	inventor of radio
39	Adolf Hitler	conqueror, led Axis Powers in WWII
40	Plato	founder of Platonism
41	Oliver Cromwell	British political and military leader
42	Alexander Graham Bell	inventor of telephone
43	Alexander Fleming	penicillin, advances in bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy
44	John Locke	philosopher and liberal theologian
45	Ludwig van Beethoven	composer
46	Werner Heisenberg	discovered the uncertainty principle
47	Louis Daguerre	an inventor/pioneer of photography
48	Simon Bolivar	National hero of Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia
49	René Descartes	Rationalist philosopher and mathematician
50	Michelangelo	painter, sculptor, architect
51	Pope Urban II	called for First Crusade
52	Umar ibn al-Khattab	Second Caliph, expanded Muslim empire
53	Asoka	king of India who converted to and spread Buddhism
54	St. Augustine	Early Christian theologian
55	William Harvey	discovered the circulation of the blood
56	Lord Rutherford	physicist, pioneer of Particle physics
57	John Calvin	Protestant reformer, founder of Calvinism
58	Gregor Mendel	Mendelian genetics
59	Max Planck	physicist, thermodynamics
60	Joseph Lister	principal discoverer of antiseptics which greatly reduced surgical mortality
61	Nikolaus August Otto	built first four-stroke internal combustion engine
62	Francisco Pizarro	Spanish conqueror in South America, defeated Incas
63	Hernando Cortes	conquered Mexico for Spain
64	Thomas Jefferson	3rd president of United States
65	Isabella of Castile	Spanish ruler, patron of Cristopher Colombus
66	Joseph Stalin	revolutionary and ruler of USSR
67	Julius Caesar	Roman emperor
68	William the Conqueror	laid foundation of modern England
69	Sigmund Freud	founder of Freudian school of psychology, psychoanalysis
70	Edward Jenner	discoverer of the vaccination for smallpox
71	Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen	discovered X-rays
72	Johann Sebastian Bach	composer
73	Lao Tzu	founder of Taoism
74	Voltaire	writer and philosopher
75	Johannes Kepler	astronomer, planetary motions
76	Enrico Fermi	initiated the atomic age, father of atom bomb
77	Leonhard Euler	physicist, mathematician, differential and integral calculus and algebra
78	Jean-Jacques Rousseau	French deistic philosopher and author
79	Niccolò Machiavelli	wrote The Prince (influential political treatise)
80	Thomas Malthus	economist, wrote Essay on the Principle of Population
81	John F. Kennedy	president of United States, guiding force behind the US Space/Moon Program
82	Gregory Pincus	endocrinologist, developed birth control pill
83	Mani	founder of Manicheanism
84	Lenin	Russian revolutionary and ruler
85	Emperor Wen of Sui China	Unified China, founder of the Sui dynasty
86	Vasco da Gama	navigator, discovered route from Europe to India
87	Cyrus the Great	founder of Persian empire
88	Peter the Great	forged Russia into a great European nation
89	Mao Zedong	founder of Maoism, Chinese form of Communism
90	Francis Bacon	philosopher, delineated inductive scientific method
91	Henry Ford	developed modern assembly line
92	Mencius	philosopher, founder of a school of Confucianism
93	Zoroaster	founder of Zoroastrianism
94	Queen Elizabeth I	British monarch, restored Church of England to power after Queen Mary
95	Mikhail Gorbachev	Russian premier who helped end Communism in USSR and Eastern Europe
96	Menes	unified Upper and Lower Egypt
97	Charlemagne	Holy Roman Empire created with his baptism in 800 AD
98	Homer	epic poet
99	Justinian I	Roman emperor, reconquered Mediterranean empire
100	Mahavira	founder of Jainism
Runners-Up
St. Thomas Aquinas	influential early Christian philosopher
Archimedes	father of experimental science
Charles Babbage	mathematician and inventor of forerunner of computer
Cheops	builder of Great Pyramids
Marie Curie	physicist, radioactivity
Benjamin Franklin	American politician and inventor
Mohandas Gandhi	Indian leader and Hindu religious reformer
Abraham Lincoln	16th president of U.S., led during United States Civil War
Ferdinand Magellan	navigator, named Pacific Ocean, first circumnavigation of globe
Leonardo da Vinci	artist, inventor