The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History

My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.

Simon BolIvar is often called "the George Washington of South America" because of his role in the liberation of five South American countries (Colombia, Venezula, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) from Spanish rule. Few, if 'any, political figures have played so dominant a role in the history of an entire continent as he did.

Cyrus (Kurush in the original Persian) was born about 590 B.C., in the province of Persis (now Fars), in southwest Iran.

Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Persian Empire.

Nevertheless, when da Gama returned to Lisbon, on September 9, 1499, both he and the king correctly understood that his two-year voyage had been a tremendous success.

On May 20, 1498, about ten months after his departure from Portugal, da Gama arrived at Calicut, the most important trade center of southern India.

The Chinese emperor Sui Wen Ti (original name: Yang Chien) succeeded in reunifying China after it had been badly divided for hundreds of years.

A prominent example is Pol Pot, who ruled Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. In that relatively brief period roughly two million Cambodians died-an even greater proportion of the population than were killed by Stalin during the twenty-five years he headed the Soviet Union.

A second attempt, in November 1917, succeeded, and Lenin became the new head of state.

Lenin was born in 1870, in the town of Simbirsk (now called Ulyanovsk in his honor), in Russia.

Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, best known today by his pseudonym, Lenin, was the political leader principally responsible for the establishment of Communism in Russia.

Mani was born in 216, in Mesopotamia, which at that time was part of the Persian Empire under the Arsacid or Parthian dynasty.

The third-century prophet Mani was the founder of Mani chaeism, a religion which, though extinct today, at its height had a very large number of followers.

Gregory Pincus was born in 1903, in Woodbine, New Jersey, the son of Russian-Jewish parents.

Gregory Pincus was the American biologist who played the principal role in the development of the oral contraceptive pill.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts

Malthus was born in 1766, near Dorking, in Surrey, England.

In 1798, a previously obscure English parson, Thomas Robert Malthus, published a short but highly influ~ntial book entitled. An Essay on the Principle of Population as It Affects the Future Improvement oj Society

Machiavelli was born in 1469, in Florence, Italy.

The Italian political philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli is notorious for his blunt advice that a ruler interested in maintaining and in creasing his power should make use of deceitfulness, cunning, and lies, combined with a ruthless use of force.

The famous philosopher J ean-Jacques Rousseau was born in 1712, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Leonhard Euler, the eighteenth-century Swiss mathematician and physicist, was one of the most brilliant and prolific scientists of all time.

It was in Chicago, on December 2, 1942, that the nuclear reactor which had been designed and constructed under Fermi's supervision first went into successful operation.

Since Enrico Fermi was the world's leading authority on neutrons, and since he combined both experimental and theoretical talents, he was chosen to head the group attempting to construct the world's first nuclear reactor.

Enrico Fermi, the man who designed the first nuclear reactor, was born in 1901, in Rome, Italy.

Johannes Kepler, the discoverer of the laws of planetary motion, was born in 1571, in the town of Weil der Stadt, Germany.

A remark frequently attributed to him is: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.

Fran~ois Marie Arouet-better known by his pseudonym, Voltaire-was the leading figure of the French Enlightenment