The 100 Most Influential Persons in History

Think you know history’s biggest names? This quiz challenges you to identify every figure from the book: The 100 A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History by Michael H. Hart (1992). From prophets and conquerors to scientists and thinkers—how many can you name?

Artists include Composers and Writers; Rulers include Political Leaders; Scientists include Physicians.

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Last updated: May 11, 2026

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First submitted	April 28, 2026
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#	Occupation	Year of Birth	Person
1	Religious Leader	570	Muhammad
2	Scientist	1642	Isaac Newton
3	Religious Leader	6 to 4 BC	Jesus Christ
4	Religious Leader	563 or 480 BC	Buddha
5	Philosopher	551 BC	Confucius
6	Religious Leader	5	Saint Paul
7	Inventor	50–62	Ts’ai Lun
8	Inventor	1393–1406	Johann Gutenberg
9	Discoverer	1451	Christopher Columbus
10	Scientist	1879	Albert Einstein
11	Scientist	1822	Louis Pasteur
12	Scientist	1564	Galileo Galilei
13	Philosopher	384 BC	Aristotle
14	Scientist	300 BC	Euclid
15	Religious Leader	13th century BC	Moses
16	Scientist	1809	Charles Darwin
17	Ruler	259 BC	Shih Huang Ti
18	Ruler	63 BC	Augustus Caesar
19	Scientist	1473	Nicolaus Copernicus
20	Scientist	1743	Antoine Lavoisier
21	Ruler	272	Constantine
22	Inventor	1736	James Watt
23	Scientist	1791	Michael Faraday
24	Scientist	1831	James Clerk Maxwell
25	Religious Leader	1483	Martin Luther
26	Ruler	1732	George Washington
27	Philosopher	1818	Karl Marx
28	Inventor	1867, 1871	Wilbur & Orville Wright
29	Ruler	1162	Genghis Khan
30	Philosopher	1723	Adam Smith
31	Artist	1564	William Shakespeare
32	Scientist	1766	John Dalton
33	Ruler	356 BC	Alexander Magnus
34	Ruler	1769	Napoleon Bonaparte

#	Occupation	Year of Birth	Person
35	Inventor	1847	Thomas Edison
36	Scientist	1632	Antony van Leeuwenhoek
37	Scientist	1819	William Morton
38	Inventor	1874	Guglielmo Marconi
39	Ruler	1889	Adolf Hitler
40	Philosopher	428–423 BC	Plato
41	Ruler	1599	Oliver Cromwell
42	Inventor	1847	Alexander Graham Bell
43	Scientist	1881	Alexander Fleming
44	Philosopher	1632	John Locke
45	Artist	1770	Ludwig van Beethoven
46	Scientist	1901	Werner Heisenberg
47	Inventor	1787	Louis Daguerre
48	Ruler	1783	Simon Bolivar
49	Philosopher	1596	Rene Descartes
50	Artist	1475	Michelangelo
51	Religious Leader	1035	Pope Urban II
52	Ruler	584	‘Umar ibn al-Khattab
53	Ruler	304 BC	Asoka
54	Religious Leader	354	St. Augustine
55	Scientist	1578	William Harvey
56	Scientist	1871	Ernest Rutherford
57	Religious Leader	1509	John Calvin
58	Scientist	1822	Gregor Mendel
59	Scientist	1858	Max Planck
60	Scientist	1827	Joseph Lister
61	Inventor	1832	Nicolaus August Otto
62	Conqueror	1478	Francisco Pizarro
63	Conqueror	1485	Hernando Cortes
64	Ruler	1743	Thomas Jefferson
65	Ruler	1451	Queen Isabella I
66	Ruler	1878	Joseph Stalin
67	Ruler	100 BC	Julius Caesar

#	Occupation	Year of Birth	Person
68	Ruler	1028	William, the Conqueror
69	Scientist	1856	Sigmund Freud
70	Scientist	1749	Edward Jenner
71	Scientist	1845	William Conrad Rontgen
72	Artist	1685	Johann Sebastian Bach
73	Philosopher	6th century BC	Lao Tzu
74	Philosopher	1694	Voltaire
75	Scientist	1571	Johannes Kepler
76	Scientist	1901	Enrico Fermi
77	Scientist	1707	Leonhard Euler
78	Philosopher	1712	Jean-Jacques Rousseau
79	Philosopher	1469	Niccolo Machiavelli
80	Philosopher	1766	Thomas Malthus
81	Ruler	1917	John Kennedy
82	Scientist	1903	Gregory Pincus
83	Religious Leader	216	Mani
84	Ruler	1870	Lenin
85	Ruler	541	Sui Wen Ti
86	Discoverer	1460	Vasco da Gama
87	Ruler	600 BC	Cyrus
88	Ruler	1672	Peter
89	Ruler	1893	Mao Zedong
90	Scientist	1561	Francis Bacon
91	Businessman	1863	Henry Ford
92	Philosopher	371 BC	Mencius
93	Religious Leader	624–599 BC	Zoroaster
94	Ruler	1533	Queen Elizabeth I
95	Ruler	1931	Mikhail Gorbachev
96	Ruler	3200–3000 BC	Menes
97	Ruler	748	Charlemagne
98	Artist	8th century BC	Homer
99	Ruler	482	Justinian I
100	Religious Leader	599 BC	Mahavira