100 Most Influential Figures in U.S. History

The Atlantic magazine assembled a group of scholars to list the 100 most influential figures in U.S. history. How many can you name?

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Last updated: October 6, 2016

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First submitted	December 22, 2015
Times taken	39,613
Average score	42.2%
Rating	4.18

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Rank	Known For	Answer
1	Emancipation	Abraham Lincoln
2	American Revolution	George Washington
3	Declaration of Indep.	Thomas Jefferson
4	Depression & WWII	Franklin D. Roosevelt
5	Treasury Dept	Alexander Hamilton
6	Diplomacy	Benjamin Franklin
7	Judicial Review	John Marshall
8	Having a Dream	Martin Luther King
9	Lightbulbs	Thomas Edison
10	Fourteen Points	Woodrow Wilson
11	Standard Oil	John D. Rockefeller
12	Union General	Ulysses S. Grant
13	Bill of Rights	James Madison
14	Model T	Henry Ford
15	Bull Moose Party	Theodore Roosevelt
16	Huckleberry Finn	Mark Twain
17	Cold War Ender	Ronald Reagan
18	Trail of Tears	Andrew Jackson
19	Common Sense	Thomas Paine
20	Philanthropy	Andrew Carnegie
21	WWII President	Harry S. Truman
22	American Poetry	Walt Whitman
23	Flight	Wilbur Wright
23	Flight	Orville Wright
24	Telephone	Alexander Graham Bell
25	Founding Father	John Adams
26	Mickey Mouse	Walt Disney
27	Cotton Gin	Eli Whitney
28	WWII & President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
29	Culture Wars	Earl Warren
30	Feminism	Elizabeth Cady Stanton
31	Political Compromise	Henry Clay
32	Relativity	Albert Einstein
33	Individualist Poetry	Ralph Waldo Emerson
34	Polio Vaccine	Jonas Salk
35	Baseball Integration	Jackie Robinson
36	Cross of Gold	William Jennings Bryan
37	Wall St. Banker	J. P. Morgan
38	Women's Suffrage	Susan B. Anthony
39	Silent Spring	Rachel Carson
40	Pragmatic Philosophy	John Dewey
41	Uncle Tom's Cabin	Harriet Beecher Stowe
42	First Lady	Eleanor Roosevelt
43	Civil Rights Author	W.E.B. Du Bois
44	Civil Rights/Vietnam	Lyndon B. Johnson
45	Telegraph Code	Samuel F.B. Morse
46	"The Liberator"	William Lloyd Garrison
47	Abolitionist/Slave	Frederick Douglass
48	Atomic Bomb	Robert Oppenheimer
49	Central Park	Frederick Law Olmstead
50	Mexican War	James K. Polk

Rank	Known For	Answer
51	Birth Control	Margaret Sanger
52	Mormonism	Joseph Smith
53	Supreme Court	Oliver Wendell Holmes
54	Microsoft	Bill Gates
55	6th President	John Quincy Adams
56	Education Reform	Horace Mann
57	US Civil War	Robert E. Lee
58	Southern Politics	John C. Calhoun
59	Skyscrapers	Louis Sullivan
60	Southern Novels	William Faulkner
61	Unions	Samuel Gompers
62	Pragmatism	William James
63	Rebuilding Europe	George Marshall
64	Hull House	Jane Addams
65	Civil Disobedience	Henry David Thoreau
66	Rock & Roll	Elvis Presley
67	Circus	P.T. Barnum
68	DNA	James D. Watson
69	Newspapers	James Gordon Bennett
70	Explorer	Meriwether Lewis
70	Explorer	William Clark
71	Dictionaries	Noah Webster
72	Wal-Mart	Sam Walton
73	Reaper	Cyrus McCormick
74	Mormonism	Brigham Young
75	Home Runs	Babe Ruth
76	Architecture	Frank Lloyd Wright
77	Feminism	Betty Friedan
78	Harper's Ferry	John Brown
79	Trumpet	Louis Armstrong
80	Yellow Journalism	William Randolph Hearst
81	Anthropology	Margaret Mead
82	Opinion Polls	George Gallup
83	Mohicans	James Fenimore Cooper
84	Supreme Court	Thurgood Marshall
85	A Farewell to Arms	Ernest Hemingway
86	Christian Science	Mary Baker Eddy
87	Baby Advice	Benjamin Spock
88	Physics	Enrico Fermi
89	Opinions	Walter Lippmann
90	Fiery Sermons	Jonathan Edwards
91	Abolitionist	Lyman Beecher
92	Grapes of Wrath	John Steinbeck
93	Slave Uprising	Nat Turner
94	Kodak	George Eastman
95	MGM	Samuel Goldwyn
96	Green Party	Ralph Nader
97	O Susanna	Stephen Foster
98	Tuskegee	Booker T. Washington
99	Watergate	Richard Nixon
100	Moby Dick	Herman Melville

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103 Recent Comments

Level 65

Oct 5, 2016

Alexander Graham Bell was a British citizen, only taking up US citizenship some 6 years after patenting the telephone. Of course, both the UK, USA and Canada claim him as their own, but after living the first 23 years of his life in the UK, it would be hard to call him an American.

Level 81

Oct 5, 2016

Maybe it's hard for you. But to an American, anyone born in the country regardless of parentage; anyone born to an American parent, regardless of their place of birth; and anyone who becomes a naturalized citizen by choice is definitely and wholly American! In reality, Bell was American. It's not so hard to accept reality if you just give it a shot.

Also, the guy lived to be 75. You're really going to discount the last 52 years?

Level 70

Oct 5, 2016

Alexander Graham Bell was a Scotsman.

Even said so himself.

Level 81

Oct 5, 2016

and George Washington was an Englishman. What's your point? Having one nationality or one ethnic heritage does not preclude having a second.

Level 65

Oct 5, 2016

I suspect being 'Chief Electrician' of the Bell Telephone Company it would be easier if he became a US citizen.

For most rational people, Einstein will always be German, Rupert Murdoch will always be Australian, and Jim Carrey will always be Canadian.

While it makes more sense to become a citizen of the country your main business is based in (Bell, Murdoch etc), it does not alter your place of birth and upbringing which correctly defines your nationality.

Level 81

Oct 11, 2016

So "rational" people are oblivious to facts and reality? Nationality definition 1: citizenship. Definition 2: ethnicity, if you believe in the concept of nation states. You are skipping over the first and primary definition, and also demeaning the struggles many went through to attain citizenship in a place they chose to call home.

Level 70

Oct 6, 2018

@Bonzo, so the correct definition of nationality is where you were born and brought up - what if those are different places? Einstein was never a citizen of Germany because German citizenship didn't exist at that point - you had to be a citizen of a German kingdom. Einstein sometimes described himself as Swiss, and didn't agree with the concept of nationalism. He changed nationality six times. It makes sense to describe Einstein as any of the following: German, Swiss, American, Austro-Hungarian, subject of the Kingdom of Prussia, citizen of the Free State of Prussia, subject of the Kingdom of Württemberg, stateless, or of multiple nationalities. There are rational arguments for any of these, though some make more sense than others.

Level 70

Apr 27, 2020

Have you forgotten something? This quiz is about INFLUENTIAL people in American history, not American influential people. If someone not from the USA does something revolutionary to the USA, they would probably come on this list.

Level 65

Oct 5, 2016

This quiz is too USA-centric.

Level 70

Apr 27, 2020

I know.

Level 55

Dec 6, 2023

I sure wonder why

Level 46

Oct 5, 2016

It's called, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. NOT mormonism!! Please switch it the the correct way, thank you. Great quiz otherwise.

+10

Level 81

Oct 5, 2016

it's called both. and it's only called the CoJCoLDS by Mormons. If they cared so much about everyone calling their church by the "correct" name then they should have picked a shorter name, and they probably also should have put that name on the front of all the books they distribute instead of "the Book of Mormon." This is Marketing 101, guys.

Level 70

Oct 5, 2016

So many non americans

Level 81

Oct 5, 2016

There's not a single non-American on this quiz. There are quite a few making ignorant comments below the quiz, though. So depending on what you mean you could be wrong or right.

Level 56

Oct 5, 2016

The link to your source is broken.

Level ∞

Oct 5, 2016

Removed the link. They removed their list and replaced it with a slideshow (shudder).

Level 75

Jul 25, 2018

Oh the humanity

Level 63

Oct 5, 2016

I think Supreme Court clues could be better (though keep them short). Also, isn't this quiz too US-based?

Level 41

Mar 20, 2024

because the point of this is to name people famous in american history...

Level 66

Oct 5, 2016

As others have mentioned, John Dewey did not invent the Dewey Decimal System. That was Melvil Dewey. John Dewey is a completely different person: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dewey

Level 60

Oct 5, 2016

Makes sense. You need a good classification system when a white whale keeps eating your books.

Level ∞

Oct 6, 2016

Haha. Fixed this error

Level 40

Oct 5, 2016

Only 3 :(

Level 67

Oct 5, 2016

I understand that the clues might come from the Atlantic as well but the clue for Wilson is hilariously bad. No one knows the man who brought the US into the first world war and attempted to get in involved in the League of Nations afterwards as an isolationist

Level 64

Oct 6, 2016

Thank you! I was going to say the same thing about Wilson! I know that the list was picked by Atlantic Magazine, so most of my issues with this quiz (which I DID very much enjoy and rated quite highly) are with them - leaving off JFK or any Kennedy, leaving off Barack Obama as the nation's first Black president, etc. - but some of the hints written below are really bad. Reagan was known by enough things that he should not be given as politically charged a clue as being said to have won the Cold War. And Woodrow Wilson, he of the Fourteen Points and Wilsonian democracy, is said to be known for isolationism? He was the OPPOSITE of an isolationist! Are any of the other people linked to clues that are literally the opposite of what we know about them? If not, Wilson's MUST be changed and is by far the most inaccurate hint on the whole quiz.

Level 60

Oct 6, 2016

Actually, I do know the president who used the slogan "He kept us out of war" for his 1916 election, and who, upon entering the war due to Congressional pressure, immediately brought up the 14 points as the solution to end it, as an isolationist. If you read the 14 points, the league of nations is almost an afterthought, and it's primary purpose was to preserve free trade, an extremely important concern for the US at that time.

Level 64

Oct 6, 2016

I loved this quiz, but you BADLY need to fix the 'hint' for Woodrow Wilson, since that is the OPPOSITE of what he did and is known for. Say 'Fourteen Points,' or World War I, ANYTHING but 'isolationism.' If you're going to stick with that, why not call Eisenhower a pacifist, Edison a luddite, Franklin Delano Roosevelt a marathon enthusiast, and Ronald Reagan an intellectual.

Level ∞

Oct 6, 2016

I changed the clue to Fourteen Points, since Wilson was only a sometimes isolationist.

Level 71

Oct 6, 2016

Having Watson and omitting Crick is pretty unfair. Guys from the Atlantic magazine could have done a little more research

Level ∞

Oct 6, 2016

Crick was British

Level 30

Oct 6, 2016

That didn't stop Einstein or Alexander Graham Bell. Not that Einstein was British, but you get what I mean.

Level 81

Oct 22, 2016

They were both American.

Level 80

Apr 28, 2020

@kal Crick was British. @Possums Einstein and Bell gained U.S. citizenship later in their lives.

Level 91

Aug 13, 2020

@JackintheBox kal was talking about Einstein and Bell. Not Crick.

Level 81

Oct 11, 2020

@Jack, yes that's right. Thanks. @Jack I know Crick retained his British citizenship, even though he died in San Diego where he worked.

Level 66

Oct 6, 2016

Malcolm X? Rosa Parks? Stunned....but then again.....

Level 73

Oct 6, 2016

Interesting quiz. As a Brit there are a lot of people on there i've never heard of, but that's to be expected.

I'd love to see a split of how Americans and non Americans scored, as I suspect the average is dragged down by us non Americans.

Level 30

Oct 6, 2016

Angry Scot here... Since when was A.G Bell American???

Born: March 3, 1847, Edinburgh. Unless Scotland is now part of the USA I am quite confused to see how he got on this list... Did he get American citizenship in later life? Am I missing something here?

Level 30

Oct 6, 2016

Saw Einstein, read title carefully. Taking it back. Remember kids, always read the title carefully.

Level 81

Oct 11, 2016

Bell and Einstein were both naturalized American citizens.

Level 81

Oct 11, 2016

In the case of Bell, in 1882 he gave up his British citizenship and became American. He was 35 years old.

Level 21

Jan 13, 2019

Don't blame him for where he was born. He couldn't control that. He chose to improve himself.

Level 90

Oct 11, 2019

Bell Telephone Company, Boston, Massachusetts, U.

S.A., not K.

Level 74

Jul 26, 2022

I never knew he got American citizenship until I took this quiz either

Level 79

Oct 9, 2016

It's not Myanmar. It's BURMA ;)

Level 93

Oct 9, 2016

I was expecting some variety in race and gender. This was "Some presidents, and other famous white people"

Level 81

Oct 11, 2016

Who do you feel was overlooked? Or do you think the list makers should have ignored a person's influence on history in favor of focusing on what "race" they were when devising a list of most influential figures?

Level 49

Jan 26, 2020

Just stop

Level 80

Apr 28, 2020

And perhaps species too?

Level 67

Dec 30, 2016

What about JFK and Rosa Parks

Level 36

Mar 8, 2017

Though I believe that Bobby and Teddy Kennedy deserve the accolades more so than JFK (He is revered as an assassinated President, but what exactly did he accomplish as Presidents?) I

much rather have JFK here than Clarence Thomas. PLEASE!

The man is an affront to humanity.

Level 66

Nov 2, 2017

@divantilya Well, JFK successfully backed the US and Soviet Union down from the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, so there's that.

Level 44

Mar 21, 2017

All Rosa Parks did was say no

Level 51

May 1, 2017

First, if Lewis and Clark are on this list, Sacagawea certainly should as well.

Level 21

Jan 13, 2019

Who?

Level 91

Aug 13, 2020

Lewis and Clark's guide.

Level 55

May 22, 2017

Though Samuel Goldwyn co-founded both Paramount and MGM, he left the latter rather quickly and spent the rest of his career as an independent producer. Louis B. Mayer would be a much more appropriate representative for MGM.

Level 83

Apr 30, 2020

I don't think either deserves to be on the 100 most influential.

Level 69

Jul 6, 2017

I don't get sometimes how people can put Thomas Edison so high up but not include Nikola Tesla at all. Wasn't it Tesla who improved Edison's lacking product?. Edison caused more trouble than he did good from the documentaries I've seen.

JFK should also be on this list.

Level 81

Aug 13, 2017

You've probably seen some documentaries with questionable historical accuracy. Tesla was a cool guy but the Edison v. Tesla meme has really taken on a life of its own in the last decade or so since it was born.

Level 76

Sep 8, 2020

Edison wasn't the great inventor his marketers claimed he was, but by running the laboratories he ran and commercialising the inventions he commercialised he was pretty influential

Level 71

Mar 10, 2021

I'm pretty sure Tesla invented alternating current (and Wikipedia supports that). I'd say that's certainly a very significant achievement. Agree with Sirlandlord, Tesla should probably be on here/get more credit.

Level 55

Aug 13, 2017

Both Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux designed Central Park. Both made different but equally invaluable contributions.

Also, while Samuel Goldwyn helped start MGM pictures he was only involved at the very begining. He also helped start Paramount back when he was known as Saumuel Goldfish. Most of his career he was an independent producer, one of the most successful in Hollywood history.

Level 59

Oct 9, 2017

I stopped taking this quiz because Kennedy is not in it. I think he should.

Level 65

Jan 19, 2018

Margaret Sanger believed in eugenics.

Level 41

Mar 16, 2018

Okay, maybe all Rosa Parks did was say no, but she set off a major movement that changed the the whole course of civil rights in the USA. She was brave to say it, a lot of us would have been too intimidated.

Level 83

Jun 8, 2023

Plus it wasn't just a random act. She was actively working as a campaigner and the bus incident was semi-planned.

Level 63

Aug 23, 2018

JFK?

Level 66

Feb 9, 2019

Important to emphasize this is from the Atlantic. Many authors, activists, social justice figures, etc... I did not do well on this quiz, but the Atlantic has a much different world view of American History than I do. 1/3 of the list is authors. Many are civil rights leaders, feminists, political activists, and cultural figures, musicians, etc... And Ralf Nader? Seriously? Top 100 in USA history? But few civil war leaders, few inventors, few military figures, and plays to a very partisan mindset of American History. Not criticizing the quiz author, just the Atlantic. It's a big, fat polito-pop-fest of a publication.

Level 63

Mar 11, 2019

I can assure you Kennedy had a bigger influence than Jane Addams

Level 48

Nov 6, 2019

I know you didn't make this I'm shocked that Harriet Tubman wasn't on here

Level 63

Nov 21, 2019

I know you didn't make this list, but as far as Americans from the 20th century, I would have included:

Margaret Mitchell

Billy Graham

Gene Roddenberry

Leon Uris

and toss up between George and Ira Gershwin/Aaron Copeland

Level 81

Apr 21, 2020

Should include Rupert Murdoch, Ted Turner, Mark Zuckerburg, Ray Kroc, Lucille Ball, Rush Limbaugh, Barack Obama, Karl Rove, Wayne LaPierre, Stan Lee, Colonel Sanders, George Lucas, and Donald Trump, for better or worse.

Level 81

Apr 21, 2020

Maybe throw on Madonna and Kim Kardashian, too.

Level 81

Apr 21, 2020

On this attempt I misread "individualist poetry" as "industrialist poetry"... the former makes more sense. I tried "Skinny Puppy."

Level 69

Apr 27, 2020

James K. Polk? Really? C'mon.

Level 80

Apr 28, 2020

Yes, really.

Level 67

Apr 27, 2020

I like how there's this dude known for 'opinions'

Must've been pretty good opinions to have shaped America so

Level 83

Apr 30, 2020

Where's Wilbur and Orville?

Level 40

Jul 16, 2020

they're here, but Kennedy somehow isn't...

Level 76

Sep 8, 2020

Albert Einstein wasn't an Influential Figure in American History. He ended up becoming a US citizen, but none of the stuff he is particularly famous or influential for was done in the US or part of US history.

Level 81

Oct 11, 2020

Manhattan Project? Ring a bell?

Level 68

Oct 15, 2020

"Woe is me." Albert Einstein, upon hearing the news of the Hiroshima bombing

Level 67

Jan 28, 2021

Funny: the quiz says scholars and people influential to American history. Does not say Americans.... Read the parameters of the quiz before you start correcting them lol

Level 60

Jun 14, 2021

The wrights weren’t the first to fly. Also, the trail of tears is horrible.

Level 67

Oct 12, 2021

A bit weird that the list includes Babe Ruth, yet doesn't conclude neither Rosa Parks nor Malcom X. Not to undermine the actions of Babe Ruth, but the civil rights movement should get more attention in this list, for sure if the list includes baseball players.

Level 73

Nov 22, 2021

I know it's hard to analyze history as it happens, but there's no doubt that Clinton, G. W. Bush, and Obama are all in the top 100 most influential figures in American history. Also, if we're going to pick an anthropologist then I think Franz Boas was more influential than Margaret Mead.

Level 83

Jun 8, 2022

I know this quiz is opinion-based, but the omission of Rosa Parks and Harriet Tubman shocked me incredibly, especially when we have multiple authors and poets on the list (not that those aren't important and necessary for culture, but are we really saying Melville's Moby Dick is more important than many amazing Civil Rights leaders like Rosa Parks and Malcolm X, or fearless abolitionaries like Tubman?) . Tubman in particular is (in my opinion) one of the most amazing women in history. It makes me sad that she wasn't included on this list

Level 72

Dec 17, 2022

You cannot claim Einstein as American hahaha

Level ∞

Dec 17, 2022

The Germans loved him so much he was forced to flee for his life.

Level 80

Dec 21, 2022

Hard to believe Armstrong isn't in here...and Reagan is.

Level 92

Jan 2, 2023

Love this quiz. In re #33, "indivudualist poetry" is kind of misleading. He wrote poetry but he's not really known as a poet. Definitely known for his individualist philosophy. So maybe that (or "Transcendentalism," if it wouldn't be too much of a giveaway)? And in re #49, there's no A in his last name. Mere quibbles. Fun quiz.

Level 88

Oct 7, 2023

Just saw this, I definitely agree. I would personally prefer "Transcendentalist poet" as a clue for Emerson.

Level 66

Jan 5, 2023

What about Steve Jobs? I'm pretty sure the guy who came up with the iPhone has had a greater influence on us than over half of the people on this list. The same could be said about the creators of social media networks, like Mark Zuckerberg. The average % correct for most of the people on this list is below 50%.

Level 74

Feb 13, 2023

What a quiz! I was right on all of the top 30 and I scored 77/102 overall. Thanks for the quiz!

Level 59

May 9, 2023

Muhammad Ali?

Level 88

Jul 9, 2023

Great and fun quiz (I loved grinding it!). Even though the list is bad, it was still really interesting as there were some people here I’d never even learned of in school or in my free time.

That being said, there is a typo for Frederick Law Olmsted: it should be “Olmsted”, not “Olmstead”.

Level 70

Aug 4, 2023

"Culture Wars" was a terrible prompt for Earl Warren when this quiz was published in 2016. It's even worse now. FDR had the most vetoes of any President, does that make him famous for cancel culture?

Level 70

Aug 9, 2023

Still have to watch Oppenheimer

Level 44

Aug 31, 2023

A pet peeve of mine is people forget about Margaret Mitchell, a woman who in the 1930's wrote the best novel in American history, and the only novel in American literature which is equal to Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Charles Dickens. Gone with the Wind is one of the greatest books ever written, and by far the greatest book ever written by a woman.

Instead people talk about Moby Dick which is nothing but a master class in word filling. Bleah...

Level 55

Dec 6, 2023

I would say that Herbert Hoover messing up the Great Depression had massive ripples through American history.

Level 69

Jan 31, 2024

James Monroe and George W Bush should arguably be here

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