Person of the Millennium

Who was the most important person of the past 1000 years?

2. IrvingSnodgrass - Jan. 29, 1999 - 8:52 AM PT
79. Samuel Lister
80. Rembrandt van Rijn
81. Simon Bolivar
82. Immanuel Kant
83. Mary Wollstonecraft
84. Werner von Braun
85. Princess Diana Spencer
86. James Cook
87. John F. Kennedy
88. John M. Keynes
89. Charles Dickens
90. Alan Turing
91. Alighieri Dante
92. Ignatius Loyola
93. Pope John Paul II
94. Louis XIV
95. John Baird
96. Rachel Carson
97. Saladin
98. Oliver Cromwell
99. Pope John XXIII
100. Suleyman the Magnificent

3. jkuzmak - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:17 AM PT
All of them.

4. marjoribanks - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:20 AM PT
Disney at 61, just ahead of Peter the Great and Henry the Navigator (and Machiavelli, Magellan and Voltaire) is classic. Just classic.

5. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:33 AM PT
Isaac Newton
Christopher Columbus
Johannes Gutenberg
Copernicus
Genghis Khan
Galileo

6. harper - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:36 AM PT
As much as I'd really like to vote for Shakespeare, I'd have to go with Newton. His theories led to so many more amazing discoveries and theories.

Or maybe Copernicus for the same reason.

7. marjoribanks - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:44 AM PT
I don't see why Columbus deserves such high rating. Henry the Navigator, Magellan and Vasco da Gama should be higher than him. The last doesn't even get a place on the list Irv posted.

8. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:45 AM PT
Anyone else is a far far far second to Isaac Newton.

9. marjoribanks - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:47 AM PT
1) Darwin
2) Gandhi
3) Edison
4) Bell
5) Marx

10. BunEBear - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:47 AM PT
PE has already chosen pretty well. I might have included Martin Luther and maybe Darwin.
Lets look at the first list and see who clearly doesn't belong:
Albert Einstein: I nominated him as person of the century, but he didn't change the view of man's place in the universe to the extent that Newton, Copernicus or Darwin did.
Karl Marx: Might have been arguable a few decades ago, but certainly not now.
William Shakespeare: Was important for English speakers, but that still excludes a good part of the world.
I invite others to continue down the list.

11. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:47 AM PT
Marzipranks displays some Luso-Goan nationalism!

12. Raskolnikov - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:47 AM PT
Newton and Galileo were the first names to jump to my mind. Marco Polo, Prince Henry, and Columbus come to mind for their contributions to the age of exploration. Gutenberg was certainly incredibly important, and you have to give a hell of a lot credit (or blame) to Marx for the events of the 20th century.

13. marjoribanks - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:49 AM PT
Darwin, boys, Darwin should be person of the millennium without a doubt.

14. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:49 AM PT
Actually, yes, Darwin and Marx would be good too. But we're tying to choose a man of the millenium, right? Does that mean the most influential person born in the millennium, or the person most influential during this millennium?

At any rate, Newton is far far far more important than Darwin or Marx.

15. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:50 AM PT
Marzipranks's list shows he hasn't much instinct before 1840.

16. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:51 AM PT
Gandhi! He doesn't even deserve the honour for the 20th century.

17. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:51 AM PT
Not even for the first half-century.

18. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:52 AM PT
It's

N E W T O N.

Now please RIP the thread.

19. BunEBear - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:53 AM PT
Raskolnikov: I thought of Marco Polo but then thought that PE's choice of Genghis Khan was better. The Khans probably had more to do with opening up the east to the west, at least thats the impression I get from the limited reading I have done.

20. marjoribanks - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:53 AM PT
Don't get me started on Gandhi just yet. I intend on showing that Darwin was the POM, then subtly insinuating that Gandhi was more influential aand worthy. Please don't interrupt the program,

21. CoralReef - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:55 AM PT
Neil Armstrong shouldn't be on the list at all.

22. marjoribanks - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:55 AM PT
Gandhiji fully deserves his status as Official Fray Person of the Century.

23. DanDillon - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:55 AM PT
65. Elvis Presley ?

Get out.

24. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:56 AM PT
Darwin has one huge accomplishment: the theory of natural selection

Newton has two: calculus and Newtonian physics

Newton has also had 300 years of influence; Darwin, less than 150 years.

Newton wins by default.

25. Raskolnikov - Jan. 29, 1999 - 9:57 AM PT
What the hell. I don't at all disagree about Newton, but for the sake of an argument, why are his several incredible contributions to science more important than Galileo's demonstrations of the power of the scientific method, or Prince Henry's kicking off of the age of exploration?

26. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:00 AM PT
Galileo is the choice of the Romantic -- oppression by the Church and all that, even though there wasn't any bravery before the thumbscrew.

27. harper - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:01 AM PT
BunEBear:Message #10

I've already nominated Newton, but I must defend Shakespeare. His works have been translated in many languages and have influenced many non-English speaking writers and film makers. I'm biased as a person with a degree in English Lit and as a writer.

28. BunEBear - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:02 AM PT
One could argue that Calculus was discovered independently and thus doesn't count (falls into the category of "would've happened anyway"). But Newton should win by virtue of introducing modern scientific methodology, in the form of Newtonian physics.

29. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:03 AM PT
True, Leibnitz simultaneously invented calculus, and we use mostly Leibnitz's notation in elementary calc., rather than Newton's completely baffling one.

30. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:05 AM PT
Well, if you believe Harold Bloom, Shakespeare "invented" the modern human being. So perhaps Harper could take that angle.

31. Raskolnikov - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:05 AM PT Actually his oppression by the church didn't enter into it. I am sure I would have caved as well. Now, my knowledge of scientific history isn't comprehensive, but wasn't Galileo the first person to really implement the scientific method and develop empiricism at the expense of the Aristotle's more deduce-the-world-from-principles techniques?

32. Raskolnikov - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:06 AM PT thats ok, Pseudo left out optics, so Newton still gets a bonus on Darwin. 33. CoralReef - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:12 AM PT A first pass at a list... Shakespeare (among other things, educated elites for centuries) Napoleon (conquered a continent) Newton (Scribbled some numbers down) Bolivar (liberated a continent) Ben Franklin (elder statesman of the American Revolution) And as a wild card.....Lord Cochrane, Admiral of the rebel Chilean navy, former member of parliament, and all around rogue. 34. DanDillon - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:14 AM PT I object to the list that we have been presented with on the grounds that it is decidedly and unnaturally occidental. I nominate Sridhara, the Indian mathematician who recognized the overwhelming importance of zero. 35. luthercalvin - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:14 AM PT Who is the guy that invented the transistor?? I like Johannes Gutenburg because he had such an impact plus his impact has been felt for much longer than, say, a 20th century person. Newton is top 5 no doubt, but so is Martin Luther (I think one could make a strong case the ML is #1). Maybe Darwin. I am a little hesitant to put a discoverer in the top 10. Inventors come way before discoverers in my opinion. And the guy who invented toilet paper gets my vote too!!

36. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:15 AM PT Raskolnikov (Message #31) Galileo didn't come out of the blue. He had medieval and Renaissance antecedents. "...Aristotle's more deduce-the-world-from-principles techniques?" I used to be as steeped in vulgar ignorance in this regard as you seem tenaciously to be. See Aristotelian empiricism.

37. luthercalvin - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:21 AM PT How about this? Who was the most important person in the FIRST HALF of the millennium? Then who was the most important in the SECOND HALF? Then, make arguments as to why the first half guy isn't as important, since he has had longer influence than the second half guy? I guess what I am getting at is how we are defining "important." From my persective, a guy like Johannes Gutenburg has had far greater impact than somebody like Darwin, just because Gutie was so much earlier. 38. CoralReef - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:26 AM PT luther, Well Darwin's influence will be felt sure enough as time goes on, I don't see how being later makes him less important to human history if his change was equally as important as someone earlier. 39. CoralReef - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:30 AM PT luthercalvin, if it were who was the most imnportant person up to 1728 or 1750 or 1800, would Newton be less important than he's being rated now? 40. luthercalvin - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:35 AM PT "luthercalvin, if it were who was the most imnportant person up to 1728 or 1750 or 1800, would Newton be less important than he's being rated now?" Sure, because there hadn't been enough time for his contributions to entirely take effect. The same could be said for Gutenburg too. His influence at 1480 wasn't nearly so great as at 1550 or 1650 and so on. 41. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:37 AM PT Thank Irv for publishing the list. Some points to consider. It comes from an English newspaper published in Canada. Obviously, the readers of the Toronto paper are very familiar with British/Scotish history. They also are proud of their own history and a Canadian is listed in the top-100. Number 59 is Frederick Banting, a Canadian physiologist who is the co-discover of insulin. Names that shouldn't be on the top-100 are, I believe, are: JFK, Princess Di, Mikhail Gorbachev, Mother Teresa, Bill Gates, Elvis Presley, and Pope John Paul II. For those who need additional information, I still have the bios. 42. CoralReef - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:38 AM PT Then I suggest William the Conqueror, man of the millennium. 1066 and all that. 43. FreeToChoose - Jan. 29, 1999 - 10:45 AM PT pseudoerasmus asked “Does that mean the most influential person born in the millennium, or the person most influential during this millennium?” If the latter, I nominate Jesus Christ. 44. thoughtful - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:04 AM PT I take it to mean the most important person who was alive in this millennium which excludes Christ. I have to agree on Newton. If it's the person most influencing this millennium, I'd have to go with anonymous -- the guy who invented the wheel. 45. DocBrown - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:07 AM PT Hey, Coral, Armstrong outranks a lot of people on that list. Besides, if you remove him you should remove Werner von Braun too. 46. DocBrown - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:18 AM PT Hey Irv! That list absolutely must have John von Neumann aded to it. You can't have Alan Turing without von Neumann. That said, here is my top three list: Galileo Darwin von Neumann Galileo was important in taking us away from superstition. He told us that we were not the center of the Universe. Darwin took us another step away from superstition. He told us that we were descended from animals. von Neumann's work on information science was the beginning of taking the human race down another notch on the superstition scale. Thanks to him, in the next century we will have machines that are as smart and just as conscious as humans. 47. Raskolnikov - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:21 AM PT Pseudo: Interesting discussion about empiricism. But it seems that regardless of what Aristotle actually was or wasn't, his primary influence was with the deductivists, not the empiricists. I really do need to find a good mainstream text on the history of science... 48. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:27 AM PT "Well, if you believe Harold Bloom, Shakespeare "invented" the modern human being." Bloom is full of it, Pseudo. I am so tired of hearing that whiner. 49. FreeToChoose - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:32 AM PT Thoughtful Good point, but how do you know it wasn't a girl who invented the wheel? 50. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:38 AM PT Cellar'sList (no particular order) Marcel Proust Roger Edens Irving Rosenthal Walter Benjamin Louise Brooks Pier Paolo Pasolini Cole Porter Lorenz Hart Oscar Wilde Emile Zola Charles Dickens Charles Dodgson Tennesssee Williams Frank O'Hara Joe Orton Ronald Firbank Jean Genet Robert Musil Gustave Flaubert Stephane Mallarme 51. BobaFett - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:39 AM PT Three words: John Couger Melloncamp 52. PsychProf - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:42 AM PT Ah...Cherrybomb...I thought you would nominate KStarr, Boba. 53. BunEBear - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:43 AM PT FTC brings up an interesting point. In the above list I counted 10 women (did I miss any?). 26. Marie Curie 30. Elizabeth I 45. Mother Teresa 46. Florence Nightingale 47. Queen Victoria 48. Joan of Arc 56. Emmeline Pankhurst 83. Mary Wollstonecraft 85. Princess Diana Spencer 96. Rachel Carson Who the heck is Emmeline Pankhurst BTW? (I assume it is a women). 54. BunEBear - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:45 AM PT So who would be the woman of the Millennium? 55. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:47 AM PT Carlo Emilio Gadda Charles Baudelaire Kay Thompson J.G. Ballard Dorothy Dean Michel Foucault Charles Ludlam Jane Bowles Christopher Marlowe Derek Jarman Ludwig van Beethoven Gustav Mahler Glenn Gould Maria Callas Francis Bacon (s) Dusty Springfield Arthur Freed Jean-Luc Godard Robert Bresson Jacques Demy Orson Welles Stephen Sondheim Federico Fellini Andy Warhol Jeremy Bentham Charles Fourier Raymond Roussel Duke Ellington Edward Carpenter (50 down, 50 to go) 56. BobaFett - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:49 AM PT Three words: Rowdy Roddy Piper 57. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:49 AM PT Boba: Get outta here. Only thing Johnny Couger did that was any good was "Little Pink Houses for you and me..." and that Van Morrison chestnut. I love those songs. 58. Raskolnikov - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:50 AM PT Kate the Great should be on the list, if she isn't. 59. TabouliJones - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:51 AM PT I take it CalGal is going to be extremely opposed to this valuation obsessed thread. (g) or (r) 60. TheDiva - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:53 AM PT Wasn't Mrs. Pankhurst the lady who started the Suffragist Movement in Great Britain? 61. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:55 AM PT BunEBear: Wasn't she Jane Doe #7? Actually, she would have kicked Bill Clinton in the balls had he raped her. Emmeline Pankhurst (1857-1928) was an English suffragette leader who won right for women (even the evil computer JadeGold). 62. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:56 AM PT BunEBear: Wasn't she Jane Doe #7? Actually, she would have kicked Bill Clinton in the balls had he raped her. Emmeline Pankhurst (1857-1928) was an English suffragette leader who won rights for women (even the evil computer JadeGold). 63. Jonesatlaw - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:57 AM PT The man of the millenium- the man who created it of course- Pope Gregory of gregorian calandar fame. The rest can wait a tad more than a week..... 64. Raskolnikov - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:58 AM PT Woman of the millennium? It is sad there are not more contenders, but... Liz I Queen Vicky Katerina II Ms. Of Ark (Margaret?) Sanger Rachel Carson (a bit early to tell, but I like her) Kate of Aragon A suffragette or two (Stanton, Anthony, someone else?) Eleanor Roosevelt Audrey Hepburn 65. BobaFett - Jan. 29, 1999 - 11:59 AM PT MOST IMPORTANT PERSONS OF THE CENTURY Olympia Dukakis Mike "Bobby Brady" Lookinlad Craig T. Nelson Faith Popcorn Andrew "Didn't that Jagoff used to be in Wham!?" Ridgely Sir Run Run Shaw Dr. Frank Fields Judith Licht Tatum O'Neal Mary Elizabeth Jessica Sarah Parker Steenbergen Mastriantonio Ralph Macchio Mr. Miagi Frank Stallone Ted "Lurch" Cassidy Mary Hart 66. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:01 PM PT For the Record: The Van Morrison song that Couger sang was "Wild Nights." 67. BobaFett - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:03 PM PT BonJour: Yeah, we know. It sucks. I mean The John cougar Mellencamp version. 68. DocBrown - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:04 PM PT Curly Howard, everyone's favorite Stooge. 69. BobaFett - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:09 PM PT Ken Berry of "F Troop" Danny Ainge Courtney Thorne-Smith Jamie Lee Coitus (Porno actress, star of "Swalloween") Jonnie Winters 70. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:30 PM PT (continued from #55) Julius Monk Thelonius Monk Lena Horne Billie Holiday Jorge Luis Borges Donal Cammell David Hockney Elliot Noel Coward TrouserPilot James Whale Will Marion Cook Gloria Stuart W.A. Mozart Gioacchino Rossini Jack Smith Gregory J. Markopoulos Michael Powell Martin Scorsese Charles Laughton Donald Vining Noam Chomsky Betty Comden & Adolph Green Alain Resnais (25 to go) 71. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:53 PM PT Cellardweller: I haven't read the latest book, but I generally like Harold Bloom (especially the pre-Western Canon HB). His Romanticism is a little extreme, but it's a welcome corrective. His "anxiety of influence" idea is, despite its opacity, brilliant. I also think "The Book of J" is one of the best literary criticisms of the 20th century. 72. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:55 PM PT Of course someone like you belongs to the "school of resentment" and whining punks that he so often castigates -- and with such panache. 73. TheDiva - Jan. 29, 1999 - 1:01 PM PT Damn, Cellar, your list and mine are frighteningly similar. Of course, I'd have to substitute Bubba for Trouser, but I suppose I should wait for the rest of the list. 74. TheDiva - Jan. 29, 1999 - 1:02 PM PT "Will Marion Cook" I don't know.....who's cleaning up after? hahahahahahaha ha ha um. 75. rdbrewer - Jan. 29, 1999 - 1:15 PM PT I agree with many of the picks listed; however, I don't believe Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Agriculture deserves to be on BonJour's list at number twenty-three. Twenty-nine, maybe, but not twenty-three. 76. jkuzmak - Jan. 29, 1999 - 1:58 PM PT I would support a constellation around Turing, vonNeuman, Weiner, Shannon. "The best mathematical representation of a cat is another cat. Preferably the same cat." Weiner? 77. patsyrolph - Jan. 29, 1999 - 2:24 PM PT Well...Dan Dillon has previously claimed the title but it is I who am the POM. If all those other folk didn't make a noise falling in my forest they don't exist. 78. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 2:29 PM PT rh: funny, very unfunny. (remember it's Opposite Day) But before I lose this newspaper clipping on the bios of the top-100, here goes: #23 James Watt (1736-1819) Scotish engineer who developed steam engine. 79. darkviolet - Jan. 29, 1999 - 2:30 PM PT BunEBear - Re: Message #53 "In the above list I counted 10 women (did I miss any?)." Yes. Sacagawea had more impact on history than any of the women listed. 80. darkviolet - Jan. 29, 1999 - 2:37 PM PT Well, I would need to read a lot more of the history of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery to argue what geographic shape the United States might have now had Sacagawea not provided her crucial knowledge to the expedition, but I think it would be quite different, enough that I wouldn't be speaking English from my little corner of the NW. 81. MrSocko - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:06 PM PT Assuming this is a serious thread, I would nominate Thomas Aquinas as POM. As far as Western man is concerned, he remains the one who, through the work known as Summa Contra Gentiles, set the stage for industrialism, the Enlightenment, and Americanism. All of these would have been impossible without Thomas. The silliest suggestion I've seen for POM is Gandhi. What did Gandhi ever do for anybody outside of administering enemas to his friends and never bathing properly? 82. MrSocko - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:07 PM PT Bobo: Four words: "Nature Boy" Ric Flair. 83. Philistine - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:16 PM PT cllrdr - try to get Charles Mingus on the next 25, ok? And how about your God, Mel Brooks? 84. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:16 PM PT MrSocko: I would assume Gandhi supporters would say that he helped get the British out of India and was instrumental in setting the peaceful tone of the American Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and early anti-Vietnam demonstrations. In the U.S., he was popular because Martin Luther King Jr. was DA MAN. 85. syastrow - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:20 PM PT Ok, since the nominees are less than comprehensive, let me ask the Jews: Rashi or Rambam? 86. TheDiva - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:20 PM PT Message #83 and Bird. Don't forget Bird. 87. syastrow - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:21 PM PT Ok, since the nominees are from categories that are less than universal, let me ask the Jews: Rashi or Rambam? 88. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:27 PM PT I nominate Message #81 as the second silliest suggestion, after Gandhi. Summa contra gentiles set the stage for industrialism, the Enlightenment and "Americanism"??? Has the fool the foggiest idea of SCG? 89. PincherMartin - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:30 PM PT I think to properly answer this question we need to consider what are the events, or discoveries, or trends that were the most important in this millennium. My picks: 1) Science as a routine method of discovery instead of isolated spikes of brilliance. 2) The Rise of the West 3) The Rise and Fall of the Christian Church ( I'm sure I will be busted for this one). 4) This last one I'm not that sure about yet, but something to do with business, capital, or economics. Things I think we can completely ignore: 1) most anything having to do with the Third World. 2)anything having to do with consumerism no fucking Walt Disneys, etc.) 90. BobaFett - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:34 PM PT 1) Dick Butkus 2) Dick Trickle 3) Dick Armey 4) Colin Powell 5) Ben Stein 91. BonJour - Jan. 29, 1999 - 3:56 PM PT Boba: Are you a fan of Ben Stein? I think he's terrific. He writes a good political column in American Spectator and has a funny but smart show on Comedy Central. The concept that Stein gets to keep the money if contestants don't win on his quiz show is very original. 92. jkuzmak - Jan. 29, 1999 - 4:08 PM PT Since we are talking Thomas Aquinas. If we would understand the Scientific Revolution correctly, we should always remember that its most powerful impetus was the unremitting search for hidden divinity. In the late 17th century, to choose an obvious example, it is three English Protestants all amateur theologians and fervently devout, who build the foundations for physics, psychology, and biology: the paranoiac Isaac Newton writing down God's speech in the great universal laws of celestial gravitation; the gaunt and literal John Locke knowing his Most Knowing Being in the riches of knowing experience; and the peripatetic John Ray, an unkempt ecclesiastic out of a pulpit, joyfully limning the Word of his Creator in the perfection of the design of animal and plant life. Without this religious motivation, science would have been mere technology, limping along on economic necessity. 93. PincherMartin - Jan. 29, 1999 - 4:11 PM PT My four picks (based on Message #89: 1) Isaac Newton 2) Napoleon 3) Martin Luther 4) ? 94. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 4:15 PM PT Ben Stein killed Joan Rivers' husband. 95. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 4:21 PM PT 72. pseudoerasmus - Jan. 29, 1999 - 12:55 PM PT Of course someone like you belongs to the "school of resentment" and whining punks that he so often castigates -- and with such panache. Pseudo, pseudo, pseudo. I resent nothing. Thanks for the "panache," however. 96. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 4:34 PM PT Continued from#70 Oscar Levant Thomas Mann Charlie Parker Lester Young Herman Broch Andre Gide Franz Kafka Alfred Hitchcock Jean Vigo Jean Cocteau James Joyce Arthur Rimbaud Constantine Cavafy Charles Mingus Mel Brooks Edgar Allan Poe Honore de Balzac Jacques Rivette Herman Melville Isidore Ducasse Jules Verne Henry James Kenneth Graham George Gershwin and Abraham Polonsky TA -DAH!!! 97. cllrdr - Jan. 29, 1999 - 4:48 PM PT Good grief: I FORGOT JUDY GARLAND! Scratch Andre Gide. 98. DaveCook - Jan. 29, 1999 - 5:21 PM PT I was going to be original and say Genghis Khan, but I guess you have to get up pretty early to be original around here. First, he had a huge impact on history (in response to PincherMartin's no 3rd World criteria, I'd say Hey, this is the guy who made the 3rd world 3rd). Second, he probably had the most personal impact on the events that surrounded him. Northern Europeans would have thrown off the yoke of Rome without Luther; eventually, given advances in sailing ships, Europeans would have gone to the Americas without Columbus. Without Genghis, though, the Mongols are just some short guys with good barbecue. 99. DaveCook - Jan. 29, 1999 - 5:24 PM PT And what did Leonardo Da Vinci ever do to make #14. That guy must have the top PR man ever. 100. Seguine - Jan. 29, 1999 - 5:50 PM PT "Scratch Andre Gide." Yeah, I was kind of wondering how a sanctimonious, hypocritical pedophile got on the same list with Mel Brooks. next home