Many people have contributed to the world as we know it today. Therefore, weeding out just 10 personalities who have changed the world is impossible. And that’s why we at The Dope Lists wrote this article, which will tell you about 20 people who changed the world we are living in. And they did it in some extraordinary way.
Jesus Christ
It has been historically proven that the central figure in Christianity did exist, and he is not fictional like the pagan gods. Jesus Christ is considered one of the most inspiring personalities of all time. Imagine how powerful his aura must have been, as his followers were subjected to fierce persecution by the Roman emperors until 313 when Emperor Constantine the Great issued the Edict of Milan. Today, Christianity has three branches: Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Protestantism, and its followers’ number over 2.2 billion people worldwide.
Nelson Mandela
He is one of the greatest revolutionaries of the twentieth century. Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to the fight against apartheid – a Republic of South Africa policy that divides blacks and whites. Because of that, he was sent to prison by the racist government for 26 years. In 1990 he was released and elected President of the African National Congress. Three years later, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his achievements in the fight against apartheid and establishing democracy in South Africa.
Dalai Lama
He is a high-ranking spiritual teacher in Tibetan Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is believed to be the incarnation of a spiritual leader who chose to be reborn to enlighten other beings. The 14th Dalai Lama is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He is a supporter of women’s rights, dialogue between religions, and ecology. His personal philosophy is based on respect for all living beings and universal responsibility. The current Dalai Lama was reborn in 1935 as Tenzin Gyatso.
Mother Teresa
It will hardly sound familiar if you hear the name Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. But you have probably heard the nickname Mother Teresa. It is the monastic name of an Indian Catholic nun of Albanian descent who dedicated her life to charity and founded the Missionaries of Charity. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In addition, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her blessed 6 years after her death, and Pope Francis a saint in 2016.
Stephen Hawking
He is one of the most famous scientists of our time with a massive contribution to cosmology. He gained international fame with his book A Brief History of Time, published in 1988. His achievements and discoveries are even more impressive because of the insidious disease that Stephen Hawking suffers from – amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which severely damages him physically but does not break his spirit and does not make him less capable of creating.
Sigmund Freud
Have you ever been in a situation where you wondered how you managed to make the right decision? Yes, us too. You have neither an argument nor an explanation. And what do you do? You tell yourself that your intuition has told you what to do on some subconscious level. Did you recognize yourself? This is exactly what Sigmund Freud is doing. He is the founder of psychoanalysis and created techniques to study the unconscious mind, that is, the subconscious, which helps reveal the masses’ secret desires.
Bill Gates
Indeed, Bill Gates is not in this ranking because he chips people. We hope you know that these are just conspiracy theories fueled by fake news. The founder of Microsoft is one of the wealthiest people in the world, who has set himself the goal of making computers accessible to all people and providing access to the Internet for everyone. He also participates in projects related to combating global warming and gender inequality. He doesn’t sound like a man who chips people, does he?!
Martin Luther King Jr.
The speech ‘I Have a Dream’, delivered by Martin Luther King Jr., is probably familiar to every American. One of the most inspiring speeches of the twentieth century and of all. The author’s name is associated with a campaign against racism that has inspired millions of people worldwide. His mantra is that skin color is not and should not be decisive in how people are treated. Thanks to him, there has been a development in civil rights as well. For his work, he was awarded the Peace Prize in 1964.
Christopher Columbus
The Genoese may not have been the first person to reach America. Still, his travels changed the geographical worldview and ushered in a period of colonization. He believed that he could reach Asia if he sailed west across the Atlantic. The paradox is that no one believed him in the beginning and did not want to finance a trip with an unknown result. But Queen Isabel of Castile trusted him, and Columbus sailed away. When he landed, he thought he had reached the shores of India, but it turned out that he had discovered a new continent.
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci is a true genius, not only in his time but also in general. His research and experiments influenced the development of sculpture and painting, architecture, music, mathematics, anatomy and engineering. Leonardo’s all-around interests and unconventional ideas made many people think he was crazy, at least because, at that time, the study of the human body by autopsy was forbidden. His revolutionary worldview led to many inventions, and he is considered one of the most extraordinary talents who ever lived. Can you imagine what he would do if he had today’s resources?
Albert Einstein
Einstein became the most famous scientist when the ‘General Theory of Relativity was proven in 1919. Two years later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The theory of relativity is still used today by the scientific community. Although a pacifist, his ideas helped the United States develop the atomic bomb. Saddened by this, shortly before his death, Einstein asked the British philosopher Bertrand Russell to put his name in a manifesto calling on all states to renounce nuclear weapons.
Henry Dunant
The Swiss social activist was the first person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901. He founded the Red Cross in 1863 at the Geneva Convention. The reason is that he was shocked by the consequences and atrocities he saw in the battle of Solferino between the French Emperor Napoleon III and the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph. The humanitarian movement was created to protect health and human life, and also human dignity. Today, the International Committee of the Red Cross has over 97 million members.
Gautama Buddha
He is a spiritual leader whose teachings are based on Buddhism. Buddha was born in the 6th century BC. He is believed to have been a prince, but when he grew up, he left the palace and devoted himself to asceticism. Buddha later realized that asceticism was not the right way to awaken. After years of meditation, he received enlightenment. He discovered the so-called Middle Way – a path of restraint and an opponent of all extremes and self-destruction. There are about 500 million followers of Buddhism today.
Tim Berners-Lee
He is known as the computer scientist who invented the World Wide Web. This is one of the services offered on the Internet and is called ‘The Cobweb’. It is an information system of interconnected hypertext documents available via the Internet. Berners-Lee also created the first web browser. He has been called the ‘father of the Internet’ for his achievements. Don’t forget this name. Thanks to it, we use many of the functions we are used to in everyday life.
Charles Darwin
In 1859, his book The Origin of Species by Natural Selection was published, which scandalized society. However, it was accompanied by convincing evidence. The revolutionary view that man was not created as described in the Bible, but was the result of the evolution of primates, provoked violent reactions because it seemed too unrealistic and, on top of that, denied religion. But Darwin was right, and today his theories of both evolution and natural selection are at the heart of biological science.
Marie Curie
She was the first to do or achieve something in many areas. Marie Curie is the first winner of two Nobel Prizes and the only woman to be awarded in two different fields – chemistry and physics. She also managed to break the stereotypes of the time and become the first woman teacher and professor at the Sorbonne. She participated in the study of spontaneous radio radiation, developed the theory of radioactivity, and discovered two new chemical elements: radium and polonium.
Karl Marx
Marx’s views are entirely changing the world. Many people worldwide still have an aftertaste for his ideas, which is why he is considered one of the most influential figures in human history. He is an opponent of capitalism and believes that there will be a reorganization and a classless society in which everyone will be equal in the future. Ultimately, his ideas explained in the Communist Manifesto led to the October Revolution and the birth of communism.
John Vincent Atanasoff
We’ve already told you about the founders of Microsoft and the World Wide Web. Still, their accomplishments would be impossible without a computer. The Bulgarian John Atanasoff, together with Clifford Berry, created a machine that converts decimal numbers into binary, performs various mathematical operations, and stores the results in regenerative memory. This is the prototype of today’s computer. Due to the outbreak of World War II, the prototype remained unfinished. Still, the idea was later developed by other scientists.
Shakespeare
He is the most influential writer in English literature, despite numerous conspiracy theories surrounding its existence. We doubt that there is anyone who has not read any of his works or at least has not watched any of their many adaptations in theatrical and film art. Shakespeare’s surviving works include 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and poems. In addition to his undeniable contribution to literature, he enriched the English language with more than 1,700 new words.
Abraham Lincoln
The sixteenth president of the United States solved the problem of slavery in the second half of the XIX century. Although the president-elect’s clear opposition to slavery became one of the reasons for the outbreak of the American Civil War, the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution came into force, ending the ban on slavery. By the end of the XIX century. Most countries are banning slavery, and it is gradually becoming a long-forgotten practice.
All 20 of these people are people from whom we definitely have something to learn. They have contributed to a change in the status quo. These people were often considered even crazy because of their revolutionary ideas. But they are also people who managed to change the world. For good or bad.
