NationStates Jolt Archive

Mine's Napoleon. His goverment system rocked, he was an excellant general, he stood up for the Jews, and allowed lots of religions. Oh and Niccolo Machiavelli is pretty cool too. Your turn.

Christ.

Leo Euler. Euler kicks Newtons arse.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietrich_Bonhoeffer)
Oskar Schindler (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Schindler)
Sengbe Pieh (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sengbe_Pieh)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.)
Tank Man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Tianasquare.jpg)
Robert Gould Shaw (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gould_Shaw)

Friedrich Engels and his, better known, partner Karl Marx. They were the starters of socialism/communism. I admit their ideals caused a lot of conflict.... A LOT.... but only because it was misinterpreted.

I'm partial to Salah Al-Din (Saladin), mainly because of the contrast between him and his contemporary Richard the Lionheart.

My absolute favorite, though, is the Duke of Edinburgh under Richard IV.
Wait, what do you mean he's fictional?

Friedrich Engels and his, better known, partner Karl Marx. They were the starters of socialism/communism. I admit their ideals caused a lot of conflict.... A LOT.... but only because it was misinterpreted.

Heh, most people I know, even commies, always forget Engels. Must suck to be him.

Friedrich Engels and his, better known, partner Karl Marx. They were the starters of socialism/communism. I admit their ideals caused a lot of conflict.... A LOT.... but only because it was misinterpreted.

They weren't the first. There were other working class socialist movements around prior to Marx and Engels, and the idea of a collective economy dates back even further.

Andy Kaufman. *nod*

Batman.

WHADDYA MEAN HE WASN'T REAL?!

Of couse he's real. He fights crime in the UK. I've seen it in the papers. :)

gandhi

Henry VIII is pretty significant in Europe, it's the first major breakaway (I think) from the Pope in Christianity. Bismark is very influential for Germany.

De Gaulle, Monnet, Schuman and Adenauer were influential in the establishment of what became the EU.

As far as I know the English Civil war with Oliver Cromwell was the first successful challenge to the notion of the Divine Right of Kings. (I could be very wrong abour all my knowledge of English influential figures due to my English education).

There are plenty of others, but I don't know enough about them. Such as, Charlemagne, the Roman emperors, Alexander the Great, Ghengis Khan.

But this is a very Euro-centric view. There are plenty of others who had influence in the rest of the world too. The thing is human lives are fleeting and their influence is always been overwritten by the influence of others.

mahandus k ghandi
lao tsu
maybe einstien, he was mostly kind of cool
isaak asimov, he was alive more then half of the years i've been
but i still consider him one of the giants
minose of crete, though i don't know a thing about him personaly,
or whoever his architects and engineers were
fox and coyote, the spirit archtype fox and coyote
kong, not 'king kong' but kong the monkey king of going to the west.
kitsune
oolong and the other three river/dragons
the goddess the fist king of nepal tried to put the make on
i don't remember either of their names for sure but the're both cool
ah sidarta gutama too of course
aekanaton
mary magdalane
moses' mothers, both of them
bast (aegyptian hearth goddess)
heathor (egyptian cow goddess of sex, which also happens to be a just cool name)
corn planter
red jacket
wavoka
all of the honored elders of all the indiginous tribespeople who'se lands i've lived on and am living on.
all of the living creatures that don't try to coerce each other into dominant pseudo moralities
all of the kinds of creatures that are extinct but would have been really cool to see
all of the seeds and plants and fruit and leaves that keep us alive
everyone i've never met who'se immagination is 'outside the box'
all the one's i've never heard of because the were born, lived, and went on, on planets of other solar systems none of us have ever heard of and many of us might never will.

=^^=
.../\...

I have a couple more: Rosa May Billinghurst, Millicent Fawcett,, Annie Kenney, Grace Kimmins, Christabel Pankhurst, Emily Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Emily Davison, Susan B Anthony, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Kate Sheppard for their role in the Suffragette movement.

Also, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease, and Anne Knight for their role in the abolition of slavery.

Modern day society owes a lot of its equal rights to these women, who are often over looked in our patriarchcal view of history.

Winston Churchill. A greatly flawed man, but the man who saved Britain from becoming a colony of Nazi Germany, as well as being a brilliant study in Victorian and early post-Victorian politics and cultural views.

Margaret Thatcher.

Of couse he's real. He fights crime in the UK. I've seen it in the papers. :)

Well, it's debatable as to whether the UK actually exists or not...

among others: Nefertiti and Snorre Sturlason

Ghandi and John Reed for me.

I know its a kind of common choice (but not on this forum yet) but I'm definitely a huge fan of Gaius Julius Caesar. The capabilities of the man were just extraordinary. A really great series of books that highlight Caesar are Collen McCullough's 'Masters of Rome' series. (Although THE Julius Caesar doesn't really make an appearance until the second book or so.)

Subedei Ba'ateur

Johannes Kepler

Either Miyamoto Musashi or Miles Davis.

General Ambrose E Burnside, on facial hair alone.
http://cascolytravel.com/images/burnside.jpg

I have a couple more: Rosa May Billinghurst, Millicent Fawcett,, Annie Kenney, Grace Kimmins, Christabel Pankhurst, Emily Pankhurst, Sylvia Pankhurst, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Emily Davison, Susan B Anthony, Lucy Burns, Alice Paul, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Kate Sheppard for their role in the Suffragette movement.

Also, Elizabeth Heyrick, Mary Lloyd, Jane Smeal, Elizabeth Pease, and Anne Knight for their role in the abolition of slavery.

Modern day society owes a lot of its equal rights to these women, who are often over looked in our patriarchcal view of history.
If you're going to include all of them, you should definitely include Mary Wollstonecraft, the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).

My own personal favourite historical figure is probably Edward VI. Considering he was only 9 when he came to the throne, and 15 when he died, he had a considerable impact on the Reformation in England - more so than Henry VIII, who was still very conservative in religious terms when compared to other people in England at the time (Cranmer, Ponet, Seymour, etc.).