Most Influential U.S. Americans

U.S. Americans

Abraham Lincoln

The 16th President of the Unite States of America, from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln’s momentous achievements: he successfully waged a political struggle and civil war that preserved the Union, ended slavery, and created the possibility of civil and social freedom for African-Americans.

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks occupies an iconic status in the civil rights movement after she refused to vacate a seat on a bus in favor of a white passenger in Montgomery, Alabama.

George Washington

George Washington – first American president, commander of the Continental Army, president of the Constitutional Convention, and farmer.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

King’s leadership contributed to the overall success of the civil rights movement in the mid-1900s and continues to impact civil rights movements in the present.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. Best known for developing the theory of relativity, he also made important contributions to the development of the theory of quantum mechanics, and thus to modern physics.

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin is known for his experiments with electricity – most notably the kite experiment – a fascination that began in earnest after he accidentally shocked himself in 1746.

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, a spokesman for democracy, was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776), and the third President of the United States (1801–1809).

Thomas Alva Edison

Edison exerted a tremendous influence on modern life, contributing inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera, as well as improving the telegraph and telephone.

Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was an American social reformer and women’s rights activist who played a pivotal role in the women’s suffrage movement. Born into a Quaker family committed to social equality, she collected anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17.

John Muir

John Muir was one of the country’s most famous naturalist and conservationist and Muir Woods, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is named in his honor. Muir is credited with both the creation of the National Park System and the establishment of the Sierra Club.

Cesar Chavez

For more than three decades Cesar led the first successful farm workers union in American history, achieving dignity, respect, fair wages, medical coverage, pension benefits, and humane living conditions, as well as countless other rights and protections for hundreds of thousands of farm workers.

Josiah Willard Gibbs

Josiah Willard Gibbs was an American scientist who made significant theoretical contributions to physics, chemistry, and mathematics. As a mathematician, he invented modern vector calculus.

Bill Gates

William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is best known for co-founding software giant Microsoft

Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk, was a visionary civil and human rights leader who became one of the first openly gay elected officials in the United States when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977.

Henry Ford

Henry Ford was an American industrialist and business magnate. He was the founder of Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

An American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the youngest person to assume the presidency by election and the youngest president at the end of his tenure.

Thurgood Marshall

Thurgood Marshall was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court’s first African-American justice.

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Best known for his two classic novels of boyhood life on the Mississippi River, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

James Watson

American geneticist and biophysicist who played a crucial role in the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), the substance that is the basis of heredity.

Maya Angelou

Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony created the Women’s Loyal National League, gathering 400,000 signatures on a petition to bring about immediate passage of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to end slavery in the United States.

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African-American president of the United States.

Ida B. Wells

African-American journalist and activist who led an anti-lynching crusade in the United States in the 1890s. She also fought for woman suffrage. She was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Walt Disney

Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons.