TBT: Super Awesome People™ in History.
Super Awesome People™ has made it to 100 posts (woo!), and I want to commemorate the occasion!
Every Thursday, I publish a “Throwback Thursday” post about Super Awesome People™ in History—25 posts to date. When I choose historical figures to write about, I try to find significant people from around the world who have made impacts in all walks of life. I’m especially interested in lesser-known historical figures, as I want to help others discover fascinating and inspiring folks who may have been overlooked because of historical biases.
Over the past six months, I’ve written about environmentalists (Kenya’s Wangari Muta Maathai), educators (India’s Savitribai Phule), scientists (immunologist Edward Jenner, engineer Mary Jackson, ichthyologist Eugenie Clark), athletes (swimmer Gertrude Ederle), activists (abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy, New Zealand’s suffragists), and even eight incredible women named Bessie. I like to tie-in my TBT posts with current events or anniversaries of significant days in history. I have started amassing a list of people to write about in the future, but even if this blog continues indefinitely, I’ll never be able to cover all of the extraordinary people who deserve more recognition.
In celebration of 100 posts (and to inspire 100 more), here are Top 100 lists of significant people in history. If there’s someone you’d like me to write about, send me a Super Awesome People™ recommendation!
- 100 Most Influential People in the World: Biography Online has a list of 100 influential people from Michael H. Hart’s book, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. The top 10 influencers include four religious figures (Muhammad, Jesus of Nazareth, Buddha, and St. Paul), two scientists (Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein), two inventors (Ts’ai Lun, Johann Gutenberg), one explorer (Christopher Columbus), and the philosopher Confucius.
- TIME: 100 Women of the Year: In 2019, TIME reflected on 100 years of women in history by redesigning 89 covers of their “Man of the Year” editions (and keeping the 11 women already awarded “Person of the Year”). From 1920’s “The Suffragists” to 2019’s Greta Thunberg, the 100 Women of the Year include leaders, activists, performers, writers, scientists, educators, and changemakers.
- The 100 Greatest Scientists: Sapaviva.com features the “definitive guide to the world’s preeminent scientists (and mathematicians).” The top ten ranked of The 100 Greatest Scientists are Isaac Newton, Leonhard Euler, Gottfried von Leibniz, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Michael Faraday, Alhazen Ibn al-Haytham, Galileo Galilei, Nikola Tesla, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, and Albert Einstein.
- 100 Famous Inventors and Their Best Invention Ideas: Cad Crowd’s list of 100 Famous Inventors is the same as The Britannica Guide’s The 100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time. The inventors range from Cro-Magnon to Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and the complimentary Top 100 Famous Inventions and Greatest Ideas of All Time includes such can’t-live-without inventions as electricity, antibiotics, clocks, cameras, toothbrushes, and the wheel.
- 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time: Smithsonian magazine adapted the mathematical algorithm used in Who’s Bigger? Where Historical Figures Really Rank to rank the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time, with 10 each (and bonus editor-pick #11s) in the categories of: Trailblazers, Rebels & Resisters, Presidents, First Women, Outlaws, Artists, Religious Figures, Pop Icons, Empire-Builders, and Athletes.
- The 100 Most Beloved Athletes in Sports History: It’s impossible to compare great athletes across time and sports, so in 2011, Bleacher Report opted to rank the 100 Most Beloved Athletes in Sports History based on criteria including respect as an athlete, personality, icon status, and crossover appeal—from an admittedly biased American perspective.
- Encyclopedia Britannica’s 100 Women: For the 100th anniversary of women winning the right to vote in the United States, Encyclopedia Britannica created the 100 Women List featuring “unprecedented women and their unparalleled achievements”. The list is actually more than 150 women and includes activists, artists, athletes, discoverers, leaders, performers, politicians, suffragists, visionaries, and writers.
More Top 100 History Lists:
- 100 History Facts They Didn’t Teach You At School (The #FactSite)
- Teaching History With 100 Objects (The British Museum)
- 103 Iconic Photos That Capture 103 Years of World History (Stacker)
- The 100 Most Important Events in Human History (Make Lists, Not War)
- The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written (Wikipedia)