“Greatness” does not always mean “goodness.” Among the great men in this book are some who left a blank mark on world history. Shi Huangdi, Emperor of China in the third century BC, ruled his empire ruthlessly. Death was the only punishment for disobeying his laws. Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, had his son tortured to death for treason… These, and others whose stories have a dark side, have been included because, for good or evil, they left their mark on the age they lived in.
| Humanitarians | |||
| Albert Schweitzer | 1875-1965 | Lutheran | |
| Chiune Sugihara | 1900-1986 | ||
| Raoul Wallenberg | 1912-c.1947 | ||
| Martin Luther King, Jr. | 1929-1968 | Baptist | |
| Desmond Tutu | 1931- | Anglican | |
| The Dalai Lama | 1935- | Tibetan Buddhism | |
| Han Dongfang | 1963- | ||
| Thinkers and Philosophers | |||
| Lao Zi [Lao Tzu] | c. 600 B.C. | Taoism | |
| Confucius | 551-479 B.C. | Confucianism | |
| Socrates | 469-399 B.C. | Greek philosophy | |
| Plato | c. 427-347 B.C. | Platonism / Greek philosophy | |
| Aristotle | 384-322 B.C. | Platonism / Greek philosophy | |
| Niccolo Machiavelli | 1469-1527 | Catholic | |
| John Locke | 1632-1704 | raised Puritan (Anglican); Liberal Christian | |
| Jean-Jacques Rousseau | 1712-1778 | born Protestant; converted as a teen to Catholic; later Deist |
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| Karl Marx | 1818-1883 | Jewish; Lutheran; Atheist; Marxism/Communism |
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| Kings, Emperors and Politicians | |||
| Hammurabi | c. 1792-1750 B.C. | ||
| Alexander the Great | 356-323 | Greek state paganism | |
| Asoka | c. 300-232 B.C. | Buddhism | |
| Shi Huangdi | 259-210 B.C. | ||
| Julius Caesar | c. 100-44 B.C. | Roman state paganism | |
| Charlemagne | 742-814 A.D. | Catholic | |
| Kublai Khan | 1214-1294 | ||
| Peter the Great | 1672-1725 | Russian Orthodox | |
| George Washington | 1732-1799 | Episcopalian | |
| Napoleon Bonaparte | 1769-1821 | Catholic (nominal) | |
| Simon Bolivar | 1783-1830 | Catholic (nominal); Atheist | |
| Abraham Lincoln | 1809-1865 | Regular Baptist (childhood); later ambiguous – Deist, general theist or a very personalized Christianity |
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| Mahatma Gandhi | 1869-1948 | Hindu (mother was a Jain) | |
| Kemal Ataturk | 1881-1938 | ||
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1882-1945 | Episcopalian | |
| Nelson Mandela | 1918- | ||
| Mikhail Gorbachev | 1931- | Russian Orthodox | |
| Religious Leaders | |||
| Zoroaster | c. 628-c. 551 B.C. | Zoroastrianism | |
| Muhammad | c. 570-632 A.D. | Islam | |
| Buddha | c. 563-c. 483 B.C. | Hinduism; Buddhism | |
| Moses | c. 13th century B.C. | Judaism | |
| Jesus Christ | c. 6 B.C.-c. 30 A.D. | Judaism; Christianity | |
| Martin Luther | 1483-1546 | Catholic; Lutheran | |
| Musicians and Composers | |||
| Johann Sebastian Bach | 1685-1750 | Lutheran | |
| Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | 1756-1791 | Catholic | |
| Ludwig van Beethoven | 17770-1827 | Catholic | |
| Richard Wagner | 1813-1883 | ||
| Arturo Toscanini | 1867-1957 | Catholic | |
| George Gershwin | 1898-1937 | Jewish | |
| Louis Armstrong | 1898-1971 | Baptist | |
| The Beatles | formed 1960 | ||
| Writers | |||
| Homer | c. 700-c. 800 B.C. | Greek paganism | |
| Virgil | 70-19 B.C. | ||
| Dante Alighieri | 1265-1321 | Catholic | |
| William Shakespeare | 1564-1616 | Catholic; Anglican | |
| Moliere | 1622-1673 | Catholic | |
| Charles Dickens | 1812-1870 | Anglican | |
| Mark Twain | 1835-1910 | Presbyterian | |
| Bertolt Brecht | 1898-1956 | ||
| Painters, Sculptors and Architects | |||
| Michelangelo | 1475-1564 | Catholic | |
| Rembrandt | 1606-1669 | Dutch Reformed | |
| Christopher Wren | 1632-1723 | Anglican | |
| Katsushika Hokusai | 1760-1849 | ||
| Joseph Mallord William Turner | 1775-1851 | ||
| Vincent van Gogh | 1853-1890 | Dutch Reformed | |
| Frank Lloyd Wright | 1869-1959 | Unitarian | |
| Pablo Picasso | 1881-1973 | Catholic | |
| Le Corbusier | 1887-1965 | ||
| Stage, Screen and Photography | |||
| Charlie Chaplin | 1889-1977 | Anglican; agnostic | |
| Jean Renoir | 1894-1979 | Catholic | |
| Sergei Eisenstein | 1898-1948 | Russian Orthodox; Marxist; Freudian | |
| Henri Cartier-Bresson | 1908- | ||
| Orson Welles | 1915-1985 | Protestant Christian | |
| Steven Spielberg | 1947- | Judaism | |
| Scientists | |||
| Euclid | c. 330-c. 260 B.C. | Platonism / Greek philosophy | |
| Archimedes | c. 287-212 B.C. | Greek philosophy | |
| Leonardo da Vinci | 1452-1519 | Catholic | |
| Galileo Galilei | 1564-1642 | Catholic | |
| Isaac Newton | 1642-1727 | Anglican (rejected Trinitarianism, i.e., Athanasianism; believed in the Arianism of the Primitive Church) |
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| James Watt | 1736-1819 | Presbyterian (lapsed) | |
| Michael Faraday | 1791-1867 | Sandemanian | |
| Charles Darwin | 1809-1882 | Anglican (nominal); Unitarian | |
| Louis Pasteur | 1822-1895 | Catholic | |
| Joseph Lister | 1827-1912 | Quaker | |
| Sigmund Freud | 1856-1939 | Jewish; atheist; Freudian psychology/psychoanalysis | |
| Albert Einstein | 1879-1955 | Jewish | |
| Alexander Fleming | 1881-1955 | Catholic | |
| Linus Pauling | 1901-1994 | Lutheran | |
| James Watson and Francis Crick | 1928-; 1916- | ||
| Inventors | |||
| Zai Lun | c. 50-118 A.D. | ||
| Johannes Gutenberg | 1400-1468 | Catholic | |
| Samuel Morse | 1791-1872 | Christianity | |
| Nikolaus Otto | 1832-1891 | ||
| Alfred Nobel | 1833-1896 | ||
| Alexander Graham Bell | 1847-1922 | Unitarian | |
| Thomas Alva Edison | 1847-1931 | Congregationalist; agnostic | |
| Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright | 1871-1948; 1867-1912 | United Brethren | |
| Guglielmo Marconi | 1847-1937 | Catholic and Anglican | |
| Explorers and Pioneers | |||
| Marco Polo | c. 1254-1324 | Catholic | |
| Christopher Columbus | 1451-1506 | Catholic | |
| Ferdinand Magellan | 1480-1521 | Catholic | |
| Roald Amundsen | 1872-1928 | ||
| Yuri Gagarin | 1934-1968 | ||
| Neil Armstrong | 1930- | ||
Ntungamo Travel Guide 