Was having an argument with someone. The person graduated high school about 2005. She claims to never have heard of Mahatma Gandhi! I told her he is probably the most famous person of the last century and she wouldn't believe me. Anyways, who would you vote for the most "famous" person of last century? I think its a tossup between Einstien and Michael Jackson with Hitler and Gandhi being close behind.
I think these two barely miss the top ten: Mother Teresa MLK Beatles don't count, because I don't think many people across the world would be able to name and recognize individual members. Am I missing any soccer players?
I don't think many know MLK in the Asian or even European countries. I think his impact maybe know only in North America, Africa and Western Europe.
Put it this way, say five hundred years from now who would know about princess Diana? In the context of history, Hitler is probably most famous, followed by Einstein. All the others are just significant to their time period.
Granted, but what about Hakeem? Seriously, I would have to change my answer to Hitler unfortunately. Show me anyone in the world who isn't aware of who he is.
So what's the voting system here. Just pure numbers? In that case, Mao Zedong should up there given that I'm sure 99% of Chinese know him. Seriously, people like Diana, MLK, or Einstein shouldn't even come close to entering the discussion. Even Hitler isn't the gold standard for evil if you look at non-Western countries. So overall pointless exercise is pointless. Because clutchfans doesn't even present a good representation of Americans, or even male Americans. Much less that of the entire world.
I think you guys are seriously underestimating the King of Pop. Hitler didn't have the advantage of the information age.
Einstein is known worldwide. I am sure most of the Chinese and Indians know him. All of the European and North American countries know him as well. So your statement of him not entering the discussion is laughable at best. I can pretty much guarantee not a lot of people know Mao outside China. Who is the gold standard for evil in Asia? Indians would say Hitler I bet and thats a billion people right there. And I bet all the Chinese know him as well.
I don't disagree, but he was the face of a war that involved nearly the entire world. That makes him more well known than Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, et al.
Hitler is the gold standard of evil in general. Do individual countries have someone they find more evil? Sure. But they all would put Hitler on the short list.
I voted for Hitler. His fame (infamy) will live for centuries. On a related note its kind of sad to see how far Winston Churchill has fallen that he's not on the list even though he was named Time's man of the Half Century.
