People

Martin Luther

Leader of the Protestant Reformation

Early Modern influential

281

Benjamin Franklin

Electricity experiments, founding father

Early Modern influential

213

Guru Nanak

Founder of Sikhism

Early Modern influential

183

John Calvin

Protestant reformer

Early Modern influential

175

Francis Bacon

Empiricism, scientific method

Early Modern influential

162

Peter the Great

Modernizer of Russia

Early Modern influential

154

Carl Linnaeus

Biological taxonomy

Early Modern influential

145

Mary Wollstonecraft

Early feminist philosopher

Early Modern influential

141

John Wesley

Founder of Methodism

Early Modern influential

140

William Harvey

Blood circulation

Early Modern influential

138

Napoleon Bonaparte

French Emperor and conqueror

Early Modern influential

138

William Shakespeare

Greatest playwright in English

Early Modern influential

138

Jonathan Swift

Gulliver's Travels

Early Modern influential

136

Machiavelli

The Prince, political philosophy

Early Modern influential

135

John Milton

Paradise Lost

Early Modern influential

133

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan, social contract

Early Modern influential

131

George Washington

First US President

Early Modern influential

127

Montesquieu

Separation of powers

Early Modern influential

127

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Calculus, optimism

Early Modern influential

126

Rene Descartes

Cogito ergo sum

Early Modern influential

125