I was asked an odd/interesting question today.
Who do you think are the 5 most famous/known people to have ever lived? I’m interested in the T-Nation view.
Mine, in no particular order:
Albert Einstein
Jesus Christ
Adolf Hitler
Julius Ceasar
Donald Trump, just kidding
William Shakespeare
Jesus Christ
Moses
Muhammed
Buddha
Confucius
Honorable Mentions:
Alexander the Great
Socrates
Your mom
Nicholas Cage?
I feel like Genghis Khan should count.
But in fairness, he cheated. He increased his popularity by decreasing the population to such a degree that the percentage of people on the planet that knew of him increased.
It’s not cheating, he just found a new way to win
Also:
Jesus
Buddha
Muhammad
Gandhi
Julius Caesar
Edit: cleopatra is probably somewhere up there, and so far the first woman mentioned
Was thinking Khan as well, but is he that well known? The man created the largest empire, ever (iirc don’t quote me on that) and it seems like people know historical figures like Caesar and Alexander the Great more so than him. I think a lot of it has to do with a lot of Mongol history, particularly about the Khans, being lost or fabricated, through the years.
He’s a fascinating character. I read a book about his life about a year ago. Very interesting stuff.
Michael Jackson
Will Smith
Michael Jordan
Arnold Schwarzeneger
Buddha
*Bruce Lee
You can go to any country in the world, even poor places but people will know who these people are.
I’d probably put Michael Jackson at the top of my worldwide right now recognizable list too.
I was being a bit facetious, but I suppose it begs the question of do we mean most famous people NOW, most famous people of their era, or most famous people across the entire spectrum of time.
I imagine a lot of people knew who Genghis Khan was when they were in fear of him erasing their entire people from history, but he may have slid off the radar by not being a prophet.
If today’s kids don’t know the first amendment (from stupid thread), how are they supposed to know significant historical figures.
If we are basing this on who people alive today would know. I would suggest:
Kim K or Kylie J
Trump
Xi Jinping
(at least 1/7 of world population knows who this is)
Buddha
Elvis
Obviously Jesus
Oprah
Since someone said Jordan, I’ll say King James (Lebron), I hate being a copycat, I’m an original.
Kim Kardashian unfortunately edit:^^^wizard
Martin Luther King Jr.
Jesus, Buddha, Gaius Caesar of the clan Iulii, Cleopatra of the Ptolemaic family, Mohammad.
All lived at least 1500 years ago, some close to 2000.
Modern celebrities/athletes and politicans have an extremely short time in the spotlight. Just look at an old gossip magazine from the 70s or the 80s and unless you’re a Boomer chances are you’ll struggle to name many of the celebrities.
The intent of my question was across all time. So if you did a census of the world now and asked people to name the most famous person to have ever walked the earth - what are the names that would pop up.
That would actually be most famous person now, as I’m understanding it, as it’s not taking into account who people from previous eras considered the be the most famous.
Of all time tends to unfairly bias those that simply lived further in the past, as more humans/percentages of the population got to know them. Jesus had a 2000 year head start on Bill Gates in terms of accumulating fame, for example.
I thought that stating it like this would give me a list which was made up of the living only. I think the other question is interesting too but I saw that as being harder to answer.
How many followers did Cleopatra have on instagram?
As a side not Mick Jagger/Rolling Stones are the most ‘seen in person’ humans to have ever lived -been playing full sized football stadiums non-stop since 1970
Pope John Paul II is second (by a long way)
It seems the Egyptian population at around the time Ceasar was taking control was 7 million. I’m not sure what the greater Ancient Greek population was but Rome was 4 million people and they definitely would have known her.
She had quite a lot of sass, so I’d say at least 20% of that would have had her on their Instagram but it wouldn’t have been as popular then. So 10%?
I’d say she had a million or so… pssh B grade at best. Lived around big stone structures so probably supported a wall as well.
I dunno man. When the (current) Queen (of England) was at her most popular, some countries had 70+% of their population coming to seeing her.
That’s a lot of football stadiums to fill. It’s 1000 people from Australia right there.