We may not've listed Mao, but he's definitely on the list that's in my head. (It's a very long list; Bolivar was on it, too.)

I honestly find Thoreau a bit overrated, given that he was essentially living in his mom's backyard and didn't go a day without a visitor, but I do concede influence nonetheless.

I think the 20th Century's equivalent to Beethoven or Mozart will, in fact, be John Williams. After all, I think a lot more people, at least in the US, can hum his tunes than can hum Mozart, or at least they can hum more of his.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Going that route, Mike Post would be up there, too. He did the theme song to just about every TV show in the 80s. And I think the Beatles, and Elvis, will both be around for a long time. I mean, it's been 43 and 50 years, and they're both going strong. Most musicians of the Rock n Roll era credit Chuck Berry with really making it happen, but he's not as much of an iocon as the others to most people.

The question though, is it influence or contribution that really matters. For Music, Glen Miller contributed a lot, but I'm not sure he really influenced things that much. Madonna did both. Jerry Springer, for better or worse, had a huge effect on TV, but the total contribution could bestr be described as bannable.

If they haven't been said. Jim Thorpe and Jesse Owens had a big effect on sports. And Ali was pretty much the first of the flamboyant sports figures that opened the door for people like Dennis Rodman and Deon Sanders to be more known for off court/field antics than their in game performance.

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I'm not evil.
An evil person would do the things I think up.

Oh, Jim Thorpe will definitely be there. As will Babe Didrickson Zaharias. (Except I'll check the spelling of her name before I do the finished list!) However, I probably won't have many athletes on the finished list, simply because I don't think their impact is usually very lasting.

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Augustus Ceaser
Zaratustra
Aristotle
Socrates
Ramases
Jesus
Moses
Mohamed
Budah
Abraham
George Washington
Jules Verne
H.G. Welles
Arthur C. Clarke
Issac Asimov
Robert A. Heinlien
Robert Goddard
Werner Von Braun
Franklin Delano Roseveldt
The Scorpion King
Plato
St. Peter
Confucius
Robert Hume
Enrico Fermi
Pastur
Mme. Curie
Roentgen
James Watt
André Marie Ampère
Rudolf F. Graf

While many of those will indeed be on the list, many others will not, on account of the "last 1000 years" thing.

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"