U.S. History – Most Significant People

Most Significant People in American History

Sacagawea Statue
Sacagawea statue in Bismarck, North Dakota

1. Explorers

    1. Norse Explorers
      • Naddodd (c. 825) – Faroe Islands early settler and Iceland discoverer
      • Erik the Red (986) – First European Settlement in Greenland
      • Leif Erikson (c. 1000) – Discovery of Vinland (L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, Canada)
      • Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir & Thorfinn Karlsefni (c. 1003) – Vinland (parents of Snorri Thorfinnsson – first person of European descent born in the New World)
    2. Age of Discovery Early Explorers
      • Christopher Columbus (1492) – U.S. Virgin Islands (explored for Spain; from Genoa, Italy)
      • John Cabot (1497) – East Coast of Canada (explored for England; from Venice, Italy)
      • Amerigo Vespucci (1499) – South America (explored for Spain, then Portugal; from Florence, Italy)
      • Giovanni da Verrazzano (1523) East Coast U.S. & Canada (explored for France; from Florence, Italy)
    3. Spanish Explorers
      • Juan Ponce de León (1513) – Puerto Rico & Florida
      • Hernan Cortes (1519) – Conquistador of the Aztec Empire
      • Hernando de Soto (1539) – Florida & Southeast U.S.
      • Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (1540) – Southwest U.S.
    4. French Explorers
      • Jacques Cartier (1535) – Quebec
      • Samuel de Champlain (1603) Upper Canada
      • René-Robert Cavelier – Sieur de La Salle (1682) – Great Lakes, Illinois, & Lower Mississippi River
      • Jacques Marquette & Louis Joliet (1673) – Michigan UP, Wisconsin, & Mississippi River
    5. El Norte Explorers
      • Friar Marcos de Niza & Mustafa Azemmouri (Esteban de Dorantes) (first Black explorer in America) (1538) – searched for the Seven Cities of Cíbola (the mythical Seven Cities of Gold)
      • Juan de Oñate (1598) – El Paso, Texas and New Mexico; Acoma Massacre of 1599
      • Father Junípero Serra (1749) – California
      • Captain Juan Bautista de Anza II (1775) Arizona & California
    6. English & Dutch Explorers
      • Francis Drake (1577) – California coast
      • Walter Raleigh (1585) – Roanoke Colony (NC)
      • John Smith (1607) – Virginia
      • Henry Hudson (1609 – Dutch) – East Coast; (1610 – English) – Hudson Bay
    7. Corp of Discovery (1803)
      • Meriwether Lewis
      • William Clark
      • Sacagawea
      • Other Corp of Discovery members
    8. U.S. Frontier Explorers
      • Daniel Boone
      • David Crockett
      • Zebulon Pike
      • Kit Carson
    9. North Pole Expedition
      • Robert Peary
      • Matthew Henson
      • Inuit team members: Ootah, Egigingwah, Seegloo, & Ooqueah
    10. Space Explorers
      • Alan Shepard – first American in space (1961) & Virgil Ivan “Gus” Grissom – second American in space (1961)
      • John Glenn – first American in orbit (1962)
      • Neil Armstrong – first to walk on the Moon (1969) & Edwin (“Buzz”) Aldrin – second to walk on the Moon (1969)
      • Sally Ride – first American woman in space (1983)

  • George Washington
    George Washington (“Lansdowne” portrait) / Gilbert Stuart / 1796

2. Government Leaders

    1. Early Presidents
      • George Washington
      • John Adams
      • Thomas Jefferson
      • James Madison
      • James Monroe
    2. Jackson Democratic Presidents
      • Andrew Jackson
      • Martin Van Buren
      • James K. Polk
      • Grover Cleveland
      • Woodrow Wilson
    3. Lincoln Republican Presidents
      • Abraham Lincoln
      • Ulysses S. Grant
      • William McKinley
      • Theodore Roosevelt
      • Calvin Coolidge
    4. New Deal Democratic Presidents
      • Franklin D. Roosevelt
      • Harry S. Truman
      • John F. Kennedy
      • Lyndon B. Johnson
      • Jimmy Carter
    5. Post-New Deal Republican Presidents
      • Dwight D. Eisenhower
      • Richard Nixon
      • Gerald Ford
      • Ronald Reagan
      • George W. Bush
    6. Congressional Leaders
      • Daniel Webster
      • Henry Clay
    7. U.S. Supreme Court Justices
      • John Marshall
      • Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.
      • Louis Brandeis
      • Thurgood Marshall
      • Ruth Bader Ginsburg
    8. Military Leaders
      • David G. Farragut (War of 1812, Mexican War, and American Civil War)
      • William T. Sherman (Mexican War, American Civil War, and Indian Wars)
      • George Dewey (American Civil War and Spanish-American War)
      • John J. “Black Jack” Pershing (Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, Philippine-American War, Pancho Villa Expedition, and World War I)
      • Douglas MacArthur (World War I, World War II, and Korean War)
    9. Public Servants
      • Alexander Hamilton (Secretary of the Treasury)
      • J. Edgar Hoover (FBI)
      • Frances Perkins (Secretary of Labor)
      • George C. Marshall (Secretary of State)
      • James E. Webb (NASA)
    10. First Ladies
      • Martha Washington
      • Abigail Adams
      • Dolley Madison
      • Eleanor Roosevelt
      • Jacqueline Kennedy
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

3. Reformers

    1. Religious Freedom Leaders
      • Anne Hutchinson & Roger Williams (Puritans)
      • William Penn (Quakers)
      • Joseph Smith & Brigham Young (Mormonism founded 1830 – Fayette, NY)
      • Ellen G. White (Seventh-day Adventist founded 1863 – Battle Creek, MI)
      • Wallace Fard Muhammad (Nation of Islam founded 1930 – Detroit, MI)
    2. Revolutionaries (1775-1783)
      • Thomas Paine
      • John Hancock
      • Patrick Henry
      • Samuel Adams
      • Lafayette (Gilbert du Motier – Marquis de Lafayette)
    3. Abolitionists (1830-1865)
      • Harriet Tubman (and suffragist)
      • Frederick Douglass (and suffragist)
      • John Brown
      • Harriet Beecher Stowe
      • Angelina Grimké (and suffragist)
    4. Suffragists (1849-1920)
      • Susan B. Anthony & father Daniel Anthony
      • Lucretia Mott & husband James Mott
      • Jane Addams
      • Adelina ‘Nina’ Otero-Warren
      • George Francis Train
    5. Civil Rights Movement Leaders (1954-1968)
      • Martin Luther King Jr.
      • Rosa Parks
      • John Lewis
      • W.E.B. Du Bois
      • Malcolm X
    6. LGBTQ+ Rights Leaders (1961-Present)
      • Edith Windsor – United States v. Windsor (which overturned Section 3 of Defense of Marriage Act)
      • Harvey Milk
      • Audre Lorde
      • Marsha P. Johnson
      • Billie Jean King
    7. Labor Rights Leaders
      • César Chávez
      • Mary Harris Jones ‘Mother Jones’
      • Eugene Victor Debs
      • Frances Perkins
      • Woody Guthrie
    8. Social Reformers
      • Horace Mann
      • Florence Kelley
      • Upton Sinclair
      • Jacob Riis
      • Eleanor Roosevelt
    9. Urban Reformers
      • Daniel Burnham
      • Benjamin Marsh & Henry George
      • Frederick Law Olmsted
      • Clarence Perry
      • Jane Jacobs
    10. Environmentalists
      • John Muir
      • Aldo Leopold
      • Rachel Carson
      • Winona LaDuke
      • Wangari Maathai
Drawing by Sitting Bull at the Fort Saint Joseph Museum in Niles, Michigan

4. First Nations: American Indians, Alaskan Natives, & Native Hawaiians

    1. Powhatan (Chesapeake Bay Algonquian confederacy)
      • Wahunsenacawh/Powhatan – confederation chief
      • Pocahontas
    2. Wampanoag (Northeast Algonquian confederacy of Patuxet, Massachusett, Nantucket, Chappaquiddick, et. al)
      • Squanto/Tisquantum – Patuxet guide
      • Massasoit (Ousamequin) – confederation chief
      • Metacomet (Metacom/Pometacom/King Philip) – confederation chief
    3. Lenape (Mid-Atlantic Algonquian Delaware Nation)
      • Tamanend (King Tammany) – peace chief
    4. Interior Algonquian (Ohio Valley & Great Lakes Algonquian)
      • Tecumseh – Shawnee chief
      • Pontiac – Odawa/Ottawa war chief
    5. Iroquois Confederacy (Iroquoian Five Nations: Mohawks, Onondaga, Cayuga, Oneida, & Seneca; Sixth: Tuscarora)
      • Hiawatha – precolonial leader and co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy
      • Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea) – Mohawk chief
    6. Five Civilized Tribes (Southeast Iroquoian Cherokee and Muskogean tribes: Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, & Seminole)
      • Sequoyah – Cherokee writing system inventor
      • Wilma Mankiller – Cherokee chief
    7. Siouan (Great Plains)
      • Red Cloud – Oglala Lakota chief
      • Crazy Horse – Oglala Lakota war chief
      • Sitting Bull – Hunkpapa Lakota chief
      • Maria Tallchief – Osage – first U.S. major prima ballerina; part of “Five Moons” Oklahoma American Indian
    8. Na-Dene (Southwest)
      • Cochise – Chiricahua Apache leader
      • Geronimo – Chiricahua Apache leader and medicine man/shaman
      • Diné (Navajo) Code Talkers
    9. Nez Perce (Columbia Plateau Sahaptin)
      • Chief Joseph (Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt) – leader
    10. Pueblo Peoples (Southwest Taos, Tewa, Acoma, Zuni, Hopi, et. al)
      • Popé – led Pueblo rebellion against Spanish in 1680
      • Maria Martinez – world-renowned artist for her black-on-black pottery
      • Deb Haaland – Secretary of the Interior
    11. Alaskan Natives
      • Molly Hootch & Anna Tibeluk – education activists
    12. Native Hawaiians
      • Kamehameha the Great
      • Queen Liliʻuokalani

5. Economy-Builders

    1. Financiers
      • Alexander Hamilton
      • J.P. Morgan
    2. Investors
      • Howard Hughes
      • Warren Buffett
    3. Industrialists
      • Andrew Carnegie (steel)
      • Henry Ford (automobiles)
    4. Transportation & Energy
      • Cornelius Vanderbilt (railroads & shipping)
      • John D. Rockefeller (oil)
    5. Old Money
      • John Jacob Astor (fur trade monopoly+)
      • William Randolph Hearst (publishing)
    6. Modern Retail
      • Sam Walton (Walmart)
      • Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
    7. Computers
      • Bill Gates (Microsoft)
      • Steve Jobs (Apple)
    8. Information Technology
      • Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google)
      • Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)

6. Scientists

    1. Benjamin Franklin
    2. George Washington Carver
    3. Joseph Priestley
    4. Nikola Tesla
    5. Thomas Alva Edison
    6. Albert Einstein
    7. Abraham Maslow
    8. Dian Fossey & Jane Goodall
    9. Norman Borlaug
Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, Mill Run, Pennsylvania – Organic Prairie School architecture

7. Artists

    1. Gilbert Stuart
    2. Edward Hopper
    3. Frank Lloyd Wright
    4. Andy Warhol
    5. Norman Rockwell
    6. Jacob Lawrence
    7. John James Audubon
    8. Georgia O’Keeffe
    9. Thomas Nast
    10. Ansel Adams

8. Pop Icons

    1. Mark Twain
    2. Elvis Presley
    3. Madonna
    4. Bob Dylan
    5. Charlie Chaplin
    6. Jimi Hendrix
    7. Marilyn Monroe
    8. Frank Sinatra
    9. Louis Armstrong
    10. Mary Pickford

9. Athletes

    1. Babe Ruth
    2. Muhammad Ali
    3. Jackie Robinson
    4. James Naismith
    5. Arnold Schwarzenegger
    6. Ty Cobb
    7. Michael Jordan
    8. Hulk Hogan
    9. Jim Thorpe
    10. Billie Jean King