Prufrock
Favorite Answer
"& therefore the world?" i'd say the most important men of the century were Gavrilo Princip (Bosnian) and Vladimir Lenin (Russian). keep in mind that we were not a dominant power until after WWII, and we had serious competition until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
anyway, i'd say the most important man in America was probably J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer's invention would end WWII and define warfare for over half the century, and beyond. people like FDR did great and significant things for America, but not so much for the rest of the world. we only have a few hundred million people, so i don't think reversing a depression or something in our country is terribly significant on a global scale.
Volusian
Albert Einstein
"He was the pre-eminent scientist in a century dominated by science. The touchstones of the era — the Bomb, the Big Bang, quantum physics and electronics — all bear his imprint."
http://www.time.com/time/time100/poc/magazine/albert_einstein5a.html
xo379
Too many to pick just one, so I'll give you a few:
Martin Luther King Jr.
FDR
J.P Morgan
Bill Gates
Jackie Robinson
Thurgood Marshall
Barack Obama
Jack P
Elvis Presley post-1957
Before that, Caruso, George M. Cohan, Al Jolson and Frank Sinatra