Who are some of the most influential people in US history that aren't Presidents?

Wow! This could be quite an extensive list. A few that come to mind (in no particular order):

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Henry Clay

Alexander Hamilton

Aaron Burr (A VP but this position is not what necessarily made him an important historical figure)

Henry Kissinger

George Marshall

John Calhoun (See explanation for Aaron Burr)

John Marshall

Andrew Carnegie

Robert E. Lee

John Brown

Robert Kennedy

Frederick Douglass

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Edison

The Beatles (I don't know if entertainers count)

Louis Armstrong (ditto)

John Wayne (ditto)

Shirley Temple (ditto)

Certainly not comprehensive, but I hope it helps.

Condeleeza Rice

Henry Kissinger

Colin Powell

Bill Gates

Martin Luther King JR

Alan Greenspan

J. Edgar Hoover

Robert Kennedy

Upton Sinclair

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

Rosa Parks

Martin Luther King

Robert F. Kennedy

Alexander Hamilton

Barry Goldwater

Verner Von Braun

Thomas Paine

Oliver Wendel Holmes (and about a quarter of the Supreme Court justices)

Zachariah Chandler, although not well known today, was one of the most influential people of the 1800's, including the Civil War era. A founder and leader of the Republican Party, Senator for 18 years, Secretary of the Interior, and secret financier of the Underground Railroad, Chandler had an impact on America and the world for decades. Among many other things, he is the single person most responsible for Lincoln being re-elected in 1864 --- and had Lincoln not been re-elected the winner would have been McLellan, and likely he would have negotiated a treaty with the new and permanent Confederate States of American.

If anyone would like to read more about Chandler - not that crap you find online - just drop me an email and I'll send material I have written for a new book about his life: A FORGOTTEN HERO.

richardstill2006@yahoo.com

Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Albert Einstein. Henry Ford. Thomas Edison. Frank Lloyd Wright. Wilbur & Orville Wright. Benjamin Franklin. Eleanor Roosevelt. Herman Melville. Henry David Thoreau. W.E.B. DuBois. Jim Thorpe. Sinclair Lewis. Carl Sandburg. Robert E. Peary. Gertrude Stein. Clarence Darrow. Robert Goddard. John Steinbeck. James D. Watson. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. To name a very few....

Ghandi, Dalai Llahma, Pope John Paul, Martin Luther king jr, Bob marley, Jesus, Mother Teresa

great question!

Martin Luther King Jr.

Marilyn Monroe

John Lennon

Bill Gates

Rosa Parks

Elvis Presley

Andy Warhol

Susan B. Anthony

Benjamin Franklin