When the clock struck midnight on December 31, 1999, most people were just relieved their computers didn't explode from the Y2K bug. But at Time magazine's headquarters, they were finishing a project that had taken years to bake. They weren't just looking at the year. They were looking at the whole hundred-year marathon.
The time magazine 100 most influential 20th century list wasn't just a list. It was a massive, five-part series that started in 1998, attempting to distill a century of chaos, blood, and genius into exactly 100 names. Honestly? It was an impossible task. You’ve got the Wright brothers' first flight on one end and the birth of the internet on the other. How do you even compare those?
The Great Curation: How the List Actually Worked
Time didn't just throw names in a hat. They broke the century down into five distinct buckets: Leaders & Revolutionaries, Artists & Entertainers, Builders & Titans, Scientists & Thinkers, and Heroes & Icons.
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Each category had 20 slots.
This structure was smart because it forced them to look beyond just the guys in suits making laws. It meant they had to acknowledge that Coco Chanel changed the world just as much as some generals did, albeit with a different kind of ammunition.
Wait.
I should mention that they didn't just pick "good" people. Influence doesn't mean "nice." That’s why you see Adolf Hitler on the same list as Nelson Mandela. If you changed the course of history—for better or for worse—you were in the running.
The Weirdest Entry: A Fictional Character?
Okay, here’s a bit of trivia that usually wins pub quizzes. There is exactly one fictional character on the list.
Bart Simpson.
People lost their minds over this back in 1998. "How can a yellow cartoon kid be as influential as Winston Churchill?" was the general vibe of the angry letters to the editor. But Time argued that Bart represented the rebellion and the change in family dynamics and media satire that defined the late 20th century. Whether you agree or not, he’s there, sitting right alongside Marlon Brando and The Beatles.
The Ultimate Winner: Why Einstein?
After they released the 100 names, the big question remained: Who was the "Person of the Century"?
On December 31, 1999, they finally dropped the cover. It was Albert Einstein.
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Choosing Einstein was a statement. It said that the 20th century was, above all else, the century of science and technology. Think about it. We started with horse-drawn carriages and ended with the Hubble Space Telescope. Einstein didn't just give us $E=mc^2$; he changed how we understood the very fabric of reality.
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mahatma Gandhi were the runners-up.
FDR represented the triumph of democracy over fascism, and Gandhi represented the power of the individual against the empire. Honestly, you could make a rock-solid argument for either of them. If FDR had won, the century would have been defined by politics. If Gandhi had won, it would have been about the spirit. By picking Einstein, Time chose the mind.
Builders and Titans: The Men Who Built Your Life
The "Builders & Titans" section is where things get really interesting from a business perspective. This wasn't about "wealthy" people; it was about people who fundamentally changed how we live our daily lives.
Take Willis Carrier. Most people couldn't pick him out of a lineup. But he invented modern air conditioning. Without him, the "Sun Belt" in the US wouldn't exist. Dubai would be a ghost town. Phoenix wouldn't be a city; it would be a dare.
Then you have Lucky Luciano.
Yep, they put a mobster on the list. Why? Because he basically organized crime into a corporate structure. He "built" something, even if that something was a criminal empire. It’s that "for better or worse" rule again.
The Tech Giants (Before They Were Giants)
Remember, this list came out in the late 90s. Bill Gates was on there, but he was still the "Microsoft guy" who people mostly knew for Windows 95. Steve Jobs? He actually didn't make the 1999 list.
Wait—that's a huge detail.
In 1999, Apple was still in the middle of its "Think Different" comeback. The iPhone didn't exist. The iPad was a fever dream. If they wrote this list today, Jobs would be a lock. It just goes to show how much our "historical" perspective changes in just a couple of decades.
The Omissions: Who Did They Miss?
No list is perfect. The time magazine 100 most influential 20th century project has been criticized for being a bit "Western-centric."
Most of the names are American or European. There’s a noticeable lack of African and Asian figures outside of the "Big Names" like Mao Zedong or Ho Chi Minh.
And then there’s the gender gap. There are only a handful of women on the list—names like Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and Oprah Winfrey. Looking back from 2026, the list feels a bit like a "Great Men" history textbook, which was already becoming an outdated way to look at the world even in 1999.
The Problem With Modern Eyes
We tend to look back and judge these lists based on what we know now. For example, in the "Icons & Heroes" section, they included Princess Diana. At the time, her death was a massive global event. She was everywhere. Today, some might argue her "influence" was more about celebrity than a fundamental shift in history.
But that's the thing about Time's project. It wasn't meant to be a permanent, unchanging law. It was a snapshot of how we saw ourselves at the end of a very long, very bloody, very incredible hundred years.
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The Legacy of the 100 List
What can we actually learn from this massive compilation?
First, it proves that influence is rarely about being popular. Some of the most influential people on this list were hated by millions.
Second, it shows that the most lasting changes often happen in laboratories or garages, not just on battlefields. The inclusion of Alexander Fleming (penicillin) or The Wright Brothers (flight) reminds us that a single discovery can save more lives or change more landscapes than a hundred laws.
How to Use This Knowledge Today
If you're looking for inspiration or just trying to understand the world we live in now, don't just look at the names. Look at the patterns.
- Identify the "Titans" in your industry: Who is building the "infrastructure" of the 21st century? (Think AI, biotech, or energy).
- Study the "Revolutionaries": Look at how figures like Martin Luther King Jr. used non-violent communication to move mountains. Those tactics are still the gold standard for social change.
- Appreciate the "Thinkers": Einstein didn't just "do" things; he thought differently. Sometimes the biggest move you can make is just changing your perspective.
The time magazine 100 most influential 20th century list serves as a blueprint for the modern world. Every time you turn on your AC, check your email, or listen to a pop song, you're interacting with the legacy of someone on that list.
Start by picking one person from a category you know nothing about. If you're a tech person, read about Martha Graham. If you're an artist, read about Leo Baekeland (the guy who gave us plastic). You’ll find that the century wasn't built by specialists, but by people who saw a gap in the world and decided to fill it.
The 20th century is over, but we're still living in the house it built. Understanding who did the framing and who laid the bricks is the only way to figure out where we're going next.
Next Steps:
- Audit your influence: Research the "Builders" on the list to see how they scaled their ideas from a garage to a global empire.
- Analyze the "Person of the Century" runners-up: Study the lives of Gandhi and FDR to see how they managed global crises—lessons that are incredibly relevant in today's geopolitical climate.
- Explore the "Scientists" section: Look specifically at Tim Berners-Lee to understand the original intent of the World Wide Web and how it compares to the internet of 2026.