500 +/- People

Meet the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time A new, special issue of Smithsonian magazine attempts the impossible: to list out the most significant people in United States history Trailblazers Rebels & resisters Presidents First Women Outlaws Christopher Columbus Henry Hudson Amerigo Vespucci John Smith Giovanni da Verrazzano John Muir Meriwether Lewis and William Clark Sacagawea Kit Carson Neil Armstrong John Wesley Powell Martin Luther King Jr. Robert E. Lee Thomas Paine John Brown Frederick Douglass Susan B. Anthony W.E.B. Du Bois Tecumseh Sitting Bull Elizabeth Cady Stanton Malcolm X Abraham Lincoln George Washington Thomas Jefferson Theodore Roosevelt Ulysses S. Grant Ronald W. Reagan George W. Bush Franklin Delano Roosevelt Woodrow Wilson James Madison Andrew Jackson Pocahontas Eleanor Roosevelt Hillary Clinton Sarah Palin Martha Washington Hellen Keller Sojourner Truth Jane Addams Edith Wharton Bette Davis Oprah Winfrey Benedict Arnold Jesse James John Wilkes Booth Al Capone Billy the Kid William M. “Boss” Tweed Charles Manson Wild Bill Hickok Lee Harvey Oswald John Dillinger Lucky Luciano Artists Religious figures Pop icons Empire-builders Athletes Frank Lloyd Wright Andy Warhol Frederick Law Olmsted James Abbott MacNeill Whistler Jackson Pollock John James Audubon Georgia O’Keeffe Thomas Eakins Thomas Nast Alfred Stieglitz Ansel Adams Joseph Smith Jr. William Penn Brigham Young Roger Williams Anne Hutchinson Jonathan Edwards L. Ron Hubbard Ellen G. White Cotton Mather Mary Baker Eddy Billy Graham Mark Twain Elvis Presley Madonna Bob Dylan Michael Jackson Charlie Chaplin Jimi Hendrix Marilyn Monroe Frank Sinatra Louis Armstrong Mary Pickford Andrew Carnegie Henry Ford John D. Rockefeller J.P. Morgan Walt Disney Thomas Alva Edison William Randolph Hearst Howard Hughes Bill Gates Cornelius Vanderbilt Steve Jobs Babe Ruth Muhammad Ali Jackie Robinson James Naismith Arnold Schwarzenegger Ty Cobb Michael Jordan Hulk Hogan Jim Thorpe Secretariat Billie Jean King Read more: As significant as who's on the list is who is not