Legacy

Historical figures

Durable public attention across generations.

Most enduring

The dead who refuse to be forgotten — historical figures ranked by the attention they still command today, sometimes centuries on.

Historical figuresUpdated dailyHow fame is measured

🏛️ Historical legends ranked by modern attention

United StatesMusicians

Fame

99.0

Stable

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

United KingdomDirectors

AustriaBusiness Professionals

United StatesPoliticians

Theoretical physicist, theory of relativity

United KingdomPoliticians

Full ranking

#	Δ	Person	Country	Category	Fame	Momentum
#1	—	Michael Jackson	United States	Musicians	99.0	5.3
#2	—	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart	Austria	Musicians	99.0	11.9
#3	—	Charlie Chaplin	United Kingdom	Directors	99.0	10.0
#4	—	Pope Francis	Argentina	Writers	99.0	20.8
#5	—	Adolf Hitler	Austria	Business Professionals	98.8	10.0
#6	—	John F. Kennedy	United States	Politicians	98.6	10.0
#7	—	Albert Einstein Theoretical physicist, theory of relativity	Germany	Scientists	98.6	10.0
#8	—	Winston Churchill	United Kingdom	Politicians	98.5	10.0
#9	—	Jesus	—	Religious Figures	98.5	10.0
#10	—	Michelangelo	Italy	Artists	98.4	10.0
#11	—	Gautama Buddha	—	Academics	98.3	10.0
#12	—	Socrates	Brazil	Academics	98.3	10.0
#13	—	Aristotle	—	Scientists	98.3	10.0
#14	—	Mark Twain	United States	Journalists	98.2	10.0
#15	—	Confucius	China	Academics	98.1	10.0
#16	—	Franklin D. Roosevelt	United States	Lawyers	97.9	10.4
#17	—	Martin Luther King Jr.	United States	Writers	97.8	10.0
#18	—	Salvador Dalí	Spain	Artists	97.8	10.0
#19	—	Miguel de Cervantes	Spain	Writers	97.7	10.0
#20	—	Marilyn Monroe	United States	Actors	97.6	25.3
#21	—	Ludwig van Beethoven	Germany	Musicians	97.5	0.2
#22	—	George Washington	United States	Politicians	97.3	3.9
#23	—	Johann Sebastian Bach	Germany	Musicians	97.3	0.2
#24	—	Virgil	Italy	Writers	97.3	10.0
#25	—	Hans Christian Andersen	—	Writers	97.3	10.0
#26	—	Ronald Reagan	United States	Actors	97.2	3.6
#27	—	Abraham Lincoln	United States	Politicians	96.5	2.5
#28	—	Elizabeth II	United Kingdom	Historical Figures	96.2	0.0
#29	—	Joseph Stalin	—	Politicians	96.2	2.0
#30	—	Steve Jobs	United States	Founders	96.1	11.1
#31	—	Napoleon	France	Politicians	95.6	1.2
#32	—	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	—	Scientists	95.6	0.0
#33	—	Edgar Allan Poe	United States	Writers	95.5	10.0
#34	—	Che Guevara	Argentina	Politicians	95.2	5.0
#35	—	Elvis Presley	United States	Actors	95.0	0.0
#36	—	John Lennon	United Kingdom	Writers	94.9	11.0
#37	—	Vincent van Gogh	Netherlands	Artists	94.9	0.6
#38	—	Franz Kafka	—	Writers	94.9	0.2
#39	—	Alexander Pushkin	—	Writers	94.8	1.5
#40	—	Muhammad	—	Politicians	94.8	0.4
#41	—	Mahatma Gandhi	India	Politicians	94.5	0.3
#42	—	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Turkey	Politicians	94.5	0.3
#43	—	Alexander the Great	—	Politicians	94.5	0.0
#44	—	William Shakespeare	United Kingdom	Writers	94.4	0.0
#45	—	Leonardo da Vinci Renaissance polymath	Italy	Artists	94.4	0.0
#46	—	Julius Caesar	Italy	Writers	94.4	0.0
#47	—	Vladimir Lenin	—	Politicians	94.3	0.0
#48	—	Nelson Mandela	South Africa	Politicians	94.3	0.0
#49	—	Karl Marx	Germany	Academics	94.3	0.0
#50	—	Fyodor Dostoevsky	—	Writers	94.3	0.0
#51	—	Charles Darwin	United Kingdom	Scientists	94.3	0.2
#52	—	Friedrich Nietzsche	Germany	Academics	94.3	0.0
#53	—	Pablo Picasso	Spain	Artists	94.3	0.0
#54	—	Isaac Newton	United Kingdom	Academics	94.2	0.0
#55	—	Martin Luther	Germany	Actors	94.2	0.0
#56	—	Plato	—	Academics	94.2	0.0
#57	—	Leo Tolstoy	—	Writers	94.1	0.0
#58	—	Sigmund Freud	Austria	Writers	94.1	0.0
#59	—	Galileo Galilei	Italy	Scientists	94.1	0.0
#60	—	Immanuel Kant	—	Academics	94.1	0.0
#61	—	Thomas Edison	United States	Scientists	94.1	0.0
#62	—	Homer	—	Writers	94.1	0.0
#63	—	Dante Alighieri	—	Writers	94.1	0.0
#64	—	Victor Hugo	France	Politicians	94.1	0.0
#65	—	Voltaire	France	Academics	94.0	0.0
#66	—	René Descartes	France	Academics	93.9	0.0
#67	—	Augustus	Italy	Politicians	93.8	0.0
#68	—	Marie Curie Physicist & chemist, two-time Nobel laureate	—	Scientists	93.6	0.0
#69	—	Charles Dickens	United Kingdom	Writers	93.5	0.0
#70	—	George Orwell	United Kingdom	Writers	93.3	10.0
#71	—	Christopher Columbus	Italy	Scientists	93.3	0.0
#72	—	Archimedes	—	Academics	93.2	0.0
#73	—	Rabindranath Tagore	India	Artists	93.0	0.0
#74	—	Louis Pasteur	France	Scientists	93.0	10.0
#75	—	Fidel Castro	—	Politicians	92.8	10.0
#76	—	Frédéric Chopin	France	Musicians	92.5	1.1
#77	—	J. R. R. Tolkien	United Kingdom	Writers	92.4	14.0
#78	—	John Locke	United Kingdom	Academics	92.4	10.0
#79	—	Bonnie Tyler	United Kingdom	Musicians	92.3	38.1
#80	—	Anton Chekhov	—	Doctors	92.3	0.0
#81	—	James Joyce	—	Writers	92.1	10.0
#82	—	Charles de Gaulle	France	Writers	92.1	2.1
#83	—	Mao Zedong	China	Politicians	91.8	0.0
#84	—	Thomas Jefferson	United States	Architects	91.5	0.9
#85	—	Jean-Jacques Rousseau	Switzerland	Academics	95.7	10.0
#86	—	Jimmy Carter	United States	Writers	91.2	5.7
#87	—	Matsuo Bashō	Japan	Writers	91.2	15.0
#88	—	Shinzō Abe	Japan	Politicians	91.2	10.0
#89	—	Richard Wagner	Germany	Musicians	91.2	3.8
#90	—	Agatha Christie	United Kingdom	Writers	91.1	10.0
#91	—	Augustine of Hippo	—	Academics	91.0	0.0
#92	—	Herodotus	Turkey	Writers	91.0	8.8
#93	—	George H. W. Bush	United States	Politicians	91.0	7.2
#94	—	Adam Smith	United Kingdom	Academics	90.9	1.2
#95	—	Friedrich Engels	Germany	Academics	90.9	10.0
#96	—	Niccolò Machiavelli	—	Writers	90.9	0.0
#97	—	Antonio Vivaldi	Italy	Musicians	90.9	16.4
#98	—	Li Bai	—	Writers	90.9	10.0
#99	—	Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	—	Musicians	90.8	15.0
#100	—	Neil Armstrong	United States	Academics	90.8	0.8