1. Theodore Roosevelt - for making the usa a world power (instead of isolating the usa), Sorry, by the time Roosevelt broke into politics, this was in the process of happening.

The US / UK alliance has guaranteed western europe control of the Atlantic for decades now.  While we take the US British alliance almost for granted, back in those days there was a lot of mistrust - in early 1930s there was some thought that US and UK might be the next great rivals.  If there was a big POD, what happens if Britian and US get into a Naval buildup in the 1920s and 1930s, and that Washington Naval Treaty does NOT take place. POD:  1940, USA continues naval buildup... as Britian is potentially facing a superpower on the other side of the Atlantic and a continental European Power she negotiates a peace with Germany to try and match USA in naval arms race.  Hitler invades Russia and this time wins or at least ties.  The world devolves into four camps, the Nazis, the Communists, the USA and the British Empire. 1.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt / Winston Churchill: Formed USA UK alliance and share Atlantic 2.  Dwight David Eisenhower / Sir Alan Brooke:  Made that alliance work at a practical (military level). And then, in that vein: 3.  The Beatles. NATO could not worked without the British Invasion of 1964.  Before the Beatles, Brits were stuffy arrogant and bitter.  The boys from Liverpool made the British likeable.  Without Ringo, John, George and Paul, the USA does not go from being hostile / skeptical of Europe to having the death of Lady Di being an American national tragedy, a great admiration for Thatcher and Blair, and watching British Parliament on American TV and wishing our politicians could debate with the same skill.  Add to that the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and then Douglas Adams, Dr. Who, Dark Shadows, Led Zeppelin, Teletubbies, the Sex Pistols and the Clash and the Cure and there's simply no way the Americans would EVER let anything happen to their friends on the other side of the Atlantic. When's the Royal Navy going to build some ships?  Come on Brits, get with it!

I'd vote for FDR as the  single most successful and important political leader. If we can vote for bad guys and failures then Hitler had the most impact of any individual. I would certainly include Pope John Paul II in that list, his election in 1978 rocked Communist Europe at its very foundation.  It was the first event that lead up to its complete collapse 11 years later, a most unlikely event in everyones' minds at the time.  The fact that that collapse happened without a single shot being fired in anger still astonishes me. Well this is an alternative history newsgroup... In our time line he has had a marginal effect on world politics, other than dragging the Catholic Church kicking and screaming out of the 19th Century into the 14th

happening. In the process, yes. But TR pushed America forward into the world more than anyone else before him. He was very aggressive with American foreign policy during times of peace, which has become an American characteristic (according to Hans Blix). His _style_ of foreign policy is still evident today.

Without going to the extreme past where we all shall dwell forever in this posting. Who are the top 10 most influential people who lived anytime between 1900 to now. You MUST order your choices by importance and explain why you picked who you did.  Also, please be imagniative and pick some artists and non-military obvious choices. Have fun and always be original. Being original is a bit of a tall order! <g And why pick some artists? If no artists were important, then no artists were important, and there's not much we can do about it now. Anyway: Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao have all got to be in there; also F. D. Roosevelt, I should think. That's 5 places gone already, and all political. Moving on to the arts, Stravinsky has probably had more influence in classical music than anyone else; and Elvis Presley in popular music, I suppose (I'd have said the Beatles, whose collective influence was probably greater than Elvis's, but a) it's difficult to disentangle their individual contributions, and b) that would be another 4 places taken, and c) I don't think Ringo had that much influence anyway <g). If we have to have an artist, it has to be Picasso, I suppose; and a film maker - Kurosawa, I would think. That gives us one place left for science, technology, and any other miscellaneous bits and pieces. Einstein was the outstanding hard scientist. But Keynes in economics, perhaps; Freud's influence has been great, for good or bad; Henry Ford, too. And how about Wittgenstein or Sartre in philosophy, or T.S.Eliot in literature? OK. Drop Mao (his influence has faded, even in China), and Roosevelt (with great reluctance), and include Keynes (whose policies are being followed by governments even now) and Freud (whose influence extends even now well beyond psychotherapy, where it has actually faded), as well as Einstein (everyone can quote e=mc(2)), giving us: Hitler Stalin Einstein Lenin Stravinsky Picasso Freud Kurosawa Keynes Elvis Pete Barrett

I'd explain this concept to you more, but you sound like a kid and I wouldn't want to waste my time. Yawn. Look, I leave human refuse in the toilet that has displayed more worth and intelligence than you, so don't even try playing that.