Ten Who Changed the Millennium

The arrival of the year 2000 has provided much of humanity with cause for reflection on the last millennium. Scientific, social, and political revolutions during the last 1,000 years have left an indelible mark on the world that exists today.

Perhaps one of the best ways to examine the sprawling history of the second millennium is to consider the most influential people who shaped it. As American poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There is properly no history; only biography.”

But how does one go about selecting from 1,000 years of history a representative group of the most influential people? Which individuals most fully represented the triumphs of humanity and shaped the outcome of the millennium?

Five criteria were used to make the selections. The first one—whose contributions had a lasting influence on history?—carried the most weight. The second criterion was the effect on the sum total of wisdom and beauty in the world. This allowed the consideration of artistic contributions, such as a Beethoven sonata, a Michelangelo fresco, or a Shakespearean sonnet, that may not have directly altered the history books but without which world culture would not be as rich as it is.

The next criterion was influence on contemporaries. How much did each individual affect the world during his or her own time? This standard allowed consideration of more modern figures, whose lasting contribution to the world is more difficult to gauge at this juncture in history.

Another point of evaluation was singularity of contribution. If a single person had invented the automobile or the Internet, that genius might have been considered for our roster. But so many of the innovations and inventions that made their mark on history were the result of collaborative efforts. The criterion of singularity of contribution recognized those people whose singular brilliance charted entirely new territory.

The fifth and final criterion was charisma. This attribute brought to the selection process great leaders who may not have been intellectual giants noted for pathbreaking new discoveries, but who nevertheless exerted great influence by virtue of their ability to inspire other people to act.

Using these five criteria, the people whose contributions most changed the world in ten different categories were selected. The ten are Johannes Gutenberg, inventor; Christopher Columbus, explorer; Michelangelo, artist; Martin Luther, religious leader; William Shakespeare, writer; Galileo Galilei, scientist; George Washington, statesman; Ludwig van Beethoven, music composer; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, activist; and Mohandas Gandhi, peacemaker.

Inventor

History records little about the life of German printer Johannes Gutenberg. Yet his remarkable achievement, the invention of modern printing, is often singled out as the feat that most changed the millennium. Gutenberg's innovation brought the printed word to a wide audience for the first time, altering history with its far-reaching impact on literacy and education.

People had been trying to devise printing methods for centuries before Gutenberg's 15th-century breakthrough. The Chinese and Koreans had much earlier pioneered block printing, in which different characters or images are carved on blocks of wood. This slow, laborious process was not adequate for rapid reproduction of text, however, and most books were still produced by even more laborious hand copying.

Gutenberg, who is described in historical accounts as a goldsmith, began experimenting with printing methods in the 1430s. His major breakthrough—the unique development that earns him such high millennial stature—was a system of movable type. It involved a mold that had the outlines of letters or other characters stamped in it. Letters of type could be produced rapidly by pouring liquid metal into the pre-made molds. These letters were then assembled to make up pages for printing.

Gutenberg is also credited with refinements in the hand-operated printing press and even in types of ink. The end result of these innovations was the Gutenberg Bible, completed sometime between 1450 and 1456, a work renowned for its beauty and elegance. This triumph did not save Gutenberg's business, however, as a lawsuit forced him to surrender the rights to his revolutionary technology. Ironically, his name does not appear on any of the works attributed to him.

With the printing press, reading and writing were no longer confined to religious orders and the rich. This altered the existing power structures: Radical ideas were more easily disseminated and people learned to question the authority of the ruling classes. Hoping to head off this movement, about 30 years after the printing press was perfected Pope Innocent VII established the doctrine of prior restraint, which required printers to submit unpublished manuscripts to the Catholic Church for review. Prior restraint, however, failed to stop the printing and widespread distribution of German theologian Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. The printing press thus largely made possible the Protestant Reformation, one of the most significant events of the millennium.

Within 100 years of Gutenberg's breakthrough the Americas were discovered, the authority and dominance of the Catholic Church were fractured, and scientists began asking questions that challenged long-held dogmas about creation and the nature of the universe. It is arguable that none of this would have happened without Gutenberg's printing press and the easy exchange of ideas it made possible. (For more on the printing press and other world-changing inventions, see the September 1999 Feature “Landmark Inventions of the Millennium.”)