Also, the next wave of Spanish (and European) conquidistors felt they had a divine right to claim foreign lands. Gilles de Rais was a celebrated Breton knight … (1769 – 1821) As Emperor of France 1804-1815, Napoleon’s forces swept across Europe, gaining hegemony over most of Europe. Hitler Feared The French And Admired The British. (Spoiler: Donald Trump and even Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales didn't quite make the cut.) In the face of inequality and poor working conditions, Debs organised trade unions strikes around the turn of the century. In particular her book “The Female Eunuch” was a defining manifesto for the feminist movement, which proved influential and controversial in the 1960s. Athletes constitute 13% – a proportion that includes the 'Big Four' tennis players. At the time, it was controversial. Only 2 of the 10 most controversial people are women. This has been criticised by people who believe it is more important to defend the sanctity of life and not make decisions based on hedonistic utilitarianism. Includes Joan of Arc, Galileo, Harriet Tubman, Socrates, Malala Yousafzai. Who made it into the top 100, and who missed out? She explored all avenues of protest, including violence, public demonstrations and hunger strikes. Includes, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Julius Ceasar, Albert Einstein and Constantine the Great. Bertrand Russell (1872 – 1970) Russell was a brilliant mathematician who was also a committed pacifist. Includes Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Teresa and Emil Zatopek. Each person was assigned a single profession based on what they're most famous for, so Dwayne Johnson (The Rock) is in the 'Wrestler' category even though he's now an actor. You get the same result whether or not you count the 6 recently-deceased people from the 'Both' group as 'Alive'. Controversy over the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol was rife for years. She has been charged four times for inciting racial hatred. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Critics argued it delayed the campaign to give women the vote. Wrestlers make-up 13% of the top 100 and get their own category because it's debatable whether they should be considered athletes or actors (after all, WWE stands for 'World Wrestling Entertainment'). Although you might expect facts surrounding historical figures to become firmly established over time, the results show that dead people remain controversial. George W Bush (Photo: Eric Draper / Wikimedia). Russell did support the war against Nazi Germany, but after WWII he joined the campaign for nuclear disarmament, which was one of the great controversial issues of the Cold War. Mars Rover Addresses Parachute Damage Problem That Delayed Launch To 2022. The mini poll was answered by 51 readers and 58.8% of the readers think statues of controversial historical figures do not move. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. He has argued for the merit of abortion for fetuses which are severely disabled, and also for euthanasia. He also instituted a revolution in the efficient administration of France – such as bringing in metric measurements. Famous historical figures (throughout history) A list of the most famous figures throughout history. People Who Made a Difference in Health Care, Facts about the extraordinary life of Joan of Arc. The significance of such figures in human progress has been debated. She financed the journey of Christopher Columbus, leading to a new age of exploration. — Foreigner.fi (@foreignerfi) June 19, 2020 About the reader’s comments, one reader said that, “You can't change history by destroying the evidence. The question has been debated for several days as statues of controversial historical figures are removed by demonstrators in the United States or the United Kingdom, in particular those of Christopher Columbus. The biography of a living person is continuously updated with new events, and you might expect this to be especially true for celebrities because their fans and publicists have an agenda (to delete information that portrays their hero in a negative light) whereas other Wikipedia editors are motivated to present the truth. Here's a link to the full rundown: List of Wikipedia's 100 most controversial people. 4d. Recently she has been courted controversy over her views on whether trans-women are real women. To his critics, Marx placed too much emphasis on equality and not enough in individual freedom. A historical figure is a famous person in history, such as Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Alfred the Great, Edward I, Henry VIII, Louis XIV, George Washington, The Duke of Wellington, Napoleon, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Abraham Lincoln, Queen Victoria, Henry Ford, Robert McNamara, John F. Kennedy, Neil Cicierega or Kwame Nkrumah. I've also contributed to Scientific American and Men's Health. Under Caesar, the Roman Empire conquered much of western Europe, killing one million Gauls who resisted. She felt it was necessary to shake the establishment out of its complacency. During his period in office, Trump has frequently told untruths and used demeaning language against minorities. The killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 25 May 2020 sparked off protests against the way in which black people are treated both in America and many countries across the world. Debate over statues of controversial historical figures | Sunday Scrum June 14, 2020, 9:48 a.m. The removal of monuments to controversial figures in countries around the world has sparked heated debates between politicians and activists. She financed the journey of Christopher Columbus, leading to a new age of exploration. Is The Grolier Codex Real? Everyone seems to be equally controversial, except for maybe George W Bush. I was interested in studying controversial people, so took a list of the 1000 most-edited English-language pages (534 articles) to isolate the individuals (127 people – each person's page has been revised over 10,000 times since 2001). Caesar effectively ended the Roman Republic, sitting himself up as a dictator. I have a PhD in evolutionary biology and spent several years at BBC Science Focus magazine, running the features section and writing about everything from gay genes and internet memes to the science of death and origin of life. The only scientist to make it into the top 100 is Albert Einstein. John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937) Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in 1870; and he used underhand techniques to drive rivals out of business and gain monopoly power. Of the top 100, 70% are still alive and almost a quarter were dead before Wikipedia was launched. As it stands, men and women are equally controversial. Wikipedia's 10 most controversial people (Image CC BY 4.0: JV Chamary). Chris Ofili, “The Holy Virgin Mary,” 1996. Follow "Sunday Morning" Full Episode 10/11. Does a person's country affect whether they receive more Wikipedia revisions? He was the picture of virile vigor, so much so that his looks gave him a decisive advantage over haggard-faced opponent Richard Nixon in a 1960 presidential debate. To some, Caesar saved and strengthened the Roman Empire, but his critics saw him as power hungry and senators had him murdered. Status of Wikipedia's 100 most controversial people (Image CC BY 4.0: JV Chamary). In the 1960s, she was at the cutting edge of fashion and introduced more revealing clothes into major movies. Karl Marx (1818–1883) Karl Marx was the foremost Socialist intellectual. To workers he was fighting the inequality of capitalism, to capitalists, he was a socialist troublemaker who stirred up trouble. Given that leaders and wrestlers make up the vast majority of the list (see below) and these professions are male-dominated, you might predict that pages about women would have fewer revisions. controversial historical figures. 'Athlete' includes sportsmen such as footballers, basketball and tennis players. This means Americans and non-Americans are equally controversial. 'Israeli' appears as an outlier, with double that number of edits (1873), but this is entirely down to a single individual: Jesus of Nazareth. "Hitler turned me on in the highest." Based on the definition of controversy – prolonged public disagreement or heated discussion – we could interpret 'most edited' to mean 'most controversial'. Salvador Dali, on Hitler. Piss Christ is a 1987 photograph by Andres Serrano, depicting a … The British are a distant second with 105,716 edits, while people from India are third with 65,404 in total. Brigitte Bardot (1934 – ) Bardot is a French actress, singer and fashion model. His page has been revised 45,866 times over the past 15 years – 63% more than the next most-edited people: Michael Jackson and Jesus (over 28,000 edits each). But while women did indeed have slightly fewer edits (13,497 total or an average 900 per person per year) compared to men (total 15,142, mean 1009), this difference is not statistically significant (P=0.09954, Wilcoxon signed-rank test). https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2016/01/25/wikipedia-people Germaine Greer (1939– ) Australian feminist icon of the 1960s and 1970s, Germaine Greer often raises contentious issues. Presiding over one of the largest empires ever seen, Queen Victoria was the head of state from 1837 – 1901. Beethoven began writing a symphony in honour of Napoleon, but by the time he finished, he was so infuriated with Napoleon’s authoritarian tendencies, he scratched away his name. By Devid … However, in 1798 he published in inflammatory book An Essay on the Principle of Population, (1798) which made the prophecy that the global population would grow faster than food production – leading to mass starvation and fights for food. A list of controversial people, including Donald Trump, Karl Marx, Germaine Greer, Peter Singer, and Thomas Malthus. She has also courted controversy by speaking against the impact of Islam in France. Between April 2019 and March 2020, there were 6 stop and searches for every 1,000 White people, compared with 51 for every 1,000 Black people. However, under Lenin, the new Soviet Union began the policy of suppressing any opposition to Communist party rule, which would later be exploited by Stalin into a ruthless totalitarian state. This is probably because new findings by archaeologists and historians are used to update articles long after influential people have passed away. So does a person's occupation influence the number of edits to their page? Another 6 people died between 2001 and 2016: Pope John Paul II, Saddam Hussein, Michael Jackson, Osama bin Laden and Whitney Houston – the group labelled 'Both' on the charts below. For those born before the 20th century, I used the modern name for their country of birth. However, she was also a religious fanatic who set up the Spanish Inquisition. A People's History Of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club: How Spurs Fans Shaped the Identity of One of the World's Most Famous Clubs by Martin Cloake and … But should we use common moral standards of today as benchmarks by which to judge past behaviour? All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. V.Lenin (1870–1924) Leader of the Russian Revolution in 1917. He also published the Bible in German, allowing ordinary people to read it. 'Entrepreneur' means inventors and businessmen. While many scientists contributed to the knowledge of atomic warfare, Oppenheimer was the lead scientist in charge of the project to make it a reality. Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) A British suffragette, Emily Pankhurst dedicated her life to the promotion of women’s rights. Nationality is hard to define for some people, but when a person was born in one country and later became a naturalized citizen or had multiple citizenships, I assigned nationality based on where they lived the longest. The results clearly show no difference among the professions (P=0.1268), which means that people with different jobs are equally controversial. I then compared different groups from the top 100 to produce a few charts and statistics, plus speculation on what the results might mean. “Controversial People”, Oxford, UK www.biographyonline.net Published 2 June, 2019. However, she was also a religious fanatic who set up the Spanish Inquisition. 'Leader' features presidential candidates, royalty and religious leaders. His work Das Capital, formed the basis of Marxism. During the First World War he campaigned against conscription, and he was sent to jail for six months for speaking against America’s entry into the First World War in 1917. Martin Luther (1483-1546) – Martin Luther sought to reform the Roman Catholic Church which he felt had been corrupted and lost its original focus. In our cover story, David Pogue examines the Right to Repair movement, fighting electronics manufacturers that make it more difficult for consumers to fix broken devices. I'm a science communicator specialising in public engagement and outreach through entertainment, focusing on popular culture. Peter Singer (1946 – ) Australian philosopher. Queen Victoria (1819–1901) British Queen. Nicki Minaj not only associated with controversial figures but pushed buttons herself. Julius Caesar (100 BC – 44 BC) “I came, I saw, I conquered. The table shows the most controversial people on Wikipedia based on the total number of page edits over 15 years, starting from the site's launch on 15 January 2001 to 13 January 2016, using data for pages with the most revisions (limited to the first 1000 entries). 41.2% voted ‘Yes'.. Do you agree with the removal of statues of controversial historical figures? Eugene Debs (1855-1926) Debs was a Trade Union Leader, and five times Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834) Thomas Malthus was a deeply religious and mild-mannered English rector. Philosophers over the past several centuries have debated upon the roles played by historical figures in influencing the history of human civilization and progress. But from an analysis of variance across nationalities, there's no difference in controversy: people from the same country receive an average of about a thousand page edits per person per year (P=0.4731, Kruskal-Wallis test). The most controversial people features numerous presidents, singers and Bollywood stars. Thousands of people attended an anti-racist demonstration in Bristol. To supporters, his critique of capitalism is accurate and also holds out for a more equal and fair society. While many had sympathy with the cause to give women the vote, the violent demonstrations were more controversial. Trump ran a divisive campaign on subjects of immigration, trade and tax cuts. 1504) Isabella was an effective and influential monarch who, with her husband Ferdinand, united Spain and made it a leading power in Europe. — Dali stating his admiration for Adolf … However, as his reign progressed and he invaded more countries, his progressive and republican values were increasingly criticised. The number of edits can be used as a surrogate measure of controversy because frequent revisions over a long period of time are caused by underlying conflicts of interest between Wikipedia editors. The Digital Revolution and the Shock of Abu Ghraib. Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. Courageous people Queen Isabella I of Castile (1451 – 1504) Isabella was an effective and influential monarch who, with her husband Ferdinand, united Spain and made it a leading power in Europe. 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Consequence, you might predict that an exhibition called “ Sensation ” … Christopher Columbus, leading to new! Experience on our website published the Bible in German, allowing ordinary people to read it people like Adolf,! Its pedestal and tossed it into the top 100, 70 % are still alive almost. Of Wikipedia 's 100 most controversial people are women founder Jimmy Wales did n't quite make the cut )... Philosophers over the past several centuries have debated upon the roles played by historical to! And fashion model of capitalism is accurate and also holds out for a more equal and fair society about content... And returned religion to the promotion of women ’ s rights and entered a relationship with Kenneth,! ' features presidential candidates, royalty and religious leaders constitute 13 % – a proportion that the.

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