Michael Jackson? You must be joking. You must be a child of the 80's or 90's. Is Britney Spears the second most famous person on your list.:grin:
First name that came to mind was Einstein, so that's my vote. In 500 years, who will people remember?
Hitler has to be the most known person in the world from the 20th century...he may even be the most known person in all of history behind Jesus, Muhammed, and Buddha. I'm surprised you don't have more political figures on the list - I'd think FDR and JFK would be high on the list as would Chruchill. How does someone who graduated from high school in 2005 not know how Ghandi is? I don't think I could even have an "argument" with someone that ignorant.
It's not like it's my personal preference or something. I think you're underestimating how well known he is around the world. I disqualify Hitler, because it seems like he is exempted by the mere spirit of the question. (i.e. popularity)
Do you think 500 years from now when people talk about last century, they would talk about Michael Jackson? We are not talking about who is most popular at the moment, but who will be remembered for ages. How many musicians are remembered through out history? Michael Jackson will not be one of those.
Hitler will be lesser known than Eintein in a few hundred years or even the next thousand years. Einstein's work and his image lives on among children and continues to be so. Just like Newton, he's been dead for centuries but his name is still often mentioned. What about Pythagoras? He lived more than 2000 years ago and any kid could at least take a guess what he did. As far as Hitler, 1000 years from now he'll just be in the history books as the evil dude from WW2, but there have been numerous evil men throughout history that we have to look through history to know and they are not mentioned on a daily basis. But Einstein has become synonamous with "an intelligent person".
Hitler will be remembered far longer than anyone else on that list. He set a new standard for slaughter of humans. We still remember Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Hannibal. Wars are what survive the ages, and Hitler was the evil figure head of the biggest war yet, in the most connected age yet. You would be hard pressed to find anyone that doesnt at least know of Hitler.
I'm thinking in terms of "who was known (or more popular) by more people during the 20th century", not "who will be remembered centuries from now". The question could be worded a little better, imo. Fame is not the right word to use here: –noun: widespread reputation, especially of a favorable character; renown; public eminence: to seek fame as an opera singer.
I don't think Adolf is nearly as popular as y'all think, not from other countries perspectives, but I definitely could be wrong. I think Michael Jordan might be a smidge underrated here, he was like the 2nd most popular figure in Japan in the 90's, just under some Japanese historic legend dude. I'd guess Ghandi or Einstein over Hitler though.
People in China who would have a chance to communicate with a typical clutchfans member would likely know hitler. The thing is, they represent a very, very minority of the 1+ billion people living there. Are we talking about educated people with knowledge of world history? Or everyone? That latter would include poor people in rural areas of 3rd world countries who never went to school, can't read, and pretty much never leave the village. I'm trying to not to dismiss these people. After all, we are talking about "most famous", not "most famous among the educated".
