Persons of the Decade.

[afleitch]

Why not And I wouldn't be suprised if it has been done before.

1900's
1910's
1920's
1930's
1940's
1950's
1960's
1970's
1980's
1990's
2000's

[Senator Ben]

1900's: Teddy Roosevelt
1910's: Woodrow Wilson
1920's: Henry Ford
1930's: Adolf Hitler
1940's: Adolf Hitler
1950's: Ho Chi Mihn
1960's: Martin Luther King Jr.
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Ronald Reagan
1990's: Boris Yeltsin
2000's: George W. Bush

[Χahar]

1900s: Roosevelt
1910s: Wilhelm II
1920s: Poincaré
1930s: Roosevelt
1940s: Hitler
1950s: Eisenhower
1960s: Khrushchev
1970s: Mao
1980s: Gorbachev
1990s: Clinton
2000s: Bush

[The Mikado]

Why not And I wouldn't be suprised if it has been done before.

1900's
1910's
1920's
1930's
1940's
1950's
1960's
1970's
1980's
1990's
2000's

1900s: Orville and Wilbur Wright
1910s: Gavrilo Princip
1920s: Calvin Coolidge (Embodied the spirit of the era, not for anything he did)
1930s: John Manyard Keynes/Adolf Hitler
1940s: Mohandas K. Gandhi/Mao Zedong (Both, rightly or wrongly, represent the massive post WWII changes in the Third World)
1950s: Joseph McCarthy/Elvis Presley
1960s: John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khruschev, jointly, for averting the destruction of the human race
1970s: Henry Kissinger
1980s:  Mikhail Gorbachev/Deng Xiaoping
1990s:  Tony Blair...just kidding!  Don't shoot!  The Internet, though it isn't really a person.
2000s:  Osama bin Laden

[MSUfan]

1900's Teddy Roosevelt
1910's Kaiser Wilhelm
1920's Calvin Coolidge
1930's Hitler
1940's Hitler
1950's Joesph Stalin
1960's Lyndon Johnson
1970's Mao
1980's Gorbechev
1990's Boris Yeltsin
2000's Osama Bin Laden

[J. J.]

1860's  Abraham Lincoln
1870's  Otto von Bismarck
1880's  William Gladstone
1890's  Wilhelm II 
1900's  Theophile Delcasse  (responsible for the Anglo-French Alliance)
1910's  H. H. Asquith  (Prime Minister, forced Lords reform, entered WWI) 
1920's  Henry Ford 
1930's  Adolph Hitler 
1940's  Mohandas Ghandi   
1950's  Dwight Eisenhower
1960's  Mao Zedong
1970's  Deng Xiaoping
1980's  Ronald Reagan
1990's  Saddam Hussein
2000's  Osama bin Ladin

[Robespierre's Jaw]

1900's: Orville and Wilbur Wright
1910's: Woodrow Wilson
1920's: Henry Ford
1930's: Adolf Hitler
1940's: Joseph Stalin
1950's: Nikita Khruschev
1960's: Mao Zedong
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Mikael Gorbachev
1990's: Saddam Hussein
2000's: Osama Bin Laden/George W. Bush

[12th Doctor]

1900's - TR
1910's - Wilhelm II
1920's - Henry Ford
1930's - Adolf Hitler
1940's - Winston Churchill
1950's - Ike Eisenhower
1960's - Lyndon Johnson
1970's - tie; Richard Nixon & Ruhollah Khomeini
1980's - tie; John Paul II & Ronald Reagan (Gorbachev was a reaction to them, not a tone setter)
1990's - tie; Saddam Hussein, Newt Gingrich, Tony Blair, Slobodan Milošević
2000's - Osama Bin Laden (though if you ask me again in a few years, I might change my mind

[Χahar]

1900's - TR
1910's - Wilhelm II
1920's - Henry Ford
1930's - Adolf Hitler
1940's - Winston Churchill
1950's - Ike Eisenhower
1960's - Lyndon Johnson
1970's - tie; Richard Nixon & Ruhollah Khomeini
1980's - tie; John Paul II & Ronald Reagan (Gorbachev was a reaction to them, not a tone setter)
1990's - tie; Saddam Hussein, Newt Gingrich, Tony Blair, Slobodan Milošević
2000's - Osama Bin Laden (though if you ask me again in a few years, I might change my mind

Hilariously contradictory. Not that that's a bad thing.

[12th Doctor]

1900's - TR
1910's - Wilhelm II
1920's - Henry Ford
1930's - Adolf Hitler
1940's - Winston Churchill
1950's - Ike Eisenhower
1960's - Lyndon Johnson
1970's - tie; Richard Nixon & Ruhollah Khomeini
1980's - tie; John Paul II & Ronald Reagan (Gorbachev was a reaction to them, not a tone setter)
1990's - tie; Saddam Hussein, Newt Gingrich, Tony Blair, Slobodan Milošević
2000's - Osama Bin Laden (though if you ask me again in a few years, I might change my mind

Hilariously contradictory. Not that that's a bad thing.

Not really, Churchill defined the problem of Nazism long before others even recognized it, and he did the same thing with communism.

Gorby wasn't a leader in any true sense of the word.  He was picked because the people were starting to demand perestroika, he merely granted them what they wanted.  When the Soviet Union was collapsing, he did everything he could to try to hold it together, and failed.  He wasn't opposed to communism.  He did what he did because he hoped that, by loosening the restrictions of the old order, he could preserve it, because people would naturally see what was "good" about communism and disassociate it from the "bad".  He wasn't prepared to accept the notion that communism was inherently bad, which was the conclusion that most Russian people had already reached.  He only gets credit for anything because he is falsely perceived as a "peaceful" figure, as opposed to Reagan, who was a "terrible warmonger".

[Beet]

1900's - TR
1910's - Wilhelm II
1920's - Henry Ford
1930's - Adolf Hitler
1940's - Winston Churchill
1950's - Ike Eisenhower
1960's - Lyndon Johnson
1970's - tie; Richard Nixon & Ruhollah Khomeini
1980's - tie; John Paul II & Ronald Reagan (Gorbachev was a reaction to them, not a tone setter)
1990's - tie; Saddam Hussein, Newt Gingrich, Tony Blair, Slobodan Milošević
2000's - Osama Bin Laden (though if you ask me again in a few years, I might change my mind

Hilariously contradictory. Not that that's a bad thing.

Not really, Churchill defined the problem of Nazism long before others even recognized it, and he did the same thing with communism.

Gorby wasn't a leader in any true sense of the word.  He was picked because the people were starting to demand perestroika, he merely granted them what they wanted.  When the Soviet Union was collapsing, he did everything he could to try to hold it together, and failed.  He wasn't opposed to communism.  He did what he did because he hoped that, by loosening the restrictions of the old order, he could preserve it, because people would naturally see what was "good" about communism and disassociate it from the "bad".  He wasn't prepared to accept the notion that communism was inherently bad, which was the conclusion that most Russian people had already reached.  He only gets credit for anything because he is falsely perceived as a "peaceful" figure, as opposed to Reagan, who was a "terrible warmonger".

Gorbachev was (in part) reacting, but he was reacting to a lot more than just Reagan. If Reagan influenced the end of the Cold War (and he probably did), it is generally recognized; but that he was standing on the shoulders of metaphorical giants is only more dimly sensed.

[12th Doctor]

What makes Churchill and Gorby different in their "reactiveness" is that Churchill saw what was coming, bucked the trends of the time, and successfully set a new course for history.  Gorby was put in place because of what had already happened, reacted to the trends of history, and unsuccessfully tried to hold back progress.

[Χahar]

1900's - TR
1910's - Wilhelm II
1920's - Henry Ford
1930's - Adolf Hitler
1940's - Winston Churchill
1950's - Ike Eisenhower
1960's - Lyndon Johnson
1970's - tie; Richard Nixon & Ruhollah Khomeini
1980's - tie; John Paul II & Ronald Reagan (Gorbachev was a reaction to them, not a tone setter)
1990's - tie; Saddam Hussein, Newt Gingrich, Tony Blair, Slobodan Milošević
2000's - Osama Bin Laden (though if you ask me again in a few years, I might change my mind

Hilariously contradictory. Not that that's a bad thing.

Not really, Churchill defined the problem of Nazism long before others even recognized it, and he did the same thing with communism.

Gorby wasn't a leader in any true sense of the word.  He was picked because the people were starting to demand perestroika, he merely granted them what they wanted.  When the Soviet Union was collapsing, he did everything he could to try to hold it together, and failed.  He wasn't opposed to communism.  He did what he did because he hoped that, by loosening the restrictions of the old order, he could preserve it, because people would naturally see what was "good" about communism and disassociate it from the "bad".  He wasn't prepared to accept the notion that communism was inherently bad, which was the conclusion that most Russian people had already reached.  He only gets credit for anything because he is falsely perceived as a "peaceful" figure, as opposed to Reagan, who was a "terrible warmonger".

But Chirchill would never have been anyone important (and I mean on a world scale) without Chamberlain and Hitler. I agree that a change was inevitable after Brezhnev and Andropov and Chernenko (the whole process has reminded me of a papal conclave), but Gorbachev was an important figure in his own right. Imagine if Volodymyr Schcherbytsky had been elevated. Things would have turned out very differently.

And I bear too great an affinity for Gorbachevism for you to badmouth his work.

[12th Doctor]

1900's - TR
1910's - Wilhelm II
1920's - Henry Ford
1930's - Adolf Hitler
1940's - Winston Churchill
1950's - Ike Eisenhower
1960's - Lyndon Johnson
1970's - tie; Richard Nixon & Ruhollah Khomeini
1980's - tie; John Paul II & Ronald Reagan (Gorbachev was a reaction to them, not a tone setter)
1990's - tie; Saddam Hussein, Newt Gingrich, Tony Blair, Slobodan Milošević
2000's - Osama Bin Laden (though if you ask me again in a few years, I might change my mind

Hilariously contradictory. Not that that's a bad thing.

Not really, Churchill defined the problem of Nazism long before others even recognized it, and he did the same thing with communism.

Gorby wasn't a leader in any true sense of the word.  He was picked because the people were starting to demand perestroika, he merely granted them what they wanted.  When the Soviet Union was collapsing, he did everything he could to try to hold it together, and failed.  He wasn't opposed to communism.  He did what he did because he hoped that, by loosening the restrictions of the old order, he could preserve it, because people would naturally see what was "good" about communism and disassociate it from the "bad".  He wasn't prepared to accept the notion that communism was inherently bad, which was the conclusion that most Russian people had already reached.  He only gets credit for anything because he is falsely perceived as a "peaceful" figure, as opposed to Reagan, who was a "terrible warmonger".

But Chirchill would never have been anyone important (and I mean on a world scale) without Chamberlain and Hitler. I agree that a change was inevitable after Brezhnev and Andropov and Chernenko (the whole process has reminded me of a papal conclave), but Gorbachev was an important figure in his own right. Imagine if Volodymyr Schcherbytsky had been elevated. Things would have turned out very differently.

And I bear too great an affinity for Gorbachevism for you to badmouth his work.

What does it matter that Churchill needed Hitler?  Everyone needs somebody to be somebody.  The real question is who set the course, and whose vision survived.  Gorbachev's vision didn't last beyond 1991.  Winston Churchill's vision lived on... through Reagan... and beyond.

To prove my point, I invite you to watch this.  It's part of Schama's A History of Britain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ0O8NAVzTo

[Lief]

1900's: Theodore Roosevelt
1910's: Woodrow Wilson/Kaiser Wilhelm II (tie)
1920's: Eh... the 20s were boring. Coolidge, I suppose, those he's really just representative of them.
1930's: Franklin D. Roosevelt/Adolf Hitler (tie)
1940's: Winston Churchill
1950's: Nikita Khrushchev
1960's: Martin Luther King Jr.
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev (tie)
1990's: This is difficult... the computer or the internet or something, if that's allowed
2000's: George W. Bush

7 Presidents. Interesting.

[Χahar]

1900's: Theodore Roosevelt
1910's: Woodrow Wilson/Kaiser Wilhelm II (tie)
1920's: Eh... the 20s were boring. Coolidge, I suppose, those he's really just representative of them.
1930's: Franklin D. Roosevelt/Adolf Hitler (tie)
1940's: Winston Churchill
1950's: Nikita Khrushchev
1960's: Martin Luther King Jr.
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev (tie)
1990's: This is difficult... the computer or the internet or something, if that's allowed
2000's: George W. Bush

7 Presidents. Interesting.

Shows a lot about you: namely, Amerocentrism.

I note that Poincaré is the only one of my choices that has not been also used by someone else.

[The Mikado]

1900's: Theodore Roosevelt
1910's: Woodrow Wilson/Kaiser Wilhelm II (tie)
1920's: Eh... the 20s were boring. Coolidge, I suppose, those he's really just representative of them.
1930's: Franklin D. Roosevelt/Adolf Hitler (tie)
1940's: Winston Churchill
1950's: Nikita Khrushchev
1960's: Martin Luther King Jr.
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev (tie)
1990's: This is difficult... the computer or the internet or something, if that's allowed
2000's: George W. Bush

7 Presidents. Interesting.

Shows a lot about you: namely, Amerocentrism.

I note that Poincaré is the only one of my choices that has not been also used by someone else.

True...

No one's stolen my Gavrilo Princip one yet.

[Χahar]

1900's: Theodore Roosevelt
1910's: Woodrow Wilson/Kaiser Wilhelm II (tie)
1920's: Eh... the 20s were boring. Coolidge, I suppose, those he's really just representative of them.
1930's: Franklin D. Roosevelt/Adolf Hitler (tie)
1940's: Winston Churchill
1950's: Nikita Khrushchev
1960's: Martin Luther King Jr.
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev (tie)
1990's: This is difficult... the computer or the internet or something, if that's allowed
2000's: George W. Bush

7 Presidents. Interesting.

Shows a lot about you: namely, Amerocentrism.

I note that Poincaré is the only one of my choices that has not been also used by someone else.

True...

No one's stolen my Gavrilo Princip one yet.

I was considering him, but I thought, if not him, then someone else.

[Lief]

1900's: Theodore Roosevelt
1910's: Woodrow Wilson/Kaiser Wilhelm II (tie)
1920's: Eh... the 20s were boring. Coolidge, I suppose, those he's really just representative of them.
1930's: Franklin D. Roosevelt/Adolf Hitler (tie)
1940's: Winston Churchill
1950's: Nikita Khrushchev
1960's: Martin Luther King Jr.
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev (tie)
1990's: This is difficult... the computer or the internet or something, if that's allowed
2000's: George W. Bush

7 Presidents. Interesting.

Shows a lot about you: namely, Amerocentrism.

For a few of the choices, sure. Theodore Roosevelt is the most obvious, but there isn't really anyone in the aughts that impacted the entire world, and Roosevelt was in some ways instrumental in beginning what would be the "American century." Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Reagan, and Bush all undoubtedly had long term effects on the international political landscape.

[Χahar]

1900's: Theodore Roosevelt
1910's: Woodrow Wilson/Kaiser Wilhelm II (tie)
1920's: Eh... the 20s were boring. Coolidge, I suppose, those he's really just representative of them.
1930's: Franklin D. Roosevelt/Adolf Hitler (tie)
1940's: Winston Churchill
1950's: Nikita Khrushchev
1960's: Martin Luther King Jr.
1970's: Richard Nixon
1980's: Ronald Reagan/Mikhail Gorbachev (tie)
1990's: This is difficult... the computer or the internet or something, if that's allowed
2000's: George W. Bush

7 Presidents. Interesting.

Shows a lot about you: namely, Amerocentrism.

For a few of the choices, sure. Theodore Roosevelt is the most obvious, but there isn't really anyone in the aughts that impacted the entire world, and Roosevelt was in some ways instrumental in beginning what would be the "American century." Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Reagan, and Bush all undoubtedly had long term effects on the international political landscape.

But Coolidge? Over Poincaré or Kellogg or Briand or Stresemann or (Austen) Chamberlain?

[Senator Ben]

7 of my 11 were Americans, and Hitler was on twice.  America has been important this century.

[12th Doctor]

7 of my 11 were Americans, and Hitler was on twice.  America has been important this century.

AMERICA F**K YEAH!!!

[Χahar]

1900s: Roosevelt
1910s: Wilhelm II
1920s: Poincaré
1930s: Roosevelt
1940s: Hitler
1950s: Eisenhower
1960s: Khrushchev
1970s: Mao
1980s: Gorbachev
1990s: Clinton
2000s: Bush

5 Americans, 2 Germans, 1 Frenchman, 2 Russians, and 1 Chinaman.

Strange.

[Verily]

1900s Nicholas II
1910s Wilhelm II
1920s Sun Yat-sen (too many European choices of equal but lower levels of importance)
1930s Adolf Hitler
1940s Josef Stalin (mostly because I hate repeats, and Stalin has to go somewhere)
1950s Nikita Krushchev
1960s Mao Zedong
1970s Richard Nixon
1980s Mikhail Gorbachev
1990s Yitzhak Rabin
2000s George W. Bush

[Јas]

1900s: Wilbur Wright & Orville Wright
1910s: Albert Einstein
1920s: John Logie Baird
1930s: John Maynard Keynes
1940s: Josef Stalin & Adolf Hitler
1950s: Francis Crick & James Watson
1960s: Sergey Korolyov & Wernher von Braun
1970s: Norman Borlaug
1980s: Milton Friedman
1990s: Tim Berners-Lee
2000s: George W. Bush & Osama bin Ladin