As we’ve gotten further back in history, I’ve been wondering if any wisdom can be gleaned from the engagement different historical figures receive from the thousands of followers of the project. Therefore, I compiled the amount of likes received by each Person of the Year, and this is the list:
JS Bach- 259
Frederick Douglas- 257
Florence Nightingale- 231
Emily Bronte- 230
Cardinal Richelieu- 211
Ludwig van Beethoven- 209
Horatio Nelson- 206
Volodymyr Zelenskyy- 197
Jane Austen- 195
Charles Dickens- 193
Edward Jenner- 190
Soren Kierkegaard- 186
Napoleon Bonaparte- 183
Johann Goethe- 181
Baron Haussman- 173
Antonio Vivaldi- 173
Giuseppe Garibaldi- 168
Georg Wilhelm Hegel- 165
Carl Friedrich Gauss- 165
Blackbeard- 165
Shaka- 163
Albert Saxe-Coburg- 161
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart- 160
Pedro II- 159
Ada Lovelace- 159
William Wilberforce- 156
Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden- 154
John III Sobieski- 154
Alessandro Volta- 150
James Cook- 150
Duke of Wellington- 149
Denis Diderot- 149
Gregor Mendel- 148
Karl Marx- 148
Michael Faraday- 148
Francisco Goya- 147
Jean-Jacques Rousseau- 147
Benjamin Franklin- 147
Robert Fulton- 144
Toussaint Louverture- 144
Sitting Bull- 140
Thomas Hobbes- 139
Napoleon III- 138
Simon Bolivar- 138
Immanuel Kant- 136
William Herschel- 130
Joseph II- 129
Montesquieu- 127
Christiaan Huygens- 127
Hans Christian Andersen- 126
Thomas Jefferson- 126
Victor Hugo- 125
Alexander Pushkin- 123
Fyodor Dostoyevsky- 122
Alexander II- 122
Klemens von Metternich- 122
Pyotr Tchaikovsky- 121
James Clerk Maxwell- 121
Hong Xiuquan- 120
Maximilien Robespierre- 120
Otto von Bismarck- 119
Queen Victoria- 117
Thomas Malthus- 116
Rabindranath Tagore- 115
Louis Daguerre- 115
Robert Hooke- 114
Alexander I- 113
Marie Antoinette- 113
Frederick the Great- 113
James Watt- 112
George III- 112
Nikola Tesla- 111
Peter the Great- 111
Louis Pasteur- 110
Charles Perrault- 108
Jules Verne- 106
Hokusai- 106
Gottfried Leibniz- 104
Mary Wollstonecraft- 103
George Washington- 103
Joseph Haydn- 103
Antoine Lavoisier- 102
Joseph-Michel Montgolfier- 101
Tupac Amaru II- 101
Christina, Queen of Sweden- 101
Leonhard Euler- 100
Adam Smith- 99
Carl Linneaus- 99
David Hume- 99
Joseph Lagrange- 98
Tadeusz Kościuszko- 98
Nicholas I- 97
Louis XVI- 97
Muhammad Ali of Egypt- 96
Abraham Lincoln- 95
Charles Darwin- 95
Giuseppe Mazzini- 95
Madame de Pompadour- 95
Anders Celsius- 95
Cardinal Mazarin- 95
Samuel Morse- 94
Mahmud II- 94
Louis XV- 94
Alexander Hamilton- 93
Leo Tolstoy- 91
Mikhail Lomonosov- 91
Daniel Defoe- 91
Jose de San Martin- 90
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans- 90
Rembrandt- 90
Theodoros Kolokotronis- 89
Joseph Priestly- 89
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek- 89
John Milton- 89
Mark Twain- 88
Claude Monet- 88
Dimitri Mendeleev- 88
Vitus Bering- 88
George Friedrich Handel- 88
Bartolomeo Cristofori- 88
Moliere- 88
Stanisław August Poniatowski- 87
Albrecht von Wallenstein- 87
Cesare Beccaria- 87
Vincent Van Gough- 86
Alfred Nobel- 86
Oliver Cromwell- 86
James K Polk- 85
Jacob Grimm- 85
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham- 85
Daniel Fahrenheit- 85
Tipu Sultan- 84
Eugene of Savoy- 84
Charles II- 84
Rene Descartes- 84
William Harvey- 84
Joseph Smith- 83
Karađorđe- 83
Louis XIV- 83
Robert Boyle- 83
Jean de La Fontaine- 82
Charles I- 82
Gustave Eiffel- 81
Louis-Phillipe- 81
Andrew Jackson- 81
Daniel Bernoulli- 81
Catherine the Great- 81
Jonathan Swift- 81
Isaac Newton- 81
Baruch Spinoza- 81
Ranjit Singh- 79
Gia Long- 79
Robert Peel- 78
Diponegoro- 78
Charles Babbage- 78
Pedro I- 78
George Stephenson- 77
Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban- 77
Alexander Graham Bell- 76
Marie Curie- 74
Cixi- 74
Ulysses S. Grant- 74
Camillo Cavour- 73
Shah Alam II- 73
Jan Vermeer- 73
John Locke- 72
Fabian von Bellingshausen- 71
Pierre de Fermat- 71
Thomas Edison- 70
Franz Joseph- 70
Marquis de Pombal- 70
Charles Stuart- 70
Maria Theresa- 70
Yemelyan Pugachev- 68
Charles III- 68
Blaise Pascal- 68
Albert Einstein- 67
Cao Xueqin- 67
Anna of Russia- 67
Edmond Halley- 67
Charles X Gustav of Sweden- 67
Benjamin Disraeli- 66
Karim Khan Zand- 65
Pope John Paul II- 64
Baha'u'llah- 64
Charles XII- 64
JRR Tolkien- 63
Porfirio Diaz- 63
Voltaire- 63
John Wesley- 63
Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg- 63
Giovanni Cassini- 63
Evangelista Torricelli- 63
Menelik II- 62
Yongzheng- 62
Shah Jahan- 62
Winston Churchill- 61
Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar- 61
Swedenbourg- 61
Alaungpaya- 61
John V- 61
William III- 61
William Penn- 61
Guglielmo Marconi- 60
Maria Sibylla Merian- 60
Roald Amundsen- 59
Joseph Conrad- 59
Wilhelm Roentgen- 59
Hyder Ali- 59
Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Viscount of Turenne- 59
Friedrich Nietzche- 58
Karl Benz- 57
Richard Wagner- 57
Ahmad Shah Durrani- 57
Evliya Çelebi- 57
Francesco Redi- 57
Theodore Herzl- 56
Alexander Pope- 56
Thomas Newcomen- 56
Juana Ines de la Cruz- 56
Pope Leo XIII- 55
Jean-Baptiste Lully- 55
Mahatma Gandhi- 54
Henri Dunant- 54
Meiji- 54
John Law- 54
Frederick I- 54
Leopold I- 54
Abel Tasman- 54
Tokugawa Iemitsu- 54
Jean-Baptiste Colbert- 53
Haile Selassie- 52
Alexander Suvorov- 52
Frederick William- 52
Marcello Malpighi- 52
Usman dan Fodio- 51
Qianlong- 51
Carl Gustav Rehnskiöld- 51
Diego Velazquez- 51
Baji Rao- 50
Queen Mary- 50
Iyasu I- 49
John IV of Portugal- 49
Louis XIII- 49
Orville Wright- 48
John D. Rockefeller- 48
Nader Shah- 48
Philip V- 48
Charles VI- 48
Shivaji- 48
Sun Yat-Sen- 47
Cardinal Fleury- 47
Chikamatsu Monzaemon- 47
Walt Disney- 46
Vladimir Lenin- 46
Mahmud Hotak- 46
Bahadur Shah- 46
Pope Innocent XI- 46
Jean Racine- 46
David Lloyd George- 45
Pablo Picasso- 45
Max Planck- 45
Francis Rákóczi- 45
Jakob Amman- 45
JK Rowling- 44
Theodore Roosevelt- 44
Ihara Saikaku- 44
Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares- 43
John Churchill- 42
George V- 41
Emile Durkheim- 41
Pau Claris i Casademunt- 41
Wilhelm II- 40
Cecil Rhodes- 40
Queen Anne- 40
Sultan Agung of Mataram- 40
George Berkley- 39
Matsuo Basho- 39
Koxinga- 39
Queen Elizabeth II- 38
Enrico Fermi- 38
Alexander Fleming- 38
F. Scott Fitzgerald- 38
Gavrilo Princip- 38
Herman Boerhaave- 38
Giambattista Vico- 38
Bohdan Khmelnytsky- 38
George Orwell- 37
Franklin Delano Roosevelt- 37
Ismail Ibn Sharif- 37
Dorgon- 37
Ernest Hemingway- 36
Robert Walpole- 36
Aurangzeb- 36
John Maynard Keynes- 35
Nicholas II- 35
Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab- 35
Dwight Eisenhower- 34
Chiang Kai-Shek- 34
Suleiman II- 34
Hong Taiji- 34
Gobind Singh- 33
Harry Truman- 32
Paul von Hindenberg- 32
Max Weber- 31
Adolf Hitler- 30
Francisco Franco- 30
William McKinley- 30
Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso- 30
Francis Crick- 29
Salvador Dali- 29
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk- 29
John Winthrop- 29
Charles Lindbergh- 28
Woodrow Wilson- 28
Henry Ford- 28
Corazon C Aquino- 27
Martin Luther King- 27
Köprülü Mehmed Pasha- 27
Hirohito- 26
Sigmund Freud- 26
Tenzin Gyatso- 25
Mohammad Mossadegh- 25
Pierre de Coubertin- 25
Mikhail Gorbachev- 24
Erwin Rommel- 24
William Gladstone- 24
Elie Wiesel- 23
Mother Theresa- 23
Georges Clemenceau- 23
Ho Chi Minh- 22
Benito Mussolini- 22
Kangxi Emperor- 22
Lech Walesa- 21
Yuri Gagarin- 21
John F. Kennedy- 21
Gamel Abdel Nasser- 21
Diana Spencer- 20
Anwar Sadat- 20
Margaret Thatcher- 19
Muhammad Ali- 18
Nikita Khruschev- 18
Joseph Stalin- 18
Leon Trotsky- 18
Nelson Mandela- 17
Neil Armstrong- 16
Lyndon Johnson- 16
David Ben-Gurion- 16
Charles De Gaulle- 15
Tim Berners Lee- 14
Gabriel Garcia Marquez- 14
Konrad Adenauer- 14
Joe Biden- 13
Bill Clinton- 13
Ronald Reagan- 13
John Lennon- 13
Steven Hawking- 12
Milton Friedman- 12
Fidel Castro- 12
Barack Obama- 11
Michael Jackson- 11
Deng Xiaoping- 11
Leonid Brezhnev- 11
Mao Zedong- 11
Muhammad Ali Jinnah- 11
Elon Musk- 10
Greta Thunberg- 10
Pope Francis- 10
Vladimir Putin- 10
George HW Bush- 10
Indira Gandhi- 10
Che Guevara- 10
Recep Erdogan- 9
Aung San Suu Kyi- 9
Jeff Bezos- 9Helmut Kohl- 9
Ayatollah Khomeni- 9
Richard Nixon- 9
Donald Trump- 8
Mark Zuckerberg- 8
Steve Jobs- 8
Oprah Winfrey- 8
Kofi Annan- 8
Bill Gates- 8
Xi Jinping- 7
Angela Merkel- 7
Benjamin Netanyahu- 7
Boris Yeltsin- 7
Henry Kissinger- 7
Willy Brandt- 7
Kim Jong Un- 6
Beyonce- 6
Hugo Chavez- 6
George W Bush- 6
Osama bin Ladin- 5
Tony Blair- 5
King Faisal- 5
The first thing to note here is that the account did not have a large following when I was announcing the persons of the year of the last ~100 years, so those numbers are likely lower than they otherwise might be. That aside, the second most noticeable trend is, in general, the individuals near the top of the list have higher name recognition. Additionally, artists, scientists, and activists tend to do better than their political counterparts with equal name recognition.
What does this list say to you? I think it’s a decent ranking of the most impactful individuals, but far from perfect. In general, I tend to look at internet search traffic as a decent proxy for measuring notability, so I also ran the numbers, adjusting for my expectations of how much engagement each individual would attain (removing the 20th century figures that are outliers due to low account following).
Frederick Douglas- 428%
Iyasu I- 408%
William Wilberforce- 390%
Baron Haussman- 339%
Hong Xiuquan- 324%
Blackbeard- 306%
Diponegoro- 300%
Theodoros Kolokotronis- 297%
Toussaint Louverture- 288%
Albert Saxe-Coburg- 282%
Tupac Amaru II- 281%
Cardinal Richelieu- 277%
Pedro II- 256%
Horatio Nelson- 254%
Alaungpaya- 254%
Emily Bronte- 253%
Robert Fulton- 253%
Gia Long- 247%
Philippe II, Duke of Orléans- 237%
John III Sobieski- 233%
And the 10 worst performing:
William Gladstone- 34.3%
Diego Velazquez- 35.4%
Isaac Newton- 36.7%
Kangxi Emperor- 37.3%
Richard Wagner- 38.0%
Thomas Edison- 39.8%
Voltaire- 40.4%
Vincent Van Gough- 43.2%
Aurangzeb- 46.8%
Hugo Grotius- 47.2%
With these lists, it’s harder to see patterns. The best performing is a more diverse list than the unadjusted. Perhaps anti-colonial/independence figures, especially in the developing world perform slightly better? Overall though, it is likely just noise. I’d be curious if any trends that do exist is caused by the twitter algorithm or the opinions of the viewers? Of course, it is likely a combination of both, but I do wonder if Twitter reads tweets and boosts them using factors besides user engagement, as it does seem to me that some tweets randomly gain impressions very quickly compared to others.
Let me know if you have any thoughts I’m not seeing from these lists- stay tuned for more side projects soon!