The 50 most influential people in history

The history of humanity is littered with great discoveries, great invention, great ideas - and the great people who initiated them. Some of them just had one goal, one great achievement that contributed to the advancement of civilisation in a meaningful way. Others contributed across a wide range of disciplines and achievements. There are different ways to influence the course of history and many avenues of thought and action which can achieve this. We have picked fifty people here whose contribution was undeniably great and lasting. Whether it was discovering new lands and cultures, devising schools and methods of thought or science or inventing new devices or concepts to enhance the life of the populous; these people represent the best of humanity (for the most part) and the world was a better, or at least a different, place because of them.

Michael Marcovici was born in Vienna in 1969. He became interested in technology, especially electronics and mathematics, at the age of seven. By 12, he had worked as a programmer, and quit school at 17. He then started his first business in the financial field, publishing analysis on the financial markets a stock newsletter and managing funds, . From 1995 on he was the publisher of werk-zeug, a technology and art magazine, as well as streetfashion, a magazine featuring fashionable people on the streets of the world. He was also active as a software developer and inventor. Marcovici holds international patents for climbing equipment, bicycle gears, trading systems and electronic payment systems In 2001 Marcovici started to publish books on various polarizing topics from gun laws over finance, technology, society and much more. Marcovici is usually working together with bloggers and experts to give the reader a good overview over the topic from different angles and point of views.