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The central idea is 36 trailblazing immmagrants and refugees who make America great.

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Their courage, their achievements, and there determination to change the world has helped make our country a stronger place.

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In this list, I have chosen people who have made a difference to the world in a positive way. They include people from the fields of politics, science, religion, humanitarianism and culture.

Helen Keller (1880-1968) Despite her condition of both deafness and blindness, she learned to read and write, becoming a champion of social issues and helping to improve the welfare of deaf people.

(1903-1950) George Orwell was a democratic socialist who fought in the Spanish civil war on the side of the Republicans. He gave up his privileged education to spend time with the unemployed of the Great Depression. His greatest contribution was warning about the dangers of totalitarian regimes (through Animal Farm and 1984).

Harriet Tubman (1822 - 1913) Tubman escaped from slavery but returned on many dangerous missions to Maryland where she helped lead slaves to freedom. She also served as agent and leader during the Civil War. She became a symbol of the abolition movement.

Billy Graham (1918 - 2018) American Christain evangelist. Graham preached the gospel of Jesus Christ to billions of people around the world in live mass meetings and on the tv and radio. He preached an inclusive philosophy, eschewing racial segregation making outreach to other faiths.

Thurgood Marshall (1908 - 1993) US civil rights lawyer and the first African-American appointed to the US Supreme Court Justice. Marshall was the lead lawyer in the pivotal Supreme Court Case Brown vs Board of Education, Topeka (1954) which overturned legal racial segregation in the US.

B.R Ambedkar (1891-1956) Indian social reformer. Ambedkar was born in the Mahar 'untouchable' caste but became a pioneering political activist and social reformer. He was the principal figure in the drafting of the Indian Constitution, which outlawed 'untouchability' and promoted equality.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer - German pastor and pacifist who was executed for his opposition to Hitler in Nazi Germany.

Harriet Beecher Stowe - American writer and campaigner against slavery. The author of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Kofi Annan - Secretary-General of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. Awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan "People who made a difference", Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net , 18th July 2013. Updated 26 January 2018

Paths to Peace: People Who Changed the World

Paths to Peace: People Who Changed the World at Amazon
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Famous Humanitarians - Famous people who have offered charitable service to others, including Mother Teresa, William Wilberforce, Florence Nightingale and Princess Diana.

Women who changed the world - Famous women who changed the world. Features female Prime Ministers, scientists, cultural figures, authors and royalty. Includes; Cleopatra, Princess Diana, Marie Curie, Queen Victoria, and Joan of Arc.

People who promoted world peace- People who have made a great contribution to creating a more peaceful world. Including Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, Malala Yousafzai Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev.

People who made a positive contribution - People who all left the world in a better place. Including Marie Curie, Hariet Tubman, Albert Einstein and Eleanor Roosevelt.

People who fought for human/civil rights - People who campaigned for equality, civil rights and civil justice. Includes Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks.

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People who made a positive contribution to the world, in the fields of science, arts, literature, human rights, religion, sport and politics.

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He was a genius who won a nobel prize in physics.

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History

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The following is adapted from the new special issue LIFE's 100 People Who Changed the World, available at newsstands and online:
History never stops moving. It evolves. It is fluid. What history looks like today is different from what it looked like, say, a hundred years ago; and what today's history-in-the-making looks like now may be seen very differently just 20 years from now. Did anyone in 1907 really think Henry Ford was changing the world when he started tinkering with how to make his Model T? Other than maybe Henry himself, probably not. Will Elon Musk be seen in 2040 as a world changer because of his electric Tesla? He may or he may not.

When combing the past and the present for a list such as the 100 People Who Changed the World, there are criteria to consider, to be sure, but there are no hard-and-fast rules. There are judgments to be made, but there are no certain truths. Our list was less a hardened document than a current collection-a collection of men and women who, for better and sometimes for worse, have made a clear mark on our civilization. Such a list is by necessity subjective and open to delicious debate.

But while history may be fluid, it does tend to crystallize over time: The significance of Aristotle or Catherine the Great is easy to see from here. And certainly the importance of some of history's great characters was apparent to their contemporaries: George Washington or Pablo Picasso or Mother Teresa. Others were largely invisible in their own time, their contributions realized only long after they were gone: Karl Marx died in 1883, many years before his writings would inspire powerful communist societies; Alan Turing, who died lonely and tortured, is now lauded as the brilliant father of the computer; and Rachel Carson gained respect as a naturalist writer not long before her death, but appreciation for her impact on environmentalism has blossomed more recently.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of this exercise is pondering the ultimate impact of present-day figures. Steve Jobs makes the list by virtue of his influence on high tech and our daily lives. But what of Mark Zuckerberg, perhaps the founding figure of social media when he launched Facebook in 2004? His impact is huge, and he has made it possible for billions of people to come together; but the social media site has also made it easier to drive society apart, upending the news business and even the way elections are conducted. Can we yet evaluate the nature of Zuckerberg's controversial creation and his ability to control it?

Similarly, Jeff Bezos presents a quandary. He might be seen as a retailing successor to Richard Sears, who made our list of 100 even though his great namesake legacy is now in bankruptcy. But Bezos also rides the wave of technology, and the power and reach of Amazon are frighteningly large. And by the way, without Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf, would we even have Zuckerberg and Bezos to kick around? Who are they, you ask? Just the guys who figured out a way for all the computers of the world to speak to each other, something we call the internet. If that invention hasn't changed the world as we know it, well, tell us what has.

When it comes to game changers, Martin Luther King Jr. is of course included here for his enormous impact on civil rights. Yet King also has spiritual descendants whose work continues to alter our lives every day, including Alicia Garza. She's the organizer who coined the phrase "Black Lives Matter" in 2013, after George Zimmerman was acquitted of murdering Florida teen Trayvon Martin. An anguished Garza posted "I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter . . . Our lives matter." That sentiment was turned into a hashtag and became a movement that appears to be challenging racism in a way that has eluded the nation for centuries.

Will the moment last? Only time, of course, will tell. History will move inexorably forward, our questions today will have answers tomorrow, and lists like these will change-again and again and again.

Here are photographs of some of the people who made the list in LIFE's 100 People Who Changed the World.

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LIFE's 100 People Who Changed the World - LIFE

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The following is adapted from the new special issue LIFE's 100 People Who Changed the World, available at newsstands and online: History never stops moving. It evolves. It is fluid. What history looks like today is different from what it looked like, say, a hundred years ago; and what today's history-in-the-making looks like now may ...

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People who change the world aren't always who you expect. They're housewives, sisters, and ordinary people believe in a better world.

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Rosa Parks: Wouldn't give up her seat

Tired from a full day's work, Rosa Parks boarded a Montgomery bus on December 1, 1955 and forever became one of the inspirational people who changed the world. When she refused to obey the driver's order to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus so a white person could sit there, she was arrested for civil disobedience. Parks' act of defiance, and the Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed, are recognized as pivotal moments in the civil rights movement. Here are 13 human rights that still aren't universal-but should be.

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Inspirational people who changed the world aren't always who you'd expect. They're sometimes ordinary people who believe in a better world.

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He was an immigrant how created google one of the biggest companies in America.

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Maria moved from Guadala to Los Angeles and became the first latina cabinet secretary.