# The greatest 20th Century Americans who aren't household names?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-20th-century-americans-who-arent-household-names/349173>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 20, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-20th-century-americans-who-arent-household-names/349173 "2006-03-20T18:38:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-20th-century-americans-who-arent-household-names/349173/21 "2006-03-27T18:34:21Z")

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I’d hardly call Kissinger “great”. Unless we’re going for “greatest 20th Century American War Criminals who aren’t household names”.

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2006, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-greatest-20th-century-americans-who-arent-household-names/349173/22 "2006-03-27T19:11:21Z")

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> [@Elendil's Heir](#):
>
> Nikola Tesla’s work in developing radio technology is usually forgotten when compared to Marconi. More’s the pity…
> 
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla)

It is funny, I know so much about Tesla and his eccentric life that I forget how little he is known by the general public. The sight of the Marconi Tower is near my house and the placard still gives Marconi the credit for inventing Radio.

Very sad that the father of AC power is an unknown.

Jim

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