# What specific actions by a single person caused the greatest impact? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 19, 2019, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909 "2019-08-19T21:58:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/41 "2019-08-21T05:17:05Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who invented (discovered?) the binary code. Where would computers be without it? Where would people be without computers? And likewise, Isaac Newton, who discovered/invented calculus, without which none of this would be possible. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/42 "2019-08-21T06:27:36Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And likewise, Isaac Newton, who discovered/invented calculus, without which none of this would be possible. Or, one step before, John Napier, who discovered the logarithmic scale. Though these mathematical theories seem more like a “product of their time” rather than a specific action by a single person. Apparently a guy named Bürgi had the same ideas as Napier around the same time and might well have brought them into the spotlight had Napier not existed. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/43 "2019-08-21T07:21:04Z")
If you consider that the Earth is potentially facing irrevocable destruction due to global warming, humans are the largest contributors to that, and the largest single contribution they make is via internal combustion engines, the answer is Nikolaus Otto. There were other contributors, to be sure, but lest you doubt his overall contribution I would point out that all but a handful of gasoline-powered engines are Otto-cycle engines. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/44 "2019-08-21T07:33:44Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > A bit US-centric: Barton W. Mitchell, who found D.H. Hill’s cigars wrapped around Lee’s plans before Antietam. This would have had a great impact if McClellan hadn’t waited eighteen hours to act on the intelligence. BTW, John M. Bloss co-discovered the plans, which were wrapped around the cigars (not the other way around). ---
**Author:** ![EdelweissPirate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@EdelweissPirate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdelweissPirate)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/45 "2019-08-21T23:54:04Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > And likewise, Isaac Newton, who discovered/invented calculus, without which none of this would be possible. Well, not really. Newton’s calculus of infinitesimals and Leibniz’ differential calculus essentially appeared simultaneously. If Newton hadn’t written the _Principia,_ We’d still have calculus. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/46 "2019-08-22T00:27:41Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > Without Thomas Edison we would have to watch TV in the dark. > > I would discount most inventions and scientific discoveries because they just shift the timeline. I’d say without Nikola Tesla we’d have to watch TV in the dark. Edison’s DC current could not travel over long distances like Tesla’s AC could. In the end we are all using Tesla’s invention, not Edison’s. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/47 "2019-08-22T01:04:07Z")
Warwick E. Kerr, or an unnamed [beekeeper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africanized_bee#History), had a pretty significant impact, and that is the first thing I thought of when I read the OP. But compared to some of the folks already mentioned, this is still smallish potatoes. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/48 "2019-08-22T01:07:00Z")
Jonas Salk deciding not to patent the polio vaccine. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/49 "2019-08-22T03:08:10Z")
re: Vasily Arkhipov > [@TruCelt](#): > > A good one, and he probably prevented an exchange of missiles that would have been devastating to several cities. But I’d say [Stanislov Petrov’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) contribution was slightly greater. His correct identification of a false alarm prevented an all-out second strike plan from being immediately and irrevocably put into action. This was during the years of the cold war stalemate, when mutually assured destruction was the already in place. What makes you think the exchange that Arkhipov averted wouldn’t have led to all-out nuclear war? I’m genuinely asking, not challenging. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/50 "2019-08-22T03:27:21Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Mr. Gutenberg for inventing movable type. This is obviously the answer. The rapid and wide-spread dissemination of ideas following from this enabled practically all these other things, which are just posters’ pet interests, to happen. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/51 "2019-08-22T06:14:26Z")
Muhammad left Mecca for Medina; once he got there they put him in charge and they got organized. The world turned out pretty different as a result. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/52 "2019-08-22T06:21:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Another vote for Columbus. Sure, he had a crew and received financing from the Spanish government. Not from the nonexistent Spanish government or from the Castillian government, from Isabella in person. She used personal funds. But then, she’d been throwing tradition and “What The Wise Men Say” off the window for a while at that point. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2019, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/53 "2019-08-22T08:40:16Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > 😃 If we’re both thinking the same one. And I thought of that one before reading this post because he (? 🙂 ) popped up in my “friends” list when I logged in just now. > But back to the OP – I want to throw out a shout for Tanacharison (aka The Half King) for basically starting the first true World War in history by getting the English and French in North American (1753-54) shooting at each other. Especially for his role in the murder of Joseph Coulon de Jumonville. How greatly the War of Empire changed history and the fate of the world can be debated but like Princip its a little tougher to avoid the spark that started it. My Southwestern Pennsylvania homie \*\*kopek \*\* is hip to the historical significance of the Seven Years’ War, which could be called World War Zero. It redrew the map of world empires not only in America but in India and elsewhere. What I wanted to underscore is the role of a woman in the negotiation that set up the situation in which Tanacharison acted so rashly. Queen Aliquippa, the Seneca sachem of the lower Monongahela valley, had met 21-year-old George Washington on his first trip to the area the previous winter, and she agreed to side with the British in the upcoming war against the French. On the basis of her agreement, Washington later led the expedition in which Tanacharison got him into hot water and touched off the French and Indian War, which became the Seven Years’ War. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/54 "2019-08-23T17:57:34Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > Then there’s Thomas Midgley, who was responsible for putting lead in gasoline AND for putting CFCs in refrigerators. That’s a lot of damage down to one person. Midgley was a monster. > [@Wikipedia](#): > > Environmental historian J. R. McNeill opined that Midgley “had more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth’s history” ---
**Author:** ![Scoobysnax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Scoobysnax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scoobysnax)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/55 "2019-08-23T19:39:35Z")
Sir Frederick G. Banting and John James Rickard Macleod together, along with Charles Best, developed insulin. Their discovery has saved the lives of millions of diabetics. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/56 "2019-08-23T19:58:42Z")
> [@EdelweissPirate](#): > > Gavrilo Princip nominally started WWI when he assassinated Archduke Frank Ferdinand, so maybe that’s worth considering. I think we have to rule out Princip because while he was the assassin, he doesn’t fit the parameters of the OP: the assassination was not his idea and he, along with two other members of The Black Hand (whose names I can never remember), acted under the orders of Colonel Apis. While the assassination didn’t go according to plan and Princip was the gunman, he wouldn’t have been there at all if The Black Hand hadn’t constructed the plan and smuggled him and the others into Sarajevo. > [@TruCelt](#): > > But then there’s the woman who gave birth to Ghengis Khan. It’s said that she caused something like 89% of all modern-day humans on the Asian continent. Yeah, but she had help with the conception part. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/57 "2019-08-23T21:59:26Z")
Many years ago I found a book in the library that ranked the most influential people. I found the book and list: [100 most influential people in the world |  Biography Online](https://www.biographyonline.net/people/100-most-influential.html) ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/58 "2019-08-23T22:03:07Z")
Actually, I was wrong and found the book and the list. > **[100 most influential people in the world |  ](https://www.biographyonline.net/people/100-most-influential.html)** > > A list chosen by Michael H. Hast, from the book '100 most influential people in the world'. He chose people on a ranking of who had done the most to influence the world. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/59 "2019-08-23T22:05:37Z")
And sorry for the dupliate post. I was trying to edit. (and now I have a third post) ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909/60 "2019-08-24T00:38:53Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > A good one, and he probably prevented an exchange of missiles that would have been devastating to several cities. But I’d say [Stanislov Petrov’s](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov) contribution was slightly greater. His correct identification of a false alarm prevented an all-out second strike plan from being immediately and irrevocably put into action. This was during the years of the cold war stalemate, when mutually assured destruction was the already in place. I’ve read different opinions on the Petrov incident, his job wasn’t to make those sorts of decisions, it was simply to pass his observations up the chain of command for someone else to make the decision and its just as possible someone higher up would have had the same thought processes as him, “Why would the American’s attack with only a handful of missiles?” I don’t think his passing the information along would have immediately and irrevocably resulted in a Soviet second strike, though it would certainly have left the possibility open. What we can say for certain is that Petrov’s actions weren’t nearly as clear-cut as those of Arkhipov’s, I think we can also say for certain that we’re glad they both did what they did. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-specific-actions-by-a-single-person-caused-the-greatest-impact/838909.md?page=4)