Napoleon Bonaparte, the former French emperor, is the second most important person in history, coming in behind Jesus Christ.
That’s according to rankings based on a new software programme that placed the man known as "the little corporal" above the likes of the Prophet Mohammed, who was ranked third, Shakespeare, who was fourth and Hitler, seventh.
The table was put together by Google engineer and tech wizard Charles Ward and Steven Skiena through a new software programme that collates millions of online opinions using the same method as Google’s ranking of web pages, the UK’s Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The innovative programme trawls the web for opinions expressed about famous people and then uses a special "reputation decay algorithm" to determine the significance of the world’s most important figures and how it would change after 200 years. They published their findings in a new book entitled "Who's Bigger".
For Ward and his team it was not important the reason why the figures were famous just that their fame stands the test of time. Surprisingly former South African President Nelson Mandela was ranked down at 356. Although some have criticised the merits of the rankings and the formula they are based on, the fact that US singer Justin Bieber was placed down in 8,633, suggests they are not totally inaccurate.
Napoleon's notoriety has clearly lasted over the 200 years since his demise. He rose to prominence in the final days of the French Revolution and ruled as Emperor between 1804 and 1815. By conquering much of Europe he made France the dominant power on the continent until he was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
His legacy is the subject of much debate, which some arguing he was just an evil dictator and warmonger whereas others say he was a visionary and a national hero.
His legal reform, known as the Code Napoleon, which made all men equal under the law and forms the basis of the French civil code. Its influence went far beyond France’s borders, and has had an impact on civil law jurisdictions worldwide.
Although there is no national museum to his name, plans were announced last year to build a theme park called Napoleonland near Paris, that would rival Disneyland. Some in France clearly believe the Emporer is still at large as seen last week when The Local reported how officials at the country's census office sent out a letter addressed to "Napoleon Bonaparte". See below.
French census bureaucrats send letter to Napoleon
Other notable French entrants in the pantheon of world’s most important people in history include King Louis XIV at 26 and the philosopher René Déscartes at 92.
Here are is the full top 50:
1. Jesus
2. Napoleon
3. Muhammad
4. William Shakespeare
5. Abraham Lincoln
6. George Washington
7. Adolf Hitler
8. Aristotle
9. Alexander the Great
10. Thomas Jefferson
11. Henry VIII of England
12. Charles Darwin
13. Elizabeth I of England
14. Karl Marx
15. Julius Caesar
16. Queen Victoria
17. Martin Luther
18. Joseph Stalin
19. Albert Einstein
20. Christopher Columbus
21. Isaac Newton
22. Charlemagne
23. Theodore Roosevelt
24. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
25. Plato
26. Louis XIV of France
27. Ludwig van Beethoven
28. Ulysses S. Grant
29. Leonardo da Vinci
30. Augustus
31. Carl Linnaeus
32. Ronald Reagan
33. Charles Dickens
34. Paul the Apostle
35. Benjamin Franklin
36. George W. Bush
37. Winston Churchill
38. Genghis Khan
39. Charles I of England
40. Thomas Edison
41. James I of England
42. Friedrich Nietzsche
43. Franklin D. Roosevelt
44. Sigmund Freud
45. Alexander Hamilton
46. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
47. Woodrow Wilson
48. Johann Sebastian Bach
49. Galileo Galilei
50. Oliver Cromwell
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