25 Greatest Americans

If he was clever he would have someone else fly the kite. :lol:

 

No contest like this really makes logical sense. With over 2 centuries of history, hundreds of millions of people, ideas , inventions, etc one cannot choose one greatest or even ten or a hundred.

I would make a distinction between those of accomplishment and those that the American people think stand as symbols or icons of America.

A few examples:

For accomplishments:

Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
George Washington
Thomas Edison
Henry Ford
Ronald Reagan
The Wright Brothers
Frank Lloyd Wright

examples..not exhaustive list.

Symbols or icons:

John Wayne
Clint Eastwood
Bob Hope (born in England..immigrated as a baby)
Ali
Elvis
Martin Luther King
Charles Lindbergh


and so on.

 

I'm going to become an honoury "Canadian" by saying............................

a) Have there been 25 great Americans?

b) As America is a continent (sub divided into North, South & Central) Americans can come from any country from within the continent, even the U.S. A.




Yes, c_m George Washington was English. He was born & raised in a little village 10Km from where I live.

My vote probably goes to Abe Lincoln. But I've given it precious little thought.

 

david wrote:

It's a shame that you use this thread as an excuse to cast slurs and unwarranted aspersions. In the earlier thread about the Greatest Britains I don't recall the same kind of tactic being used. I will not use the same tactic by attempting to compare Britain unfavorably with America.
What's worse is you make false assertions which one would hope are only the result of ignorance and not malice. George Washington was of course born in the US as all US Presidents must be. He was born in Westmoreland County Virginia in 1732.

Please spare us your geography lecture as well. We are well aware that the US is a country within a continent that shares the same name. America has become shorthand for The United States of America as you well know.

When I get angry and try to impute ill manners to a person because of his nationality I then remember that people that I respect like Ricky is a Brit and Roel is Dutch and Castelot is French and despite my frustration with some of their countrymen, it is no reflection upon them or upon their country but only the individuals involved.

At least one of your comments is self evident:

 

Well, Canada is the the "unoffical" 51st state and most of our factories are now in Mexico. Heck, may as well be one big America. Besides, Canadians are Americans who lost the Revolution.

Oh, FDR was fairly great. At least Churchill thought so.

Just teasing.

 

Y>>es, c_m George Washington was English. He was born & raised in a


little village 10Km from where I live.



ABSOLUTELY WRONG...


His ancestral home was near Chacombe Northhamps, 5 miles north of Banbury

Sulgrave Manor

http://www.gardens-guide.com/fr_blank.h ... /_0190.htm



Born in Virginia

Located in the Northern Neck of Virginia, 38 miles east of Fredericksburg on Virginia Route 3, George Washington Birthplace National Monument preserves the heart of Augustine Washington’s plantation, the 17th century homesite of the immigrant John Washington, and the Washington Family Burial Ground.

http://www.nps.gov/gewa/

 

ENGLISH geography lessons FREE :bang:

Dorset is a long, long , long drive away..

Northhamps vs South coast..

 

I would like to apologise for the post quoted above.
UNRESERVEDLY.
I had no wish to cause upset or offence.
I would like especially to apologise to Grieg.

I should have used smilies to indicate the humourous intentions of my "Honoury Canadian" statements. They were tongue in cheek, but I withdraw them. As I would never intentionally write something inflamatory.

I understood that the Dorset village of Steeple was the home & birthplace of George Washington. It appears that I was wrong. (mental note to make more research before "mouthing off". Apologies to Grieg & Stonewall.

I still rate Abe Lincoln though.

Apologies to ALL.

Yours most humbly Dave.

(Now where's that stone I hide under?)

 

Henry Ford is a good choice.

You can argue that the Wright Brothers were just lucky to be the first to fly, as everybody was trying, but Ford and his assembly techniques...
Yes, he stole them from Colt, but he refined, added, etc.

One of the positive points from the 100 Greatest Britons (which did include Welsh & Scots, but no Bretons... ) was the inclusion of Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

 

David,
I like it over your way on the south coast. Bath, Stonehenge, Salisbury.

I lived in Chacombe while my dad was at RAF Upper Heyford,. Now I live right near Washingtons Mt Vernon. Sulgrave was at the end of my street.

I could not help, but come back with a snappy comment.


Ricky, can you check your "100 Greatest Britons book", for a John Dunn (e) , my friend here can't find his. The was an aviation enginner. He worked on Spitfire wings.


Its seems Grampa was in it, but I am thinking I was just dreaming. It was a long while ago. I might go looking for it a litle harder.

 

John Dunne was also a poet - are you sure it is the aircraft John Dunne who was in it?

 

No worries david..you're follow up post answered my earlier question as to whether there was malice intended by your comments. I accept that there was not.

Ricky wrote:

Seriously Ricky there was no luck involved. Read about the Wright brothers and you will be surprised at the magnitude of their accomplishments in the field of aeronautics, especially in their pioneering work on propeller design and of course flight controls which some would argue was their most significant contribution to controllable, powered flight.

 

Maybe 'luck' was the wrong word, but you have to admit that controlled flight was around the corner, with all the attempts being made at the time.
Heck, many people still believe that Frederick J. Stringfellow would have done it in the 1860s had he not unfortunately got ill, then died.

(info on Stringfellow http://www.flyingmachines.org/strng.html )

 

Ricky wrote:

The key word there is "controlled". I don't know of any others that were near to achieving that goal.

 

comments on the list

Ali- not worthy, just a boxer that used islam to dodge the draft

N. Armstrong- no, he was lucky enought to get the big mission but his place could have been filled by a number of others

L. Armstrong- no with the exception that if there was an opening left over he could fill it.

G Bush- no, good president but unless something big happens not top 25

B Clinton- not only no but hell no. lousy president, serial sex abuser, possible rapist, acted against his countries interests more than once.

Disney- love his stuff but no

Edison- OK, he did change the world

Einstine- one of the smartest men ever but does he count as an amercian?

Ford- OK along with colt and whitney for modern mass production

Ben Franklin- hell yes, maybe the most important of the founding fathers

Gates- no, by all acounts he's a SOB and what has he done other than make bad software

Graham- no, tent preacher made good but otherwise unimportant

Bob Hope- OK, nice guy that did a lot for the USA

Jefferson- OK, not my favorite founding father but still important

JFK- no, his claim to fame is camalot and oswald. otherwise unimpressive.

King- if i say no someone will call me a racist but was very two faced about a lot of things. not one of my favorites.

Abe Lincoln- #1 on my list with only washington or franklin as compition. he saved the country and laid the groundwork for its greatness

Parks- no, she may have lit a fuse but others did the hard work

Elvis- tis to laugh, no way, no how.

R. Reagan- maybe some day but history is not done looking at him yet but if you insist i'll go along with it

E. Roosevelt- hillery's guide but not much more, no

F. Roosevelt- NO, the father of modern liberalism and the government handout. he may have won WWII but in the long run he did more damage that the nazis

G. Washington- for sure and maybe at the top

Oprah- nope, nice lady that makes everybody feel good but not top 25 or even 100

Wright Brothers- sure simply because they did do it first but as noter before there were others right behind them. curtis for one


OTHER NAMES TO CONSIDER

T. Roosevelt- one of our best prezs and a peace prize winner and a father of the modern navy

U.S. Grant- perhaps our best general ever and the man who shaped our modern outlook on an army's place in the country

R.E. Lee- lost the war but was very important rebuilding the country.

Rosie the rivitter- outbuilt everybody else and supplied the weapons to win WWII

Lewis & Clark- showed the way west

Marshall- rebuilt europe after the war

Fulton- father of modern transportion

Salk & Sabine- cured Polio and opened the way to cures of other viruses

Curtis- father of naval avation

Le May- was well on the way to bombing japan back to the stone age when the BOMB was dropped and the founder of SAC

Bull Halsey- maybe not the best but was the ideal of a fighting leader

 

lyn1212,
I can't say I disagree with you much however some of the distinction you have made are the very reason that I divided into groups of icons/symbols and those of accomplishments. There is no doubt that people like Martin Luther King and Elvis became icons despite there lack of actual accomplisments.

 

MLK

King did do a lot of good and i understand why a lot of people list him as so important. he was the face of civil rights for years and he did a good job of articulating the message. my problem with him is that he gets credit for the work of everyone else and IMHO he gets special treatment because he was 1 black and 2 murdered. for some reason he and the kennedy brothers are revered by some simply because they got shot.

i agree with those that think these most important lists and bullsh*t because for the most part those voting have no idea at all of history and only name stars of the moment since they don't reconize any other names. in most lists the winners are sports stars, hollywood types, past presidents, and the few historical names the dummies know.

 

I agree 100%.

 

In 1183, almost 800 years ago in the village of Wessyngton, England, the Washington family took its name. In 1789 General George Washington a descendant of that family and leader of the Revolution, became the first President of a new nation - the United States of America.

The capital of the new nation was named Washington in his honour. The Wessyngton, which had various spellings until it evolved into Washington, comes from the Anglo Saxon - 'Hwaes' a Saxon Chief, 'Inga' meaning family of, and 'Tun' an estate - the estate of Hwae's (Wassa's) family.


From http://www.washington.co.uk/history.htm

Goerge was born in what is now know as the USA. he was decended from a family with origins in the North East of England called Washington.

 

I knew there was a connection.

But it was not as I originally posted.

"From Dorset on the Web"

Apologies to all.