some of your favorite historical figures

In another thread someone mentioned some historical figures that he liked best. I thought this deserved a thread of its own. So i will mention a few that i like to hopefully get the ball rolling.

Alexander the Great

Napoleon Bonaparte

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Eugene McCarthy

John Kennedy

and of course Sir Richard Burton (the explorer not the actor, although he was a great actor)

Alexander the great should be the top pick, Alexander always won his battles. In 331 at th battle of Gaugamela, it's thought to be 1 million soldiers under Darius 3 against Alexander's 50,000 ---- a fantastic differential and Alexander won against those tremendous odds. George Washington could have its own thread, what he accomplish was incredible. Sir Richard Burton also is great pick, I read many of his translation and being liguist and many accomplishments. I like your list.

Sir Richard Francis Burton KCMG FRGS (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, geographer, translator, writer, soldier, orientalist, cartographer, ethnologist, spy, linguist, poet, fencer, and diplomat. He was known for his travels and explorations within Asia, Africa and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke 29 European, Asian and African languages.^[1]

Burton's best-known achievements include a well-documented journey to Mecca, in disguise at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile

I really like Napoleon.

This is a fun thread, I hope it catch on and becomes popular.  

 John Law is a genius and had far-sight; there are man in this world that can see things that other men seem oblivious to. John saw a posibility in the use of paper money and how it can help a country increase their weath and productivity, he said that coins had its limitation and there was not enough circulation; by using paper money this end the coin shortage and commerce could continue without interruption. 

Law was a gambler and a brilliant mental calculator. He was known to win card games by mentally calculating the odds. He originated economic ideas such as "The Scarcity Theory of Value" and the "real bills doctrine". Law’s views held that money creation will stimulate the economy, that paper money is preferable to metallic money, and that shares are a superior form of money since they pay dividends.^[2] 

 John Law should be included has one those heroes that change the world, his vision change how we view money; the gold standard has severe limitation and paper money solve this problem.