Great Britons

[edesignuk]

Just something that I thought some of you guys around the world may find interesting.

A while back the BBC started a national survey to find out who the people of Great Britian viewed as the Greatest Briton who ever lived.
After months of voting, the list got down to a top 100, then finally a top 10. For each of these top 10 people there was a 1hr long documentry about their life, what they contributed, and why they should be the greatest.
This is the final outcome of who the British public voted as their top 10:
[list=1]
Churchill
Brunel
Diana
Darwin
Shakespeare
Newton
Elizabeth I
Lennon
Nelson
Cromwell
[/list=1]
BBC Webpage. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/final_topten.shtml)

[Mr. Anderson]

I recognize all but Brunel, and he's at #2 - what did he do for the Brits?

[edesignuk]

Originally posted by dukestreet
I recognize all but Brunel, and he's at #2 - what did he do for the Brits?
If you follow this link (http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/programmes/greatbritons/index_final.shtml) then you can click on the pictures of the people on the right hand side and it will tell you all about them :)

[Wes]

I watched the show, he built Bridges, the biggest boats of that time. They were massive. Many of his buildings and bridges are still standing and carry much traffic. The reason he came so high was because, during the series the man who argued his side was very persuasive. He was first until the last program in the series showed Churchil teaching those Nazis a lesson.

I hate the idea of Diana being the greatest Briton in history. Alright she got a few landmines removed and was killed in a car accident. Pity isn't greatness...
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/b.gardner/brunel/albbridg.jpg

Hey Edesign, by my time it's 2:30 last time you posted get back to work! Or do you skip work on Fridays? My excuse for not being at schools is I finished my exams and got to leave early... What's yours?

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by W-_-W
I watched the show, he built Brigdes, the biggest boats of that time. They were massive. Many of his buildings and bridges are still standing and carry much traffic.

Hah! Now I remember him, there was a show on the History Channel about him I saw a couple years ago. Very cool stuff.

D

[edesignuk]

Originally posted by W-_-W
I hate the idea of Diana being the greatest Briton in history. Alright she got a few landmines removed and was killed in a car accident. Pity isn't greatness...

Couldn't agree more! I think it's insane that both Diana and Lennon are in this top 10 at all. In our hundreds of years of history there are many far more deserving than these.
Originally posted by W-_-W
Hey Edesign, by my time it's 2:30 last time you posted get back to work! Or do you skip work on Fridays? My excuse for not being at schools is I finished my exams and got to leave early... What's yours?
lol! I'm currently doing nights rolling out XP migrations for and XP pilot, I'm going in @ 6pm-3am :eek: :( ...at least there are no users around to bother me with stupid questions ;)

[iGav]

Diana being in the top 100 is a totally unfunny farce!! As is John Lennon and dare I say Churchhill, who lets face facts is only there because he happened to be in power at the time of WW2, but in reality, he had quite a dark past, and was less than a stunning PM!!

Isambard Kingdom Brunel is a total genius, who advanced life on earth by at least 100 years...... Newton...... again a pure genius as is Darwin.....

But Diana..... bleeding hell :rolleyes:

[Dunepilot]

I agree wholeheartedly with the Diana thing, but you can imagine if they hadn't included her, you would have had all the bleeding-heart idiots who converged on London after she died up in arms:rolleyes:

Also, the Churchill thing is very true. He has a very bad reputation in certain parts of this country (notably Tyneside) yet history has been very kind to him.

I'm most upset about Cromwell - the Drogheda massacre etcetera should predicate against his inclusion in this list of great Britons. He laid waste to large parts of the British country, then went on to effectively crown himself. Not impressive.

[jefhatfield]

i agree with lennon being in the top 10...but i would have just said the beatles

while many in the usa and around the world believe elvis was and is rock and roll...even by john lennon's own admission, the beatles had all the great music (just like elvis) and happened to also be major spokespeople for their times in the culture of the hippies and the vietnam war protests

an entire generation of young people around the world were as much changed by the beatles social statement to society as were by the ground breaking music

on the link that is provided by this thread, it is interesting that elvis told president nixon what a threat the beatles were to america...hey, it was the british invasion

and somehow, all these years, i thought the usa won the revolutionary war

ironically, if i had a top ten list of great americans, i would have elvis and nixon

as well as george washington, abraham lincoln, franklin delano roosevelt, rev. martin luther king, frank sinatra, susan b anthony, frank lloyd wright, and yes, bill gates

while i may not like all of these people or belong to their political party, this would be my top ten of "most influential" americans

others that get honrable mention would be babe ruth, john f kennedy, harry s truman, benjamin franklin, thomas jefferson, thomas edison, henry ford, former speaker of the house tip o'neil, and many, many others