Most pivotal citizens in US history.

Lincoln. And that was even before Matthew McConaughey

 

Well, the point of this thread was mainly to highlight the impact "average citizens" who may not have wanted to be thrust into the history books and may not have imagined the impact their action had. As opposed to a non-politician who made a big impact over the course of their career and work (like King or the inventors). I KNOW Ellsberg expected to make a splash (leaking classified docs to the NYT tends to do that) plus he told me when I interviewed him (yeah, I'm mentioning it again. ) but I don't know if the others I named did. They may just have sought to right a specific injustice.

 

Frank Wills, the Watergate security guard who discovered the break-in. The details may have come out eventually, but he got the ball rolling.

 

In that case, Linda Tripp.

 

JDV.

 

In terms of ordinary citizens, Mamie Till. By convincing Jet to show that picture, she moved civil rights forward by 10 years.

 

Thomas Paine
whale of a writer too

 

Willis Carrier

 

James Watson (the rest were foreigners):
Double helix DNA structure.

Your life might be prolonged by some of the treatments and genetic engineering that have come from those discoveries.

 

Repped for real talk.

 

Brad Renfro.

I loved him in The Client.