Use the following links to choose your most influential American . . .

100 Most Influential Americans

- according to the Atlantic Monthly which asked ten eminent historians to choose and support their nominations.

Greatest Americans

- according to Discovery.com

Hall of Fame for Great Americans

- The original "Hall of Fame" found on the grounds of the Bronx Community College of the City University of New York.  To be eligible, a person needs to be native-born or naturalized (since 1914) citizen of the United States, must have been dead for 25 years (since 1922; from 1900 through 1920, a nominee had to be dead only 10 years) and must have made a major contribution to the economic, political, or cultural life of the nation.

If you would like more ideas, one place to look is The Atlantic Monthly reader responses to their 100 Most Influential Americans.

The power to affect, control or manipulate something or someone ; the ability to change the development of fluctuating things such as conduct, thoughts or decisions.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/influence

A person’s impact, for good or ill, both on his or her own era and on the way we live now 

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200612/influentials-main

www.wordle.net

The size of the name in the Wordle was determined by the number of lists in the left hand column in which the person appeared not including the reader response names.  Names on the most inluential page appeared on all three lists. Names on the more influential list appeared on two and influential names appeared on only one of the three lists.