20 Influential Figures Who Have Been Erased from History

Before you stands the very first female author whose name has come down to us, who was also a high priestess in ancient Mesopotamia. She wielded immense religious and political power, but her name was largely erased by the passage of time over thousands of years. Archaeologists have finally rediscovered her sacred hymns, proving that a woman was the first to claim authorship of her work in writing.

The Queen of Kush did not take the Roman Empire’s attempt to invade her territory in ancient Nubia lightly. She personally led her armies into battle and secured a peace treaty from Caesar that was favorable to her people. Although she won the war, she is remembered far less than others who fell to Rome.

China’s only female emperor did not hesitate to exercise her power and significantly expanded the empire. She was slandered and denigrated by historians who, in the end, could not accept the idea of a woman in power. Despite these smear campaigns, her administrative reforms continued to bear fruit for generations.

You’re probably familiar with the March on Washington, but you may not know that this man was its chief architect. Because he was openly gay in the 1960s, he was often pushed into the background to avoid controversy within the civil rights movement. His genius for logistics and nonviolent strategy was essential to the movement’s greatest successes.

Most people know the story of Paul Revere, but this sixteen-year-old girl traveled twice as far to warn the colonial militia of the British arrival. She rode through the rain and in the dark across New York and Connecticut to rally the troops for battle. Her incredible courage has remained largely part of local lore, never becoming a national legend like that of her male counterpart.

The Mongol princess was a wrestling champion who demanded that her suitors either defeat her in combat or pay her a tribute. She eventually amassed thousands of horses from her defeated opponents and became a military advisor to her father. Her story is rarely mentioned alongside that of her powerful khan brothers.

He was a fencing champion, a virtuoso violinist, and a conductor at the helm of one of Europe’s finest orchestras. Although he was a superstar in pre-Revolutionary France, his music was censored under the Napoleonic Empire because of his African heritage. It is unfortunate that such a multi-talented genius was nearly erased from the pantheon of classical music.

Everyone knows the reference to selling clams in Seinfeld, but did you know it was inspired by a famous fossil hunter? Mary Anning discovered the first ichthyosaur as well as a nearly complete plesiosaur skeleton. But because she was poor, most scientists didn’t give her the credit she deserved.

Nine months before Rosa Parks became famous, this 15-year-old girl refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery. Civil rights leaders at the time felt that a pregnant teenager was not the ideal face for the movement, so they waited for another opportunity. In fact, it was her lawsuit that ultimately led to the segregation laws on buses being struck down in court.

Although he has only recently received well-deserved recognition, Musa was undoubtedly the richest man who ever lived. When he went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, his generosity accidentally caused the entire gold market in Egypt to crash. For centuries, Western scholars ignored his kingdom.

The world knew her as a glamorous Hollywood actress, but she was also a brilliant inventor who helped develop frequency-hopping technology. Her work during World War II laid the essential groundwork for the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth you use every day. It wasn’t until much later that she was publicly recognized for her technical genius.

The Roman emperor Septimius Severus was born in what is now Libya and rose through the ranks thanks to his military career. He succeeded in conquering the entire empire and founding a dynasty that reformed Rome’s judicial and military systems. The origins of this emperor, who was born in Egypt, are rarely mentioned.

At just twenty-four years old, this chemist developed the most effective treatment for leprosy in the early 20th century. After her unexpected death, a male colleague took her research and published it without giving her credit. It took years for the University of Hawaii to finally recognize her as the true inventor of the “Ball method.”

It seems incredible that an Englishman lived in Japan in the 17th century and became a high-ranking samurai. He served the shogun and contributed to the modernization of the Japanese navy, leading a life that many could only dream of. Adams’s legacy has only truly become known in the West with the recent publication of novels.

She was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, but she had to fight for basic recognition throughout her career. For years, she worked in university laboratories for a salary and status far below those of her husband. Her discoveries about how the body metabolizes sugar have been fundamental to our understanding of diabetes.

Smalls hijacked a Confederate ship whose crew consisted of former slaves and handed it over to the Union. Not only did he win his freedom, but he went on to pursue a political career and served five terms in Congress. For some reason, few people know this incredible story of hijacking and survival.

As a member of the “White Rose” resistance group, she opposed the Nazi regime by distributing anti-war leaflets in Germany. She showed incredible courage during her interrogation and refused to betray her friends, even in the face of certain death. Her story is a powerful reminder of individual courage, but it is often overshadowed in general accounts of World War II.

Even though you may have heard about Marco Polo in school, his journey was nothing compared to that of Ibn Battuta. Over the course of 30 years, Ibn Battuta traveled through the equivalent of 44 countries across Africa and Asia. He documented his adventures, from what is now Morocco all the way to China.

The discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA is generally attributed to Watson and Crick, but they could not have achieved it without his data. His “Photo 51” provided the decisive evidence that revealed the molecule’s shape, but it was not recognized with a Nobel Prize. His contributions were largely overlooked until well after his death.

Trota was an 11th-century Italian physician who specialized in women’s health. Many later accounts have attempted to discredit her by claiming that she was not the author of her manuscripts or that she was actually a man. She was several centuries ahead of her time and contributed to the early development of medicine.