BBC List of ~  50 Greatest Political Leaders History of Britain

"Courage is like love; it must have hope for nourishment." ~ Napoléon Bonaparte

These are the leaders selected by the editors of the National Geographic Society's Almanac of World History as the "top fifty political leaders of all time":

Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.)
Atilla the Hun (ca 406-453)
Benazir Bhutto (1953-)
Bilqis, The Queen of Sheba (10th Century B.C.)
Simon Bolivar (1783-1830)
Napoléon Bonaparte (1769-1821)
Kim Campbell (1947-)
Catherine de Medici (1519-1589)
Catherine the Great (1729-1796)
Charlemagne (742-814)
Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975)
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
Cleopatra (69-30 B.C.)

Charles De Gaulle (1890-1970)
Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
Fu Hsi (2900 B.C.)
Indira Gandhi (1917-1984)
Genghis Khan (ca 1162-1227)
Hannibal (247-183 B.C.)
Emperor Hirohito (1926-1989)
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Isabella of Castile (1451-1504)
Empress Jingo (ca 169-269)
Julius Caesar (100-44 B.C.)
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963)

William Lyon Mackenzie King (1874-1950)
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870-1924)
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
Sir John A. Macdonald (1815-1891)
Nelson Mandela (1918-)
Moctezuma I (reigned 1440-1469)
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945)
Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964)
Nero (A.D. 37-68)
Pericles (ca 495-429 B.C.)
Eva Peron (1919-1952)
Chief Pontiac (ca 1720-1769)
Ramses II (reigned 1304-1237 B.C.)

Romulus (753 B.C.)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945)
Shanakdakhete (reigned 177-155 B.C.)
Joseph Stalin (1879-1953)
Raden Suharto (1921-)
Suleyman the Magnificent (1494-1566)
Margaret Thatcher (1925-)
Getulio Vargas (1883-1954)
Queen Victoria (1819-1901)
George Washington (1732-1799)
William the Conquerer (ca 1028-1087)
Mao Zedong (1893-1976)