this page last updated 7 december, 2011.
98.sun records:
record
company in
99.stax records: record company in
100. elvis presley: one of the first and most
influential rock and roll musicians. he was able to combine
traditional white and black folk, gospel, blues, and other music
to shape rock and roll.
101. estes kefauver: senator from
102. sam walton:
103. michael dell: founded dell computers,
which began selling computers directly to customers rather than
through stores, allowing customers to save money and have more
choice in what kind of computer they would have. it played a large role
in making the personal computer widespread.
104. ray kroc:
turned
mcdonald's into a nation-wide fast-food chain through the
franchise system, in which local businessmen purchase the right
to use the company's name and methods (which include turning out
food by a standardised, assembly-line method) and agree to buy
their supplies from the national company, allowing the chain to
spread while ensuring that its products are uniform across the
country. today
mcdonald's is the world's largest chain of fast-food hamburger
restaurants.
105. lee iococca:
executive
at ford and later chrysler who revived chrysler's business in
the 1980s after the decline of the american automobile industry
in the 1970s. he
saved chrysler in large part by convincing congress in 1979 to
bail out the failing company to save american jobs. he also introduced
cheap, fuel-efficient compact cars during the recession of the
early 1980s and sold the first minivan, which became the
best-selling type of car throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
106. donald trump: real estate developer and
businessman who recovered from bankruptcy in the late 1980s and
1990s, partly through using his famous name in the entertainment
industry.
107. bill gates:
founder
of microsoft, which created ms-dos and later windows, two of the
most widely-used operating systems in personal computers. windows eventually
became so dominant that microsoft was tried on charges of
monopolising the computer industry by packaging other programmes
with windows. it
became dominant because it was so easy to use and because other
companies were allowed to write programs that would run on it,
in contrast to apple computers for much of their early history.
108. steve jobs:
co-founder
of apple computers, which released the macintosh in 1984, the
first computer to have a graphical user interface that the user
controlled with a mouse rather than by typing (soon copied by
microsoft windows). apple
had problems in the 1990s, but brought back steve jobs (who had
left the company), who designed more stylish computers and other
devices such as the imac (1998), ipod (2001), iphone (2007), and
ipad (2010).
109. jeff bezos:
founder
of amazon.com, one of the first and most successful on-line
businesses.
110. nafta:
the
north american free trade agreement, created by presidents
george h. w. bush and bill clinton. it went into force in
1994, removing most trade barriers between the