The first annual special issue of TIME magazine's 100 most influential people (or pairs), was on newsstands on 2004-04-20 . 20 people or pairs were listed in five categories. See also TIME Magazine's Person of the Year and Most important people of the 20th century.

Leaders and revolutionaries

• George W. Bush — president of the USA
• Abu al-Zarqawi — Islamic terrorist.
• Condoleezza Rice — U.S. national security adviser.
• Wu Yi — Chinese vice premier and health minister.
• Vladimir Putin — leader of The Russian Federation.
• Kim Jong-il — leader of North Korea.
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan — prime minister of Turkey.
• Atal Behari Vajpayee — former prime minister of India.
• Kofi Annan — secretary-general of the United Nations.
• Bill Gates — co-founder of Microsoft.
• Luisa Diogo — prime minister of Mozambique.
• John Kerry — USA senator and Democratic party presidential candidate.
• Toshihiko Fukui — governor of the bank of Japan.
• John Abizaid — general of the USA army and Commander-in-Chief of CENTCOM.
• Ali Husaini Sistani — Iraqi Muslim leader.
• Osama bin Laden — Saudi terrorist.
• Bill Clinton & Hillary Clinton — former president of the USA & senator.
• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva — president of Brazil.
• Hu Jintao — president of the People's Republic of China.
• John Paul II — Pope.

Builders and titans

• Sergey Brin & Larry Page — co-founders of Google.
• Warren Buffett — CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.
• Michael Dell — CEO of Dell.
• Carly Fiorina — CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
• John Browne — chief executive of BP.
• Rupert Murdoch — media mogul.
• Lee Scott — CEO of Wal-Mart.
• Lindsay Owen-Jones — chairman and CEO of L'Oréal.
• Meg Whitman — CEO of eBay.
• Steve Jobs — CEO of Apple Computer.
• Howard Schultz — Starbucks.
• The Al Jazeera team — satellite television channel.
• Azim Premji — chairman of Wipro.
• David Neeleman — CEO of JetBlue Airways.
• Hiroshi Okuda & Fujio Cho — chairman/president of Toyota
• Daniel Vasella — chairman CEO of Novartis.
• Belinda Stronach — CEO of Magna International and politician.
• Bernard Arnault — LVMH.
• Abigail Johnson — president of Fidelity Investments.
• Sepp Blatter — president of FIFA.

Artists and entertainers

• Nicole Kidman — actor.
• Charlie Kaufman — screenwriter.
• Frank Gehry — architect.
• Hideo Nakata — film director.
• Norah Jones — singer.
• Simon Cowell — American Idol judge.
• Sean Penn — actor.
• John Galliano — chief fashion designer at Christian Dior.
• Jerry Bruckheimer — producer.
• Ferran Adria — chef.
• Nicholas Hytner — stage director.
• J. K. Rowling — author.
• Guy Laliberté — creator of Cirque du Soleil.
• Ken Kutaragi — president and CEO of Sony Computers.
• Aishwarya Rai — actress and model.
• Andre Benjamin & Antwan Patton — members of the Hip hop group OutKast.
• Mark Burnett — executive producer of NBC.
• Katie Couric — co-anchor of The Today Show.
• Bruce Nauman — artist.
• Peter Jackson — film director.

Scientists and thinkers

• Julie Gerberding — physician.
• Eric Lander — scientist.
• Bernard Lewis — historian and author.
• Sandra Day O'Connor — justice of the USA Supreme Court.
• Joschka Fischer — foreign minister of Germany.
• Jong-Wook Lee — physician.
• Paul Ridker — scientist and researcher.
• Bjørn Lomborg — author.
• Samantha Power — author of A Problem from Hell .
• Woo Suk Hwang & Shin Yong Moon — cloners.
• Jürgen Habermas — philosopher.
• Edward Witten — physicist.
• Hernando de Soto — economist.
• Niall Ferguson — historian.
• Linus Torvalds — creator of the Linux kernel.
• Steven Pinker — experimental psychologist .
• Louise Arbour — UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
• Tariq Ramadan — philosopher and Islamic theoretician.
• Jeffrey Sachs — director of The Earth Institute .
• Jill Tarter — director of the center for research, SETI.

Heroes and icons

• Shirin Ebadi — human rights activist.
• Lance Armstrong — champion cyclist.
• Mel Gibson — film director.
• Evan Wolfson — campaigner for same-sex marriage.
• Bernard Kouchner — humanitarian.
• Arthur Agatston — nutrionist .
• Tenzin Gyatso — Dalai Lama.
• Paula Radcliffe — athlete.
• Arnold Schwarzenegger — actor and politician.
• Oprah Winfrey — television show presenter.
• Tiger Woods — golfer.
• Bono — rock star; peace and AIDS activist.
• David Beckham — football player.
• B.K.S. Iyengar — Yoga instructor.
• Rania — queen of Jordan.
• John Bogle — founder of the Vanguard mutual fund complex and creator of the first index fund.
• Bill Belichick — coach of the New England Patriots.
• Yao Ming — basketball player.
• Nelson Mandela — former president of South Africa.
• Aung San Suu Kyi — Burmese pro-democracy activist.

See also

• Time Magazine
• Person of the Year
• List of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century
• List of TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2005