London, July 20 (ANI): Mother Teresa has topped the list of the world’’s 90 most inspirational icons in a poll commemorating Nelson Mandela’’s 90th birthday on July 18.
Telegraph readers have chosen Mother Teresa as their most loved Mandela-like figure over Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sir Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and even Jesus Christ.
The poll, conducted by Telegraph Travel and South African Airways, invited the readers to vote for the people - living or dead - who have best demonstrated Mandela’’s key characteristics: courage, dignity, humility, persistence, forgiveness and kindness.
Mother Teresa was a Roman Catholic nun, who was born in Albania, and worked for the welfare of people in India.
The poll listed may icons from the world of music, which include John Lennon, Bob Marley and Sir Elton John. There were many sports heroes in the list like Muhammad Ali, Sir Steve Redgrave, Jesse Owens, Ellen MacArthur and Tiger Woods.
The most popular figures in politics were Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Churchill, while in science the most highly placed were Sir Alexander Fleming, Albert Einstein and Marie Curie.
While Oprah Winfrey was in 31st position between the footballers Pele and Bobby Moore, there were many leading figures who narrowly missed out on the top 90, which included David Livingstone, Beethoven and Yehudi Menuhin.
Those who voted were invited to enter a prize draw to win one of 45 pairs of tickets for a return flight with South African Airways from London Heathrow to either Cape Town or Johannesburg.
The top 50 of the world’’s 90 most inspirational icons are :
1 Mother Teresa 2 Archbishop Desmond Tutu 3 Sir Winston Churchill 4 Mahatma Gandhi 5 Sir Alexander Fleming 6 Muhammad Ali 7 Martin Luther King 8 John Lennon 9 Albert Einstein 10 Marie Curie 11 Sir Steve Redgrave 12 Jesse Owens 13 Dr Christiaan Barnard 14 Oscar Schindler 15 Bob Marley 16 The 14th Dalai Lama 17 Antonio Gaudi 18 Tim Berners-Lee 19 Aung San Suu Kyi 20 Diana, Princess of Wales 21 Audrey Hepburn 22 Sir Elton John 23 Myriam Makeba 24 Ellen MacArthur 25 Tiger Woods 26 Steve Biko 27 F W de Klerk 28 Maya Angelou 29 Bill & Melinda Gates 30 Pele 31 Oprah Winfrey 32 Bobby Moore 33 Albert Schweitzer 34 Emmeline Pankhurst 35 Francois Pienaar 36 Mikhail Gorbachev 37 Rosa Parks 38 Francis Crick 39 Sir Donald Bradman 40 Dame Kelly Holmes 41 Jamie Oliver 42 Bernard Kouchner 43 Virginia McKenna 44 Anita Roddick 45 Sigmund Freud 46 James Watson 47 Al Gore 48 Margaret Thatcher 49 Max Planck 50 Bob Geldof 51 John F Kennedy 52 Peter Benenson 53 Florence Nightingale 54 William Wilberforce 55 Bob Dylan 56 Elvis Presley 57 Damien Hirst 58 Pope John Paul II 59 Stephen Hawking 60 Jackie Robinson 61 Roger Federer 62 Jesus Christ 63 Leonardo da Vinci 64 Pablo Picasso 65 Charles Darwin 66 Sir David Attenborough 67 Sir Ian Botham 68 Sir Paul McCartney 69 Barack Obama 70 Jane Tomlinson 71 David Beckham 72 Franklin D Roosevelt 73 Gary Player 74 Helen Suzman 75 Lance Armstrong 76 Paul Simon 77 Sir Bobby Charlton 78 Terry Waite 79 Billy Graham 80 Bono 81 George Best 82 Isambard Kingdom Brunel 83 Louis Pasteur 84 Morgan Tsvangirai 85 Queen Elizabeth II 86 Ruben Dario 87 Sir Frank Whittle 88 Daniel Barenboim 89 Ian Douglas Smith 90 John Sentamu(ANI)