I have to do a report on someone influential who was not a U.S. citizen..any suggestions?

I have to write a report for my Honors World History class about an influential person in history who was not a U.S. citizen. I have to read a biography (at least 200 pages) and write a 4-page essay about the person. It can be anyone from an actor to a president, as long as they did something interesting enough to write 4 pages about. They have to have been born sometime between 1745 and 1960. I don't want to do someone "cliche" (Hitler, Gandhi, etc.) that everyone else in my class will probably do. I'm just not really sure where to start looking to find someone that I want to read about so any suggestions you have would be great! I'm somewhat interested in doing Barack Obama Sr. but I'm not sure if he ever gained citizenship in the United States. I also can't find any books about him besides Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama Jr., so if anyone knows of another biography that would be great! I would also appreciate other suggestions of people to research. Thank you!!!

Public Comments

1. Arnold Schwarzenegger
2. de Toqueville. He was a French guy who did a lot of essays on America in the early 1800's. Why the thumb's down?
3. Yeah Hitler and Gandhi would be a bit boring, I'd go with Rommel personally. Shouldn't be to hard to find something on the Desert Fox.
4. Henry VIII Czars Churchill Some ruler of a country during a war? Just throwing things out there. I'm sure you'll get something awesome. Good luck.
5. Marquis de Lafayette 1757 - 1834 There are a lot of towns in the US named after him.
6. Since you're looking to not follow the Lemmings in your class...how about the opposite of what people expect? Maybe Fidel Castro? He may not be popular, but he was definitely influential in US Foreign policy from JFK to present. Good Luck!
7. There are a few really interesting people who your classmates have probably never heard of... The first is a Swedish diplomat from WWII who used Sweden's neutrality to save countless Jews. His name was Raoul Wallenberg and the sad tragedy is that at the end of WWII when the Soviets had liberated Hungary, where Wallenberg was working, Wallenberg "disappeared." It wasn't until the fall of Communism that word of his "disposition" showed that he probably got sent to the USSR and was left with a tortured life before finally dying in a mental hospital. To the Jews of Europe, though, he is one of the greatest heroes of WWII. He's one of the "Righteous Gentiles" who have been honored by Israel and Jews around the world. His fate is one of the great mysteries of the Soviet era. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/wallenberg.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg Next you'd have Mao Tse Tung, the Chairman of the People's Republic of China who led the Cultural Revolution. He was a major player in both the Korean and Vietnamese wars. He hated America and the USSR and was responsible for some of the great tragedies of Chinese history. Then there's George MacDonald, the Prime Minister of Canada in the 1800s who led the unification of Canada, building of the Canadian-Pacific Railroad, and slaughter of the Metis people. To that end, the leader of the Metis people, Louis Riel, was an exceptionally interesting character. He was arrested by Canada for treason even though he had become an American citizen and couldn't legally be charged with treason against a country he had left. But they did it anyway. 130 years later, the Canadian Parliament voted to reverse his treason conviction and declared him a hero of the mixed French-Canadian/Indian people called the Metis. As a World History subject, he is not at all obscure. He's actually considered the most influential person in Canadian History according to recent polls of Canadians. His murder was a tragedy and is largely responsible for the calls of the Quebecois to secede from the rest of Canada.
8. How about a scientist eg Alexander Fleming - penicillin, Crick DNA (with US citizen Watson), Darwin - evolution, Tim Berners Lee inventor of www. Alternatively Karl Marx or Lenin would get traditional History teachers going!