My first pick is the Inventor Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468).
I don't know a hell of a lot about the guy so I'll let the good folks at the Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia give the details.
Quote:
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Printer, regarded as the inventor of printing from movable type, born in Minz, Germany. Between 1430 and 1444 he was in Strasbourg, probably working as a goldsmith, and here he may have begun printing. In Mainz again by 1448 he entered into partnership with Johann Fust, who financed a printing press. This partnership ended in 1455, when Fust sued him for repayment of the loan, and forced him to give up his machinery, leaving him ruined. Aided by Konrad Humery, he was able to set up another press, but little is known of his work thereafter. His best known book is the 42-line Bible, often called Gutenberg's Bible (c. 1455).
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There are lots of nifty inventions out there but I don't think you can beat this one. If it came a hundred years later or a hundred years earlier, everything would be different.*
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Not a deep philosophical thought or historical "fact" that I can back up. It just kinda struck me that it could be true. If people (besides monks and other religious types) had been reading since 1330 instead of 1430, we might be a ways ahead of where we are now.