US / Martin Luther King Jr. Here Are the 10 Most Popular Americans Johnny Depp manages to make the list By Evann Gastaldo, Newser Staff Posted Mar 30, 2014 7:47 AM CDT Copied Elvis Presley is shown performing in Providence, RI, on May 23, 1977, three months before his death. (AP Photo) MIT researchers recently released Pantheon, which analyzes data (including Wikipedia page views, among other things) in order to determine the "global popularity of historical characters." From that, the San Francisco Chronicle compiled the study's top 25 Americans. Here are the top 10, though Pantheon warns that data can be constantly revised and updated—and that "small differences in ranking are not statistically meaningful." Martin Luther King Jr. Elvis Presley Walt Disney Benjamin Franklin Edgar Allan Poe Bill Gates George Washington Thomas Edison Johnny Depp Abraham Lincoln Click for the top 25 from the Chronicle, or check out Pantheon here. (More Martin Luther King Jr. stories.) Report an error