Martin Luther King Jr. would be high up there, along with Mary Read, William Barret Travis, and the Wright Brothers.
Well my favorite historical figure is Erwin Rommel.The guy was probably one of the few "good" Nazis during WWII.He made sure that Allied prisoners that he captured were given adequate rations.He even buried a British commando with full military honors after he failed to kill or capture Rommel.
Other than that,he was a great military commander.He wasn't called the Desert Fox for nothing.