Red Delicious
The Red Delicious is a clone of apple cultigen, now comprising more than 50 cultivars, first recognized in Madison County, Iowa, in 1880. According to the US Apple Association website, it is one of the fifteen most popular apple cultivars in the United States.
Niels Ebbesen Hansen
On an 1897 trip to Russia, he encountered the red-fleshed wild apple "Malus niedzwetskyana" and began two breeding programs based on this unusual fruit, one aimed at developing a cold-hardy cooking and eating apple, and the other aimed at developing ornamental crabapples. His efforts resulted in the Almata apple and the Hopa crabapple, among other varieties. When he discovered that the northwest apple breeder Albert Etter had beaten him to the punch in creating red-fleshed hybrids, he wrote to concede him priority with the words "Mr. Etter, you have defeated me in my destiny."