The entire history of humanity is mostly the history of incredibly brave people. Starting from the very prehistoric human who first lit a fire, and ending, for example, with Neil Armstrong walking on the Moon. In fact, if people didn’t have such a mentality, we would still live in caves and dress in skins. Daredevils are the ones who actually move civilization forward.
Our selection today, made for you by Bored Panda, tells about such people from different countries and ages. It’s about historical figures who, despite all fears and obstacles, did something incredible. And even if it didn’t end well for them... at least we remember them.
More info: Reddit
#1
The people who volunteered to go into the reactor at Chernobyl to stem the damage as it went critical, knowing they would die. Their sacrifice prevented much worse damage and radiation.
Image credits: xenomorphs_at_disney
#2
Stanislav Petrov, manning a Soviet missile defense system during a very tense period of the Cold War, looked at an alert from the computer that claimed that the US had just launched nukes at the USSR, said "f**k it, this computer is wrong, I'll decide if we're being attacked, and I decide no", and didn't sound the alarm for a counter attack, against his standing orders. He was correct, and singlehandedly stopped the Cold War from becoming a nuclear war.
Image credits: samiratmidnight
#3
Dashrath Manjhi is a man who single handedly cut a mountain in half in order to make a passage between his tiny village and the city on the other side of the mountain. He did this because you would have to ethier climb or go around the mountain to get to the doctor. His wife was wounded and died while he was trying to fetch the doctor. He vowed to not rest until he could make a passage way for the doctor to easily reach the village. It took him 22 years but he turned a 55km journey into a 15km journey. He had help from time to time but many thought him insane but it worked! Unfortunately it was only after his death in 2007 that the government got it's a*s together and built more roads and made the pass safer. In 2016 he was honored with a set of stamps bearing his personage. He sacrificed so much too help the village he loved.
Image credits: MugglebornSlytherin2
There are several viral threads on the Internet, the authors of which ask questions like "What is the greatest '[forget] it, I'll do it myself' in history?" or even "What are some examples in history of the 'you only live once' type of mentality?"
Each of these threads has thousands of replies, with detailed discussions of each historical figure - from Napoleon Bonaparte to Douglas MacArthur, from Alexander the Great to Theodore Roosevelt.
#4
Ancient seafaring people, for sure. Sailing off into the unknown just hoping to find something.
Image credits: anon
#5
Juan Pujol García was a Spaniard who created his own counter-intelligence operation for the Allies during WW2. Initially he approached British and American intelligence offering them his services, but both countries rebuffed him. Undeterred Garcia created a fictional persona as a pro-f*****t Spanish official and got himself recruited by the N***s who directed him to travel to Britain to recruit agents. Instead Garcia created a network of fictitious agents and sub-agents using publicly available information like newspapers and travel brochures. It was at this point that he again contacted Allied intelligence, and was finally recruited. Garcia continued his work throughout the war, and received both a knighthood from the British and the Iron Cross for the same operation. The N***s never realized that he was a double agent.
Image credits: indecisiveshrub
#6
The Hunter Tower Bridge Incident, not as spectacular as others here but fits the whole "f**k it" theme.
RAF pilot Alan Pollock was rather annoyed that the government was doing nothing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the RAF, so he took things into his own hands. Immediately after takeoff on a routine transit flight he peeled off course in his Hawker Hunter fighter jet. He preceded to fly a low pass over the airfield, then using a borrowed AA map he found his way to London where he circled the houses of parliament a few times, dipped his wings over the RAF memorial and began flying down the river Thames at low level. Tower Bridge came up so he decided to fly through the gap between the road and top of the bridge (apparently causing a cyclist to fall off his bike in shock at the sudden noise and the fighter jet passing over his head.
Realising that he was going to be in a world of trouble when he landed he decided he may well buzz a few more RAF based on his way to his destination. Upon landing he was promptly arrested.
He received a lot of support with hundreds of letters of support, and a barrel of beer being sent by his RAF colleagues and members of the public. He even had an all-party motion of support, tabled in the House of Commons. In the end the RAF chose to quietly discharge him on medical grounds than take him to court and give him a chance to explain himself.
And that's the story of the only person to fly a jet aircraft through tower bridge.
Image credits: AT2512
In fact, the meaning and character of each person is revealed precisely in difficult moments of life - when everything, literally everything in this world, indicates that you will not succeed, when life literally tells you "No way" and you need to find the strength and inner resources to go against fate. To go, when the chances of winning are minuscule. To go in spite of literally everything.
Just like Napoleon Bonaparte, perfectly aware that the chances of victory, when he returned from exile on the island of Elba to France, were incredibly small. And although he ultimately lost, when the armies of all of Europe stood against him, these Hundred Days, when the French joyfully greeted the return of their beloved emperor, became a beautiful conclusion to his legend.
#7
Thor Heyerdahl, a Norwegian adventurer, and ethnographer went on the Kon Tiki expedition in 1947 to prove the Norweigan embassy that it was possible the Polynesian islands were populated from ancient civilizations from South America. So he and his three friends constructed a simple raft of wooden logs and sailed from South America to the Pacific Islands only using the currents in the Pacific. Oh, and they documented the whole expedition and later won an Oscar.
Image credits: kalimass
#8
"Napolean's Hundred Days" for sure. Already in exhile in Elba, he catches news they are gonna send him to an island in the middle of the Atlantic, so he figures "f**k it" and sneaks on a ship to France.
Upon landing in France, the 5th Regiment is sent to intercept him. They were mostly hos former soldiers. He dismounts his horse, walks within firing distance of them, cause f**k it, and announces "Here I am! K**l your emperor, if you wish" They all join him and march on Paris.
Louis the XVIII dips to Belgium and Napolean reclaims his former spot as emperor. With an amassed army over 200 000, he tries to drive a wedge between the coalition forces of Britain and Prussia, cause f**k it why not? Well, Waterloo is why. They lose the battle and he is exiled to St. Helena, but f**k, what a few months that was.
Image credits: Can-eh-dian_B-eh-con
#9
Inés Ramírez Pérez who performed a C-section on herself with both her and her baby living to talk about it.
Image credits: Kalarys
By and large, any of the great travelers of the past, any of the explorers, put everything they had on the line to achieve some great dream. At the same time, by the way, always trying to stay true role models of nobility and generosity.
As it was, for example, with Robert Scott, who, having lost his desperate race to the South Pole, found the courage to admit his own defeat - and until his last days remained a model of nobility (the diaries of the expedition members, found at the site of their last stop, eloquently testify to this).
#10
Sir Nicolas Winton, who was a British man during the 1900s who help saved around 669 children if mostly Jewish origin get from Czechoslovakia to Britian before the start of WW2. He was just a broker who kept up on the news from Czechoslovakiai think, but from what I remember he went all the way to Prague,and tried to figure out what he could do. I watched an interview, and it was a lot of forging of documents and blackmail that he did I think to get the children into Britian. He didnt say anything about it for the next 50 years, he served in the army as well during ww2.
This is a "F**k it, if no one is going to help these kids, then I will" in my opinion.
Sadly i think there was another train full of 200 more kids, but it didnt get to depart because the war started that day. Most to all the kids who he saved, their parents died in camps like Auschwitz, and that probably included those 200 kids that never got on the train. He found the kids he did save, people willing to adopt them. This was known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for "children's transport" and he was knighted as well by the Queen, thus is why he is Sir Nicolas Winton. Theres a movie called Nicky's Family about it, as well as a 60 Minutes on him.
He died in 2015 at the age of 106, but not without meeting a lot of the children, who are now adults. There was one sad part I saw in an interview with one of the children, is that his parents had told him that he was going to go to a trip to the UK alone, and then they would join him a few months later. He never realized this was the last time he'd see his parents, and he was asked what his parents looked like, where they scared, panicked, sad? I think he said he asked this question to himself many times and I think he ultimately said they were calm, I think.
But this in my opinion is one of the big, f**k it I'll do it myself.
#11
Barry Marshall in order to show that h. pylori plays a major role in the cause of peptic ulcers he drank a broth of it and studied the disease’s progress.
Image credits: Benkei929045
#12
In the Indian mathematician Ramanujans early life, he posted a question on how to solve a specific infinite equation in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society, after not getting a reply for 6 months he just solved it himself.
Image credits: Nemen_oj
In today's world, traveled and studied far and wide, there is often no place for unrestrained and sometimes crazy courage. We've become too rational; we try to pay attention to the amount of money or public attention that we'll receive for this or that action.
How many likes did the participants of the Apollo expedition receive? None at all. They just believed in what they were doing - and that's the most important thing.
We often say that things were better before. Or not better, but sometimes easier. You know what - in many ways, these statements are true. After all, we only live once. And it's not just how we live this life that matters, but also what kind of memory we leave behind.
Well, most of the heroes of this selection left behind some incredibly interesting memories. Not always good - that's true - but at least they tried.
#13
Apollo 8. Easily the most important of the Apollo missions.
First time we put actual humans on the monster Saturn V rocket. First time we sent 3 humans from the safety of our orbit, to the moon, and orbited it 10 times.
A marvel of scientific achievement. It's far more deserving of a movie than 11 or 13.
Image credits: GreatOrganization
#14
The one time Alexander the Great built a kilometer long bridge to take over an island.
Image credits: anon
#15
- When the Scottish invaded England and got as far as Derby.
- When somebody brewed an IPA and thought "F**k it" and just doubled down on all of the ingredients to make a DIPA.
- Caesar, sitting on his horse looking at a river and saying "F**k it" and just crossing with his entire army, de facto declaring war on the Senate.
- King Leonidas, his kingdom facing invasion and subjugation by rival city states and the Persian king, took 300 of his best men and blocked the road. "F**k it" lets just see how many we can k**l before we get smooshed.
- Napoleon, having conquered most of Europe and the Mediterannean, looks at Russia and sees an easy victory. "F**k it", let's march to Russia in the autumn and try and win before winter.
Image credits: airwalkerdnbmusic
Well, we sincerely hope that you will find this selection of stories and opinions about outstanding people of the past really interesting. Even if these people were far from always being good, at least they had courage and resourcefulness. So please feel free to read this list to the very end, and maybe add your own ideas on such people and their bright deeds in the comments below.
#16
Pretty much anything Teddy Roosevelt did.
Image credits: anon
#17
"For Christ's sake, men, come on! Do you want to live forever?" Dan Daly epically leading a charge in WW1.
Image credits: wuop
#18
By the time of the Spanish 1st Republic (~1870) a small region known as Murcia, claimed their independency from Spain and almost initiated a war against the Germany of Otto Von Bismark.
Image credits: umbium
#19
In 1961, Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov performed an appendectomy on himself.
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32481442.
Image credits: TheRealHiFiLoClass
#20
This guy who committed s*****e by ingesting cyanide and quickly writing down how it tastes before dying
"Doctors, potassium cyanide. I have tasted it. It burns the tongue and tastes acrid,"
[https://www.smh.com.au/world/s*****e-note-reveals-taste-of-cyanide-20060709-gdnx7f.html](https://www.smh.com.au/world/s*****e-note-reveals-taste-of-cyanide-20060709-gdnx7f.html).
#21
There was a british soldier that fought with a sword and bow...in WW2, he captured dozens of Germans by himself in a single night, in multiple positions.
#22
The Doolittle Raid.
"Hey lets put a bunch of twin engine [planes] on a carrier and attack Tokyo!".
Image credits: CupofLiberTea
#23
Genghis Khan. Went from a scraping for food on the Mongolian steppes to becoming a Mongol chief, to uniting all the Mongol clans, to conquering the biggest empire ever.
Oh, and fathering more children than anyone. Something like 1 in every 200 men are direct line descendants.
#24
Let's go to the South Pole.
Naw, let's race to the South Pole!
Image credits: tarxam
#25
Grant at the Vicksburg Campaign.
Vicksburg was the main obstacle to the Union in using the Mississippi river as a supply route.
After trying for months, different ways to get past the Artillery on the h**h Vicksburg bluffs, He finally sneaks his 17,000 troops over (using ironclads and steamers snuck past the batteries at night) and says goodbye to his supply line, believing that he could feed his troops from foraging the rich Confederate countryside. His commanders believed that the next step would have been to take out Port Hudson with General Banks who would be waiting for him, down river in Louisiana so he wouldnt have them threatening his rear. But since Banks was indisposed trying to take that fort, he decided to use the momentum he had, and march inland Northeast to take out the state capitol, Jackson, as a transportation hub (where they can quickly reinforce Vicksburg with men and supplies via railway), fighting and winning 5 battles and finally surrounding the city. They surrendered a month or so later.
Really fascinating. It was the largest amphibious operation in American military history until the [Invasion of Normandy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Normandy).
Not to mention that the Union had suffered embarrassing defeats at the hands of Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and with Lincoln running for reelection, and Gettysburg was occurring right around the time they surrendered.
Image credits: conspirateur79
#26
Antarctica. We sent people in this cold a*s place, they died, and we went “f**k put more out there”.
Image credits: MagixShiz
#27
Alexander the Great's entire campaign. Let's go conquer s**t!
Image credits: luckyhunterdude
#28
Guy Fawkes saw one of his fellow conspirators being hung, drawn and quartered, so he jumped off the scaffold with the noose round his neck, instantly dying. Saved himself from the t*****e.
#29
How about [Dr. Giles Brindley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Brindley)?
>**Giles Skey Brindley**, MD FRS (born April 30, 1926), is a British physiologist, musicologist and composer, known for his contributions to the physiology of the retina and colour vision, treatment of erectile dysfunction, and is perhaps best known for an unusual scientific presentation at the 1983 Las Vegas meeting of the American Urological Association, **where he removed his pants to show the audience his chemically induced erection and invited them to inspect it closely.** He had injected phenoxybenzamine using one mL into his p***s in his hotel room before the presentation.
#30
After the Great Fire of London in 1666, the tomb of the Dean of St Paul’s (who had died in 1519) broke open from the heat.
Two men came across his coffin, and opened it. It was full of a brownish liquid, around the body.
Apparently the two men said "f**k it" and decided to taste the liquid.
They reported that it was “ironish, insipid” and the body (which they naturally poked with a stick) felt like brawn (meat jelly).
WTF.
Image credits: macca321
#31
Caesar stepping over the Rubicon, declaring war to Rome.
Image credits: steffen2893
#32
When Chicago was planning to reverse the flow of the Chicago river, but St Louis filed a complaint with the feds because that would just send all of Chicago's waste down to them, so before the federal courts could make an official ruling Chicago just went ahead and did it anyway. Then they made the argument that it would be silly to spend a bunch of money just to re-reverse the flow so they got to keep it.
Image credits: HoraceWimp81
#33
John Paul Jones capturing several British ships by himself with essentially “Pirate Tactics”.
Image credits: CloverUTY
#34
General Douglass MacArthur gave a speech standing on a beach in the middle of a landing battle upon his return to the Philippines. The dude was just so incredibly angry looking, that even bullets avoided him.
Image credits: WaviestMetal
#35
When Teddy Roosevelt wanted to be in the army to fight in the Spanish American war, but they wouldn't take him since he was pretty much blind so he became a volunteer for the U.S. Army and created a unit made up of rich playboys that he went to school with and a bunch of cowboys he became friends with when he went on a soul finding journey. They used a private yacht to go over seas.
Image credits: Fuckme-and-Fuckyou
#36
Henry VIII - the Pope refused to grant him a second divorce so he took England out of the Catholic church and started the Church of England, conveniently taking all the wealth in English church coffers for himself and kicking off a very bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants.
#37
Climbing everest?
Image credits: ooo-ooo-oooyea
#38
Literally Julius caesar entire life . Hail Caesar.
#39
When Cerrano said [f**k you Jobu, I'll do it myself](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsjoFZEwAyI) and managed to hit a home run off a curveball to tie the game in the divisional playoff against the Yankees.
