Death looms over everyone, yet a handful of individuals across the ages have managed to cheat the inevitable. In this roundup of 10 people history, we spotlight those whose tenacity, luck, or sheer stubbornness kept them from crossing the final threshold.
10 People History Highlights
10 The Woman Who Was Hanged (And Then Some)
In the year 1650, a young housemaid named Anne Greene became involved with the grandson of her employer, resulting in a secret pregnancy. After a miscarriage six months later, she buried the infant herself, only for the remains to be discovered later, leading to a charge of infanticide despite clear evidence that the child had been stillborn.
Convicted and sentenced to death, Greene was taken to the scaffold on December 14. She hung for nearly thirty minutes while friends pounded her chest and pulled at her legs in a desperate attempt to shorten the ordeal.
When the executioner finally cut her down, the body was slated for a surgeon’s experimental study. As the guard placed her limp form into a coffin, he heard a faint breath and, claiming charity, jumped on her chest a few more times to finish the job.
Defying all expectations, the surgeon revived Greene using a mixture of hot and cold cordials, throat stimulation, and a steaming enema—the latter proving decisive. She was later pardoned, married, bore three more children, and ultimately succumbed to childbirth complications in 1665.
9 The Man Who Fell From His Coffe
In 1571, English farmer Matthew Wall was on the brink of marriage when he suddenly died. While his friends were hauling his coffin up a steep hill toward the church, a pallbearer slipped on damp leaves, causing the coffin to crash to the ground.
The sudden impact was followed by a stunned silence, then an unexpected thudding from inside the coffin, accompanied by muffled cries. The pallbearers opened the lid to discover Wall still alive, having been in a coma until the jolt revived his consciousness.
Wall recovered, married his fiancée, and fathered two sons, living until 1595. In his will, he left money to the parish church so that, on the anniversary of his first funeral, the bells would toll as if for a funeral and then ring again in a wedding peal.
He also requested that the lane leading to the church be cleared of leaves to prevent future slips. To this day, the village observes his wish each year, with children sweeping the lane and receiving sweets as the bells chime.
8 The Man Torpedoed Out Of A Submarine
John Capes served as a stoker on the HMS Perseus, which set sail from Malta to Alexandria in November 1941. On December 6, a mine detonated near the vessel off Cephalonia, causing a catastrophic explosion.
Of the 61 crew members aboard, Capes emerged as the sole survivor. He claimed he had been napping in a makeshift bunk inside a spare torpedo tube when the blast occurred, and that he and three comrades escaped through an engine‑room hatch.
After seizing a tot of rum for courage, Capes helped his mates into life preservers and swam eight kilometres through the icy December sea toward the white cliffs of occupied Cephalonia. He washed ashore unconscious and was hidden by local fishermen for eighteen months, who moved him from house to house to evade Italian forces.
In 1943, he finally left the island, journeyed through Turkey to Alexandria, and returned to submarine duty. Though initially doubted, his tale was corroborated in 1997 when divers examined the Perseus wreck and found the exact compartment layout he described, including the unlocked escape hatch, the torpedo tube bunk, and even his bottle of rum.
Capes lived until 1985, his extraordinary survival eventually gaining official recognition.
7 The Woman Dug Up By Grave Robbers
In 1705, Margorie McCall fell ill and passed away in Shankill, Ireland. During her wake, mourners argued over a valuable ring she wore, fearing that grave‑robbers might try to steal it. The ring, however, refused to budge.
Undeterred, McCall was interred still wearing the stubborn piece of jewellery. That very night, grave‑robbers exhumed her body, only to discover the ring could not be removed. In frustration, they sliced off her ring finger; the cut instantly revived her, and she fled the scene, returning home bewildered.
When she finally died for good, McCall received a second funeral and a tombstone bearing the inscription “Lived Once, Buried Twice.” The fate of the ring remains a mystery.
6 The King Who Survived At Least 50 Assassination Attempts
In 1931, King Zog of Albania was shot while exiting the Vienna State Opera House. This was not his first brush with bullets; he had already been shot in the early 1920s, recovered, and marched straight to parliament to deliver a speech.
His lavish lifestyle clashed with a largely impoverished populace, and his ruthless suppression of political opponents earned him many enemies. Consequently, Zog became the target of a staggering number of plots.
To protect himself, Zog limited public appearances, placed his family in charge of the army, and even had his mother taste his food. Nonetheless, he survived at least fifty assassination attempts, some of which persisted after his exile in 1939.
He eventually died of natural causes in 1961, having outlived the majority of his would‑be killers.
5 The Man Who Was Mauled By A Bear
In 1818, Hugh Glass escaped a pirate crew and later found refuge with the Pawnee, who taught him essential wilderness skills such as river crossing, plant identification, fire‑making, and celestial navigation.
By 1822, Glass joined a fur‑hunting expedition led by General Ashley along the northern Missouri River. While scouting, he encountered a mother grizzly protecting her cubs; the bear lunged, and Glass, unable to reach his gun, wrestled the massive animal with his bare hands.
Believing his end was near, General Ashley placed Glass on a bearskin rug and summoned volunteers to keep him company until death. Two men stayed, lured by a promised bonus, and dug a grave for him.
After three days, it became evident that Glass was not dying. The two men absconded with his rifle and knife, abandoning him. Undeterred, Glass fashioned a makeshift bandage, wrapped himself in the rug, and began a 322‑kilometre trek back to civilization.
Motivated by the desire for retribution against those who deserted him, he survived months of crawling, eventually reaching the Cheyenne River, constructing a raft, and floating downstream to safety.
Glass never exacted personal vengeance; instead, he reported the betrayal to General Ashley, continued his frontier life, and met his final fate in a conflict with the Arikara tribe in 1833.
4 The Explorer Who Survived Mutiny, Starvation, A Poisoned Arrow, And A Spear
In 1521, Ferdinand Magellan, the first navigator to cross from the Atlantic to the Pacific, met his demise on the Philippines while attempting the world’s inaugural circumnavigation.
Launching from Spain in 1519 with five ships and 250 men, Magellan weathered an attempted mutiny, lost a vessel during a reconnaissance mission, and dramatically underestimated the Pacific’s vastness, turning a planned few‑day crossing into a four‑month ordeal.
Starvation set in as provisions dwindled, water turned foul, and scurvy ravaged the crew. Upon finally sighting Mactan Island, the weakened expedition landed, and Magellan, in gratitude, tried to convert the locals to Christianity—using cannon fire and muskets rather than hymnals.
Coral reefs blocked their cannon range, prompting the Spaniards to wade ashore in body armor that left their legs exposed. The natives, aiming low, struck them with arrows.
Despite being hit by poisoned arrows, Magellan kept fighting. He was later assaulted with spears, yet he persevered until a native thrust a bamboo spear into his face at the surf’s edge.
Defying death once more, Magellan slew his assailant with his lance, attempted to draw his sword with a wounded arm, and faced a barrage of iron and bamboo weapons. Though he fell, his remaining crew completed the circumnavigation in 1522, with only 20 of the original 250 sailors returning home.
3 The Comrade With 200 Bullets And An Ice Axe
Leon Trotsky, a prominent revolutionary, lived under constant threat from Stalin’s regime. By 1939, Stalin orchestrated a two‑pronged plan to eliminate his rival.
The first strike unfolded in May 1940 when a squad of hitmen stormed Trotsky’s Mexican hideaway, unleashing over 200 bullets. Miraculously, both Trotsky and his wife survived the barrage.
Meanwhile, a subtler plot took shape. Sylvia Ageloff, a devoted Trotsky supporter, introduced a charismatic diplomat named Jacques Mornard—actually Ramón Mercader, a Stalinist operative.
Mercader ingratiated himself with Trotsky’s guards, claiming he possessed an article for Trotsky’s review. He entered the home carrying an ice axe.
While Trotsky read, Mercader struck him with the pick end of the axe, penetrating his skull five centimetres deep. Trotsky’s scream summoned the guards, who restrained Mercader until authorities arrived.
Trotsky succumbed to his wounds the following day. Mercader was sentenced to nearly twenty years of imprisonment, dying in 1978, reportedly whispering, “I hear it always… I know he’s waiting for me on the other side.”
2 The Knife Man Who Fell From A Roof, Had TB, Was Stabbed, And Got Bayoneted
Jim Bowie, famed creator of the eponymous knife, fought in the Texas Revolution and made his final stand at the Alamo. His brushes with death began in 1828 when he killed a man in a duel.
Living a hard‑drinking lifestyle, Bowie likely suffered from yellow fever and possibly typhoid or pulmonary tuberculosis. A drunken fall from a roof broke several ribs and impaired his breathing, leaving him bedridden as the Alamo siege began.
Eyewitnesses reported Mexican soldiers entering Bowie’s sickroom, slashing him with bayonets. He remained alive as they tossed him onto the battlefield, catching him on their bayonets.
Even while feverish, Bowie kept firing his rifle. When wounded again, he was carried back to his bed, yet he rose once more, stabbing an opponent in the chest with his famous knife and shooting another before finally falling.
1 The Pilot Who Untangled His Plane After A Midair Collision
Keith Caldwell rose to fame as a fighter pilot on the Western Front during World War I, becoming New Zealand’s highest‑scoring ace with 25 victories.
After a failed enlistment attempt at 18, he funded his own pilot training, earning his licence in December 1915 before heading to England in early 1916. By July 1916, he had logged merely 35 flight hours across two continents.
At 22, Caldwell was promoted to flight commander, earning a reputation for fearlessness and aggression. By October, he had downed nine enemy aircraft, receiving the Military Cross and two mentions in dispatches.
Known for daring tactics, he once executed a tail‑spin dive against German ace Werner Voss, pulling out just before impact.
In the war’s closing weeks, his luck seemed to run out when a mid‑air collision crippled his aircraft’s wing struts, sending him spiralling thousands of feet downwards. To regain control, Caldwell crawled onto the lower wing, cleared the obstruction, and clutched a wing strut with one hand while steering with the other.
His improvisation allowed a controlled crash‑landing behind British lines. He leapt to safety seconds before impact, emerging unscathed. Post‑war, Caldwell returned to New Zealand to farm, later re‑enlisting for World II, which he also survived.