Today’s professional athletes are often viewed as overpaid and selfish, with recent sports headlines being dominated by scandals involving domestic abuse and performance-enhancing drugs. The people involved in these issues don’t represent the majority of athletes, however. Many outstanding athletes have even put their careers on hold and their lives at risk to serve in the military during times of war.

10Louis Zamperini

Zamperini, a runner who competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, went on to serve in World War II. He went missing during the war after his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean and was assigned an “official death date” by the War Department, which included a letter of condolence sent by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The reality was that Zamperini survived 47 days at sea while floating on a raft, only to be captured and taken prisoner by the Japanese.

After surviving in the Pacific by collecting rainfall and catching the occasional albatross, Zamperini was subjected to cruel torture at the hands of Mutsuhiro Watanabe, a Japanese sergeant whose nickname was “The Bird.” His indomitable spirit may have been foreshadowed in his Olympic performance, where his closing lap in the 5,000 meters was recorded at just 56 seconds as he tried to run down his competition.

His story was immortalized in the book Unbroken, which has been adapted into a feature-length film directed by Angelina Jolie.

9Warren Spahn

Spahn was one half of the dominant pitching duo that inspired Gerald V. Herm to write the poem that was later shortened to the epigram, “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain.” The Baseball Hall of Famer is the all-time leader in wins among left-handers and sixth overall with 363 wins. Before beginning a baseball career that would include 17 All-Star Game appearances, two no-hitters and a Cy Young Award, Spahn served in the Army beginning in 1942.

Spahn saw a great deal of combat, serving in a unit that included convicts who had been released early from their sentences in exchange for enlisting. Spahn fought during both the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. Of the latter battle, Spahn said, “We were surrounded in the Hurtgen Forest and had to fight our way out of there. Our feet were frozen when we went to sleep, and they were frozen when we woke up. We didn’t have a bath or change of clothes for weeks.”

Spahn’s unit earned recognition for taking and maintaining the Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen, the only bridge over the Rhine River taken by Allied Forces. In addition to the Distinguished Unit Emblem, Spahn also earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.

Some baseball historians believe that his service time may have prevented him from reaching 400 wins, but Spahn himself thought the war played an important role in shaping his career, saying, “I matured a lot in those years. If I had not had that maturity, I wouldn’t have pitched until I was 45 . . . after what I went through overseas, I never thought of anything I was told to do in baseball as hard work. You get over feeling like that when you spend days on end sleeping in frozen tank tracks in enemy threatened territory.”

8Bob Kalsu

Look up at the Ring of Honor at Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. Among the names of legendary Buffalo Bills is a man who never made it past his rookie year in the National Football League. That’s because Bob Kalsu, during a time in which many professional athletes were able to avoid the Vietnam War due to their high-profile careers, volunteered for active duty and was called on to serve in one of the most dangerous and war-torn areas. Stationed at Firebase Ripcord, Kalsu was named the acting commander of his unit when his commanding officer had to be airlifted out to have shrapnel removed from his neck.

The North Vietnamese Army was determined to move Kalsu and his men from Ripcord, and the firebase was subjected to 600 rounds per day, the heaviest attacks coming when choppers landed to bring supplies. Despite his rank, Kalsu exposed himself to the heavy fire so he could assist his men in carrying the newly delivered shells to their position on the hill.

Philip Michaud, who was there with Kalsu at Ripcord, described him as “a fearless guy, smart, brave and respected by his troops.” Of the frequent NVA attacks, Michaud relayed the following about the acting commander: “Rounds were coming in, and he was out there. I told him a few times, ‘It’s good to run around and show what leadership is about, but when rounds are blowing up in your area, you ought to hunker down behind a gun wheel. Or a bunker.’ ”

Perhaps the most heart-wrenching part of the story has to do with Kalsu’s family life back home. After Kalsu died by enemy mortar fire, an Army officer was dispatched to his home to tell his wife of the incident. She was not there. The officer was directed to a local hospital, where he gave Jan Kalsu the news shortly after she had delivered the couple’s second child, a baby boy.

7Archie Williams

Like fellow gold medalist Jesse Owens, Archie Williams threw a wrench into Adolf Hitler’s theory of Aryan dominance with his performance at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. While the story of how Hitler refused to shake Owens’s hand after his victories is quite well known (in reality, he shook no athlete’s hand after the opening ceremonies, regardless of their race), Williams felt similarly snubbed. When asked about his exchange with the German Chancellor, Williams said, “Hitler wouldn’t shake my hand either!” Williams competed in the 400 meters, an event in which he had set the world record of 46.1 seconds earlier that year while competing for UC-Berkeley at the NCAA Championships.

Williams’s athletic career was cut short by a hamstring injury, so he earned his pilot’s license and became a commercial pilot. He later served as a pilot during World War II and was commissioned in the Air Force in 1943. Williams worked with the Tuskegee Airmen as a flight instructor and remained in the service for over 20 years.

6Dwight F. Davis

The Davis Cup is a tennis tradition that began back in 1900, when Dwight F. Davis and other members of the Harvard tennis team wished to arrange a match between the United States and Great Britain. The annual competition is likely Davis’s legacy, but the founder of the Davis Cup was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism in action between Baulny and Chaudron Farm, France, September 29–30, 1918.”

Davis’s citation relays his impressive feats during battle. “After exposure to severe shelling and machinegun fire for three days, during which time he displayed rare courage and devotion to duty, Major Davis, then adjutant, 69th Infantry Brigade, voluntarily and in the face of intense enemy machinegun and artillery fire proceeded to various points in his brigade sector, assisted in reorganizing positions, and in replacing units of the brigade, this self-imposed duty necessitating continued exposure to concentrated enemy fire.

“On September 28, 1918, learning that a strong counterattack had been launched by the enemy against Baulny ridge and was progressing successfully, he voluntarily organized such special duty men as could be found and with them rushed forward to reinforce the line under attack, exposing himself with such coolness and great courage that his conduct inspired the troops in this crisis and enabled them to hold on in the face of vastly superior numbers.”

Davis then went on to serve as President Calvin Coolidge’s Secretary of War and Governor General of the Philippines. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

5Charley Paddock

Anyone who has seen the movie Chariots of Fire will remember Charley Paddock as the brash American who defeats Harold Abrahams by a wide margin in the 200 meters on his way to a silver medal at the 1924 Olympics. In reality, Paddock also won gold in the 100 meters and the 4×100 meter relay, along with another silver in the 200 meters in the 1920 Olympic Games. He held world records in several events throughout his career, earning recognition as the “World’s Fastest Human.”

His Olympic efforts were bookended by service in both World War I and World War II. Serving in the Marine Corps, Paddock was a lieutenant of field artillery during World War I and a member of the personal staff of Major General William P. Upshur during World War II. Both Paddock and Upshur died in a plane crash while serving during World War II.

4Ted Williams

Teddy Ballgame is remembered by most baseball fans as one of the greatest hitters to ever play. Over his career, Williams batted .344 while hitting 521 home runs. These numbers are all the more impressive considering that he lost several years of his playing career while serving in the Navy in two different wars: World War II and the Korean War.

He served as an instructor during World War II. During the Korean War he took enemy fire and was hit multiple times, even crash-landing during one of his missions. During his time as an enlisted man, Williams earned three Air Medals for Aerial Flight Operations, along with a Navy Unit commendation and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

During his time in Korea, Williams served as a wingman to another iconic figure: John Glenn. The two spoke fondly of one another. According to Glenn, Williams “was just great. The same skills that made him the best baseball hitter ever—the eye, the coordination, the discipline—are what he used to make himself an excellent combat pilot.”

3Roy Gleason

Gleason made it to the big leagues at just 20 years of age, being called up to play with the Los Angeles Dodgers toward the end of the 1963 season. Only up for a “cup of coffee,” Gleason earned a hit in his only at-bat that season, though he did appear in seven other games as a pinch runner. The Dodgers won the World Series that year, so Gleason earned a World Series ring for having been on the active roster during the season.

Gleason returned to the minors, blocked from the big leagues by a roster full of Dodgers legends. In 1967, he was called to active duty in Vietnam, where he served as a sergeant. While out on patrol, the North Vietnamese Army attacked the unit Gleason was leading, and Gleason was injured by shrapnel that had torn through his arm and leg. Gleason continued to fight despite his injuries, returning fire until his injuries forced an evacuation by helicopter.

Among the many things left behind in Vietnam because of the rapid evacuation was Gleason’s 1963 World Series Ring. The Dodgers replaced the ring Gleason lost in a ceremony at Dodger Stadium in 2003. Gleason was further awarded a Purple Heart and earned a Special Congressional Recognition for his service.

2Chad Hennings

A Dallas Cowboy who served during wartime, Hennings won the Outland Trophy as a collegian before joining the Cowboys for three Super Bowl titles over nine professional seasons. A graduate of the Air Force Academy, Hennings was drafted by Dallas in 1988 but had to first serve four years in the military before he could begin his pro career.

Serving in the Persian Gulf, Hennings flew 45 missions over Iraq as a part of Operation Provide Comfort, earning two Air Force Achievement Medals, along with an Outstanding Unit Award and a humanitarian award. The operation in which Hennings participated was largely a humanitarian effort, providing aid to Kurds in Northern Iraq while also clearing any remaining Iraqi threats from the area.

After serving in the Persian Gulf, Hennings returned to professional football but continued his service in the Air Force. Hennings remained a member of the Air Force Reserve throughout all of his nine years in the NFL.

1Chuck Bednarik

Concrete Charlie is highly regarded among those who long for the days of the rugged football player who refuses to leave the field under any circumstance, known for his time with the Eagles. The NFL is now filled by highly specialized athletes excelling at a single position, but Bednarik was not one of those. He played on offense, on defense, and on special teams before special teams even had its own name. As his plaque in Canton, Ohio reads, Bednarik was a “bone-jarring tackler,” and if that’s not enough, he was also a “rugged, durable, bulldozing blocker.”

If anything served to harden Concrete Charlie, it was likely his service during World War II. A member of the Army Air Corps, Bednarik was just a teenager when he joined as an aerial gunner, flying 30 combat missions, all over Germany.

According to Bednarik, the most dangerous of those missions was a simple delivery. Bednarik was charged with delivering gasoline 16 kilometers (10 mi) behind enemy lines to refill 500 of General Patton’s tanks. Bednarik recalled the mission, saying, “We had no bombs in the bomb bay; we had nothing but gasoline—thousands of gallons of gasoline. Picture taking off or landing with a plane full of gasoline. If we had crashed, I would be dust. That mission scared the hell out of us. We went over and landed, and I could hear boom, boom, boom from where the fighting was going on. We dumped that gas and got the hell out of there real fast.”

For his service, Bednarik earned the Air Medal, four Oak Leaf Clusters, four Battle Stars, and the European Theater Operations Medal.

J. Francis Wolfe is a freelance writer and a noted dreamer of dreams. He aspires to one day live in a cave high in the mountains where he can write poetry no one will ever see.

Jackie Robinson famously broke baseball’s color barrier as a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. But he’s not alone in having an impact on the civil rights movement through his position as an athlete, and many lesser-known figures played sports while positively affecting society through civil rights advocacy.

10Peter Norman

This Australian sprinter surprised many observers of the 1968 Olympics by taking the silver in the 200-meter dash. Norman finished second to American Tommie Smith and ahead of Smith’s teammate, John Carlos, setting the stage for what may be the most recognizable piece of sports photography ever. Smith and Carlos each wore black gloves and raised their fists in the air in the Black Power Salute. While Norman stands somewhat anonymously to the side, he actually played a significant role in the photo. He suggested that Smith, who was wearing both gloves before the ceremony, give the other glove to Carlos so that both men could join in the salute.

Many who see the photo do not immediately notice that all three men—Smith, Carlos, and Norman—wear pins reading “Olympic Project for Human Rights,” representing a group opposing racism in sports. This act of solidarity caused Norman a great deal of trouble in his home country of Australia (he was not selected for the 1972 team despite holding the fifth-fastest time in the world), but it served as a powerful and enduring image of unity in the fight for equality.

9Dock Ellis

Dock Ellis was quite a character and likely is best known for the no-hitter he threw while high on LSD. That notoriety is unfortunate given how much he accomplished as a civil rights advocate during his playing days and as a drug and alcohol counselor once his career ended. He never wavered in standing up to the injustices of inequality, and he took action as far back as his high school career, once refusing to play in game as a protest against the coach’s racism.

Ellis was very outspoken, and he was never one to let someone get away with an injustice. He challenged manager Sparky Anderson to start him in the All-Star Game so that he could face Vida Blue, saying that Anderson “wouldn’t pitch two brothers against each other.” Despite some of his on-field antics—which include tying the MLB record for being hit by pitches, an act he admitted was intentional—Ellis worked diligently in charitable endeavors, most notably helping to found the Black Athletes Foundation for Sickle Cell Research in 1971.

Among the many men who appreciated Ellis’s efforts in civil rights was Jackie Robinson, who wrote a moving letter praising Ellis and advising him on some of the difficulties he would encounter. Footage from a recently released documentary on Ellis shows him reading the letter, which moved him to tears even several decades after it was received.

8The Boston Celtics & Bill Russell

Boston—owing perhaps to protests and riots in the 1970s after Boston public schools were desegregated by a court order—has had to endure a stigma as a racist town. But the city’s hometown basketball team, the Boston Celtics, was among the most progressive when it came to matters of race. The team was the first in professional basketball to draft an African-American player in Chuck Cooper, whom they selected in 1950. The Celtics were also the first in North American sports to hire an African-American coach when Bill Russell took over the team from the legendary Red Auerbach in 1966, a time of significant unrest throughout the country.

Russell is known as one of the most successful professional athletes in history, but he has also been an outspoken advocate of civil rights, and he has recently spoken out in support of gay athletes as they endure what Russell sees as issues black athletes encountered when he played. In 2010, Russell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for his work as “an impassioned advocate of human rights.”

7The Starting Five At Texas Western In 1966

Texas Western’s role in the civil rights movement was something of a surprise to them, as many did not realize that they were members of the first collegiate basketball team to field an all-African-American starting lineup—and, ultimately, the first to win an NCAA Championship. In recollecting the game, most of the Texas Western players recall not understanding its importance until years later, when strangers would approach them to thank them for opening doors that had previously been shut.

That championship game, played against Kentucky, took on greater significance after famous Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp reportedly declared that no all-black team could defeat his all-white squad. Pat Riley, then a member of the Kentucky squad, recalled how motivated Texas Western was after learning of Rupp’s comments, saying, “It was a violent game. I don’t mean there were any fights—but they were desperate and they were committed and they were more motivated than we were.”

Ultimately, Texas Western’s coach, Don Haskins, did not choose his starting five because of their race but rather in spite of it. He simply wanted to win, and those five gave him the best opportunity to do so. His assistant, Moe Iba, confirmed this, saying, “The fact that he was doing something historic by playing five blacks, that probably never crossed Don’s mind. Hell, he’d have played five kids from Mars if they were his best five players.”

6Stewart Udall, Secretary Of The Interior

Udall, the Secretary of the Interior to both John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s, became involved in the civil rights movement through his intervention with a Washington Redskins football franchise that refused to integrate. The Redskins had been adamant in this refusal, with its team owner, George Marshall, once saying that the team would “start signing Negroes when the Harlem Globetrotters start signing whites.” Marshall’s position on the matter was assailed by many, with one columnist referring to him as “an anachronism, as out-of-date as the drop kick.”

Despite the pleading of the press and fans, not until Udall stepped in and threatened retribution on the federal level did the Washington Redskins become the last team in the NFL to integrate. Since the Redskins’ new stadium was on federal land, Udall informed Marshall that if he continued to refuse to be integrated, the team would not be allowed to use it. In 1962, Marshall heeded Udall’s ultimatum, and the Redskins were finally integrated.

5Don Barksdale And His US Olympic Teammates

Barksdale was the first African American to represent the US on the Olympic basketball team, and his role in the civil rights movement was in a Kentucky arena in 1948, the year after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Barksdale’s moment was during an exhibition game when his teammates passed a water bottle down the bench, with each man taking a sip. After Barksdale took his, he passed it to a teammate—“Shorty” Carpenter of Arkansas—who drank from the bottle without hesitation.

While this moment seems like nothing more than a minor detail today, the water bottle drew the attention of all those in attendance, many of whom felt that Carpenter could have made a statement by refusing to drink. This was especially true given that whites and blacks in the South rarely, if ever, drank from the same glass or from the same water fountain at the time. He didn’t refuse, and the game went on. Barksdale would later go on to become the first African-American All-Star in the NBA, playing for the Boston Celtics alongside Chuck Cooper.

4Kathrine Switzer & Roberta Gibb

Before 1967, no woman had officially run in the Boston Marathon, and the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) did not willingly issue bib numbers to women who applied. The Amateur Athletic Association (AAU) did not formally accept women as participants in distance running, fearing that their bodies could not handle the rigors of long distances. Roberta Gibb ran the Boston Marathon in three consecutive years (1966–1968) but did so without a bib number, having to hide in the bushes at the race’s starting line to avoid being spotted.

Switzer, however, was issued a bib number but not with the full blessing of the BAA—according to the BAA, she did not clearly identify herself as a female entrant and signed her entry form as “K.V. Switzer.” She started the race unnoticed, but around the fourth mile, the press bus caught sight of her, causing a stir. Once race officials were notified, one of them even tried to rip off her bib number and physically remove her from the race before another runner—“Big” Tom Miller, a nationally ranked hammer thrower and former All-American football player—pushed him aside. Switzer officially finished the race and helped to clear the path for female participation in distance running events.

3Francois Pienaar & Nelson Mandela

Francois Pienaar grew up under apartheid in South Africa, when it was common to hear Nelson Mandela referred to as a terrorist who deserved to have been imprisoned for all of those years. As a rugby player, Pienaar was a part of the 1995 Rugby World Cup that came to symbolize the changing of South Africa, and Mandela supported the South African team and dismissed the notion that the springbok—the team’s emblem and a notorious symbol of apartheid—should be tossed aside. Instead, Mandela used the Rugby World Cup as an opportunity to unite the nation once again under the banner of sports.

Upon South Africa’s victory, Mandela, who wore a South Africa rugby shirt that prominently featured the springbok, presented the cup to Pienaar, the white South African team captain. The image was an important one, as it came to be recognized as a moment of reconciliation for a formerly divided nation. Pienaar and Mandela became quite close thereafter, and the man known as Madiba ended up attending Pienaar’s wedding and becoming godfather to one of the Rugby captain’s children.

2Al Davis

Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis saw his football legacy somewhat tarnished during the last decade of his life, as the Raiders endured an extended period of futility that has continued to the present day. The team has not made the playoffs since its Super Bowl run of 2002, and many observers blame Davis for being out of touch with the game. Too many forget that Davis was an innovator of the highest order throughout the overwhelming majority of his life in football, and that included his attitude toward issues of civil rights.

In 1963, just a year after the Washington Redskins had to be forced to integrate its team, Davis was refusing to play a preseason game in Mobile, Alabama as a protest against the state’s laws on segregation. Davis, again protesting the inherent unfairness of segregation, also implemented a policy stating that the Raiders would not play in cities in which players would have to stay in different hotels due to race.

Davis was also responsible for hiring the second African-American head coach in the NFL in Art Shell and also the first female front-office executive in Amy Trask. Shell, a former offensive tackle with the Raiders, played under the league’s second Latino head coach, Tom Flores, who was also hired by Davis.

1Willie O’Ree

O’Ree didn’t even realize that he had broken the color barrier in the NHL in 1958, saying, “It just didn’t dawn on me. I was just concerned about playing hockey.” O’Ree grew up in Canada, playing both hockey and baseball, and as a teenager, he had the opportunity to meet Jackie Robinson in Brooklyn after being invited to camp with the Milwaukee Braves. The two spoke briefly, and after Robinson told him that there were no black kids playing hockey, O’Ree corrected him, saying, “Yeah, there’s a few.” Less than 10 years later, O’Ree would be making his NHL debut for the Boston Bruins.

O’Ree had to endure taunts and insults while playing games on the road, but he was steadfast in his belief that those taunts deserved no response from him. There were even times when, while in the penalty box, O’Ree would be spit on and have objects thrown at him because of his race. O’Ree went on to work with the NHL after completing his professional hockey career, serving as the director of youth development for the NHL’s diversity program.

J. Francis Wolfe is a freelance writer whose work can be seen daily at Dodgers Today. When he’s not writing, he is most likely waiting for “just one more wave” or quietly reading under a shady tree.

History rarely tells two sides of a story. We hear about our victories and the brave men and women who won them, but the heroes of the other side are usually scraped off and forgotten.

SEE ALSO: 10 Places That Look Nothing Like You Think

There were good and decent people among our nations’ enemies. Their leaders have may have committed atrocities, but these people led lives of courage of decency and left behind stories of true heroism—stories that history erased because they fought for the wrong side.

10 Norman Bethune

Dr. Norman Bethune is almost completely unknown in his home country of Canada. In China, however, he is a household name.

Dr. Bethune was a lifelong socialist. Before universal health care came to Canada, he ran a free health clinic to ensure that the poor could still get help. But in 1937, when Japan invaded China, he realized where he was needed most. So he flew halfway around the world to meet Mao Tse-tung and offer his services.

In China, Dr. Bethune trained doctors, introducing new, lifesaving medical ideas to a part of the world they’d yet to reach. He went to the front lines to work as a surgeon, saving the lives of countless Chinese soldiers and citizens. By the end, he was one of China’s main medical advisors.

When Dr. Bethune died of an infection, he was a national hero. There are statues in his honor in China, and several hospitals bear his name. Mao himself wrote a tribute to the doctor which, to this day, is still required reading for most Chinese high school students. He wrote that Dr. Bethune was a model for all of humanity, saying, “We must all learn the spirit of absolute selflessness from him.”

9 John Rabe

John Rabe was a Nazi, through and through. He fully believed in Hitler, declaring of the Nazi war machine: “I am behind the system 100 percent.” But despite it all, he saved 200,000 lives.

Rabe was the leader of the Nazi Party in Nanking when the Japanese invaded. The Japanese urged him to flee when their army rolled in, but Rabe wouldn’t leave. He had already lived in China for 30 years, he explained. His children and grandchildren were born there, and he would stand by the Chinese until the end.

When the atrocities of the Rape Of Nanking began, Rabe set up the International Safety Zone to protect as many Chinese civilians as he could. He sheltered more than 200,000 refugees near his home, saving them from the brutal abuse the Japanese inflicted on Nanking.

Rabe would patrol the streets of Nanking, trying to stop Japanese soldiers from raping Chinese women. He would hold his swastika high, threatening them with his authority as a Nazi to keep them off. He represented an abhorrent party and a dangerous ideology, but to thousands of Chinese survivors, he was a hero. Several boys born in Nanking were given the name “Rabe” in his honor.

8 Matvey Kuzmin

Matvey Kuzmin was 83 years old when the Nazis came to his home. He was nothing more than an aging Russian peasant, but now, he found himself before the barrel of a German gun. The Germans wanted information. Kuzmin, they said, must tell them where the Soviet army was located, or he would die.

Kuzmin told the Nazis he would show them, but he had a plan. He sent his grandson off to warn the Soviets that the Nazis had arrived and to prepare an attack. He then led the Nazis to the town of Malkino. The Nazis followed him, unaware that an ambush was waiting.

When the Soviet army attacked, the Germans realized that they had been duped. A Nazi officer shot Kuzmin on the spot. Kuzmin died, but because of his sacrifice, the German unit was captured, and the Soviet Union won an early battle against the advancing fascist army.

7 An Yong-Ae

An Yong-ae was a nurse during the Korean War. She tended to wounded North Korean soldiers, patching up and cleaning their wounds from the safety of a military hospital.

When the warning went off that an US air raid was coming her way, she was ordered to take shelter. An, however, refused to run. There were men in the hospital who couldn’t walk and who wouldn’t be able to get away. She helped as many people out as she could and then rushed back in to help more.

When the bombs fell, An was still in the hospital. She died in the devastation. But because of her sacrifice, dozens of injured men made it out alive.

6 Dwarkanath Kotnis

Norman Bethune wasn’t the only doctor who traveled to China. Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis and a team of four other doctors left their homes in India to join Mao’s communist army as well. The other four went home when their time was up, but Dr. Kotnis stayed in China, determined to help.

Dr. Kotnis worked as a surgeon and treated hundreds of wounded soldiers. He moved up the ranks quickly, and after Dr. Bethune’s death, he became the director of the newly named Dr. Bethune International Peace Hospital.

His most incredible moment came in Yunan in 1940. Wounded soldiers were rushing in faster than the hospital could handle. Dr. Kotnis, determined not to let a man he could save die, performed surgery for 72 hours straight without sleeping.

Dr. Kotnis would die in an epileptic seizure before he saw the end of the war. Today, though, there are statues honoring him in China, commemorating a man who gave his life for the cause of another nation.

5 William Morgan

William Morgan was the only American in Fidel Castro’s rebel army. One of his friends, who had been caught smuggling weapons to Castro’s rebels, had been tortured and killed by Fulgencio Batista’s soldiers. Morgan wanted revenge. In 1957, he flew over and joined the rebellion.

Throughout his time fighting in the Cuban Revolution, Morgan was dogged by suspicions that he might be a CIA spy. As the war raged on, though, he proved himself. He trained Cuban soldiers and fought alongside them until he had command of six men of his own. Soon, he had a whole column and then command over a whole territory.

By the end of the war, Morgan had worked his way up to the top rank of comandante. He and Che Guevara were the only foreign soldiers to achieve that rank. The two worked together to capture Santa Clara at the end of the war. Batista fled Cuba 12 hours after their victory.

Morgan believed that Castro was going to turn the country into a capitalist democracy. When that didn’t happen, he was upset—and he didn’t hide it. In 1960, his complaints got him sent in front of a firing squad. The US had taken away his citizenship for helping a foreign army, and he had no way to escape. As payment for his sacrifice, William Morgan was put to death.

4 Lev Kopelev

As a Ukranian Jew, Lev Kopelev had every reason to want to see the Nazis suffer. But when he joined the Red Army on their march to Berlin in 1945, he found himself on the other side, protecting German women.

The Soviet army was brutal to women in Berlin. Kopelev saw his men-in-arms violently raping women, attacking the old and young alike, and he couldn’t stand idly by. He started pulling his colleagues off of them.

“Don’t disgrace yourself!” he told one who was assaulting a Polish woman. “Don’t you have a mother, a sister? Have you thought of them?” “Get out of my way!” the soldier yelled back. “I need a woman! I spilled my blood for this!”

Kopelev’s efforts to protect German women soon turned into a full protest. The Soviets didn’t appreciate his moral stance. They arrested him, and he spent nine years in prison on charges of “compassion toward the enemy.” When he was finally released, though, his writing became one of the best records of what had happened.

3 Alexander Matrosov

Alexander Matrosov was only 19 years old when he met his end. He was fighting alongside the Soviet army to repel the advancing German army.

In 1943, he and his unit were attacking Germans stationed in a Russian village. Nazi machine gun fire was so heavy that the Soviets couldn’t even move. Instead, they held back, throwing grenades and taking out the machine guns one by one.

Matrosov, according to the story, threw the last grenade. The last gunner stopped firing, and unable to see through the dust, the men assumed he’d got him. The Soviets charged forward—only to find out that Matrosov had missed. The machine gun opened fire.

The young boy, determined to save his comrades, jumped on top of the machine gun and used his own body to clog it. He was riddled with bullets and died, but he saved his comrades and became a legend in the Soviet Union.

2 Isao Yamasoy

Captain Isao Yamasoy (real surname “Yamazoe”) arrived in the town of Dulag in the Philippines in 1943. He was a Japanese soldier, and he was there as an occupying enemy—but he left as a Filipino hero.

Despite Japan’s reputation for brutality in World War II, Captain Yamasoy insisted that his men treat the locals with respect. He did not permit his men to abuse them, not even the prisoners. Instead, he tried to improve relations between the soldiers and the civilians. He set up morning calisthenics activities, athletics, and cultural shows for both Japanese and Filipino alike.

When Captain Yamasoy got word that a Filipino guerrilla unit was planning to attack his garrison, he was worried about civilian casualties. He contacted the guerrilla unit and asked them to meet him outside of town so that no innocents would get hurt in the battle. They agreed but ambushed him on the way, believing they were getting rid of one more tyrant.

After Captain Yamasoy died, though, a new commander took over. All of Yamasoy’s programs were canceled. The commander used torture and forced the civilians, including children, to do slave labor on airfields.

Realizing they’d killed a good man to bring on a bad one, the people of Dulag mourned his death. Today, there is a shrine to his memory in the city, dedicated to the one man from the enemy army who treated them like human beings.

1 Richard Sorge

Without Richard Sorge, the Allies very well might have lost World War II. He was a Soviet spy who managed to become Germany’s ambassador to Japan, which put him in an incredible position to collect information.

As early as 1939, Sorge found out that Japan and Germany were plotting an attack against Russia. He reported to Stalin, who acted on the information by sending diplomats to Germany. His information led to a pact that held back the invasion of the USSR for two years.

In 1941, Sorge warned Stalin that Hitler was going to betray him in June. Stalin didn’t believe him until it happened. When the Nazis rolled into Russia, though, he realized Sorge’s value.

Stalin ordered Sorge to find out if Japan was going to join the assault. They wouldn’t, Sorge reported, unless the Nazis made major gains early on. The information gave Stalin the confidence to move his whole army against the Nazis and leave himself vulnerable to Japanese attack.

That move might just have been the reason that the USSR managed to hold off the Nazis, and that moment in history might just have been the reason why the Nazis didn’t win the war. Without Richard Sorge, the Allies may well have lost the war.

The world loves a hero, and the more unlikely, the better. Naturally, there are the obvious stars who will inevitably get the job done, albeit with a tiresome final battle to seal the deal. Think Die Hard’s John McClane, Alien’s Ellen Ripley, and anything with Arnie. The only problem with these guys is their ultimate victory was never really in doubt. All were qualified to disarm/maim/destroy unsavory types and did so either with or without snappy one-liners.

However, the real heroes, the most exciting, are the ones we don’t see coming. We’re talking about the massively underestimated underdogs. Too old, too young, too weak, or too…female. At our first underwhelming glimpse, we sigh and remain patient. Either they’ll be killed off, or a far more qualified bad-ass will save them.

And yet no. The unlikely hero gets us out of our seats. We start cheering for them and high five complete strangers when they win. If they can do it, we can do it. So, here are some of our favorites.

Related: Top 10 Classic Movies That Almost Ended Differently

10 Samuel Jackson as Zeus Carver in Die Hard 3: With a Vengeance

Zeus Carver was an angry-at-the-world Harlem electrician with no notable combat skills. This was evident when he stepped in to save McClane from being lynched by incensed locals. Zeus snatched McClane’s gun and waved it around like a firecracker as they fled. And a very watchable action duo was born.

Although McClane did most of the heavy lifting when it came to eliminating pesky terrorists, Zeus more than held his own. Quick with an insult and just as quick between the ears, Carver solved Simon’s infuriating riddles, which kept the duo in the game to save NYC.

Audiences looked past the massive chip on Zeus’s shoulder and began to enjoy his street smarts and relentless banter with McClane. He played to his strengths—what he lacked in weaponry training he made up for in intellect and a pig-headed refusal to surrender. Zeus grew up on the streets of Harlem so wasn’t in the least intimidated by a terrorist kingpin telling him to stick his well-laid plan up his “well-laid ass.” ^[1]

Well, quite.

9 Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter in Speed

The first 30 minutes of Speed was a testosterone-fueled blur of hostages, explosions, and men in SWAT uniforms shouting at each other. So far, so normal.

Then the delicious twist. A bus loaded with a bomb would detonate if the speed dipped under 50 mph. Cue a passenger who thrives under pressure, can handle a bus, and has preferably lost their license for speeding. Enter Annie. A humble office worker forced to take the bus to work with a bunch of other nobodies.

It didn’t take long to warm to Porter. She was savvy, cheeky, and cursed like—ironically—a bus driver. We assumed manly Jack would take over the wheel and thank Annie for her efforts, but it wasn’t to be. Instead, the wisecracking Porter held strong and dealt with crowded L.A. freeways, sudden diversions, and passenger transfers—all while belting along at 60 mph.

Traven was the cool, dependable cop, but Annie was the everyday girl who stole the show. She was scared out of her wits but stuck it out. Porter gave us hope that if the time came and we were called upon to drive a bomb-rigged bus, we could. Or to at least encourage the person next to us to give it a try.^[2]

8 Dustin Hoffman as “Babe” Levy in Marathon Man

Always be wary of the history student. While this advice may not be dispensed to crooked government agents around the world, Babe Levy showed they at least deserve respect. For if a scrawny, mild-mannered graduate can kill spies and force Nazis to eat their own diamonds, then who can’t?

In Marathon Man, Babe Levy got up from the canvas time and time again. He was kidnapped, bashed, shot at, and had his teeth wrenched out. Yet the indomitable spirit of the everyman prevailed, and Levy ended up handing out several ass-kickings of the highest order. These included blasting away an assassin and forcing a psychotic ex-Nazi to eat his precious diamonds at gunpoint.

It seems you can only push around a history graduate for so long.

An insight as to what made the Babe character tick was his hobby—marathons. Marathon runners are renowned for being tough, gritty types that keep on keeping on. Good thing marathons were his hobby. If he was into, say, pine-cone painting, he wouldn’t have survived the first 20 minutes, and the title wouldn’t be as catchy.^[3]

Not that there’s anything wrong with pine-cone painting.

7 Neve Campbell as Suzie Toller in Wild Things

In a cast of thoroughly unlikeable people, Suzie Toller reigned supreme as the most cunning and arguably most deserving survivor. Suzie was a hero in the greyest sense of the word. An obvious victim—poor, troubled, promiscuous—with a penchant for Goth fashion. A quick exit, one might think, but not in the seriously complicated Wild Things.

Toller outwitted her school friends, the police, the audience, and probably the screenwriters, so multi-layered was her scheme. After being seemingly killed off mid-movie, Suzie turned up for some serious payback in the final credits. If ever there was a movie that demanded sitting through the final credits, this would be it.

To earn her million-plus, Toller had to pull out her teeth with pliers, fake a death, shoot an accomplice, and then poison her unsuspecting lover.

Did she have her flaws? Of course. Was she as bad as her victims? Probably not. Was she unlikely? Definitely.^[4]

6 Nicholas Cage as Stanley Goodspeed in The Rock

Guitar-strumming, Beatles-loving biochemists are as unlikely as action heroes get. Stanley Goodspeed reasonably assumed the FBI just wanted him to play with some chemicals. After all, they had legendary SAS man Sean Connery and a terribly serious-looking SEAL team on their side. Goodspeed was far more at home in a bath, stroking his pregnant fiancée’s stomach.

As he summed himself up to Connery’s John Mason—”I lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo, a beige one.”

When Goodspeed and a SEAL team were sent to secure Alcatraz from madmen, his job description was quickly revised. The entire SEAL team was annihilated, and Goodspeed was suddenly required to assume more violence-related responsibilities. No problem for John, big problem for Stanley. This is why we loved him as the unapologetic pacifist, forced into playing war games with overgrown boys.

Did he bite his tongue and refuse to complain? Of course not. Did he save the entire Bay Area from destruction with unbridled determination to stick it to the bad guys, probably stewing inside him since school? Of course he did.^[5]

5 Jessica Chastain as Maya Harris in Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty’s initial scenes suggest that CIA agent Maya is there to provide support to senior member Dan, who’s no slouch in the torturing department. Maya is shocked and even nauseated by a prisoner’s treatment but relents, recognizing the bigger goal. She reminds the prisoner that he controls his fate, and we realize she’s no soft touch.

It becomes apparent that she knows exactly what she’s doing, and the powers that be start taking her seriously, very seriously. The condescension stops.

As the film reaches its climax, we see Maya stare down the CIA director and then order a battle-hardened SEAL team to fly into Pakistan and take out one U.B.L. She calmly tells them, “Bin Laden is there. And you’re going to kill him for me.”

It’s an unlikely hero providing a truly memorable goosebumps moment.^[6]

4 Jamie Foxx as Max Durocher in Collateral

If you thought driving a cab for a living sucked, Collateral proved it. We see Max as a patient soul who is a complete professional. His cab is immaculately clean, and he politely insists on providing the fastest routes. He keeps a postcard of an island under his visor for a mental escape when the job gets too demanding.

It gets very demanding when Tom Cruise’s Vincent jumps into the cab. Well-spoken, if slightly abrupt—if only he wasn’t a psychopathic hitman with a long list.

Max watches Vincent calmly shoot two thugs in less than three seconds. He realizes how out of his depth he is and can guess only too well how it’ll end. As Vincent’s hits tally up, the head games begin, and Max is subjected to taunts, not just from his captor but his own mother.

The tension is cranked up to an eleven when Max has to pose as Vincent, which involves the not-Latino Max entering a packed Latino club without soiling himself. Like every great unlikely hero, he has two choices. Either lie quivering in the fetal position or do whatever he can. Impersonate a hitman, kill said hitman…^[7]

Don’t think, act. Heroes don’t overthink.

3 Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson in Fargo

When Marge Gunderson lumbered onto the screen in Fargo, we admired her for still slaving away despite being seven months pregnant. It seemed clear she was there to add a few gags and provide insights to the detective/s who would soon take over, being pregnant and all.

Obviously not. Behind the folksy Minnesotan accent full of “yah’s” and “you don’t say’s” was a fierce intellect and razor-sharp B.S. detector.

Marge was almost Colombo-esque in her unhurried approach, lulling suspect Jerry Lundegaard into thinking he was smarter. She came at him slowly from different angles, outfoxing him with logic and decisive questioning that left him tongue-tied.

After hunting down kidnappers all day, Marge nestled next to hubby Norm and asked him about his stamp paintings. Just because the rest of the world was losing its head didn’t mean they had to. As she scolded a kidnapper who had just fed his partner into a wood chipper, “there’s more to life than a little money, ya know.”^[8]

Perfect Fargo wisdom.

2 Harrison Ford as Richard Kimble in The Fugitive

Kimble was the classic underdog. A dithery-looking surgeon framed for the murder of his wife and hunted down by the scene-chewing Tommy Lee Jones. When his prison bus crashed and Kimble escaped, we thought, “Okay, he’s free, but now what?” How to prove his innocence and how to get rid of a dreadful-looking beard?

Thankfully, the beard soon went, and Kimble’s stock began to rise. This was a desperate but very resourceful man.

What made Kimble truly memorable was Ford’s ability to portray an everyday guy, scared out of his wits but still able to focus on survival and revenge. This meant acting as a hospital janitor to pick up clues while keeping an eye peeled for the police.

Kimble simply kept his head and played the long game. Being a surgeon didn’t hurt either—they’re generally a smart bunch.^[9]

1 Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in The Terminator

Unlikely heroes are generally confronted by an evil individual—a human, usually. Not so for Sarah Connor. The restaurant waitress versus a cyborg from the future—hardly fair. Sure, she was helped along by an efficient Kyle Reese and a largely inefficient LAPD.

Sarah caught on fast, though, realizing the Terminator wasn’t going anywhere. She soon got used to throwing pipe bombs and high-speed truck chases, all the while remaining suitably terrified. Connor finally destroyed it with the help of a hydraulic press, sending it off with the immortal, “You’re terminated, f**ker.”

There would be no more waiting on tables for Sarah Connor, and even if there was, it’s unlikely she would have put up with someone whining about no ketchup.^[10]

The unlikely hero taps into something deep down that they and the audience didn’t know they had. They not only lift our spirits for two hours of riotous fun, but we leave the cinema walking a little taller and feeling a little better about our own lives, knowing that if we crossed paths with a cyborg or assassin one day, we’d probably be alright.

As children, we all had our favorite superheroes. We loved them, worshipped them, pretended to be them, dressed like them and even talked like them. Now that we’re adults, we are all well aware that heroes are in high demand but can rarely be found. The overwhelming ugliness and depravity found everywhere in the world today, has desensitized us to the point where hardly anything seems shocking or repulsive anymore.

SEE ALSO: 10 Outrageous Real Life Superheroes

Luckily we don’t need superpowers or a cape to make a difference in the world. To accomplish heroic acts, all we need is a willing mind and a willing heart. Many of the courageous, self-sacrificing people on this list were nominated as CNN heroes. They have all proven that an ordinary person can achieve extraordinary feats and make a difference in the lives of others.

The absence of clean water and its consequent illnesses kills more children every year than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. These and other water crisis statistics encouraged Hendley, who was working as a barman, to raise money by pouring wine to promote and support water projects worldwide. As of 2004 his non-profit organization, Wine to Water, has worked in Sudan, India, Cambodia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Peru, South Africa and Kenya and they have implemented sustainable drinking water initiatives for thousands of people. The organization also responded to the 2010 Haiti earthquake by implementing water purification systems in the disaster areas. The organization also provides training to local workers in installing water purification systems, digging, maintaining wells, and more. To date they have dug hundreds of wells in Cambodia, Africa, and Peru—always making use of local workers to stimulate the economy.

Jorge Muñoz arrived in America as an illegal immigrant in the early ’80s. He became a citizen in 1987. One evening as he left a bar he noticed all the destitute and illegal day laborers and the flame in his heart was lit. He found out that most of the men sleep under a bridge or in the Elmhurst Hospital’s emergency room and skimped on meals in order to send money to their loved ones at home. Since then, he has been cooking enough food to feed dozens of day laborers in Queens which he delivers at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and 73rd Street in Jackson Heights every evening at 21:30. Munoz delivers the warm, cooked meals in rain, snow, thunder, and lightning. He estimates that he has served food to more than 70,000 people since 2004. The whole operation is financed from the $600 he receives weekly for driving a school bus and donations. On August 4, 2010, Munoz was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Barack Obama.

Aki Ra was a very young boy when he was chosen by the Khmer Rouge to become a child soldier. He laid thousands of mines and fought for the Khmer Rouge until 1983. During his time in the Cambodian army he received landmine clearance training with the United Nations and heard his true calling. Without any demining tools, he started to illegally clear and defuse mines and UXO’s in the areas he had fought with nothing but a knife, Leatherman and a stick. As his name and work became known, tourists flocked to his home to see the collection of defused artillery. Charging a dollar per person the Cambodia Landmine Museum came into being. To open the museum, Aki Ra had to cease his illegal clearing of the mines, but was able to establish a NGO—Cambodian Self Help Demining (CSHD)—and he is now certified to do his life’s work. Over the course of time, Aki Ra also adopted many of the injured and abandoned children he found in the villages he visited. Today, 29 children live at the Cambodia Landmine Relief Center.

Pushpa Basnet was an undergraduate in Social Work when she had to visit a female prison in Kathmandu as part of a college assignment. The sight of the prisoners’ children living behind bars along with their mothers urged her on to raise enough money to start The Early Development Center (ECDC) and Butterfly Home. These non-profit organizations provide a day-care program to the children and are a residential home for the older children to live in throughout the year. Pushpa’s organizations also aid and provide these children with school enrollment, meals, and medical care. As of 2009 she is also teaching the incarcerated women handcrafts so as to enable them to generate an income to contribute towards raising their children. To date she has assisted more than 100 children.

Eugene and Minhee Cho have always been aware of the imbalances in the world. It was only when they started traveling and saw with their own eyes the “faces” of the people living in extreme poverty, that they founded One Day’s Wages—A non-profit organization based on the principal of donating one day’s wages to uplift and enable those in need. In 2009 they donated their entire yearly income to their cause just to let people know they wouldn’t ask something of others if they weren’t willing to do it themselves. To date, they have funded over 40 projects and in doing so have given nutritional support, provided HIV treatment and care, improved access to maternal care, provided clean water, funded lifesaving heart surgeries and provided an education to hundreds of individuals globally.

SEE ALSO: Top 10 Superheroes Who Struggle With Mental Health

Narayanan Krishnan was an award-winning chef on his way to a very bright future when the sight of an old and destitute man eating his own human waste out of hunger put his life on a different course. He quit his job during the next week and within a year he had founded the Akshaya Trust, which feeds and take care of the destitute and mentally disabled people in Mandurai, Tamil Nadu. He prepares and serves three warm and fresh vegetarian meals every day, which he often hand feeds to the people that he seeks out under bridges and other desolate and abandoned spots. Krishnan also carries a comb, scissor and razor with him to provide extra dignity to those he cares for. Today, Krishnan sleeps in Akshaya’s kitchen along with his co-workers, he has no income and scrapes by with the support of his parents. To date he has served more than 1.2 million meals to India’s destitute.

Whilst traveling in India in 1979, Marc Gold met a woman suffering from a terrible ear infection. He paid $1 for her antibiotics and a further $30 for a hearing aid that restored her hearing. It was at that moment that he came to the realization that you can do a lot with almost nothing. On his arrival back home, he sent letters to 100 friends and asked for donations he could use during his next trip. To date, Marc has been on 22 missions in 67 countries; he has raised nearly $600,000 and has purchased everything from bicycles and rice to sewing machines, schools, and mosquito nets. As founder and director of the 100 Friends Project, he simply goes looking for problems in the slums, at hospitals, clinics and orphanages. His only request is that recipients give back by helping others.

In 1984 Dr. Rick Hodes went to Ethiopia to do relief work during the famine. He originally planned on working there for one year, but after realizing the African people’s extreme needs and knowing that he was uniquely qualified to help them, he stayed. After almost three decades, he still practices at hospitals in Addis Ababa and Gondor. He has served tens of thousands of people through immunization, family planning, community health, nutritional support and his specialist field—spine deformities. He was also partly responsible in ensuring the safe immigration of 14,000 Ethiopians via a historic airlift to Israel in 48 hours. His greatest passion however, remains to volunteer at Mother Teresa’s Mission for the Destitute and Dying where he cares for critically ill children that others have abandoned. During his time in Ethiopia he has adopted five children and he also supports and houses another fifteen whom he sees as part of his extended family.

Raped at the age of six and orphaned by the age of nine, Betty Makoni somehow managed to stay strong, survive and put herself through school by selling fruits and vegetables. In 1999 she founded the Girl Child Network (GCN) in response to Zimbabwe’s pandemic of child sexual abuse, especially that of young girls. Her organization is spread over 35 of Zimbabwe’s 58 districts. She has clubs at schools that informs girls and encourages them to speak out and report on abuse. She has also built three “empowerment villages” or homes for abuse victims whom she feeds, provides with medical care and educates. She has fought against the exploitation and abuse of girls at the highest levels of society, in the process becoming a target of state harassment and receiving many death threats. To date, Betty has saved more than 7,000 (some estimates say as many as 35,000) girls from abuse, child labor, forced marriages, human trafficking and sexual assault.

According to the United Nations, there were 185 documented attacks on schools and hospitals in 2012 by armed groups opposed to girls’ education. According to Razia Jan, she hears about girls attacked with acid or being poisoned every single day. Despite the threats, she opens the doors of her Zabuli Education Center every school day. In this 2-story, 14-room building, 354 girls from the surrounding seven villages are receiving a free education. To keep students safe, Razia’s school is surrounded by a stone wall, there are guards and staff that open and inspect classrooms every day to check the air and water quality. They are so scared of poisoning that children are accompanied to the bathrooms to make sure they do not drink tap water. At the Zabuli Education Center, one year’s tuition fees per girl are $300. Razia covers the school fees through donations made to her non-profit organization, Razia’s Ray of Hope, based in the USA.

SEE ALSO: 10 Consequences Of Being A Superhero In Real Life

Hestie lives in Pretoria, South Africa. She is in absolute awe of the people on this list and the work that they do.

As yet another September rolls by, people worldwide are reminded of the terror that shook the world 19 years ago. As is often the case, many commemorate this terrible event by sharing memories of where they were on what they thought would be just another ordinary workday.

10 Reasons Some Remain Suspicious Of The Official 9/11 Account

In my case, being from South Africa, I first heard the news while driving back from work on 11 September 2001 at around 4 pm. It was the first time I had heard of the towers and couldn’t make sense of the reports over the radio. Seeing the visuals on TV later, I remember not understanding why a pilot couldn’t see the massive towers right in front of him. Then, as reality dawned, I remember feeling as though the world had been changed in a way that could never be undone.

There have been many terrorist attacks after that infamous day, and just as on 9/11, many heroes have stepped up to save the lives of others, regardless of their own safety.

On this list are just some of their stories.

10 Mumbai Terrorist Attack

“It was my responsibility… I may have been the youngest person in the room, but I was still doing my job.”

On 26 November 2008, ten members of Lashkar-e-Taiba started a reign of terror in Mumbai that lasted four days. The gunmen travelled from Pakistan to Mumbai via boat, hijacking a fishing trawler on the way. They killed four crewmembers, slit the captain’s throat, and threw the bodies overboard. Once in Mumbai, they split into three groups, stormed several buildings, and started their killing spree with automatic weapons and grenades. By 29 November, more than 170 people were dead, over 300 wounded and 9 of the attackers were also dead. The lone surviving gunman was sentenced to death and executed on 21 November 2012.

One of the buildings attacked was the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. Alongside all the guests, there was a hosted dinner for Unilever directors and executives managed by around 35 Taj Mumbai employees. While serving the main course, loud bangs sounded up and those inside the restaurant initially thought they were hearing fireworks. However, staff very quickly realized something wasn’t right and the banquet manager, 24-year-old Mallika Jagad, instructed guests to lie down under the tables. She separated husbands and wives and urged them to refrain from using cell phones. While the rest of the hotel was ravaged by the terrorists, the group in the restaurant remained quiet and were looked after by hotel staff. The next morning, after a fire had started, guests were rescued by a fire crew.

Jagad later said that even though she was the youngest person in the room, she felt that she had to continue doing her job and her guests’ safety was her number one priority.

Her quick actions saved the lives of more than 60 people.^[1]

9 Pulse Gay Nightclub Shooting

“He helped so many people. My son! A hero!”

While patrons of Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, were having a great time dancing on 12 June 2016 they could never have predicted that the night would end in tragedy. 29-year-old security guard, Omar Mateen, entered the club and started shooting. He killed 49 people and wounded 53 others. Mateen was shot and killed after a three-hour stand-off with police and negotiators. During this time, he told one of the negotiators that he had perpetrated the attack in retaliation to the US killing of Abu Waheeb in Iraq. The FBI declared the incident a terrorist attack.

When the shooting began, there were many patrons and staff who stepped up and tried to save the lives of others with no concern for their own safety. One of these heroes was Imran Yousuf who was employed as a bouncer at Pulse. His Marine Corps training kicked in and he saved more than 60 people who had been trapped inside the building. Other heroes included Ray Rivera, Joshua McGill, and Christopher Hansen.

Hansen continued to help two people who had been injured and bleeding outside the club, while the shooting continued relentlessly inside. It was his first time at the club, and he never envisioned the night ending with him taking off his bandana and using it to stop the bleeding of a man who had been shot in the back. He also helped a woman who had a gunshot wound to the arm and promised to stay with her until paramedics could get to her.

Hansen’s father later wrote on Facebook: “I am so proud of my son. Both as a man, and as a gay man. He helped so many people. My son! A hero! Amongst all the tragedy, helping others.”^[2]

8 French Terrorist Attack

“He was concentrating on me; in that moment he could not kill people.”

Just over a month after the Orlando tragedy, terror struck again, this time in Nice, France. There were crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day on the Promenade des Anglais on 14 July 2016, when a 19-tonne cargo truck drove straight into them. The truck was driven by Mohamed Lahouaej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had a residence in France. The attack cost the lives of 86 people with a further 458 injured. Lahouaej-Bouhlel was shot and killed by police and the Islamic State afterwards claimed responsibility for the attack.

Just before the tragedy, a local airport worker named Franck Terrier was on his motorcycle on the way to the promenade to meet up with his son. His wife was with him and they stopped to get some ice-cream. At this point the truck sped past him and Franck saw the vehicle driving into people. Thinking about his son who was at the end of the promenade, Franck jumped on his motorcycle and started chasing the truck. He leaped off the bike, clung to the side of the truck door and started hitting Lahouaej-Bouhlel over the head and in the face as hard as he could. The attacker tried to shoot at Franck, but the gun wouldn’t go off. He then hit him with the gun and Franck fell from the side of the truck, breaking a rib.

Franck said afterwards that he was pleased that he was able to distract the attacker from killing more people as he was only focused on getting him off the truck. Franck and another hero, Gwenaël Leriche, received medals from the City of Nice for trying to stop the terrorist.^[3]

7 Boston Marathon Bombing

“I know exactly when my life changed: when I looked into the face of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.”

When two pressure cooker bombs detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on 15 April 2013, there was instant confusion and panic. Three people were killed, hundreds injured, and 17 people lost limbs. As people tried to escape, several heroes emerged who did their best to help them as well as assist those who had been injured.

Carlos Arredondo, Devin Wang, and Paul Mitchell rushed an injured Jeff Bauman from the scene and were later credited with helping to save his life after he suffered traumatic injuries. Bauman, who lost both of his legs, helped to identify one of the brothers responsible for the bombings.

Many of the runners who were near the explosion ran on to help victims, despite having just run 26 miles and being exhausted. Some ran to Mass General Hospital to donate blood. Dr. Allan Panter was at the finish line, waiting for his wife to finish the race when the blast happened. He immediately ran to an injured woman, keeping her airway open until paramedics got there. He helped several other victims and controlled the bleeding from their wounds.^[4]

6 Berlin Terrorist Attack

2016 was a year of heightened Islamist terrorist activity in Europe with attacks in Brussels, Nice, Germany, and Normandy. Six days before Christmas, the Christmas market next to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin was buzzing with visitors. This market is one of over 70 in Berlin where tourists can purchase various arts and crafts.

Suddenly there was a commotion and people looked up from their perusing to see a large truck headed straight towards them. The driver was Anis Amri, a failed asylum seeker, who had shot and killed the truck’s original driver Lukasz Urban. Urban’s body was in the passenger seat. Amri launched the truck into the crowd, killing 12 people and leaving 56 injured.

Luca Scata, a rookie Milan policeman who had joined the force just nine months earlier, faced off with Amri in Italy four days later. Scata and his partner asked to search Amri’s backpack when he told them he didn’t have any identity documents. Amri pulled out a gun and shot Scata’s partner in the shoulder. Scata immediately fired back at Amri, killing him.

At the time, Amri was considered Europe’s most wanted man, and Scata was hailed a hero.^[5]

10 Heroic Police Officers Who Gave Their Lives on 9/11

5 Nairobi Terrorist Attack

“What he did was so heroic… he went back in 12 times and saved 100 people”

On 21 September 2013, the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya was buzzing with the usual shopper activity. The busy but peaceful atmosphere was shattered when a group of masked gunmen stormed the mall and started shooting and throwing grenades. The aftermath saw part of the mall collapse in a fire, 71 deaths and 200 injured people. The attack lasted several hours, and responsibility was claimed by al-Shabaab who said it was in retribution for the deployment of Kenyan soldiers in Somalia.

After the attack, an unnamed former Royal Marine was hailed as a hero when it emerged that he saved at least 100 people from the attack with only a handgun for protection. The ex-soldier was at the mall with friends when around 13 attackers began shooting at random. The man led several shoppers to safety, going back into the mall 12 times to ensure he could help as many people as possible.

He remains unnamed for security reasons.^[6]

4 Ariana Grande Concert Attack

“I ran into the bomb. I still don’t know to this day why I did it.”

Excitement was in the air in Manchester on the evening of 22 May 2017. Fans of Ariana Grande couldn’t wait for her long-anticipated Manchester Arena concert to begin. The concert was all they hoped it would be and around 14,000 fans were preparing, reluctantly, to leave the arena after the show ended.

At that point, a homemade bomb stuffed full of shrapnel, went off, killing 23 people and wounding more than 800. 22-year-old Salman Ramadan Abedi had detonated the bomb and was killed in the blast.

There were many children at the venue, along with their parents. Daren Buckley had been at the show with his son, Lewis, whom he ensured was safe after the blast. He then ran back to where the explosion had taken place and grabbed nearby t-shirts that had been on sale, to try and stem the blood loss of the wounded. Buckley continued to assist wherever he could until police arrived to secure the area. Afterwards he simply stated that he ran into the bomb but still doesn’t know why.

There is currently an ongoing public enquiry into the bombing with issues being explored such as security arrangements, planning and preparation by Abedi and his brother, emergency response and whether the attack could have been prevented.^[7]

3 Paris Siege

“He was calm and in charge.”

On 13 November 2015 Paris found itself under siege when a group of gunmen and suicide bombers hit six locations almost simultaneously, leaving 130 people dead and hundreds wounded. Explosions shook the Stade de France stadium and a fast-food outlet nearby. Attacks unfolded at popular nightlife spots around the same time. Around 12,000 emergency, health, military, and security workers responded to the ambush.

While an attack was being carried out at the Bataclan concert hall, 35-year-old Algerian security guard Didi rushed to the scene to help concert goers escape. When interviewed afterwards, Didi said that he knew he had to get as many people to safety as he could, because “these terrorists have come to kill as many people as they can.”

He followed the gunmen inside and started opening doors for people to escape through. He yelled for people to follow him to the exits. Those who followed Didi’s lead later told news reporters that the security guard was ‘calm and in charge’ and that ‘we felt secure and knew we’d be safe with him.’

Didi was awarded French citizenship in 2016.^[8]

2 Unsung Heroes

On 7 July 2005, London would forevermore be changed by a series of terrorist attacks perpetrated by four suicide bombers carrying rucksacks filled with explosives. They detonated 3 bombs on Underground trains and one on a double-decker bus during morning rush hour traffic. 52 people died and hundreds were injured. The bombers all died during the attacks.

Tremendous courage was shown by unsung heroes in the aftermath of the atrocities. One of them helped a gravely injured John Tulloch stay awake by chatting about their respective children. Cp Capt Craig Staniforth ensured that Tulloch didn’t drift off to sleep as his head injuries would probably have meant he wouldn’t wake up again.

Suhel Boodi, who’d never done CPR, tried desperately to save 29-year-old Laura Webb by following the instructions of a fellow commuter. Another hero, Steven Desborough, comforted Carrie Taylor in her last minutes, while encouraging others who had been trapped beneath debris. Teacher Tim Coulson also tried to save Michael Brewster, smashing his way out of a carriage to reach the man.^[9]

1 9/11

“Stop crying. I have to get these people out safely.”

After the towers came down on 11 September 2001, controversy bloomed. Dozens of conspiracy theories of ‘inside jobs’ and ‘explosions, not planes’ swirled the internet. Some conspiracy theorists are still looking for evidence that the Pentagon was hit by a missile and speculating about the “missing debris” of United Airlines flight 93.

However, this doesn’t overshadow the fact that nearly three thousand people lost their lives that day and that several heroes stepped up to help during one of the darkest events in US history.

24-year-old Welles Crowther (pictured) left his mother a voicemail saying that he was ok. After ending the call, he made his way to the injured. He carried a woman down 15 floors to safety and went back up to the 78th floor sky lobby to assist firefighters. His body was recovered later in a stairwell alongside some of the firefighters and a rescue tool.

Two former US Marines, Jason Thomas and Dave Karnes, got back into their uniforms to search the rubble for survivors. They found two people still alive.
On American Airlines Flight 11, two flight attendants stayed as calm as they could and relayed information that eventually helped the FBI determine that the terrorists were al- Qaeda.

Soldier and police officer, Rick Rescorla, sang songs to keep people calm during evacuations. He was head of security for Morgan Stanley which was based in the South Tower and has been credited for saving more than 2,700 lives. He was last seen on the 10th floor of the South Tower after calling his wife and telling her that she needed to stop crying because he had to get the people inside the tower to safety. He also told his wife that she made his life and that he’d never been happier.

Rescorla’s body was never found.^[10]

10 Disturbing Raw Videos From 9/11

The Holocaust is one of the most horrific events in human history. Because it happened in the 20th-century, it is one of the most well-documented and detailed accounts of human suffering ever chronicled. The Nazis systematically slaughtered millions of people, and far fewer escaped the torture and degradation inflicted upon the populace by Goebbels and Hitler’s Final Solution of the Jewish Question.

During the Holocaust, there were thousands of people who defied the rules set down by the Nazis, and collectively, they saved countless Jews, homosexuals, African Europeans, Romany, and other minorities from certain death. The stories of their brave defiance against Hitler and his followers stand as a testament to the heroism of a select few.

The following people are listed in no particular order, as each one stands as a hero worthy of praise. These amazing people did whatever they could during the darkest of times, and are heroes of the Holocaust.

10 Amazing Ways People Survived The Holocaust

10 Oskar Schindler

One of the most well-known people who defied the orders of Nazi Germany was Oskar Schindler. The details of his work in saving Jews from execution were detailed in Steven Spielberg’s award-winning film, Schindler’s List, which was released in 1993. Schindler was a member of the Nazi party, prior to the outbreak of war, he spied against Czechoslovakia by reporting railway information and troop movements to the Nazis. He continued in this vein for Poland, and in 1939, he acquired an enamelware factory in Kraków, Poland, which came with approximately 1,000 Jewish “workers.”

For the next five years, Schindler worked to ensure the safety of his workforce, and through his connections, he was able to keep them from being deported to concentration camps. As the war progressed, this became more difficult, and he utilized the black market to bribe Nazi officials. Schindler was able to convince Amon Göth to let him move his factory to Moravia when the Eastern lines began to close in on Poland. He created a typed list of 1,200 Jews to take with him, and when the war ended, he had spent his entire fortune ensuring their safety. Schindler and his wife Emilie were named Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government in 1993.^[1]

9 Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn is probably best known for her acting work on classic films, including My Fair Lady, Roman Holiday, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but those films are hardly the only thing she did in her life. Her most important role wasn’t in a Hollywood film; rather, it was a story about a Dutch aristocrat who aided in her nation’s resistance against the Nazis and helped people escape their persecution. After her uncle, Otto Ernst Gelder, was executed by the Nazis, she joined up with the Dutch Resistance, aided Jews in hiding, raising funds through her work as a prima ballerina to keep those people safe through the conflict.

Hepburn and her mother heard the destruction of their home town when the Allies were defeated at the battles of Arnhem and Oosterbeek. She risked her life to protect a British soldier, and she and her mother worked as assistants to nurses. She was once rounded up by the Nazis, and faced certain death, but was able to escape. Hepburn was greatly affected by the war, and would never repeat her uncle’s name following his death. She declined to appear in A Bridge Too Far because it depicted the battles she suffered through. Hepburn continued to work in support of humanitarian efforts following WWII and became a UNICEF ambassador, working with children affected by the conflict.^[2]

8 Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, diplomat, and businessman who is best known for his work saving tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during the Holocaust. Between July and December 1944, Wallenberg worked as Sweden’s special envoy to Budapest, where he was responsible for issuing passports. While working in this capacity, Wallenberg issued 650 protective passports to Jews with any connection to Sweden, helping to save them from deportation to concentration camps. During this time, he also managed to hide and shelter Jews in 32 buildings, two hospitals, and a soup kitchen owned and operated by the Swedish government. The Swedish designation kept them part of Swedish territory and off-limits to the Nazis.

Wallenberg also gave approximately 4,500 Jews a protective letter, which kept them from being used as slave labor, and they weren’t required to wear a yellow Star of David. Wallenberg survived the Siege of Budapest in 1945, though, he was detained on suspicion of espionage. He was never seen again, and it’s believed he was imprisoned by the KGB in Lubyanka, where he likely died. His work during the war has earned him numerous recognitions, including being named Righteous Among Nations by the Israeli government. Additionally, a committee named in his honor awards the Raoul Wallenberg Award on an annual basis for anyone who has been noted to “perpetuate the humanitarian ideals and the nonviolent courage of Raoul Wallenberg.”^[3]

7 Johan Van Hulst

Johan Willem van Hulst was a Dutch university professor, author, politician, and school director who is remembered for saving the lives of 600 Jewish children. In 1943, he worked alongside members of the Dutch Resistance and students of the University of Amsterdam to save children from the nursery of the Hollandsche Schouwburg, all of whom were set for deportation to Nazi concentration camps. Hulst’s Reformed Teacher Training College sat across the street from the theater, where Jews were processed to be deported to camps around Europe. When they arrived, their children were separated from the families and sent to a local nursery, which shared a garden with Hulst’s college.

Beginning in January 1943, Hulst, alongside an army of resistance members, began finding families who could adopt Jewish children they physically resembled. When a match was made, the child’s name was stricken from the Nazi records, and they were spirited over a hedge in the garden. They were often hidden in bags or baskets and then moved throughout the city. Hulst spoke about his work decades later after the Nazis ordered 100 children to be sent to the camps. “Now try to imagine 80, 90, perhaps 70 or 100 children standing there, and you have to decide which children to take with you….That was the most difficult day of my life….You know for a fact that the children you leave behind are going to die. I took 12 with me. Later on, I asked myself: ‘Why not 13?’”^[4]

6 Adolfo Kaminsky

Adolfo Kaminsky was a member of the French Resistance during the Nazi Occupation of France. He specialized in the forgery of documents, and he worked tirelessly throughout the war to forge identity papers for more than 14,000 Jews. Kaminsky entered into the Resistance at the age of 17, after the Nazis killed his mother. Early in his career as a resistance fighter, he sent messages to London about train movements. After nearly being deported in 1943, Kaminsky and the rest of his family moved to Paris. He began working in an underground laboratory, forging papers for Jews the Nazis were actively seeking in France.

Kaminsky was devoted to his forgery operations, and he once said of his work, “Keep awake. The longer possible. Struggle against sleep. The calculation is easy. In one hour, I make 30 false papers. If I sleep one hour, 30 people will die.” Following the Liberation of Paris in 1944, he joined the French Army and became involved in the creation of false IDs for spies sent behind enemy lines. He continued his forgery operation after WWII in support of draft dodgers during the Algerian War. He supplied papers to other activist groups, never taking payment for his efforts, having supported one forgery operation or another for more than thirty years.^[5]

10 Inspiring Stories Of True Love From The Holocaust

5 Frank Foley

Major Francis “Frank” Edward Foley was a British Secret Intelligence Service officer who was responsible for passport control at the British Embassy in Berlin before the war. In this capacity, he issued thousands of papers to Jewish families who were escaping Nazi Germany following the Night of Broken Glass, just before the war began. His work before the war has labeled him as the “British Schindler,” due to the thousands of people he saved. It’s difficult to estimate precisely how many people Foley kept from ending up in concentration camps, but the numbers are likely more than 10,000 Jews.

Foley risked his life by bending the rules in Berlin, and the papers he issued helped Jewish families escape quasi-legally to Britain or Palestine, which was controlled by Britain at the time. He also went into internment camps on several occasions and helped them escape. He protected several in his home until he could get them forged documents. He wasn’t recognized for his efforts saving Jews during his lifetime, but since his death in 1958, he has been recognized by numerous governments, including the British government, which has designated him as a British Hero of the Holocaust, and the Israeli government, which identified him as Righteous Among the Nations.^[6]

4 Albert Göring

For anyone who has studied the people responsible for many of the events of WWII, they likely know the name Hermann Göring. He was the head of the Luftwaffe and a leading member of the Nazi party. Fortunately, he wasn’t the only member of his family, as his brother, Albert Göring, worked in opposition to his brother’s efforts. Albert was opposed to the Nazis from the beginning, and never supported his brother or his work. During the war, he helped Jews and other minorities persecuted by the Nazis in various ways. He used his influence to get his former Jewish boss, Oskar Pilzer, freed after the Nazis arrested him, and subsequently aided him and his family in escaping from Germany.

He forged his brother’s signature on various transit documents, allowing numerous dissidents and Jews to escape. He was eventually caught, but his last name got him out of trouble. He also sent trucks to concentration camps asking for workers, but the trucks would unload its ‘cargo’ in an isolated area, where they could escape. Göring was questioned during the Nurenberg Tribunal, and several people testified on his behalf, resulting in his release. He was vilified following the war due to his name and association with his brother, but he is now recognized as another hero of the Holocaust who saved the lives of many persecuted people.^[7]

3 Nicholas Winton

Nicholas Winton was a British humanitarian who actively worked to save as many children as he possibly could as World War II began to break out in Europe. He supervised the saving of 669 children, most of whom were Jewish, from Czechoslovakia shortly before the war started. Winton started this effort in 1938 when he created an organization with the mission of aiding Jewish children at risk from the Nazis. He set up an office at the table in his hotel room, and through some bureaucratic meddling, he gained permission to allow any refugees under the age of 17 legal entry into Britain, provided they had a place to stay and £50 meant for their return trip to their home country.

His efforts included writing politicians, asking if they would take any refugees. Sweden was the only other nation besides Britain to take any of the children. He managed to save 669 children, though he believed he could have saved more had the United States and other countries taken in some of the refugees. He went unrecognized for his efforts for 50 years, but in 1988, he was invited to the BBC program That’s Life! He was reunited with several of the children he saved, all of whom were adults. He was dubbed the “British Schindler” by the press. In 2003, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia.”^[8]

2 Carl Lutz

Carl Lutz was a Swiss diplomat who served as the Swiss Vice-Consul in Budapest, Hungary, from 1942 until the conclusion of World War II. By the end of the conflict, he saved more than 62,000 Jews in the largest Jewish rescue operation of the war. His actions saved half the Jewish population of Budapest, Hungary, from being deported to concentration camps. He accomplished this when, in 1944, after the Nazis occupied Budapest, he received special permission to issue 8,000 letters to Hungarian Jews, allowing them to emigrate to Palestine.

Skirting the rules, he applied the letters to whole families instead of individuals, but his real trick was to issue tens of thousands of letters, all numbered between one and 8,000. By doing this, he was able to save tens of thousands of people, but it wasn’t the only thing he did to save Jews. With the help of many others, he established 76 safe houses in and around Budapest, declaring them annexes of Swiss property, making them safe from Nazi soldiers. Because of his work, more than 62,000 were spared from the death camps, and he has since been recognized with the title of Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli government.^[9]

1 Irena Sendler

Irena Sendler was a Polish social worker and nurse who fought against the Nazi occupation of Poland via the Polish Underground. During the war, she worked in Warsaw for the Department of Social Welfare and Public Health, but her more important activities were carried out under less than official channels. She actively worked to save Jewish children alongside a network of like-minded workers, most of whom were women. Sendler helped to smuggle Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then provided them with false identity paperwork, indicating they belonged to Polish families willing to take the children in as their own. She also placed some in orphanages, and with Catholic nuns in convents.

She was suspected of participating in the Polish Resistance, and in 1943, she was arrested by the Gestapo but managed to hide the list of children she had on her at the time. Doing so saved the lives of countless people, which included the children and the people protecting them. She was scheduled to be executed, but escaped after the ?egota, the Polish Council to Aid Jews, bribed the German officials. Following the war, Sendler continued to work various humanitarian causes, and in 1965, the Israeli government recognized her as Righteous Among the Nations. She also received the Order of the White Eagle, the highest honor bestowed by the government of Poland.

In addition to these ten amazing humanitarians, there were thousands of brave men and women working underground and behind the scenes to save people from the Holocaust. While they can’t all be detailed on a list like this one, they should all be remembered for their bravery and sacrifice.
If you would like to help in the education and remembrance of the Holocaust and its survivors, please consider donating to organizations like The Zachor Holocaust Remembrance Foundation, The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, or any of the amazing non-profit charities out there working to ensure something like the Holocaust never happens again.^[10]

10 Havens During The Holocaust

The world has gone absolutely crazy for superheroes. There are tons of superhero movies in production and an endless supply of comic books as a ground zero source of inspiration. The comic industry has tried to capitalize on the success of heroes such as Batman, Spiderman, and Wonder Woman, but the results are not always so super.

Our list below will cover ten heroes whose powers are seemingly pointless. With so many attempts at creating new heroes, they can’t all be winners. Jazz, Squirrel Girl (seriously?), and the Almighty Dollar are just a few of the incredibly silly heroes that have been created over the years. Some of them even have catchphrases that are worse than their names and powers. Maybe these comic book editors are the real supervillains. So hunker down in your own “Fortress of Solitude” and get ready to marvel at some of the most pointless powers ever put in print.

Related: 10 Superhero Actors Who Have Their Own Tragic Backstories

10 Hindsight Lad

Hindsight Lad! Just saying his name brings a smile to my face. Marvel Comics created this hero. His name is very appropriate, and his powers are very pointless. Hindsight Lad has the incredible power of (you guessed it) hindsight. After various missions with his superhero pals, Hindsight Lad analyzes and understands how events could have played out differently. I guess his hindsight is 20/20?

Clearly, Marvel was scraping the bottom of the barrel when they came up with this one. To be honest, Hindsight Lad seems more like an annoying friend than a superhero. What’s next? Back-seat driver guy? The Grammar Corrector? Some of the other heroes on this list have even more pointless powers.

9 Cypher

Cypher has one thing that many heroes on this list do not: a cool name. With such a great name, it is too bad that his power is seemingly pretty useless. Cypher is one of the X-Men, like Wolverine, Storm, and Cyclops, but his power lies in linguistics. His mutation is that he can understand every language. While that may have seemed cool (or at least useful) at the time, now that we all walk around with Google translate in our pockets, he seems totally useless.

It seemed that Marvel came to the same conclusion in 1988 when he was killed off in a comic book. It turned out his story was not over because he came back to life in 2009. I think that a mutant power to understand different languages would barely qualify you as an X-Men, but I guess Professor X had to get his enrollment numbers up. Cypher’s very specific and rarely useful power makes him one of the most pointless heroes of all time.

8 Squirrel Girl

Yep, seriously, there is a comic book hero named Squirrel Girl. I am convinced that they only made this character because the name rhymes. There is certainly no other rhyme or reason to this character. Squirrel Girl is kind of like Aquaman, except her powers work above the ocean, and she can only communicate with one kind of animal: squirrels.

If you are in a squirrel or acorn-related emergency, this is the hero you want coming to your rescue. Otherwise, she is pretty worthless as far as heroes go. Squirrel Girl also takes on some of the powers of a squirrel. She can chew through wood, has a tail (for balance, I guess?), and has sharp claws. Squirrel Girl is a member of the Great Lakes Avengers, alongside another pointless hero on our list. Some of these heroes are crazy ideas, no doubt, but the creator of Squirrel Girl must have been totally nuts.

7 Almighty Dollar

Like many, Almighty Dollar is a hero who has a secret identity. However, his secret identity seems as though it would be pretty easy to crack. His name is J. Pennington Pennypacker, which is already a huge clue. Almighty Dollar also works as a CPA by day. You read that right; not only does Almighty Dollar have a name that clues to his identity, but he also works as an accountant!

Almighty Dollar can shoot pennies out of his wrist. Not only are his powers underwhelming and his secret identity not very secretive, but Almighty Dollar also has a cringeworthy catchphrase. When he’s hunting down his enemies (tax evaders?), he says he can “throw money at my problems.” As you may have guessed, this character did not stick around for long, and customers didn’t want to throw any pennies, much less dollars, at these comics.

6 Badrock

Many of the most recognized heroes from comic books are from the two biggest publishers, Marvel and DC. The next hero on our list was a creation of a much smaller company, Image Comics, as a part of their “Youngblood” series. At least, apparently. Badrock looks suspiciously familiar. This is because he is basically a copy of a much more famous hero, Marvel’s Thing. This means that his powers include super strength and resistance to damage.

However, this was not the only aspect of Badrock that Image Comics ripped off. Initially, Badrock had a better (or at least more logical) name of Bedrock. The creators of the Flintstones cartoons (Hanna-Barbera) contacted Image Comics, and they quickly changed the name to Badrock. Badrock’s catchphrase? “Yabba dabba doom.” Yikes. I think it is fair to say that the character of Badrock was yabba dabba doomed from the start.

Comic books and comic book heroes thrive on their unique qualities and creativity. Badrock had neither and simply made for a pointless hero.

5 Phone Ranger

A.G. Bell was just an ordinary telephone repairman. Yes, kids, that used to be a real job. He would travel from house to house, repairing home telephones. Until one day, his life totally changed! A.G. Bell was helping a customer fix their phone when he realized that the phone contained a message from an alien race. A.G. Bell created a super suit and a new persona using this alien technology. This is the origin story of the Phone Ranger, another Marvel hero on our list.

The Phone Ranger’s suit enabled him to connect to any telecommunications device. This allowed him to respond quickly to emergency calls. Unfortunately, his lack of useful powers led to an early death. While the Phone Ranger may have seemed like a cool idea at the time, looking back, it seems ludicrous. His special power was connecting with phones. Don’t phones do that anyway? While his origin story was much better than most on our list, the Phone Ranger’s powers were seemingly pointless and even laughable.

4 Razorback

The next hero on our list is one with regional roots. He is the hero of the state of Arkansas. Or he was designed to be, at least. Buford Hollis was a truck driver before he became the hero Razorback. Razorback has multiple powers, all of them with questionable utility. First, he has the “power” to drive, pilot, or operate any vehicle. He always names his vehicle “Big Pig.” While this is impressive, is it really a power?

His other power relates to the large hog head he wears as a head covering. It is electrically charged. Razorback is a clear attempt to pander to the state of Arkansas but was unsuccessful. Despite the best efforts of Marvel writers, including featuring Razorback in comics with Spiderman, She-Hulk, and other famous heroes, Razorback never achieved any of the same popularity. Maybe that is because he is a glorified cab driver with a silly hat.

3 Jazz

Jazz, or John Arthur Zander, is another Marvel hero with pointless powers. Jazz’s father was a genetic mutant who did not feel pain. Because he was not visibly a mutant, he could live in normal society. However, Jazz was not so lucky. He was born with blue skin. Maybe this was not so much of a “superpower” and was more of just a skin condition.

Jazz had a tough story arc throughout Marvel comics. First, he left home at 16, trying to become a famous rapper. He must not have been that great of a rapper because he was unsuccessful and eventually started dealing drugs instead. Finally, in one of the most pathetic deaths of a hero in comic history, Jazz was killed by another mutant, Johnny Dee, who created a voodoo doll of Jazz. Despite being branded as a mutant, Jazz had no useful powers and just suffered because of his blue skin.

2 Hepzibah

The next hero comes to us from another planet. Hepzibah is a Mephitisoid species, which means she is a humanoid with skunk characteristics. In fact, Hepzibah is not even her real name. Her real name cannot be pronounced because it is a series of smells. Hepzibah is a nickname by another comic book character, Corsair. Her powers are as strange as her name and origin.

She is acrobatic and has superhuman night vision and smell. Most uniquely, she can emit pheromones. Hepzibah has been embraced by the furry community for her animal characteristics, but overall, her powers are pretty useless. She definitely has an unforgettable look with a huge skunk tail. In recent comics, she has become more like a cat and less like a skunk. Her ears and tail may have changed over the years, but her powers remain mostly useless.

1 Mr. Immortal

The last hero on our list has a pretty dark origin story. As a young man, Craig Hollis was tricked into starting a fire by the villain Deathurge. The fire ended up killing both of Hollis’s parents. This obviously left Hollis feeling depressed. His depression led to suicide attempts. When Hollis realized he could not kill himself, Mr. Immortal was born.

He began to try and fight crime on his own. Eventually, he formed the Great Lakes Avengers along with Squirrel Girl. Mr. Immortal, as you might guess, cannot die. When he does, he is quickly resurrected, often with fits of rage. While this is certainly an amazing power, it is not very useful compared to flying, super speed, or superhuman strength. Mr. Immortal’s origin story is a sad one, and so is his superpower.

In life, there are heroes and villains. Then some were villains, who later found themselves on the winning side, and history painted them heroes by default. And finally, there are those who rose to the top of philanthropic stardom, invented a life-saving cure, or defeated an entire fascist movement by showing up, doing more than expected, and getting the results. People in society need heroes to bear their flag and fight the good fight. So it is no wonder those who stray from the path fall from those high perches and fall hard. Here are ten heroes who lived long enough to become the villain.

Related: 10 Heroes Who Lived To See Themselves Become The Villains

10 Henry Heimlich

Henry was an American thoracic surgeon and researcher credited with inventing a move meant to save people from choking—the Heimlich maneuver. Many of us have experienced the sensation of choking, yet not many know that in 2020, more than 4,900 people died from choking in the U.S. alone. That is a staggering amount of deaths, and one could only imagine what the numbers would look like had Henry not invented the Heimlich. It is, therefore, safe to say that Henry is directly responsible for saving thousands (if not millions) of lives around the world from turning smurf blue from unchewed steak.

However, his legacy turned sour when it became evident that his promoted use of the maneuver to assist drowning victims had destructive results. He also advocated for the use of malaria therapy to treat HIV. His controversial nature became so problematic that they even took the name of his own move from him, now calling it an abdominal thrust rather than a Heimlich. What a way to choke, Henry.^[1]

9 Philippe Petain

Henri Philippe Benoni Omer Petain, commonly known as Marshal Petain, was a French general who attained the position of Marshal of France during WW1. Amid the horrors of the war, he was credited for stopping the Germans at the Battle of Verdun and was given the killer nickname, the Lion of Verdun, for his exploits. A literal war hero for the French army, Petain turned villain faster than he could lift his arm in a Nazi salute when he became chief of state after Germany’s invasion in 1940.

In his pursuit of making France great again, he collaborated with the Nazi regime and adopted repressive measures against the Jewish populace. He was later sentenced to death, which was reduced to life imprisonment.^[2]

8 Jim Jones

In the earlier days of Jim Jones, he was known as a charismatic churchgoer with powers of healing and foresight. Not an uncommon personality for the time, yet Jones’s religious antics could be forgiven on the basis that he made waves fighting racial integration (which at the time did not go down well with the church elders) and established organizations that would help combat homelessness. Admirable qualities that nobody could fault, regardless of religion or creed.

It should have ended there, but Jones developed what some might call narcissistic personality disorder. Along with a strong contingent of followers, Jones established the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project—Jonestown—in Guyana. It became the home of the U.S.-based cult that Jones formed. Long story short, his whole congregation drank cyanide-laced kool-aid. Jones is therefore considered to be the cause of one of the largest religious mass suicide in the history of this world, killing 913 people (304 under the age of 18). Worst of all, he didn’t even drink his own poison.^[3]

7 Benedict Arnold

An American military officer who served in the Revolutionary War, he was hailed as a hero for his efforts. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose all the way to the rank of major general before defecting to the British side of the conflict and choosing the title of most hated man, possibly in the history of America.

Many theories have come about as to why Arnold became a defector: greed, debt, resentment of other officers, hatred for the Continental Congress, and even a desire for the colonies to remain under British rule. Yet financial woes seemed to be his main driver. Arnold allegedly avoided the gallows and fled to Britain after the war had concluded, where he lived out his life as an unsuccessful businessman/traitor. In pop culture, the words “Benedict Arnold” became synonymous with treason or becoming a traitor.^[4]

6 Richard Jewell (or, Rather, the Media)

Let’s clear something up first. Richard was not the villain, he was exonerated and cleared, yet his reputation had taken the blow nonetheless. This is more about the media becoming the villain than Richard being suspected of terrorism. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Richard discovered a suspicious-looking bag containing homemade explosive devices rigged to blow. After the discovery, Jewel was able to get attendees away from the danger zone; however, the blast still managed to kill one person and injure 111 others.

In a move that saved countless lives, Richard was hailed as a hero until a list of FBI suspects leaked, painting Richard as a suspect. The media turned sour quicker than milk left in the sun, as they lambasted him for his possible role in the bombings, even shaming his weight and overall appearance. In the end, Jewel was cleared. After multiple libel lawsuits and a few legal settlements, Jewel served in several police jobs before passing away due to health complications. From hero to villain to not villain.^[5]

5 Harry Harlow

In the early 20th century, many psychologists believed that showing affection toward children was merely a sentimental gesture rather than an essential developmental component. Harry Harlow set out to study the topic that wasn’t easy to quantify and measure—love. Harry performed tests in a series of controversial experiments using rhesus monkeys to show the effects of love and its absence. His work demonstrated the devastating result of social deprivation on young monkeys and revealed the importance of a caregiver’s love for childhood development.

Unethical already, it should have ended there. After his wife passed away from cancer, Harry doubled down on the villainous side of things. He began experimenting with punishment and reward before also creating things like the wire mother experiment, cages built to induce depression, tunnel of terror, and the pit of despair. Each is uniquely inhumane in its own way. Eventually, the ethics committee caught up and put a stop to his antics.^[6]

4 Linus Pauling

For a man who won Nobel prizes for chemistry and peace and published over a thousand papers and books dealing with an array of scientific topics, Linus was on a speedboat to become one of the most highly regarded scientific minds of his generation. Linus did a lot of work in studying Vitamin C and the positive effects it could have on the body, making such claims that it can cure cancer, which the medical fraternity shot down with scorn.

Instead of taking the criticism on the chin, he directed all his energy to prove those who disagreed with him wrong. This endeavor proved to be a bridge too far, as it turned out he was, in fact, wrong. It wasn’t that he was an evil man per se, but rather that his insistence on being right caused a ripple effect that could be seen even today among those who seem to consume vitamins like Tic-Tacs thinking that they might reap the benefits.^[7]

3 Fritz Haber

If Fritz Haber was a superhero, he would be called the “Two-sided Coin,” as he had one of the most “good guy, bad guy” lives in all of history. But actually, Haber was nothing more than an exceptional chemist. One of the most well-known chemists ever, responsible for the Haber-Bosch process, an important method for large-scale synthesis of fertilizers and explosives. It was also this work that won him the Nobel prize in chemistry.

The problem, however, was that he was one of the best in the business when the Germans declared war against the world, and as history would paint them, they were the bad guys. After Haber joined the German army and was promoted to the rank of Captain and head of the Chemistry Section in the Ministry of War, he developed the first chemical weapons used in WW1. Ultimately, Haber ushered in an era of chemical warfare that, to this day, is as tragic and horrific as the first time it was implemented.^[8]

2 Charles Lindbergh

Charles Lindbergh is known in history as the first airline pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic, making the long trip from New York to Paris in one non-stop flight on May 20-21, 1927. It made him an instant hero in a society obsessed with feats of accomplishment and bravado. Just before the war, however, he was awarded medals from the Nazi government, which started the slide. When WW2 broke out, it polarized not only the countries involved in the war but also the populace of those who had not yet engaged.

Before the U.S. joined the fighting, a few figures made it known that they were opposed to the idea of the U.S. getting involved in foreign policy and conflicts of such scale. Lindbergh, in a famous anti-Semitic speech, went on to say that three groups were pushing the U.S. to join the war: (1) the British, (2) Roosevelt’s administration, and (3) the Jews. He added that the Jews would be better served to not join the war as they might feel its consequences the most. Labeled a Nazi sympathizer, he was never able to outlive the tarnish.^[9]

1 Charles Romley Alder Wright

Charles was responsible for creating the most famous chemical found on the streets that make people go to Candy Mountain and was the original founder of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. Wright was a physics and chemistry researcher in London when he started experimenting with morphine, combining it with various acids. Being the good guy he was, he hoped to discover a nonaddictive (haha) alternative to the medicine.

Unfortunately, he soon stumbled upon an even more potent morphine by boiling a few fancy chemicals, thereby forming diacetylmorphine, or in modern language, heroin. The drug was marketed as a cough medicine until its addictive qualities were better understood before being removed from the market. To this day, it is known as one of the most addictive and destructive drugs out there. Thanks, Charlie.^[10]

There are many heroes of the American Revolution, some of them near mythological figures, such as Molly Pitcher, Paul Revere, and Nathan Hale. Many others, whose sacrifices and services contributed immeasurably to American independence are overlooked by the historical record, at least by most Americans. For every Lafayette, steeped in fame and remembrance, there are others whom history has, by and large, consigned to near oblivion. They shouldn’t be.

Without the ten men listed here, the Revolution would likely not have been won. Each willingly put their lives or fortunes on the line in the interest of establishing American independence from the British Empire. Yet their efforts, and their sacrifices, are overlooked by most Americans. Here are ten forgotten heroes of the American Revolution who earned the recognition and gratitude of succeeding generations.

10. Abraham Whipple

Abraham Whipple, despite possessing a meager formal education, taught himself advanced mathematics and the principles of navigation. As a seafarer in colonial Rhode Island he developed the reputation of an honest tradesman and highly capable mariner. He achieved personal wealth as both a merchant seaman and a privateer during the French and Indian War. Siding with the patriots early during the troubles with Great Britain in the 1770s, it was Whipple who captured the British revenue cutter Gaspee, one of the earliest acts of American defiance against the Crown.

When the Revolutionary War broke out in 1775 Whipple commanded two ships under the authority of rebel leaders in Rhode Island. After transporting badly needed gunpowder from Bermuda to Philadelphia the Continental Congress confiscated his ships, assigned them to the newly formed Continental Navy, and commissioned Whipple as the Navy’s first Captain. He served for the next five years in several ships, capturing or destroying more British vessels than any other officer of the Continental Navy, including the far more famous John Paul Jones. In 1780 the British captured Whipple ashore when the city of Charleston fell.

Whipple turned to farming after the war, becoming one of the founders of Marietta, Ohio. Except for in that region, and in his ancestral Rhode Island, he is a forgotten man, though his contributions to the success of the patriotic cause were substantial.

9. John Stark

John Stark served in the celebrated Rogers’ Rangers during the French and Indian War, where he developed a life-long contempt for the “gentlemen” officers of the British Army. He farmed in New Hampshire after that conflict, and on April 23, 1775, following word of the fighting at Lexington and Concord, Stark rejoined the militia as a Colonel, commanding the First New Hampshire Regiment. By early June Stark and his regiment were with the Continental Army surrounding Boston.

Stark led his men with distinction at Bunker Hill, where his regiment provided the rear-guard action when the Americans were forced to retreat. He then served in the siege of Boston, the ill-fated invasion of Canada, and the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. Following the latter he returned to New Hampshire to recruit more troops for Washington’s army. There he encountered political machinations over promotion and resigned his commission. His service was not yet finished however.

When Burgoyne and his Indian allies swept down upstate New York from Canada, Stark returned to service, commanding New Hampshire and other Continental troops during the Saratoga Campaign. Stark commanded the American troops during the crucial victory at the Battle of Bennington. The victory over Burgoyne’s Hessian troops forced the British to stop their advance while deep in the New York woods. Stark remained active with the American Northern Army for the remainder of the war, when he returned to his New Hampshire farm, and the relative obscurity he retains today.

8. Thomas Sumter

In the 2000 film The Patriot, Mel Gibson portrays an American planter and guerrilla fighter named Benjamin Martin, said to be loosely based on Francis Marion, South Carolina’s famed Swamp Fox. The character also follows the exploits of another, lesser known South Carolina guerrilla fighter named Thomas Sumter, known to his men and enemies as the Carolina Gamecock. Like the fictional Martin, Sumter had a plantation in the High Santee which the British burned, commanded irregulars in a campaign against the British, and had his command nearly wiped out.

Sumter earned his nickname after fighting British Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s detachment at the Battle of Blackstock’s Farm. Tarleton reported to his superior, Lord Cornwallis, that the American fought like a gamecock. The battle itself was a small affair, one of several harassing actions conducted by the Americans to disrupt British communications and supply lines in the Carolinas. Sumter’s continuous harassment of Cornwallis led the British commander to identify the Gamecock as his “greatest plague”.

Following the war Sumter entered politics, serving in the US House of Representatives and in the Senate until he resigned in 1810. He was one of those men who possessed a personality enabling him to alienate even his friends, perhaps one reason his fame, considerable during his lifetime, did not last long following his death. He outlived all other generals of the American Revolution, dying in 1832. Fort Sumter, site of the first shots of the American Civil War, was named for him.

7. Haym Salomon

Born in Poland in 1740 to a Sephardic Jewish family, Salomon became well-versed in European finance and learned to speak and write several languages, including German and French, before moving to England. In 1775 Salomon left for New York, where he entered the mercantile trade as a financial broker. In New York he found his sympathies lay with the Sons of Liberty. During the war he commanded no troops, fought in no battles, and wrote no stirring documents in support of the cause. His heroism was more subtle.

Salomon conducted espionage activities along with others of Washington’s spy rings, leading to his arrest in New York. The British could not convict him, though they held him captive, forcing him to serve as an interpreter for their Hessian mercenaries. Salomon used the position to encourage the German troops to desert. He was again arrested, convicted, and sentenced to death. He escaped, fled to Philadelphia, and established an office as a broker, helping to raise funds for the Continental Army. Salomon succeeded to the point he eventually raised the equivalent of $16 million in today’s money for the Revolutionary effort.

Without his efforts the final major campaign leading to the British surrender at Yorktown could not have been undertaken. During the war Salomon purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars using his personal fortune. After the war the debt was worth less than ten cents on the dollar, and he died, age 44, in Philadelphia in 1785, penniless for all intents and purposes.

6. Seth Warner

During the late colonial period, the region which is today’s Vermont was known as the Hampshire Grants. Claimed by both New York and New Hampshire, the residents of the area found the idea of independence from either colony more appealing. The Green Mountain Boys formed to counter the authorities, particularly those of New York, under the leadership of Ethan Allen and Seth Warner. Both were oversized men for the day, towering over six feet, and both were locally famous (or infamous, depending on one’s point of view).

Allen became nationally famous for seizing Fort Ticonderoga from the British in 1775, a feat for which he remains notable today. Warner is less known, though his contributions to the success of the American Revolution dwarf those of his contemporary. After serving in the invasion of Canada Warner fought throughout the Saratoga Campaign, working closely with both John Stark and Benedict Arnold, and was instrumental in the patriot victory at Bennington. Warner served the patriotic cause in New York, despite being officially outlawed there for his earlier actions with the Green Mountain Boys.

Warner felt his influence in Vermont falter after the war, as Allen entered politics and came to dominate affairs in the region. His health destroyed by his many campaigns, he died in 1784 at the age of just 41. Since his death, Ethan Allen has overshadowed Warner’s contributions to the American Revolution, and, except in Vermont, Seth Warner is largely unknown.

5. John Barry

Like Abraham Whipple, John Barry’s services to the patriot’s cause during the American Revolution are overshadowed by the more well-known John Paul Jones (who served under Barry). But those services were such that the US Navy recognizes Barry, along with John Adams, as the “Father of the United States Navy.” Barry was an Ireland born Philadelphia shipmaster, 21 years of age, when the Revolutionary War began. His sympathies were entirely anti-British (being Irish), and he offered his services to the Continental Congress, which commissioned him as a Captain and assigned him to command the brig Lexington.

Over the course of the war he commanded several ships of the Continental Navy, and between commissions put to sea in a privateer. He captured several prizes, suppressed at least three mutinies, and trained several young officers who went on to distinguished careers in the American service. Barry commanded USS Alliance when that ship took part in the last battle of the American Revolutionary War on March 10, 1783. Barry drove off two British ships, leading the Captain of one, HMS Sybil, to comment he had, “never seen a ship so ably fought as the Alliance.”

After the war, when the United States Navy was authorized by Congress, Barry received the first commission ever offered by that service, Commission 1, signed by President George Washington. The US Navy recognizes him as its first commissioned officer, as well as its first Flag Officer, with the rank of Commodore. Yet he is barely remembered elsewhere.

4. Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais

Beaumarchais was a French playwright and philosopher who wrote The Marriage of Figaro, The Barber of Seville, and The Guilty Mother, all featuring the character Figaro. The son of a humble watchmaker, he invented a new mechanism which made clocks and watches considerably more accurate. When another watchmaker claimed Beaumarchais’s invention as his own, he defended his invention, won public acclaim, and became a favorite in the French court.

By the time of the American Revolution, Beaumarchais had extensive business interests in Spain and France. He used these connections to create a fictional company, Hortalez et Cie, to provide arms, clothing, and money to the rebellious Americans. At the same time he used his connections within the French court to lobby for overt assistance for the Americans against the British, France’s ancient enemy.  

Beaumarchais and his business partners spent their personal fortunes providing aid to the Americans before France formally entered the Revolutionary War. Not until 1837 was any of the money repaid to his heirs, and then only partially. Without his efforts the Continental Congress could not have supplied Washington’s army during the first three years of the war. Today, he is chiefly remembered as the creator of Figaro, his services to the United States a mere footnote of history.

3. Daniel Bissell

In late summer of 1781, George Washington’s Continental Army camped around New York City, occupied by the main British army in North America. Following Benedict Arnold’s treachery, Washington was obsessed with obtaining information regarding British plans and espionage activities. He recruited Daniel Bissell, a soldier of the Connecticut line, to pose as a deserter and enter the British lines in New York. Bissell faced certain death by hanging if his ruse was unveiled.

Bissell went to New York, enlisted in the British army regiment commanded by the traitorous Benedict Arnold, and observed all he could of British activities, committing his observations to memory. In September, 1782, a year after the British surrender at Yorktown, Bissell deserted the British army and returned to the American encampments around New York. There he provided Washington with information regarding the British defensive works, as well as that the British had no intentions of venturing out of their positions.

Bissell was awarded the Badge of Military Merit for his services as both a soldier and spy. The Badge of Military Merit was the only award authorized for troops during the American Revolution, the forerunner of today’s Purple Heart. Designed personally by George Washington, it is the second oldest military award in existence. Bissell died in 1824. His tombstone noted his service, inscribed “He had the confidence of Washington and served under him.”

2. Henry Dearborn

Henry Dearborn’s Revolutionary War service began as a captain, commanding a company of New Hampshire militia in John Stark’s regiment. He fought at Bunker Hill, and then participated in Benedict Arnold’s invasion of Canada via the Maine backwoods. That invasion included one of the epic military marches of all history. Much of what is known of it today is thanks to the journals recording the men’s struggles kept by Dearborn. He was captured by the British during Arnold’s assault on Quebec on New Year’s Eve, 1775 and held prisoner until paroled in May of the following year.

After he was formally exchanged in 1777 he returned to the Continental Army and served during the Saratoga campaign. He then joined the main Continental Army under Washington, and was present during the winter at Valley Forge. Dearborn fought at Monmouth Court House, in John Sullivan’s punitive expedition against the Iroquois, and in the Yorktown Campaign. He thus witnessed the two major surrenders of British armies during the Revolution, Saratoga and Yorktown.

His fame was such that Fort Dearborn (Detroit) was named for him, as well as Dearborn County in Indiana, and Fort Dearborn in Illinois. Following his service in the War of 1812, which was less than stellar though honorable, his fame subsided. He served in several government posts, including as Minister to Portugal in the 1820s, but his exploits during the American Revolution faded from history books, and by the mid-19th century he was largely forgotten.

1. William Alexander, Lord Stirling

Though he was born in New York, the son of a successful lawyer and businessman, William Alexander claimed the extinct title of the Earldom of Stirling, a Scottish peerage. His father had not claimed the title. William’s claim was upheld in Scottish courts, ignored by the British House of Lords, and his styling of Lord Stirling was accepted by Americans. His lavish lifestyle, which he felt befitting for a peer, drove him into debt, and when the Revolutionary War began he formed and equipped a regiment, the First New Jersey Regiment, at his own expense, indebting him even further.

At the American defeat in the Battle of Long Island, his regiment proved one of the few American units to stand against the British regulars. It suffered heavy casualties, and Lord Stirling was captured by the British when his men were finally overrun. Exchanged, he was promoted to Major General and played prominent roles in the battles of Trenton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and others. He was held in such high regard by Washington that he was assigned to command the troops surrounding New York, left behind when the main army departed for Virginia and Yorktown in 1781.

Lord Stirling died in Albany in January, 1783, before the Revolutionary War ended. He had proved himself one of Washington’s most capable commanders in battle, and his participation in nearly all of the major battles fought by the main Continental Army should have made him famous. History has treated him diffidently. Outside of New Jersey, where he maintained his baronial estate, he is all but unknown. His claim to the Scottish Earldom of Stirling died with him, and the title returned to extinction.