Many of us lean on friends or colleagues now and then, but the pandemic‑era lockdowns have forced us to become our own go‑to problem solvers. In this brave new world of social distancing, the top 10 people featured below prove that solo grit can move mountains.
What Makes These Top 10 People Stand Out?
10 Aimo Koivunen Takes More Drugs Than a 1980s Rock Star
When you picture personal triumphs, a massive drug binge probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Yet during the chaos of World II, methamphetamine—known then as Pervitin—was actually a sanctioned stimulant, and no one ingested more of it than Finnish soldier Aimo Koivunen, albeit unintentionally.
In the winter of 1944, Koivunen’s ski patrol was deep behind enemy lines south of Murmansk when Soviet forces ambushed them. Exhausted and desperate for a quick energy surge to flee, he fumbled with a bottle of Pervitin, trying to extract a single dose.
In a frantic move, he tipped the entire contents—30 pills—into his mouth, a supply meant for the whole squad. Weeks later, rescuers found him barely alive, heart racing at double the normal rate, weighing a frail 42.6 kg (94 lb), and wandering some 400 km (250 mi) away from his original unit.
9 Maurice Hilleman Uses His Babies To Prevent Mumps
The headline may suggest that Maurice Hilleman missed out on any ‘Father of the Year’ accolades, but his midnight mission in 1963 tells a different story. When his five‑year‑old daughter fell ill with mumps, he sprang into action before sunrise.
Hilleman swiftly harvested fresh viral samples from his child and rushed them to his laboratory for freezing and later analysis, determined to isolate the pathogen as quickly as possible.
After cultivating a weakened strain, he needed human volunteers for testing. He chose his one‑year‑old daughter as the first subject. Although modern ethics would balk at such a move, the experiment succeeded, and the resulting vaccine remains in use today, contributing to Hilleman’s legacy of nearly forty lifesaving vaccines.
8 The Viking of Stamford Bridge Goes Berserk
The year 1066 saw the Norse invasion of England end in a blood‑soaked disaster, with only 24 of the original 300 ships making it home. Yet one unnamed Norse warrior etched his bravery into the annals of history during the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
The Anglo‑Saxon Chronicle recounts a towering Viking who lingered on the bridge, buying time for his comrades to assemble a shield wall against the English onslaught. Armed with a massive Dane axe, he cut down at least forty foes.
His rampage was finally halted when a crafty Englishman slipped beneath the bridge inside a half‑barrel, reached up, and thrust a spear into the berserker’s heart. Though his name has been lost to time, his heroic stand is remembered nearly a millennium later.
7 Dave Grohl Forms The Foo Fighters
Losing a close friend can shatter a person, and everyone processes grief differently. While many opt for a heartfelt goodbye followed by a return to daily life, some retreat into creation to channel their sorrow.
Dave Grohl chose the latter after Nirvana’s frontman Kurt Cobain died in 1994. In just one week, he wrote, sang, and recorded almost every instrument for what would become the debut Foo Fighters album, enlisting only a handful of guest musicians.
He initially distributed the recordings on cassette tapes, keeping the project under wraps as a personal catharsis. Even the band’s name—borrowed from a UFO‑related book—evokes the notion of an unidentified group of musicians working together.
6 Martine Rothblatt Develops A Drug To Save Her Daughter
Having deep pockets doesn’t automatically translate into breakthroughs, and Martine Rothblatt’s story proves it. In the 1990s, her daughter was diagnosed with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a fatal condition with no existing therapy.
Rather than merely funding research, Rothblatt dove head‑first into the science, eventually identifying a promising molecule. Though pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline owned the compound and initially refused to hand it over, she assembled a scientific team, secured access, and pushed forward.
The resulting medication, while not a cure, has extended and improved the lives of her daughter and thousands of others suffering from the disease, showcasing Rothblatt’s relentless drive to turn personal crisis into medical advancement.
5 Clara Lemlich Convinces 20,000 People To Go On Strike
It’s 1909, and a typical factory girl endures 66‑hour weeks for a meager $3 wage. Any attempt to improve conditions risks police batons or outright violence, yet Clara Lemlich refused to be silenced.
While many activists rallied alongside her, Lemlich distinguished herself by seizing the podium from union officials and demanding immediate action. The established representatives advocated patience and dialogue, but Lemlich had no time for talk.
I have listened to all the speakers, and I have no further patience for talk. I am a working girl, one of those striking against intolerable conditions. I am tired of listening to speakers who talk in generalities. What we are here for is to decide whether or not to strike. I make a motion that we go out in a general strike.
Her impassioned appeal sparked a massive response—about 20,000 shirtwaist workers walked out, an event later christened the Uprising of the 20,000, cementing Lemlich’s place in labor history.
4 John Crandon Gives Himself Scurvy To Prove Vitamin C’s Usefulness
In the 1700s, William Stark took an early stab at linking scurvy to a lack of vitamin C, but his experiments ended tragically. Decades later, in 1939, John Crandon pursued a similar inquiry with a more controlled approach, avoiding a fatal outcome.
After weeks of self‑induced deficiency, Crandon’s wounds stopped healing, his skin grew rough, and his legs developed tiny hemorrhages. Under close medical supervision, he received daily intravenous injections of one gram of ascorbic acid for a week, and within 24 hours his health began to rebound.
3 Herbert Hoover Proves The Early Bird Gets The Worm
Often labeled one of America’s less successful presidents due to the 1929 crash and ensuing Depression, Herbert Hoover nevertheless demonstrated how to turn a setback into opportunity during his inaugural year at Stanford University.
Despite flunking every entrance exam save math, Hoover was still admitted—perhaps Stanford needed any students it could get. Not one to waste the chance, he arrived two months early and launched a series of side hustles, delivering laundry, selling newspapers, and assisting fellow students with enrollment.
His entrepreneurial spirit quickly escalated: he managed the football and baseball teams, oversaw school plays, and even served as student treasurer, proving that early initiative can yield a worm—or in his case, a campus empire.
2 Almon Strowger Advances Communication Technology For Revenge
Picture an undertaker struggling for business in a town with virtually no competition—sounds odd, right? Yet Almon Strowger faced a personal vendetta when the local telephone‑exchange operator, the wife of a rival undertaker, redirected every incoming call to her husband’s shop.
When the telephone company refused to intervene, Strowger took matters into his own hands. In 1889 he invented an automatic telephone exchange that linked callers without the need for a human operator, and he secured a patent for his invention in 1891.
His breakthrough, sparked by petty rivalry, revolutionized how we connect, laying the groundwork for the modern automated phone system we rely on today.
1 Gregory Watson Gets An Amendment To The Constitution Ratified Over A Bad Grade
A C on a college paper rarely sparks a national movement, but for 19‑year‑old Gregory Watson in 1982, that grade ignited a decade‑long crusade to upgrade his mark by securing a constitutional amendment.
Watson’s research paper argued that an amendment drafted in 1789—intended to accompany the Bill of Rights—had never achieved ratification. His professor dismissed the claim, assigning a C, prompting Watson to challenge the decision.
Undeterred, he wrote to legislators across the states, lobbying for the amendment’s adoption. After ten years of relentless effort, the Twenty‑Seventh Amendment—preventing pay raises for Congress members from taking effect until after the next election—was finally ratified in 1992. In 2017, Watson even succeeded in having his original grade officially changed from a C to an A+.