History DyingMomentOfAwesome / RealLife

* Following the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, Hitler's third in command and one of the chief architects of the Holocaust, his assassins retreated into the crypts of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Cathedral in Prague. When their location was compromised by a traitor in the Czech resistance, the Nazis attempted to storm the church; there were seven Czech resistance fighters in the cathedral, but they held out against a Nazi force numbering at least 750 and armed to the teeth for ''six hours''. When it was clear they were going to be overrun, those who hadn't been killed in the battle committed suicide rather than be taken alive.

* It's a stereotype to say that the Balinese make an art out of practically everything... and mass ritual suicide should not be seen as beautiful, but the ''puputan'' of the ancient Balinese royal courts belongs on this page. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Dutch Colonial Empire moved in to take control of the island. On September 14, 1906, three Dutch battalions landed on the beaches of South Bali and advanced toward the villages, finding them deserted and in flames. For two years, the Balinese fought back. Princes and their courts chose death rather than surrender. At Badung, the royal family came out in procession, stopping a hundred yards from the Dutch, whereupon the King signaled his high priest to stab him to death, while his family did the same. When the Dutch blew up Klungklung, the last and greatest palace, the King and his entire court, dressed in their most elegant garments, purposefully marched into the gunfire. Those who were not shot stabbed themselves on the spot. Women disdainfully hurled jewels at their assassins, cheating the enemy of any sense of victory. Another royal court left their palace and paraded, singing, off the edge of a cliff.

** On April 5th, 1945, Munemori Sadao leaped on a grenade to save 2 other infantrymen. The citation tells the story better: "He fought with great gallantry and intrepidity near Seravezza, Italy. When his unit was pinned down by grazing fire from the enemy's strong mountain defense and command of the squad devolved on him with the wounding of its regular leader, he made frontal, one-man attacks through direct fire and knocked out two machine guns with grenades. Withdrawing under murderous fire and showers of grenades from other enemy emplacements, he had nearly reached a shell crater occupied by two of his men when an unexploded grenade bounced on his helmet and rolled toward his helpless comrades. He arose into the withering fire, dived for the missile and smothered its blast with his body. By his swift, supremely heroic action Pfc. Munemori saved two of his men at the cost of his own life and did much to clear the path for his company's victorious advance."

* On June 4, 1923, a 22-year-old jockey called Frank Hayes entered a steeplechase in New York state. Hayes had never won a horse race in his life—and his horse, Sweet Kiss, had 20-1 odds of winning. Which, as it happened, was exactly what the filly managed to do—but when officials came to congratulate Hayes, they discovered he'd died in the ''middle of the race'', having suffered a heart attack on horseback yet somehow managing to remain on his saddle until Sweet Kiss crossed the finish line.[[note]]One contributing factor in Hayes' death may have been the extreme measures he'd taken to meet his weight requirements; it was reported he'd lost 12 pounds in a matter of ''days''.[[/note]]

* The American actor Creator/VicMorrow, father of actress Creator/JenniferJasonLeigh, during the filming of ''Film/TwilightZoneTheMovie'', died while trying to save a bunch of child actors when a stunt helicopter crashed near to them. Two of the kids died with him, the three ''[[OffWithHisHead beheaded]]'' by the helicopter blades, but the others were safely retrieved thanks to Morrow's efforts.

* [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfStuart King Charles I]] of England had not been a popular monarch, to put it lightly, given his reign saw a civil war that actually ended the British monarchy until his son managed to reclaim it. However, his execution could honestly be seen as the highlight of his reign, where he conducted himself with an incredibly steely [[FaceDeathWithDignity dignity]]. It was a cold day, so he demanded to wear extra layers lest anyone see him shivering and mistake it for fear. He stretched out his arms after his final prayers to signal the executioner to go ahead.

* [[Creator/RaulJulia Raúl Julia's]] final appearance in ''Film/StreetFighter''. His motivation for starring in the role of [[BigBad General M. Bison]] was because his children were huge fans of the franchise, and it allowed him to combine his two passions in his final days; his acting and his children. [[MoneyDearBoy He also wanted a nice big paycheck]] to help provide for his family. He absolutely ''[[LargeHam devoured the scenery]]'', [[HamAndCheese had so much fun doing it]] few would ''never'' guess he was physically weak and sick during the performance (other than being somewhat pale), and psycho-crushed that film from forgettable to [[SoBadItsGood an experience few would ever forget]]. [[InMemoriam Vaya con Dios indeed, Raúl.]]

* During an assassination attempt against UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman, one of the assassins, Griselio Torresola, shot officer Leslie Coffelt, who was standing guard outside. He and his partner Oscar Collazo assumed Coffelt dead and proceeded inside, where they opened fire on the police. However, Coffelt was NotQuiteDead and managed to prop himself up and shoot Torresola dead before he blacked out and died.

* Vince Coleman was a train dispatcher in Halifax in 1917. While on the job one day, he learned that a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_explosion munitions ship was on fire in the harbor]]. He had time to get to safety, but he also knew that a passenger train was due to arrive in the city at any minute and that if he didn't [[HeroicSacrifice stay at his post and warn them, hundreds of more people were going to die.]] He succeeded.

* Lauren Hill. For more details, see the "Basketball" folder under [[Heartwarming/RealLifeSports "Heartwarming Real Life Sports"]] moments, or hop on over to [[Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} The Other Wiki]] and take a look at the page on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Hiram_vs._Mount_St._Joseph_women%27s_basketball_game the specific game]] that elevated her to a national story in the last months of 2014.

* [[Creator/RaulJulia Raúl Julia's]] final appearance in ''Film/StreetFighter'': his motivation for starring in that role was because his children were huge fans of the franchise and it allowed him to combine his two passions in his final days: his acting and his children. [[MoneyDearBoy He also wanted a nice big paycheck]] to help provide for his family. He absolutely ''[[LargeHam devoured the scenery]]'', [[HamAndCheese had so much fun doing it]] few would ''never'' guess he was physically weak and sick during the performance (other than being somewhat pale), and psycho-crushed that film from forgettable to [[SoBadItsGood an experience few would ever forget]]. [[InMemoriam Vaya con Dios indeed, Raúl.]]

* Lawyer Clement Vallandigham was defending a client named Thomas McGehean who was accused of murder. Vallandingham instead said Tom Myers had [[LethalStupidity shot himself by accident]], and proceeded to demonstrate how such a feat could happen. Alas, the pistol was loaded. McGehean was declared Not Guilty, [[ShootTheShaggyDog only to die of a gunshot four years after]].

* Two words: [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror "Let's roll."]] [[note]]Long after the fact, this may need some context to make sense, and even if not, it's still worth telling the whole story.[[/note]] During the September 11th attacks, there were four hijacked planes: two hit the World Trade Center, one hit the Pentagon, and the fourth - United Flight 93 - crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. For a while, it wasn't clear what had happened to United 93, but then recordings of several phone calls made by the passengers and flight crew were found. The most famous of those calls, made by passenger Todd Beamer, included the explanation that he and several others on board were planning to rush the hijackers and attempt to take back control of the plane. Beamer's call ended with the words (addressed to someone else aboard the plane) "Are you guys ready? Okay. Let's roll." No one aboard the plane survived, but thanks to the resistance the hijackers failed to reach their target (possibly the US Capitol Building or the White House) and many more lives were probably saved.

* Yoni Netanyahu[[note]]for those wondering, yes, he was the older brother of later Israeli politician UsefulNotes/BenjaminNetanyahu[[/note]] was a Lt. Commander in the Israeli army when a group of terrorists hijacked a plane headed to Israel, flew it to Entebbe, Uganda, and released everyone but the Israelis (and the French pilot, who refused to leave while some of his passengers were still prisoners, thus earning his own CMOA) and made their demands. The IDF decided to attempt a rescue. Now, let's be clear a rescue mission of this type and magnitude had never been pulled off successfully by anyone. Ever. A team of commandos, led by Netanyahu, planned, practiced, and carried out the rescue within a week. Of the 106 captives, all but four were rescued. Only one commando died during the mission--Yoni Netanyahu.