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7[[quoteright:350:[[UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/saturn_launch_8909250_medium.jpg]]]]
8[[caption-width-right:350:''[[UsefulNotes/NeilArmstrong "Shoot for the stars."]]'']]
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11Think awesome only exists in fiction? These moments should change your mind.
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13[[foldercontrol]]
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15[[folder:Animals]]
16* The Japanese Giant Hornet is an abhorrent monstrosity that can spray flesh-melting poison and [[ConservationOfNinjutsu can rip apart 1,000 honeybees]] ''[[CurbStompBattle all by itself]].'' The Japanese honeybee... doesn't really have a lot to its name. Except, of course, for the fact that [[ZergRush 500 of these bees will happily band together]] '''[[https://youtu.be/R5QxUR-mZVM to roast one of these very same hornets to death]]''' with their collective body heat, with only a couple of degrees Fahrenheit (about 1C) leeway before they themselves begin to cook.
17** One comment on the video pretty much sums them up:
18--->"Damn, Japan... Even your bees are ninjas..."
19** These hornets happen to have one natural predator that cannot be hurt by their stings: the [[NobleBirdOfPrey crested honey buzzard]], who is pretty much the avian version of the honey badger. These birds actually have the gall to come up to a hornet's nest, rip it apart, and [[EatsBabies devour the larvae]] while the swarm can only helplessly watch.
20* Dolphins. The cutest marine critters there are... and they are real badasses of the ocean. Sharks fear dolphins. Why? Because dolphins tend to gang-up sharks, and ram them on their gills, killing the sharks. The nose of a dolphin is called ''rostrum'', "battering ram", because of its toughness. While sharks are stronger one-on-one, dolphins do team up and are far more intelligent.
21* Orcas (aka killer whales) can disable, kill and '''eat''' ''[[ThreateningShark great white sharks]]'', the feared predators of the deep.
22** The way they do this is incredibly smart. They ram the shark near the gills, knocking it for a loop. They then deliberately flip the shark upside down, causing it to go into tonic immobility (it becomes unconscious and/or paralyzed until it can right itself) and then hold the shark that way until it suffocates.
23** Orcas do the same trick with stingrays, in order to subdue them and make them easier to eat.
24** Entire populations of Great White Sharks have been known to disappear from an area once an orca starts hunting and killing them. That's right -- Great Whites ''[[TheDreaded run]]'' when orcas develop a taste for shark meat (especially the liver). Some orcas are actually known to rip the liver out of great whites that they kill, and leave the rest of the shark's carcass untouched.
25** Hell, the orca will ram into sharks and hit them in such a way that the internal organs ''explode''.
26** Orcas have also been observed eating makos, which are known for their [[GeniusBruiser intelligence]] and [[LightningBruiser speed]] among sharks.
27** Sure, eating a great white is pretty impressive. How much more badass can it get? Well, how about the fact that they also ''eat'' '''[[BearsAreBadNews polar bears]]'''?
28** Orcas have also been seen to kill and eat whale sharks, which while lacking the ferocity of great whites (they're plankton eaters), are ''enormous''.
29** Megalodon has a reputation for being an extremely badass marine predator, and yet scientists believe it wasn't able to compete with orcas and thus driven to extinction. Some even think the mega-sharks died out because orcas hunted down their young (and perhaps the adults as well). But either way, orcas ''caused the extinction of a prehistoric whale-eating sea monster''.
30*** To be fair, orcas have the advantage of weighing, on average, 10 tons compared to the 100 tons of the megalodon. In weighing so much, megalodon required huge amounts of food, consisting mainly of baleen whales. Once the whales moved on or died out, megalodon couldn't sustain itself on the much smaller remaining prey.
31** Orcas are sometimes called the wolves of the sea. This is inaccurate, mostly because wolves are nothing close as effective as predators.
32** Orcas generally, however, don't eat the above, they substain themselves mostly on seals and sea lions. Hunting them in the water is hard. Orca solution? ''[[https://youtu.be/00-Ivz--SHE Hunt them on land]]''.
33** Orcas also hunt above-mentioned dolphins, which are just as smart as they are, not to mention more agile. Cue [[SimpleYetAwesome Orcas swimming at them until the dolphin swims itself to exhaustion, then killing the dolphins]], this is generally done by [[UseYourHead Headbutting]] them clear out of the ocean.
34*** This is presumably referring to other species of dolphin; despite their nickname, orcas are also a type of dolphin (the largest, something like five times as big as the smallest species, Hector's dolphins). Their English nickname is actually a mistranslation of the nickname given to them by Norwegian whalers: they're not killer whales, they're ''whale killers''.
35** Sperm Whales, massive, Giant-Squid-eating whales that can stun things with their echolocation. Orcas [[RunningGag hunt those too]]. They do so by ramming them repeatedly, biting equally repeatedly or, in case of smaller pods, waiting for one mother and her child to get away from the rest, shove the mother away from her child and drown the child before eating.
36** To put an emphasis on how they're pretty much the second must successful species on earth (Right after humans), their range consists of two thirds of the world. All of the parts of the world that are ocean are Orca Territory, they're ''that'' good.
37** Humpback whales manage to be awesome by [[https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/humpback-whales-save-animals-killer-whales-explained/ fighting orcas to protect other animals.]] Apparently a single fully grown whale can fight an entire pod of orcas. Given everything written above, this makes them thoroughly awesome in their own right.
38** Oh, and they're also intelligent enough to realize that inter-species cooperation is beneficial to both species: there's one pod in Australia that, when whales would migrate through the area, the orcas would begin herding them into the town's bay, and at least one would go to the dock and alert the humans that the whales were coming in. The orcas and humans would then work together on the hunt. And at the end of the hunt, the humans would allow the orcas to eat the lips and tongues of their catch, for which the humans had no use, and the orcas would leave the humans the more valuable blubber and baleen.
39* The octopus is smart enough that it can escape fishnets and supposedly secure tanks. Its lack of bones also plays a part in this however. They can also be taught to open jars, although they have short memories and have to be taught again the following day.
40** [[https://youtu.be/Otu3FUELSTM An octopus named Paul used his jar-opening skill to predict World Cup winners]] back in 2010. They put treats in two jars, labeled them with the competitors' flags and waited to see which he would open first.
41* The evolutionary success of cats as hunters, given that they manage to hunt enough prey to live on in just 8 hours a day, as opposed to the 16 hours a day most hunters (including us humans until relatively recently in history). The about 8 hours a day cats gain with their hunting efficiency? They just sleep them away, amounting to a total of 16 hours of sleep per day. The trope may be that "cats are lazy", but in actuality they are just simply ''the most efficient'' of all mammals.[[note]]Of course the downside is that they wreak havoc on ecosystems where humans introduce them as an invasive species (see {{UsefulNotes/{{Australia}}), or even in places they're not invasive (just ask any Birdwatching Society in Europe/U.K./U.S.)...[[/note]] Oh, and they also survived the massive murder campaign humans unleashed on them in TheMiddleAges.
42* Wolverines are not very impressive-looking creatures. They are compact little blobs of dark shaggy fur rarely weighing more than forty pounds (18kg for the metrically inclined). They are the largest extant members of family Mustelidae, and can therefore be thought of as giant weasels (to which they are evolutionary cousins), with the weasel's distinctive trait of manic berserk bloodlust combined with impressively powerful, bone-crushing jaws. A forty pound wolverine can kill a caribou weighing half a ton, and then successfully defend the carcass from a pack of two dozen wolves, any of which is three times its size, or from a polar bear weighing more than the car you drive. Other predators know the wolverine's scent and avoid it by instinct except in the gravest extreme, because it's never worth it. It is bad luck to provoke a wolverine.
43** If we're going to talk about badass mustelidae, how about the Ratel -- more commonly known as the honey badger. It may not eat zebras, but they are known for being able to tangle with lions. How does it manage to do this? GroinAttack. With teeth.
44*** Honey badgers have two favorite foods. One of them is honey. They rob beehives while bee stings just tickle them. The other is... ''cobras''. Scaly sausage... nomnomnomnom!
45*** Those guys are known to have attacked and eaten pythons of up to four meters length, and all kinds of venomous snakes. They have excellent natural resistance to various venom.
46*** They have also been known to kill ''bears'' by dropping onto their backs from trees.
47*** In addition, wild honey badgers have been known to employ very complicated problem solving techniques in search of food. [[https://youtu.be/4PomfW3_ofs Check out this documentary.]]
48*** [[MemeticMutation The honey badger don't care. He takes what he wants.]]
49* The King Cobra. It can kill elephants. A snake can kill an elephant!
50** And the Mongoose kills the King Cobra. And not even for food, but just because it apparently thinks that the King Cobra needs to occasionally be taken down a peg. (Creator/RudyardKipling was not kidding about this. ''At all.'')
51*** ...and then elephants step on mongeese if they don't watch where they step...
52** Speaking of mongoose, a couple of million years ago, a few mongoose from Africa ended up on Madagascar. Lemurs had no natural enemies, so were easy prey for the mongoose. But after a while, the lemurs started taking to the trees when one showed up, where the mongoose could not follow. So did the mongoose starve? Hell ''no''. They turned into ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossa_%28animal%29 cats]]''.
53* A house-cat treed a black bear. Twice. [[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5067912.stm See here.]]
54* Dinosaurs. They completely dominated the scene for 160 million years (to put it into context, humans have been around for only 200,000 years, not even 1 percent of the time) and it took a [[RocksFallEveryoneDies GIANT ASTEROID]] to finish them off.
55** [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology Except the ones that didn't die]], which happened to be the ones that had LEARNED TO FLY. They are today called '''birds'''.
56** And plenty of birds are still awesome. Take, for instance, cassowaries, which even ''look'' like dinosaurs (and are also deadly, but that's par for the course in Australia). Then there are all the [[NobleBirdOfPrey birds of prey]].
57*** One the other hand, humanity has only been around for 200,000 years compared to their 160,000,000 years, and ''we'' managed to get to space. TakeThat dinos!
58** The tyrannosauridae family. Once lowly coelurosaurs pushed around by larger carnosaurs and megalosaurs in the Jurassic Period, over the next millions of years they evolved into successful predators of North America and Asia once newer and tougher herbivores developed. One type even became one of the most powerful and badass predators ever to walk on land.
59*** The carnosaurs and megalosaurs are no less impressive. The carnosaurs' main prey were the largest animals ever to walk on land, and to hunt them they formed packs. As for the megalosaurs, they were outcompeted by the other large theropods. So what did they do? They ''moved to water'', and this resulted in the largest theropod of them all.
60** Among the surviving dinosaurs, corvids and parrots. These birds are so smart that they could easily change the meaning of the word "birdbrain".
61* Props should also be given to the dinosaurs' flying cousins, the pterosaurs. Winged reptiles that used their ''pinky fingers'' to fly with, these creatures started small, but by the end of the Cretaceous period their lineage had produced some of the [[GiantFlyer biggest animals to ever fly]]. Special mention goes to ''Quetzalcoatlus'' (fittingly named after the Aztec serpent God, Quetzalcoatl) and its bigger, meaner cousin ''Hatzegopteryx''. The two of them were as tall as giraffes, had wingspans of up to 36 feet or more and ''ate predatory dinosaurs for breakfast, lunch and dinner''. ''Hatzegopteryx'' was so tough that it could eat and swallow a whole cow if it were alive today and ''Quetzalcoatlus'' would likely not have hesitated to eat a baby ''T. rex'' (and because it could fly, was quite possibly the only animal that could escape the [[MamaBear angry]] [[PapaWolf parents]] unscathed).
62* Technically speaking, ''[[HumansAreSpecial humanity]]''. We're average-strength at best, and had an average lifespan of 20-something years for most of our history. Yet, we've managed to go all the way into space, inhabit 6 of the 7 continents with impunity, and pwn just about every other species out there. All within mere millennia!
63** When you consider what humanity looked like in 1011 to now, it's safe to say that we humans are pretty damned badass as a collective whole.
64** Don't forget the fact that the only reason (non-scientist) humans aren't living in Antarctica is the Antarctic Treaty. We're so awesome, we have to set limits on our awesomeness!
65** The way ancient humans hunted was to follow their prey over long distances and outlast them through endurance, until the creature either died of exhaustion or was too tired to escape as they closed in for the kill.
66* Baboons will fight to reclaim what is theirs [[https://youtu.be/XNUIZWbP4Wc and can give less of a crap if it's a pride of lions that pushed them out]]. Those rocks are ''theirs'' damn it!
67* [[https://youtu.be/sD84w4-2ctI This praying mantis]] fought off a Spectral Tarsier 100 times its own size. No wonder they inspired their own martial art!
68* Do NOT mess with a Cape buffalo calf if its herd is nearby, even if you are a pride of lions. They will [[https://youtu.be/LU8DDYz68kM kick your collective asses.]] It's them, not lions or elephants or rhinos, that [[GreatWhiteHunter hunters]] tend to consider the most dangerous of Africa's big game animals.
69** Hunters often say that you ''have'' to kill them in one shot, because it's impossible to score a lethal shot on a pissed, charging buffalo that can and will destroy your jeep.
70* You want badass and dangerous? Ladies and gentlemen, I present... the hippopotamus!
71** Let's start with the fact that hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal. They accomplish this with mouths that open wider than any other animal (over 150 degrees) and are filled with razor-sharp canine teeth over 18 inches long.
72*** Add in they kill each other plenty. Hippos are '''extremely''' territorial. Most animal territory fights tend to be symbolic, i.e. when one animal establishes dominance the other will leave. Hippos tend to just outright kill intruders.
73*** They can also bite a crocodile in ''half''.
74** Despite weighing up to 10,000 pounds (they are the third largest land animal after the elephant and rhino), a hippo can pace a horse over short distances.
75** Their skin has been known to stop armor-piercing bullets. Their skin also sweats a blood-colored substance that acts as sunscreen, antibiotic, and moisturizer.
76** A historian once theorized that if hippos had been able to be domesticated, Africa would have colonized the world instead of Europe.
77* Ever see a dragonfly in flight? Dragonflies are the [[AcePilot ace pilots]] of the insect world. Seriously, not only do they capture prey on the wing, some species will even ''mate while flying''.
78* Plants and animals living in the area where the Chernobyl disaster occurred have actually taken back the places where humans used to live and have mostly adapted to the radiation. While there's still some cases of mutation, the population is thriving.
79* [[https://youtu.be/VnLMOQCXV6o A pack of hyenas are attacking a buffalo]]. Two rhinos see, think "that's not right", so approach. In short, they intimidate the hyenas into stopping by '''just standing there'''. No charges, no warnings; just their size and knowledge of what they can do is enough to make the hyenas stop.
80* Ants and and termites are probably some of the most successful animal species on the planet. Not only do they outnumber humans to the point where "a million to one" is a ''conservative'' estimate[[note]]Total human population? 9 billion (9,000,000,000). Total estimated ant population? 1 quadrillion (1,000,000,000,000,000)![[/note]], but they can perform some impressive tasks. Frequently mentioned is the ant's incredible strength, easily capable of lifting an object ten times their size. Not frequently mentioned is the level of an ant's cohesive unity. Army ants, [[https://youtu.be/h7DskFft1qY for example]] are so coordinated and unified that they are capable of overwhelming just about any animal smaller than a mid-sized lizard through [[ZergRush sheer force of numbers]]. Army ants are completely unstoppable when on the march, going so far as to make [[http://www.catersnews.com/uploadedimages/14082012457412917.jpg bridges and ladders out of their own bodies]] to let other ants cross over wide gaps and streams. Somewhere, Karl Marx weeps with envy.
81* The [[https://youtu.be/ckDVpihCPq8 family cat]] rescuing the boy from a neighbour's dog that inexplicably attacked the ActionSurvivor 4-year-old.
82* '''Bacteria.''' Sure they may not look like much, but they are, without a doubt, the oldest, toughest, and most numerous creatures on the planet. Nine billion humans? One quadrillion ants? There are estimated to be 5 ''nonillion'' -- that's a five with ''thirty'' zeroes behind it -- bacteria on Earth. They have an amazing AdaptiveAbility due to their rapid reproductive cycle and free-floating genetic material, allowing them to survive every conceivable extreme. Volcanic hot springs, underground ice caverns, the bottom of the ocean, your intestines, and even environments close to that of ''space.'' And there are some species that survive by feeding on rocks, electricity, and even ionizing radiation. In fact, not only do they survive in hostile radioactive environments that would be instantly lethal to almost all other life, they ''thrive'' in it.
83** While it's bad news for us, you have to give some credit to bacteria finding ways to adapt to antibiotics, which are specifically ''designed'' to destroy them. And if a bacterium that develops this adaptation dies, [[MyDeathIsOnlyTheBeginning it can eject its genetic material into the surrounding environment so other bacteria can integrate it into themselves and carry it on]].
84* A pig's orgasm lasts for thirty minutes. DAMN.
85* Tardigrades (or as they are often called, 'water bears') are the single most bad-ass and resilient survivors in existence. They can survive extreme conditions that would be rapidly fatal to nearly all other known life forms. Not only are they are known to withstand temperature ranges from 1 K (−458 °F; −272 °C) (which is near ABSOLUTE ZERO) to about 420 K (300 °F; 150 °C), but they can also survive pressures almost six times greater than those found in the deepest ocean trenches, AND ionizing radiation at doses hundreds of times higher than the lethal dose for a human, AND survive without food or water for more than 30 years, to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce, they can ALSO survive the vacuum of space...
86* Golden eagles. This bird of prey has been known to take on North America badgers, the honey badgers' cousin, and actually drive them away from their kills. One was even observed eating a badger's kill as it hid underneath the carcass. Hell, they have even driven off grizzly bears! In any environment they are introduced, golden eagles tend to dominate it.
87* The [[https://youtu.be/LU8DDYz68kM Battle at Kruger]]. Lions vs buffalos vs crocodiles. Has to be seen to be believed.
88* [[https://youtu.be/VdtlAX3uwXc A tarantula scores a rare victory over a spider wasp]].
89* Meet the [[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-evolution-brought-flightless-bird-back-extinction-180972166/ Aldabra rail]]...the bird that ''[[BackFromTheDead defied extinction]]''.
90* [[https://www.reshareworthy.com/heroic-german-shepherd-shot-protecting-teen/ This story]] features a dog who nearly dies fending off a pair of armed burglars long enough for the cops to show up. And despite being beaten, bloodied, and shot four times, '''[[MadeOfIron the dog survived.]]''' {{Determinator}} does not even ''begin'' to describe a German Shepherd whose owner is in danger.
91* [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/03/crayfish-becomes-online-hero-by-detaching-claw-to-escape-boiling-soup This crayfish]], upon realizing it was going to be eaten, [[LifeOrLimbDecision rips its own claw off]] and escape the pot it was due to be boiled in.
92* Few animals can claim that they saved their entire species from extinction, but Diego, a male Hood Island giant tortoise did just that. In the 1970's, Diego was one of only fifteen of this species known to still exist. A breeding program had been set up in the Galápagos Islands in an attempt to save them from extinction. At the time, there were two males and twelve females at the breeding centre. Diego had lived at the San Diego zoo for over thirty years, with the zoo's staff never actually knowing what subspecies of giant tortoise he was. In 1976, a DNA test revealed that he was a Hood Island tortoise, and he was sent to the Galapagos centre to take part in the breeding program. At the time, they can't have known just how much of an impact he would have. Over the next thirty five years, Diego was believed to have fathered over ''900'' offspring! That, combined with the efforts of the other two males, meant that the population had gone from 15, to around 2,300 individuals! In 2020, the breeding program was brought to an end after it was determined that there was now enough tortoises for them to breed in the wild without aid from humans. Diego, at the age of around 100, was retired and returned to the wild after having spent 80 years in captivity. Needless to say, Diego's story got a lot of attention on the internet, with him being heralded as a hero and a "gigachad" for saving his species by having a ridiculous amount of sex!
93* [[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8305836 A group of scumbag men kidnapped a 12-year-old girl, drove to a remote location, and tried to force her to marry one of them.]] Until a pride of lions showed up, drove off the men, and guarded the girl until rescuers arrived.
94[[/folder]]
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96[[folder:Disasters, Rescues & Humanitarian]]
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101* ''Operación San Lorenzo'' -- the rescue operation for the 33 miners trapped underground by a cave-in at the San Jose Mine in Chile in 2010. At least six foreign countries aided in the rescue effort -- the capsule was designed by NASA, the drill for the main shaft was provided by Canada, and the drill which made the pilot hole through which supplies were passed was South African. In the end, all 33 miners were rescued in remarkably good health. During the first 14 days, they were presumed dead.
102** Made all the more amazing when you realize that hundreds (if not more) of people were involved, directly and indirectly, in rescuing 33 men. It's a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome, SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}, and TearJerker wrapped in one. [[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/07/07/sixty-nine-days The full story is told here.]]
103** The shift supervisor was the last miner out. He was greeted at the surface by the president of Chile. He said (in Spanish), "I've delivered to you this shift of workers, as we agreed I would." The president replied, "I gladly receive your shift, because you completed your duty, leaving last like a [[GoingDownWithTheShip good captain]]."
104* Any time a large-scale humanitarian effort goes underway: e.g. Hurricane Katrina, Haitian earthquake, Chinese earthquake, etc. Regardless of the niggling BS that can surround these, generally done by someone with their head up their ass on the issue, there are ''countless'' Moments of Tears, Heartwarming, and Awesome... sometimes enough to spawn a series of "comic" strips regarding the heroism of those involved.
105* [[https://www.cfr.org/blog/great-east-japan-earthquake-and-south-korean-support South Korea's response to the infamous 2011 Earthquake]] is both this and SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoment. When the earthquake rocked the Tohoku region of Japan, who was one of the first countries to respond? UsefulNotes/SouthKorea. Which has a... messy, to say the least, relationship with Japan due to historical reasons. However, after the earthquake, the affected Japanese earned the immediate sympathy of the South Korean public; in an opinion survey conducted by YTN, [=JoongAng=] Daily, and the East Asia Institute in March of that year, 76.4 percent of respondents gave their support for sending aid and rescuers to Japan. The Chosun Daily newspaper initiated a movement for donations which drew more than ''ten thousand'' participants in a ''single day''. The Korean Red Cross amassed 21.3 billion won ($19.6 million) in two weeks, the largest amount of disaster relief amassed in and outside South Korea ''ever''. Myeongdong, a Japanese tourism hotspot, hung up a banner saying, "Cheer up, Japanese friends. [[YouAreNotAlone We are always with you,"]] and the Korean Liberation Army asked for roadside donations. Even the ''former comfort women'', Korean women who had been forced into sexual slavery by UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan, who had protested the Japanese Embassy for 19 years, paid their respects, mourned, and donated their share. As of May, contributors in South Korea had donated ₩56 billion won (US$50 million) to various organizations for the disaster relief effort, showing that despite their feelings on the politics of Japan, [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther they know that the people are still people just like them]]. Sadly, [[HopeSpot these efforts]] [[ShaggyDogStory became overshadowed by others and have become almost forgotten by the Japanese public]].
106** Also notable is the little island of UsefulNotes/{{Taiwan}}, which contributed ''the second most of any country'', only behind the United States itself. Japanese netizens were rightfully pissed when Taiwan was omitted from the thank-you note released by the Japanese government.
107** Also, even Afghanistan managed to scrape together US$987,125 to donate. [[GreaterNeedThanMine And even poorer countries in Africa paid their shares as well]].
108** Oh, and even ''North Korea'' played their part by donating $100,000, and Kim Jong-Il himself pitched in $500,000 personally. It's not much, but the fact that even they contributed is quite amazing. The North Korea affiliated Fukushima Korean School even helped shelter 18 Japanese, despite their affiliation and [[UsefulNotes/KoreansInJapan discrimination]]. The earthquake relief efforts in general bought out Moments of Awesome for many countries.
109** Miki Endo, the emergency broadcaster on duty for the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi Prefecture, remained at her post even as the tsunami swept through town. She continued broadcasting warnings and instructions until the floodwaters shorted out her equipment. [[HeroicSacrifice She did not survive.]]
110* In more instances of altruism after a disaster overcoming old animosities, in 1999 an earthquake hit Turkey, the most affected being the city of İzmit. Because of the sheer magnitude of the disaster, the Turkish authorities had barely any idea what to do. Who was the first to come to the rescue? Long-time rival Greece. Whom they had rarely ever got along with due to historical reasons, much like Japan and South Korea. In fact, only three years before, the two countries had clashed over the Imia/Kardak islands. Within hours of the earthquake, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called Turkey to tell them that help was on the way and sent envoys, with rescuers soon to follow. But most of the aid wasn't from the government, but [=NGOs=], local authorities, and normal everyday Greeks. Basically all levels of Greek society coordinated and mobilized at once to help İzmit and the surrounding area, a Herculean task considering how inefficient Greek politics can be. This was given a lot of spotlight in Turkey; stories about the Greek public reaction to the event, people bringing in food donations to municipalities, blood drives, and other acts of kindness were blasted from every Turkish TV station that could air them, and headlines ran with titles like "Friendship Time", "Friendly Hands in Black Days", "A Great Support Organization -– Five Greek Municipalities say there is no flag or ideology in humanitarian aid", "Help Flows in from Neighbors –- Russia first, Greece the most". The emotional language used differed noticeably from what was usually used to describe their neighbor, using words such as "neighbor" and "true friend". But that's not it. Because guess what happened not even month later? An earthquake hit Athens, the capital of Greece, and it was the most devastating and costly natural disaster to hit the country in 20 years. And this time, it was Turkey's turn to come to the rescue. Immediately, a special taskforce was created for the job, and the first 20 arrived within 13 hours. The phone lines of the Greek consulates and embassy in Turkey were ''jammed'' with concerned Turks offering to donate blood, with one even offering his kidney for a "Greek in need". Dawwww. And unlike the above case of South Korea, this wasn't all for nothing; while relations still aren't ''great'' per se, it helped contribute to the easing of tensions between the two countries. Ask most Greeks or Turks what they think of the other country now, and they would be vastly better than what it was before the earthquake. These countries may be on track to becoming FireForgedFriends in the future. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek-Turkish_earthquake_diplomacy Here is the Wikipedia article about it]].
111* [[http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/30/report-co-pilot-moved-seat-sent-jetliner-plumetting/?npt=NP1 A pilot pulls his plane out of a 7,000 foot drop when the co-pilot bumps the control stick.]] Airline officials have said that if the plane hadn't pulled up, it would have broken apart.
112* The flight crew of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232 United Airlines Flight 232]] had their SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome when their [=DC-10's=] center engine ''exploded'', [[OhCrap taking out all three redundant hydraulic systems with it]]. With the aid of Dennis Fitch, a [=DC-10=] flight instructor who happened to be aboard, Captain Alfred Haynes limped the stricken plane to Sioux City airport with control over ''nothing more than the throttles of the remaining two engines'', all the while keeping his cool and making some rich BlackComedy with air traffic control. Sadly, the extremely limited control available, including an inability to command flaps or airbrakes, meant any landing was going to be unavoidably violent, and this was made worse by a sudden uncorrectable dip to the right causing the wingtip to impact the ground and send the plane into a firey, high speed tumble with many fatalities from both impact and smoke inhalation. However, whilst only 184 of the 296 people aboard survived, many of the survivors were able to walk out of the wreckage -- and without the determination and rapid, skilled response of Fitch and the flight crew, the outcome could have been ''much'' worse.
113* Newark Mayor Cory Booker had already developed a reputation as a "hands-on" mayor when he started shoveling the driveways of citizens who asked him to -- no small task in a city with 277,000 people. But his SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome came when he [[OutOfTheInferno literally ran through a wall of fire]] to save a woman from a burning building.
114* US Airways Flight 1549 -- often referred to as "The Miracle on the Hudson". A ten-year-old Airbus A320 jetliner taking off from La Guardia Airport in the middle of New York City struck a flock of Canada geese at 3,200 feet (980 m) that wrecked both engines, nearly eliminating all power for the pilots and leaving insufficient range to reach any runway, even the one they took off from. What resulted was at least four separate [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Awesome Moments]], each of which almost certainly saved lives:
115** One for the Airbus design team, for, over thirty years before, deciding on a fly-by-wire design which kept the plane in control and flying with optimum lift, leaving the pilots space to think about higher-level decisions like where to land;
116** One for Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, a lifelong pilot, Air Force veteran, safety expert, former glider instructor pilot, and his co-pilot Jeffrey B. Skiles, another lifelong pilot with decades of experience, for keeping the plane in the air as long as possible as they abbreviated an engine recovery procedure designed for high altitude (including Sully's addition to this procedure: activating the auxiliary power, which kept the electrical systems fully running while the engines fell apart), and then for managing a near-textbook water landing despite never recovering sufficient power to fly;
117** One for the passengers and flight attendants, for apprising the situation and coming together to prepare for the crash (including several passengers protecting children with their own bodies, and one passenger watching the window to alert them all to the moment of impact), then successfully and quickly evacuating through the exits onto the inflated slides (which were acting as rafts) and wings;
118** And one for the local commercial, police, fire, and Coast Guard vessels who responded almost immediately to pick all 155 occupants of the plane out of the water alive.
119** Finally, when you consider the odds, Captain Sully never had a chance to practice. Water landings are tricky and dangerous at best and if the plane doesn't hit in ''exactly'' the right way, often fatal. With no practice and not much time, Sully landed it in the ideal manner. The result was only five injuries, only two of which were serious. Fittingly, Captain Sullenberger was given an honorary lifetime membership in the International Seaplane Pilot's Association.
120* The crew of the ''Titanic''. While the ship was sinking, they stayed at their posts, right up until the very end. Hell, the engineers who stayed at their posts, in the bowels of the ship, providing power for the lights and wireless right up until the ship broke in half, deserve extra praise just for that, as they were allowed to leave, and still kept at their jobs. There's a reason why most of the crew didn't survive, and it wasn't just due to lack of lifeboats.
121** Special mention for the ship's band, who played bravely all through the sinking to help maintain calm, right up until the slant of the deck made it impossible to hold the instruments steady. None of them made it.
122** The ''Carpathia'' was almost 60 miles away from ''Titanic''[='=]s last known position when her radio operator got ''Titanic''[='=]s distress signal. Captain Rostron not only ordered immediate maximum speed, but had the heating and hot water shut down to route a little more steam into the engines. Let's go over that: maximum speed, at night, heading straight into an icefield that's already sunk one liner. But she got through, and rescued ''705 out of'' Titanic's ''2208 crew and passengers''.
123--->'''Sir Arthur Henry Rostron [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever KBE]] [=RD RNR=]:''' [[RealMenLoveJesus I]] can only conclude [[DivineIntervention another hand than mine]] was on the helm.
124** Chief Engineer A. B. Jones of the ''Carpathia'' saw the steam pressure rising to dangerous levels, threatening to burst the boilers and kill everyone in the engineering spaces (including himself) if not sink the ship. Knowing that every minute of delay meant that much less chance of rescuing the crew and passengers of Titanic, he increased steam pressure further for more speed, and put his hat over the gauge so he wouldn't need to worry about it. The ''Carpathia'' had a design maximum speed of 14 knots. He got her to 17.5, shaving almost an hour off the run.
125*** That seemingly small 3.5 knot difference meant A. B. Jones was running the ''Carpathia'''s engines at damn at near twice the power and pressures it was rated for.
126* The passengers of United Flight 93. On September 11, 2001, after a flight scheduled to fly from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California was hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists, the passengers of Flight 93 called their loved ones to inform them of this event. After learning about the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, they decided to rush the cockpit as a group in order to regain control of the cockpit. They successfully prevented the hijackers from reaching their destination of Washington, D.C., where it is believed they would have hit the United States Capitol Building or the White House. United Flight 93 crashed in a field outside of Stonycreek Township near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. [[TearJerker Sadly, there were no survivors on United 93.]]
127-->''[[http://old.post-gazette.com/headlines/20010916phonecallnat3p3.asp Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll.]]''
128** Every single passenger on that plane deserved a medal. What they did was truly remarkable. They were ordinary people. Ordinary people placed in an extraordinary situation leading to extraordinary tragedy. Facing extraordinary odds and extraordinary perils, they performed extraordinary deeds and became heroes. God Bless The Passengers of Flight 93.
129** It's debated what exactly happened aboard the flight[[note]]even Vice President Dick Cheney remarked that we could only guess that "something heroic" must have happened[[/note]], but United 93 is a good example of terrorism's limits. Terrorists, like despots, rely entirely on their victims' fears of what will happen to them. But if [[BetterToDieThanBeKilled the worst is already going to happen]], and there's a chance to spare others at the cost of your own life, it's [[BigDamnHeroes hero]] [[TakingYouWithMe time]].
130** Everything Canada did, on 9/11 and in the weeks afterward. Suddenly faced with the total shutdown of American airspace and the diversion of hundreds of flights to Canadian airfields, the nation launched [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Yellow_Ribbon Operation Yellow Ribbon]], a monumental effort by towns and cities all around the country to feed and temporarily house tens of thousands of panicked, frantic stranded American passengers. What would have happened had we not had the unswerving support of the "true North strong and free" very much does ''not'' bear thinking about.
131** Whatever you may think of his tenure as Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld got one on 9/11. The Pentagon had just been hit, and first responders had not yet arrived. Seeing the situation, Rumsfeld himself organized some of the Pentagon employees and led them into the burning building to rescue those still in danger.
132* [[http://www.badassoftheweek.com/rescorla.html Rick Rescorla]] was a notable and famous AU Army Cavalry officer in Vietnam, best known for singing classic Cornish folk tunes to inspire his soldiers. He retired and became a security officer for Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in their offices in the World Trade Center, charged with the protection of 2,700 people. Then came 9/11.
133-->"He was last seen on the tenth floor of the World Trade Center, headed up. Of the 2,700 people he had been charged with protecting, all but 6 survived the terrorist attack."[[note]][[http://www.badassoftheweek.com/rescorla.html Source]][[/note]]
134* On [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_253 a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day 2009]], a Dutch passenger called Jasper Schuringa thwarted a Nigerian al-Qaeda terrorist who was trying to set off a device containing plastic explosives.
135* Japan's devastating 2011 earthquake/tsunami:
136** One person's [[http://web.archive.org/web/20110318001758/http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3396040 bone-headed post]] on Website/SomethingAwful the same day as the disaster somehow led to '''[[http://web.archive.org/web/20110505015250/http://goonerosity.org/ $70,000 in charity ($28,000 in the first 24 hours!)]], [[http://web.archive.org/web/20110825094612/http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3396040&pagenumber=32&perpage=40#post389410084 $1,750 in shaved heads]] and 30 pints of donated blood'''... ''and counting.'' All because someone said "I'll donate $10 to charity if this idiot's banned" and someone else added "I'll donate $20 if it's permanent!"
137** Various corollaries to this story exist, but in a case of knowing where priorities should be placed, Valve began a fundraising campaign through its multiplayer game ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''. They sold assorted Japanese-themed in-game items, with all proceeds from those sales going to UsefulNotes/TheRedCross. The promotion lasted for two weeks. The final tally? [[http://www.gossipgamers.com/valve-team-fortress-2-raised-430543-65-from-gamers-buying-hats/ Over $430,000. Go gamers.]]
138** Shortly after the disaster, fans started posting watch pages to let people know when Japanese celebrities were confirmed safe. In particular, Creator/NorioWakamoto hadn't been heard from for several days. Just when people started really getting worried, confirmation came in: he sent a message to a friend, saying that he was alright and asking them to pass word along to his other friends and family members, and that he was going back to '''personally''' help in the rescue efforts. There's a reason people worship this man.
139* On September 14, 2011, motorcyclist Brandon Wright found himself in a car accident and pinned under a burning car. [[http://newsradio1310.com/burning-car-lifted-off-motorcyclist-video/ A group of bystanders ran out of their cars and worked together to lift the burning vehicle and get Brandon to safety.]]
140* Erin Bolster, a trail guide from Montana, and her horse, Tonk. She was riding Tonk when she saw a 750-pound grizzly bear chasing another horse--one carrying an eight-year-old boy. ''And she charged the grizzly bear.'' In fact, [[http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2011/oct/12/grizzly-chargers-featured-on-cbs/ she convinced Tonk to charge the bear three times, driving the bear away from the child and the other horse]].
141* During the tornados in Missouri, a woman protected her kids by placing a blanket over them and using her body as a shield when the tornado struck down. Her kids walked away fine and while she lost both her legs, she's just very happy to have been able to protect her children.
142** During an outbreak of tornadoes in the Charlotte, North Carolina area in February 2020, in one neighborhood a woman running a daycare in her home realized that a tornado would be hitting their house full of babies and toddlers within ''three'' minutes. In the span of those few precious minutes, she and her family gathered up all the children and ran for cover; hunkering down in a back room just in the nick of time before the tornado tore the house apart and dropped a tree in the room where the several of the kids had just been sleeping as it did so. Due to her quick thinking, [[https://www.wbtv.com/2020/02/08/tornado-hits-south-charlotte-daycare-owner-saves-children-within-minutes-impact/ everyone escaped the tornado unharmed]] and tragedy was averted with almost no time to spare.
143* The captain and crew of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9 British Airways Flight 9]] of the Jakarta incident. They engines were ''all'' completely clogged with volcanic dust, and flamed out, and the cabin was filling with smoke and sulfur from the volcano. Yet the Captain kept calm and was eventually able to get the plane under control and regain the engines once they were clear of the ash. Despite everything they managed to land the plane safely, and miraculously ''not one passenger'' was injured or killed. The crew were rewarded with numerous medals and commendations; passengers and crew formed the Galunggung Gliding Club [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments in order to keep in contact.]] One passenger wrote a book about the incident, and went on to marry a fellow survivor.
144** Even more awesome was Captain Eric Moody's reassuring statement [[StiffUpperLip (or understatement)]] to the passengers, as he and his crew were desperately trying to relight the engines:
145--->"Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We're doing our damnedest to get them going again, and I trust you're not in too much distress."
146* Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy:
147** During the storm, a hospital in New York City suffered a massive failure of both main power and two backup generators. An army of firefighters and rescue personnel traveled with an army of ambulances, braving the deadly storm, to pull each and every last person out. At one point, a CBS reporter reporting on the incident dropped his mic, put on medical scrubs and aided in the massive rescue.
148** The guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery elected to ''stay and continue to guard the tomb'', even in the face of the storm.
149* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug Norman Borlaug.]] He saved a billion lives. If anyone doesn't know who he was, please look up his article on Website/TheOtherWiki, because this man had ''multiple'' [[SugarWiki/MomentofAwesome Moments of Awesome]] in his lifetime. He moved to Mexico, where he developed high-yield, disease-resistant varieties of wheat, which improved food stability. He proceeded to take his wheat varieties to Pakistan and India, greatly helping in their food stability, increasing their ability to feed people. Later in life, he took his work to China and Africa, aiding them in feeding the people. His work is credited with saving a billion lives by preventing death through starvation, is the father of the 'Green Revolution', and was a major proponent of using genetics to increase the food yield and resistance to disease in plants. And as for his environmentalist critics, he had this to say:
150-->"Some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things."
151* [[http://broniesforgood.org/seeds-of-kindness/ Seeds of Kindness]] is a charity project created by bronies (fans of WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic) in which you can download an album with original fan music inspired by the series in exchange for your donation. [[http://broniesforgood.org/2012/06/lisas-thank-you-letter-green-village-and-tanzanian-orphanage-project-funded/ So far it had collected enough money to fund a clinic in Uganda, a green village in Burundi and an orphanage in Tanzania.]]
152* 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing:
153** David Ortiz during the first Red Sox game after the bombing and one day after the capture of the second bomber: "This is our [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] city!"
154** Immediately after the bombing spectators and runners alike, with said runners having just completed ''a 26.2 mile run,'' stepped in to help police and EMS triage and treat victims. Many runners finished the race only to go straight to the Red Cross to donate blood. The medical tents, with doctors, nurses, and paramedics there to treat race-related injuries and dehydration, sprang into action, turning Copley Square into an impromptu [=MASH=] unit. Doubles as a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} as well.
155** Although three people were killed in the initial explosion, not a single person died on route to the hospital thanks to the actions of [[HeroicBystander spectators and runners]] who immediately rushed to aid the injured.
156* On May 6, 2013, in Cleveland, Ohio, dishwasher Chuck Ramsey stopped eating his dinner when he heard screams coming from a neighbor's home. He ran to them to find a young woman screaming for help. He kicked open the door, allowing the woman to escape. The young woman was 27-year-old Amanda Berry, who had been missing for ten years. After a 911 call, police searched the home and also located 24-year-old Gina Dejesus and 32-year-old Michelle Knight, who had been missing for 9 and 11 years respectively. The girls had all vanished in separate incidents.
157* The 1925 serum run to Nome, Alaska, also called the "Great Race of Mercy", has been hailed for nearly a century as the crowning achievement of dog-sledding. The background: a diphtheria epidemic struck the city, which was totally icebound and had no antitoxin left save for a scant remainder that had already expired. With the port closed and the surrounding area all but impassable, the only routes available to bring the needed antitoxin to the stricken city were dogsled and bush airplane. The board of health initially wanted to use airplanes, but inclement weather crippled the engines of the primitive aircraft in use at the time, and the only remaining option was to bring the antitoxin in by dog-sled. As a result, twenty mushers and over a hundred and fifty dogs relayed the serum nearly seven hundred miles over some of the most forbidding terrain in the world in the space of five and a half days, a world record that still stands. The feat has never been duplicated. This legendary race against death became the basis for the modern Iditarod.
158* In the 2013 Nairobi attacks, one dentist managed to rush inside and helped to save 15 people from the mall, even rushing back in to save two people with pretty much no help from officials.
159** Another man who managed to flee the carnage managed to save a small girl who had been shot three times in the leg.
160** Abdul Haji, the former Kenyan defence minister's son, was in the mall during the attack. He provided covering fire for the relief workers, civilians and first responders with his handgun when the shooting started and rescued multiple people including an American family.
161** [[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/kenya-shopping-mall-attack-fouryearold-british-boy-freed-and-given-mars-bar-after-telling-armed-jihadist-youre-a-bad-man-8836104.html And this five-year-old British boy]] manages to save his sister and his mother by these four simple words: "[[ShamingTheMob You're a bad man]]." Also doubles as SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} as [[EvenEvilHasStandards the gunman]] gave the kids Mars candy bars and said, "Please forgive me, [[{{Irony}} we're not monsters]]."
162* During a knife attack in Leytonstone Tube Station, London, in 2015, the Islamist attacker claimed that he was doing it for Islam. One of the commuters retorted, loudly, "You ain't no Muslim, bruv!" The phrase promptly trended on Twitter, with then Prime Minister David Cameron congratulating the commuter, remarking that he'd said it far better than Cameron himself could have done.
163* Britain suffered a string of terrorist attacks in 2017 -- the Westminster vehicle and knife attack in March, the Manchester bombing in May, and the London Bridge vehicle and knife attack in June, the latter two less than two weeks apart. During and after those attacks, there were some truly amazing moments.
164** During the Westminster Attack, among the victims was off-duty Police Constable Keith Palmer. After the attack, a JustGiving page was set up to raise £100,000 to support his family. The target was reached in less than 24 hours. Additionally, he was posthumously awarded the George Medal, which itself had been instituted in 1940 to honour civilian acts of courage during the Blitz.
165*** At the same time, a group called Muslims United For London raised £29,000 for the families of the victims.
166*** During the attack itself, doctors and nurses were seen running from the nearby St Thomas' hospital to provide immediate first aid, and Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood was pictured giving PC Palmer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Generally, passers-by were seen tending to the injured before medics arrived.
167*** Afterwards, Fox News claimed that 'one man' had shut down London. [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/39365449/people-mock-fox-news-claim-that-terror-attack-shut-down-city The responses to this were gloriously snarky]], with one announcement whiteboard in a tube station, usually reserved for service information, saying, "All terrorists are politely remind that THIS IS LONDON and whatever you do to us, we will drink tea and jolly well carry on. Thank you."
168** After the Manchester Bombing, Music/{{Eminem}} and Music/JustinTimberlake helped raise over $2 million for the victims, while Liam Gallagher announced a solo gig at Manchester's O2 Ritz, the proceeds of which would be donated to a fund established by the families of the victims. Noel Gallagher, meanwhile, donated the sales of "Don't Look Back In Anger" to the We Love Manchester fund after it became the unofficial anthem/response to the bombing.
169*** It's also worth noting that the response song chosen by the general consciousness of Britain wasn't some tubt-humping war-cry, but instead a sad, but defiant song that basically said, "We aren't playing your game, we aren't giving in to rage."
170** During the London Bridge attack, 47-year-old Roy Larner took on three knife wielding attackers at once with his bare fists when they burst into a restaurant, shouting, "Fuck you, I'm [[UsefulNotes/BritishFootyTeams Millwall!]]" (Millwall FC being a football team infamous for its violent firm of FootballHooligans). Despite numerous stab wounds, [[{{Determinator}} he kept fighting,]] giving the other restaurant patrons a chance to escape, and when the attackers left (possibly perturbed by the madman who just wouldn't stop), he actually ''chased them outside''. He was consequently, and deservedly, dubbed 'the Lion of London Bridge' by the British press. [[GallowsHumor Britain being Britain,]] when he was recovering in hospital, his mates got him a magazine called 'Learn to Run'.
171*** Shortly after the attack, traditional arch-rivals England and France played a friendly at the Stade de France in Paris. Their last friendly had been at Wembley, after the 2015 Bataclan attack. The stadium was lit up in the colours of the French tricolore and, with aid of the words on the big screen, the English fans joined their French counterparts in singing the French national anthem. [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments This time, the French returned the favour, singing God Save the Queen,]] after both teams walked out to 'Don't Look Back In Anger'. While both countries may pretend to hate each half the time, moments like this, and the fact that the Bataclan Attack enraged Britain sufficiently that it flipped parliamentary opinion about taking part in the bombing campaign against ISIS from 'firmly against' to 'thoroughly for', remind one that they do love each other really.
172*** The New York Times, meanwhile, claimed that the attack had 'left Britain reeling'. This sparked a mocking hashtag on Twitter, #thingsthatleftBritainreeling, and [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/40156559/thingsthatleavebritainreeling-trends-after-london-attack-in-response-to-headline the inevitable hilarious responses.]]
173*** Similarly, Donald Trump [[InsaneTrollLogic posted a series of tweets claiming that this kind of incident was why his Travel Ban was required, indirectly blaming Britain's famously strict gun laws]] (the perpetrators used knives and vans), and deliberately took some of London Mayor Sadiq Khan's comments out of context, while Khan, Europe's first Muslim Mayor, was busy organising the response to the tragedy. The curt response from the Mayor's office boiled down to "I am coordinating the response to a terrorist attack and have far more important things to do than get in an argument with you".
174* Before Creator/SteveBuscemi was an actor, he was a firefighter. He showed up at his old firehouse the day after 9/11 to volunteer, and worked twelve hour shifts for a week, digging through rubble with his old comrades looking for missing firefighters... anonymously.
175* Karina Chiktova, a three-year-old girl, was stranded deep in [[BearsAreBadNews bear]] and [[SavageWolves wolf]]-infested Siberian woods for 11 days. But she and her HeroicDog Kyrachaan managed to tough it out, [[BadassAdorable living off of wild berries and river water and managing to suffer nothing more than mosquito bites and minor scratches on her feet, with Kyrachaan being thought to have cuddled up to her for warmth and scared wild animals away.]] Eventually Kyrachaan went back to the village and got help, leading to Karina finally being found and rescued, malnourished but otherwise fine. Doubles as a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}.
176* The rescue of [[http://www.biography.com/people/baby-jessica-17175736 Jessica McClure]], an 18-month-old girl who fell down a well and was trapped there for fifty-eight hours.
177* In 2013, a ship capsized off the coast of South Africa, taking with it the entire crew...save for the ship's cook, Harrison Okene. He survived in a pocket of air barely big enough to hold enough oxygen, with no food or drinkable water, for three days, before body recovery crews were surprised to discover him alive. They were able to recover him safely to the surface, and [[https://youtu.be/iKL11BavG0U video of his rescue]] went viral.
178* The 1979 [[http://www.mississauga.ca/portal/home?paf_gear_id=9700018&itemId=5500001 "Mississauga Miracle"]]. Several cars filled with propane derailed from a train and burst into flames, rupturing other cars filled with chlorine and other nasty chemicals, creating a fireball that rose 5000 feet into the sky, visible from 60 miles away. Over a dozen cars ended up crumpled and dented in the wreck; it would have been worse if the train's brakeman, Larry Krupa, hadn't risked his life to release the air brakes to get the other cars (also filled with [[MadeOfExplodium explodium]]) out of the way. While firefighters battled the fire, another propane tank blew up, showering the area in chunks of metal and knocking those nearby down to the ground. Meanwhile, the chlorine gas, known for its potent and disturbing lethality in early UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, kept spreading out. Officials managed to quickly evacuate 200 000 people, some for almost a week, the most for any North American evacuation in the 20th century. Final death toll: 0. Mississauga mayor Hazel [=McCallion=] won major points for hobbling to press conferences after spraining her ankle; she would continue to serve as mayor for another ''35 years''.
179* During WWII, one of the leading wagons on a freight train passing through the village of Soham in Cambridgeshire caught fire. The problem with this was that it was a trainload of bombs. The reaction of the driver and fireman? Pin down the rest of the train, uncouple the locomotive with the burning wagon(s) and make a run for it until the developing problem was well clear of the village. They got to the next signalbox before being stopped, which was when the burning wagons, locomotive, fireman, and the signalbox and signalman were blown to kingdom come, and the driver seriously wounded. Nevertheless, Soham is still where it was which it would not have been if the whole train had gone up, and the crew received George Crosses for their quick thinking and bravery. The remains of the locomotive can be seen [[https://www.lner.info/locos/O/o7.php here.]]
180** Thirteen years later, a steam pipe burst on a locomotive hauling a freight train from Buxton to Stockport. Unfortunately, this forced the regulator wide open, and disabled the whistle, prevent the crew from contacting the engine pushing from behind to tell its crew to stop. As the train reached the summit, the driver told his fireman to jump off to apply the brakes on the wagons (like most freight trains in Britain at the time, there was no continuous brake) while he stayed on the side of the locomotive, as it began to accelerate rapidly down the subsequent grade with 650 tons behind it. As the train rapidly approached the next signalbox at Dove Holes, he beckoned to the signalman to keep him on the rails (had the signalman set a special set of points to derail the train, it would have smashed into the signalbox and destroyed it, killing him.) with the intention of trying to stop the train further down the line. Unfortunately, he was killed when his train collided with the back of another freight train at Chapel-en-le-Frith; however, the signalman at Dove Holes had managed to contact the station and evacuate a diesel passenger train waiting in the adjacent platform.
181* Zivi Nedivi established himself as a BadassIsraeli AcePilot during a training session in 1983. At the time, he was flying an F-15, recently purchased from the United States, when he ended up in a collision with an A-4. While the A-4 fireballed and its pilot ejected, the F-15 still held together, except for a massive spray of fuel coming from the right side of the plane. Rather than ejecting he opted to fly the plane to the nearest airfield, ten miles away. In spite of [[ComingInHot being twice the recommended landing speed when he hit the runway]], he still managed to stop the plane just ten meters from the arresting barrier. Only then did he realize -- ''he had just landed the plane with only one wing''. The designers of the plane, [=McDonnell=] Douglas, believed such a feat to be ''impossible''. They sent a team out and concluded that Nedivi managed to fly the plane using lift generated from the exhaust intakes and the fuselage. That's right, the F-15 is such a CoolPlane that it can fly like a ''rocket''.
182* In Perth, a man accidentally slips through the crack between the platform and the train in a train station, trapping his leg badly enough that he couldn't be lifted out and was at risk of losing it (or other serious medical complications) if not freed and given prompt medical attention. What does the rush-hour crowd around him do? Rally up and, with all their combined strength, ''tilt several dozen tonnes of train '''just''' enough so that the man can get his leg free.'' [[https://youtu.be/nZx4MichXXE Here's a video to prove it.]]
183* In the Indian city of Pune, [[https://www.ndtv.com/pune-news/punes-people-power-group-lifts-bus-to-free-trapped-students-657536 a group of people lifted a bus]] to rescue two students trapped beneath.
184* In 1980, 14-year-old [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Stayner Steven Stayner]] had been held captive and molested since age 7. Upon learning that a new boy had been kidnapped, and aware of the boy's impending fate, Stayner escaped with White by night, hitchhiking 40 miles to the younger boy's hometown to take him to the police. There are commemorative statues of 14-year-old Stayner rescuing 5-year-old White in each of their hometowns.
185* In June 2018, twelve members of a Thai youth soccer team and their coach explored a cave in the northern part of the country, but were trapped by a sudden rainstorm that flooded the cave. After they were reported missing, the Thai authorities started a major search and rescue operation, and eventually divers from across the world were called in. After nine days trapped in the cave, all thirteen were found alive. After a week of preparation, all thirteen were extracted within three days. The film ''Film/ThirteenLives'' only had to play this drama quite straight.
186* In 1997, an Israeli named Motti Ashkenazi called the police to notify them he found a bag with a bomb inside it. While the police were dealing with it, he was outside, keeping people away. The guy was [[http://www.jewishpress.com/judaism/jewish-columns/lessons-in-emunah/the-street-to-redemption/2011/09/14/ a junkie thief freshly released from jail]], and he ''stole'' that bag from a beach full of children. He later became a guard there, and a reasonably good citizen.
187* Minor compared to all of the above, but the November 5, 2019 edition of the PBS syndicated broadcast of ''BBC World News'' literally ended with a shot of a drunken man stumbling onto train tracks in San Francisco's BART subway system and rescued by a bystander mere moments before the incoming train would've reached the spot where the man had fallen.
188* During the Great Famine in Ireland, many different groups sent aid. Of note was $170 (equivalent to $9,000 today) sent by the Choctaw Nation, who had experienced the Trail of Tears just ''sixteen years ago''. That is a huge amount of money for people struggling so much, but they raised it for the sake of others who were also struggling. (There is [[https://penntoday.upenn.edu/news/kindred-spirits-irish-native-american-solidarity much more to this story]] than just one band or one tribe sending Ireland one amount of money one time.) Ireland didn't forget this, either: a scheme is being put in place to allow Choctaw youth to study at the University of Cork for free. And [[https://www.gofundme.com/f/nhfcrf a fundraiser to help the Navajo and Hopi nations]] who'd been hit hard by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic got huge amounts of money from Ireland, most of it in $10s and $20s.
189* Following Creator/KirkDouglas' death in 2020, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis [[https://metro.co.uk/2020/02/07/jamie-lee-curtis-reveals-kirk-douglas-saved-life-almost-drowned-child-12202918/?fbclid=IwAR2uXdbWZPXL0HvtKSOuh6X1h-vSmPlZDMdJcMRf3hcW-YFvL7A8CxspKR0 revealed]] that he saved her from drowning when she was a child.
190* While filming ''Film/TheWildGeese'', Creator/RichardHarris saved a fellow actor's life by rugby tackling him to the ground when he saw the wing of a plane get dangerously close. One crewmember said it was the bravest thing he'd ever seen a film star do.
191* In 2016, Jeremy Clarkson [[https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/1561849/jeremy-clarkson-hailed-as-hero-after-rescuing-four-lads-on-their-lilos-off-the-coast-of-majorca/ rescued]] four tourists (two German, two French) who'd been swept out to sea in Majorca. He later boasted that he'd done more for diplomatic relations than UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson (then-Foreign Secretary).
192* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Samoa#World_War_I_and_the_1918_flu_pandemic During the 1918 pandemic]], the governor of American Samoa, John Martin Poyer, realized the danger of the flu before it arrived in Samoa, and as a precaution called up the US to request quarantine ships. Though his fellow governors thought him paranoid, his efforts paid of and American Samoa became one of ''three places in the world'' to remain untouched by the pandemic.
193* On July 9, 2020, [[BigBrotherInstinct six-year-old Bridger Walker]] saw a dog attacking his little sister. He threw himself at the dog, which savaged him enough that he required 90 stitches. His sister was unhurt. Asked why he did it, he said, "If someone had to die I thought it should be me." Unsurprisingly, he came in for a great deal of praise from around the world.
194* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Blockade#Start_of_the_Berlin_Airlift The Berlin Airlift]]. When Stalin put Berlin under a blocade, the western powers saw no obvious solution. They couldn't force their way in, for risk of starting a new war, and any other attempt they made were stopped by Stalin. Then someone suggested that they might send in supplies by plane, since Stalin would never dare to shoot at airplanes thus starting another war. While the Americans dismissed it as impossible, the RAF were used to resource shortages, and they knew some tricks.
195** The man who made it all possible was General William Tunner, who was given the impossible task of transporting 4000 tons of supplies to Berlin ''per day''. Through a combination of hiring new manpower (among them German civilians and even former Luftwaffe mechanics), replacing outdated planes and running an ''incredibly'' tight schedule (each plane had only 30 minutes to unload), the man passed the quota by 500 tons.
196** Tunner's 4500 tons achievement was surpassed on New Year's Eve of 1948. Through fog so thick that the maintenance crew had to crawl to avoid getting hit by propellers, the pilots delivered ''6000 tons of supplies''.
197** Gail Halverson, The Berlin Candy Bomber deserves special mention. After talking with a group of Berlin children and seeing how grateful they were after being given just two small sticks of gum, he wanted to do more. On his own with the help of his plane’s crew he got together some candy and making parachutes out of handkerchiefs on their next flight into Berlin he wiggled his wings before dropping the candy to the gathered children. Seeing faces of the happy children felt so good he started to do the candy drops on every flight he piloted into Berlin. Once word of the candy drops got to General Tunner, he put Gail in charge of Operation Little Vittels and it became a massive outpouring of hope to the people of Berlin.
198[[/folder]]
199
200[[folder:Human Rights]]
201* In the 1936 Olympics, Jesse Owens was congratulated for winning the gold in Sprinting by German competitor Luz Long. Not very awesome, until you consider the fact Jesse Owens was black, and this was done right in front of UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler.
202** Hitler shook Owens' hand. American president Franklin D Roosevelt did not.
203* In Creator/HannaBarbera's case, the ran into a stall during the production of ''WesternAnimation/HongKongPhooey'' in regards to Scatman Crothers' race. Even during the 70s, when Afro-Americans were increasingly recognized and cast in all sorts of roles on television, for some reason Hanna-Barbera Studios was [[https://badazzmofo.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/2679/ still reluctant at the idea]] of [[HumansAreWhite casting a black actor in a cartoon let alone having a black character at all]]. (They even dragged their feet on including Valerie, a canonical black character, in ''Josie and the Pussycats''!) So when Joe Barbera cast Crothers in the lead role, he decided to [[ILied lie to the HB heads by claiming that the title character's voice was provided by a white actor impersonating a black man]], which they of course believed.
204* Creator/WentworthMiller might be the first person to have a [[StraightGay Coming Out]] [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Moment of Awesome]]; in August 2013, he came out as a "screw you" to Russia's recently instated "anti-gay propaganda" laws. And he did so in a casual and well-worded way too, in an open letter declining an invitation to a Russian gala.
205* The makers of ''Film/TheDarkSideOfChocolate'', the documentary about the widespread use of child slaves in the cocoa industry, asked some companies to view their film but they refused. So what did they do? They went to the headquarters of Nestle, the biggest giant in the industry, ''erected a giant screen right in front of it,'' and played their film. You can just imagine the corporate fat cats squirming in their seats. [[https://youtu.be/ZNpwIzeyjKQ&t=43m0s See it here.]]
206* Creator/MichaelMoore crashed a Westboro Baptist Church protest with a mobile filled with proudly gay people. He and his gay friends exposed the protestors' bigoted views and embarrassed them so much that ''Fred Phelps called off the protest and sent his supporters home.'' [[https://youtu.be/Ra_fAYl4Th4 See for yourself.]]
207** Then there was the time [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/22/super-heroes-vs-the-westboro-baptist-church/ the idiots decided to try and shame Comic-Con.]] As Tropers know, we're a snarky and creative bunch.
208** [[http://thehayride.com/2011/04/westboro-baptist-church-goes-to-mississippi-and-loses/ Yet another fabulous way to screw over the Westboro Baptist Church.]] Basically, counter-protesters found the car park where most of the Westboro visitors were parked, miles away from the funeral site, and parked pick-up trucks in front of every car with a Kansas license plate. The trucks stayed there for the duration of a funeral of a soldier which was taking place in the town, thus thwarting their plan to picket the funeral.
209** When Westboro picketed the 2014 Final Four in Dallas, a group of people decided to split into four subgroups, each with their own couple of speakers and megaphones, made their way to the four intersections where the "church" was spewing its poison, and proceeded to drown them out with singalongs of Queen, Michael Jackson, Liberace, and various bands, before leaving when every member of the WBC had packed up and left. The last group finished ''thirty'' minutes after setting up shop.
210** Westboro made a parody of Kesha's song "We R Who We R" in which they relentlessly criticize the singer for promoting a sinful way of life. They even went to a Kesha concert, set up speakers, and blasted the song. Kesha's response was to troll the trolls by having her back-up singers go out and [[https://youtu.be/euGT_3d1cqc dance along to the song]].
211* In yet another jab at the Westboro Church, a group of guys have bought a house across the street from the church and painted in in rainbow colors, a prelude to its use as a headquarters of LGBT activism. A TakeThat and SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}} at their finest.
212** Anonymous apparently hijacking the Westboro Baptist Church's Facebook page [[LaserGuidedKarma a matter of hours after they planned to picket the funerals of those who died in the Boston Marathon bombing]]... [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments by posting messages of peace and love, and cute kittens]]. "Apparently", because the page turned out to be unofficial, but for a prank, it made a lot of people happy.
213** Another attack on Westboro Baptist Church, this time a hacker hijacked a webpage the group made proclaiming the F5 tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma, was God's wrath for a recent outing, modifying it to show a picture of Jesus [[OutOfCharacterMoment flipping the bird at them]], delivering a short TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, then posting a redirect link to the American Red Cross.
214** One more for Moore. In response to a snarky liqueur store sign directed at the Westboro Church, they decided to picket at a high school. Police showed up to prevent any trouble, but only eight minutes in, Oklahomans broke the barricade and chased them all off, sending the Westboro church members hightailing it to their cars. This was only a year after the comment above, and the damage the tornado had done was still fresh. Don't mess with angry Okies!
215** This one may be disputed, but how about one for Fred Phelps himself for changing his beliefs shortly before the end of his life. He spoke in support of the people who ran the Rainbow House across the street and refused to condemn them. For this, he was excommunicated from his church and shunned by his family.
216** Keith Allen also gave a good punch in his documentary ''Keith Allen will Burn in Hell'' where he waited for the right opportunity to expose one of the greatest hypocrisies of all time: Shirley has an illegitimate son, and she's not going to hell according to herself.
217* Martin Luther King and [[UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement the entire civil rights movement]]. Not only did they endure all of the crap the South could dish out, they did it without fighting back, earning popular support. Granted, they were helped by the South collectively holding the IdiotBall...
218** It finally paid off in the most awesome way possible decades later. Just the inauguration of the first black president is enough to bring you to tears if you look back at MLK's efforts and struggles.
219** The above is nicely summed up in [[http://abhmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/MKL-Obama-high-five.jpg this image.]]
220** Don't forget where it all started... with the murder of Emmett Till and the amazing courage of his great-uncle, Rev. Moses Wright. At the trial, Wright was asked to identify the man who took Emmett away. He'd been told he would be killed if he said anything. Without hesitation, he stood, pointed and said, "[[https://bycommonconsent.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/mose-wright-in-court3.jpg Dar he.]]" ("There he is.") The photo (snapped in defiance of a judge's no-pictures order) is by Ernest Withers of the Chicago ''Defender'', who said "intimidation of Delta blacks was no longer as effective as the past", and Wright had "crossed a line that no one could remember a black man ever crossing in Mississippi".
221*** Mamie Till, Emmett's mother, insisted on an open-casket funeral for her son, because she felt the nation should see his ''bloated, mutilated corpse''[[note]]the stench from which reportedly was noticeable from two blocks away, and which she had insisted on seeing up close to make a positive identification[[/note]]. It worked. Time Magazine had this to say about a photo of Mamie standing over Emmett's body: "For almost a century, African Americans were lynched with regularity and impunity. Now, thanks to a mother's determination to expose the barbarousness of the crime, the public could no longer pretend to ignore what they couldn't see."
222*** Even more awesome -- as the defense attorney attempted to intimidate him, screaming in his face, Rev. Wright answered coolly, and ''did not address him as "sir".'' Absolutely unthinkable for a black person at this time and place.
223*** And NBC's John Chancellor had his moment as well. During an interview with a black lady outside the courthouse, she suddenly ran away and Chancellor saw a white gang charging at him. He stood his ground, held up his microphone and said, "I don't care what you do to me, but the whole world is going to know it."
224* The women's rights movement, particularly the suffragists and suffragettes who fought for the right to vote.
225** The suffragists picketing the White House, the first group to do so.
226%%* The LGBT rights movement.
227* Creator/WhoopiGoldberg: "There's a [[Creator/NichelleNichols black lady]] on [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries TV]] and she ain't no maid!"
228* The Muslim man in [[https://youtu.be/Blw-ZaY_V70 this video]]. He is surrounded by a mob of angry Christians, chanting and throwing crosses at him. And what does he do? ''He ignores them completely''. Instead, he simply carries out his prayers. And it turns out that he prayed for the families of the mob. The Muslim man's TheReasonYouSuckSpeech at the angry Christian mob is also pure awesome.
229-->"You throw (crosses) into the ground for people to step on. [[TakeThat You don't show respect to your own sign.]]"
230* Music/MileyCyrus:
231** [[http://wonderwall.msn.com/music/Miley-Cyrus-confronts-fan-over-gay-rights-tattoo-1633175.story?gt1=28135 She]] told a fan who was furious with her gay rights tattoo (an "equals" sign on her finger representing "equality"), said, "Where in the Bible does it say to judge people? Oh right. It doesn't. GOD is the only judge, honey. GOD IS LOVE."
232** She later derided criticism by the press about her (alleged) [[HollywoodPudgy weight gain and curvy body]] (she is by no means overweight or out of shape) by [[http://twitter.com/#!/MileyCyrus/status/135192287687872513 posting this picture of a skeletal woman]] on Website/{{Twitter}} as "By calling girls like me fat this is what you're doing to other people," followed by [[http://twitter.com/#!/MileyCyrus/status/135195111515631616 this picture]] of a curvy Creator/MarilynMonroe as an example of a woman that millions of men could be attracted to "even when (her) [[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/03/thigh-gap-pressure-point-women-self-esteem thighs touch]]", as the picture says. [[http://twitter.com/#!/ddlovato/status/135218986332864512 All of which earned the praise of]], among others, her friend and fellow Disney star Music/DemiLovato, who went through self-harm and an eating disorder themself the year before.
233* Mohamed Bouazizi was a street vendor in Tunisia, whose food cart was being taxed into oblivion. What does he do? He ''lights himself on FIRE'' as an act of protest. Not to mention this act [[MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning kicked off the Arab Spring revolutions.]]
234* Back in 1865, a Tennessee colonel asked his former slave to work on his farm again. [[http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html The response was epic.]]
235* In [[TheFifties 1957]] UsefulNotes/DwightDEisenhower, sent the 101st Airborne of the U.S. Army [[BigDamnHeroes to enforce the desegregation of Little Rock Center High]].
236* Pakistani actress Veena Malik, who participated in the 2010 edition of ''Big Boss'', the Indian version of ''Series/BigBrother'', was on her return to Pakistan attacked and smeared for so-called "immoral" conduct. [[https://youtu.be/qi945O_F5Jk Watch her eloquently and passionately destroying the sexist attacks of a small-minded cleric]].
237* In 1970, Alabama State Attorney General Bill Baxley re-opened Birmingham's 16th Street Church bombing case (the basis for both Creator/SpikeLee's ''4 Little Girls'' and the opening scene of ''Film/{{Selma}}'', and a turning point in the American Civil Rights movement). Over the years that followed, he received threatening letters from the state's still-powerful Ku Klux Klan chapter, including one from Klansman Dr. Edward R. Fields comparing him unfavorably to Robert Kennedy and implying that he might soon meet a similar fate to Kennedy. The full text of Baxley's response to Fields' letter, on official state letterhead:
238-->Dear [[ScareQuotes "Dr."]] Fields: My response to your letter of February 19, 1976 is — '''[[SophisticatedAsHell kiss my ass.]]'''
239* [[http://dawn.com/2011/10/17/women-soldiers-and-their-dress/ A male chauvinist wrote to a newspapers decrying Pakistani military uniforms worn by women soldiers]] and doubted whether the women were anything but eye candy. [[http://dawn.com/2011/10/23/women-soldiers-and-their-dress-2/ A response from two military officers, one of them a female captain]] lived this trope.
240* During the 1860s and 70s, riots were common in San Francisco, and would often result in mobs of disenfranchised whites assaulting and killing Chinese immigrants. During one of these riots, self-proclaimed "Emperor of America" and beloved town eccentric Joshua Norton stood between a mob and a group of Chinese, and recited the Lord's Prayer over and over until the mob dispersed in shame.
241* At a Neo-Nazi rally in Charlotte North Carolina, the Nazis were met with counter-protestors who outnumbered them five-to-one. Did it get violent? No. [[https://youtu.be/1ZpfxRxhQA8 The counter-protestors were dressed as clowns,]] and simply poked harmless fun at the Nazis. A city councilmen even showed up with a red nose on! In the end, the counter-protestors got what they wanted: They made utter fools of the Nazis.
242* On Creator/{{ABC}} News, a reporter was interviewing the mouth for the dictator of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "Now, sir, you have said that the Jews do not originate from the Middle East at all. Should you like to apologise?"
243* Anti-Chinese prejudice:
244** Chinese-American writer and activist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Fee Ben Fee]] was kicked out of a restaurant because of his race. In revenge, he told ten white friends what the restaurant had done. His white friends went to the restaurant and each ordered an expensive steak. Fee again tried to enter and was denied. He told the white customers (the restaurant owners had no idea they knew each other) about the restaurant's policy. Fee's friends got up and left, leaving the steaks half-cooked and unpaid for. This happened in ''1924''.
245** Also, William Alvord vetoing the ordinance banning "pigtails" for prisoners, which was specifically aimed at Chinese men with queues (an important part of Manchurian identity[[note]]ethnic Han Chinese men were forced to wear their hair in queues under mandate by the Manchu government of the Qing dynasty (1644-1912)[[/note]]), and Stephen Johnson Field for ruling the ordinance unconstitutional when it was passed under a later mayor. All this in the ''1870s'' despite massive Sinophobia in society at that time (and for [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Chinese_sentiment_in_the_United_States decades onward]])!
246* A moment had to be given to Minnesotta Vikings punter Chris Kluwe, when, after hearing Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr.'s letter attempting to shame fellow football player Brendon Ayanbadejo for his open support of gay rights, drafted the [[http://www.queerty.com/vikings-chris-kluwe-writings-wonderfully-scathing-letter-to-anti-gay-delegate-emmett-burns-20120908/ single-most scathing letter]] to be put forth by an athlete towards a government official on any topic ever. The letter needs to be read to be believed, but amongst others, the very ''opening paragraph'' does say:
247-->"Your vitriolic hatred and bigotry make me ashamed and disgusted to think that you are in any way responsible for shaping policy at any level."
248* [[http://notalwaysright.com/best-not-to-exchange-with-haters/25658 When a homophobic customer]] complained to the manager of a grocery store because the clerk was a lesbian, what does he do? He calls every grocery store within a 20-mile radius to get their clerks to pretend to be gay/lesbian just to get her goat! Now ''that's'' teamwork!
249* Sir Nicholas Winton saved the lives of 669 Czech Jewish children, sending them in trains to Great Britain and finding homes for them, just because there was a need and the Nazis had not yet forbidden it. Importantly, he told nobody for years. Only when some of the children grew up and wanted to thank him was his silent heroism was brought into attention. He is very much admired, respected and loved in the Czech Republic. When he appeared on the BBC's ''That's Life'' program in 1988, [[https://youtu.be/6_nFuJAF5F0 they filled the studio to thank him.]]
250* The British charity Help For Heroes rejecting funding from the English Defence League, a far-right fascist group that used the brutal murder of an English soldier named Lee Rigby, in order to further their own gains; this not only called them out, but also denied the EDL publicity they would have used even further. A matter of a few days later, the late soldier's regiment also told the English Defence League where to shove it as well, calling them out on exploiting the poor man's death too. Particularly awesome owing to the anti-Islamic paranoia that had hit Britain pretty badly after the murder.
251** Add to that all the anti-fascist protests to stop fascists marching through London and causing even more trouble. Special mention, however, must go to a mosque in York, which decided to actually [[BadassPacifist invite the people marching on it inside for tea and biscuits, followed by a friendly game of football]]; after this, the mob harassing them went away ''peacefully''.
252** As soon as the morning after the atrocity, many people of all faiths, and those without, such as secular humanists) rallied to defend those who were not involved with the killings (the majority of Muslim people in the UK, who were being demonised). Also a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}.
253** Even Bill O'Reilly, who people don't exactly agree with on many things, promptly jumped to their defence, interviewing Tommy Robinson, their leader, and [[http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#http://video.foxnews.com/v/2442881675001/islam-vs-the-west/?playlist_id=86923 shredding him live on air]], in front of the American public, by addressing his description of their group and dismissing it as BlatantLies. Robinson more or less had his tail between his legs as the interview ended.
254** Around a year on from his murder, [[http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/lee-rigbys-mother-outraged-after-7037042 Lee Rigby's mother calls out the far-right group "Britain First" for using his image to further their horrible agenda]], saying that A) Lee never believed in that stuff himself and B) calling out someone from the Electoral Commission who let them do it.
255* On June 13, 2013, the Australian Army's Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. David Morrison, announced a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment in a [[https://youtu.be/QaqpoeVgr8U now famous video announcement]] where his TranquilFury at announcing he won't tolerate that sort of crap instantly made him a hero worldwide.
256--> Our service has been engaged in continuous operation since 1999, and in its longest war ever in Afghanistan. On all operations, female soldiers and officers have proven themselves worthy of the best traditions of the Australian army. They are vital to us, maintaining our capability now and into the future. If that does not suit you, then ''get out''.
257* White Supremacist and BoomerangBigot Craig Cobb tried turning a small town into a white supremacist haven. The town's solution? Call the cops and get the wanker arrested. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
258** In a similar vein, a white supremacist attempted to hold a Neo-Nazi rally in a conservative Washington town in 2007. In response, about five hundred people turned out in freezing temperatures for a [[http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2007/dec/11/rally-counters-white-supremacists/ Diversity March]].
259* The first openly gay NFL player got some controversy because of homophobic NFL heads/coaches talking about how "uncomfortable" it would be. Dallas/Forth Worth sporscaster [[http://superlolbubblesblog.tumblr.com/post/76485784812/kristin5sos-watch-this-ok-this-is-my-local-news Dale Hansen]] responded to the "controversy" by delivering this '''epic''' TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to said bigots, than proceeded to give an equally epic PatrickStewartSpeech in which he states [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments how gay people are just as much a part of the world as everyone else and that it's about time we got used to it]].
260* Post WWII, the KKK had a sudden surge in popularity. Stetson Kennedy went undercover so he could reveal all the hidden secrets of the KKK at the time, but afterwards no one was interested in what he had to say. So, he went to the writers of the Superman radio serial, which lead to them creating a 16-episode series titled "Clan of the Fiery Cross", where all the information he had gathered on them was revealed. [[http://mentalfloss.com/article/23157/how-superman-defeated-ku-klux-klan Superman vs KKK?]] Superman wins. Two weeks after, recruitment was down to zero.
261* In 2014, a neo-Nazi rally was held in Norrköping, Sweden. The city's response? [[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/26/norrkoping-neo-nazis-schindlers-list-bells Have the bells of city hall play the theme to]] ''Film/SchindlersList''. Before ''and'' after the rally.
262* Some neo-Nazis were tricked into raising money... ''for an antifascist group''.
263** Some context here. White supremacists annually marched through the town of Wunsiedel in Bavaria, to the disgust of the locals. In 2014, a local group turned their march [[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/18/neo-nazis-tricked-into-raising-10000-for-charity into a walkathon]], raising 10,000 Euros for EXIT Deutschland, a group that helps repentant extremists escape their groups.
264* ''Charlie Hebdo'' terrorist attack:
265** After the brutal murder of ten ''Charlie Hebdo'' satirists, plus at least two police officers (one of whom was a Muslim) in Paris at the hands of three Islamic extremists, thousands of people around the world rallied [[YouAreNotAlone in support of the victims]], ''including numerous Muslim groups'' that very publicly chose to condemn the gunmen for their brutal actions, saying that even if the cartoons were not in good taste, that did not justify the murders. This is in spite of hundreds of people trying to call for the mass deportation or even execution of all Muslims from France... [[DramaticIrony even though one of the police officers who died was a Muslim]].
266** The magazine went on record to say that, despite the attack, they would continue publishing the next week and would not bow to threats.
267** Additional mention needs to go to the Islamic police officer that died trying to stop the gunmen escaping. He might not have believed the same things the magazine was publishing, but still did his job.
268* On July 18th 2015, around 120 members of the racist groups Reclaim Australia and United Patriots Front attempted to organize an anti-Muslim rally in Melbourne. They were successfully driven away by more than ''4,000'' counter-protesters celebrating diversity and multiculturalism.
269* Most everybody hates the WBC and KKK. Even, it turns out, [[https://youtu.be/x-LbFfrpqiw the WBC and KKK]].
270--> "There's no way we're putting up with fascism on our streets."
271* On August 15th 2015 a fascist group called National Action planned to march through the city of Liverpool and threatened the mayor with [[https://twitter.com/joeforliverpool/status/630299811854598144 burning the city to the ground if he tried to stop the movement.]] The cities response? Scores of people protesting against the group who then went to meet them at Liverpool Lime Street Station. The march was cancelled when the group was pelted with trash and forced to hide [[http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/08/15/white-man-march-in-liverpool-canceled_n_7992084.html in the lost luggage area of the station.]]
272* In the early decades of the 20th century the KKK had the habit of attacking not only Blacks but also immigrants, including Italians, who, knowing they were outnumbered, did not react. Then in 1933 they tried to run the Italians out of Vineland, NJ... where Italians made up 20% of the local population, and this time they ''did'' fight back. The Klan was quickly run out of town.
273* The UK recently released a statement about consent in sexual interactions [[CrazyEnoughToWork by using tea as a metaphor]]. Here's a [[https://youtu.be/cT4gym83QJc video]] based on said statement.
274* The [=#MeToo=] movement. While not without controversy, it has at minimum sparked public conversation and marks a turning point of a shift in attitude regarding "problematic" content creators, the fact that a relative handful of women directors and producers have won awards compared to men of similar skill, the CastingCouch, pedophilia and other forms of [[SexualHarassmentAndRapeTropes sexual harassment and rape]] in the film industry.
275* Graeme Taylor. When his teacher threw two students out of his Ann Arbor, Michigan classroom -- one for wearing a Confederate flag, the other for bashing gays -- he was suspended without pay. Graeme responded by speaking out at the school board meeting, urging them to reinstate the teacher and give him his pay. Graeme is openly gay and ''fourteen years old''. [[http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/11/fourteen_year-old_michigan_stu.html He is clearly destined to become a]] MemeticBadass.
276* In early April 2020, the state of Wisconsin handed acts of partisan politics a savage defeat. The legislature, which had a Republican majority, decided to keep the original primary date of April 7, [[UsefulNotes/Covid19Pandemic despite an ongoing pandemic]]. The governor, Democrat Tony Evers, attempted to override the legislature's decision, but his actions were struck down by the state Supreme Court -- one of whose members, Republican Daniel Kelly, was up for reelection.[[labelnote:Note]]State Republican party leaders believed that reduced voter turnout would bolster Kelly's chances for reelection. The Republicans also had a 5-2 majority on the Supreme Court, and the decision was a 4-2 vote along party lines (Kelly had recused from the case).[[/labelnote]] The following week, the votes were tallied, and found that Kelly's opponent, Democrat Jill Karofsky, had handily defeated him. The people of Wisconsin saw the state Republicans' efforts to depress voter turnout for what they were, and they were PISSED. [[{{Determinator}} Not even a PANDEMIC would deter the people from holding them accountable]].
277* Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins. At the age of eight she was one of the youngest to participate in what became known as [[https://share.america.gov/crawling-up-steps-demand-their-rights/ the Capitol Crawl]], in which physically disabled activists protested the delayed passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act by leaving behind their wheelchairs and crawling up the steps of the Capitol Building. Jennifer was [[https://youtu.be/kU9cDyqvH-g videotaped]] stating, [[{{Determinator}} "I'll take all night if I have to."]]
278[[/folder]]
279
280[[folder:Legal/Criminal]]
281* Linda Kasabian's testimony at the UsefulNotes/CharlesManson trials.
282** She stood down a group of ''killers threatening the same to her,'' all the while maintaining enough composure to give her testimony (albeit through tears). After already having an emotional breakdown as a result of said killings. When a Manson Family member screamed, "[[MoralMyopia You're killing us!]]" she shot back, [[ShutUpHannibal "I'm not killing you!]] [[DidYouJustFlipOffCthulhu You've already killed yourselves."]] Whatever you think of her, you've gotta hand it to Linda: that was ''excellent,''
283** In addition, she unintentionally had the defense attorney's plan to discredit her backfire through her dramatic and human response to pictures of the murders. At one point, she looked at the Family members and said, "How could you do that?" Their answer? They giggled like schoolgirls. The attorney doubted her, considering that she had done LSD and could have easily been a part of the killings as well. Her answer? "I don't have the capacity to do something that animalistic."
284*** She really hammered this point in when talking to Manson, delivering the mother of all [[ShutUpHannibal Shut up Hannibals]] to him, saying "I'm not you, Charlie. I can't kill anyone."
285
286** Toyed with: Linda, while being a "former" member of the Manson killers, and present for the the murder of Sharon Tate, wasn't cross-examined especially, which could indicate the courts being so eager for someone to flip, they would glorify any story Linda spat out, as long as it condemned the others. This might be troped Getting Away With Murder.
287* 2007 Glasgow International Airport terrorist attack:
288** John Smeaton of Glasgow was just a luggage handler on his break when the attack occurred, with two men trying to drive an explosive-filled jeep into the airport terminal. What does he do? Thinks "that's not right" and goes over and helps the police in making sure they didn't get away, in typical Glasgow-style (i.e. shouting "fuckin' mon, then!" and kicking one of the drivers in the head). Apparently there were other people there as well who had thought the same thing and they were kicking the shit out of the terrorists. Glasgow; if you're trying to be a suicide bomber there, make sure you die because if you don't you'll bloody well wish you had. It just goes to prove, you don't fuck with Scotland! (And if you try to, they'll break your legs and probably call out your footy team.)
289** A nearby cab driver helped detain one of the other suspects -- who happened to be somewhat on fire at the time -- by kicking the would-be bomber so hard in the groin that the cab driver actually tore a tendon in his foot. So to quote [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120218031425/http://www.cracked.com/article/79_the-5-most-embarrassing-failures-in-history-terrorism_p2/ Cracked]], "In the space of about 30 seconds, this man was in a car accident, an explosion, lit aflame and then kicked in the balls with more force than a human foot can technically take."
290*** Leading to the classic Daily Record front page headline that sums it up neatly and in true Scots fashion -- "''HERO CABBIE:'' '''I kicked burning terrorist so hard in balls I tore a tendon in my foot'''" -- remembered as part of [[https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/ten-years-glasgow-airport-terror-10716113 this tenth anniversary retrospective article]] that honours Smeaton, the still slightly crippled cabbie Alex [=McIlveen=], and several other heroes of the day.
291** A police officer present summed up why Glasgow is not to be tampered with: "Should we help that man [the burning terrorist]?" [[https://youtu.be/5XZ7M4pWSzw "No... Let the fucker burn."]]
292** Bonus points: John [=McClane=] said pretty much the same thing in ''Die Hard: With a Vengeance''.
293* 2012 Sandy Hook shooting:
294** During the shooting, the first survivor was a little 1st grade girl. How did she survive? She played dead while the rest of her classmates (16 in all) were also dead and disguised herself by ''covering herself in their blood'' long enough for the killer to leave. When the coast was clear, she ran all the way out of the school and into her mother's arms, calmly saying, "Mommy, I'm alright... [[TearJerker but my friends are all dead.]]"
295** Also during the shooting, Vicki Soto, a first-grade teacher hid her kids in closets/cabinets and told the shooter that the kids were in an auditorium/gym. The shooter proceeded to shoot the teacher, but the kids survived. The mayor of Newtown wants to name one of the schools after her for her heroism. And she was all of twenty-seven.
296** And one of the teachers actually turned on the PA system to warn the rest of the school of the shooting.
297** How did the principal die? She died lunging after the shooter, trying to stop him herself, probably ''knowing'' she was going to die.
298* Six men decided to rob a jeweler's in Northampton, England. Everybody is too scared to approach... [[https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/elderly-woman-attacks-robbers-with-purse-12866213 except one granny with a handbag]]. [[NeverMessWithGranny Take a wild guess what happens next...]]
299* A local Bank of America branch in Florida tries to foreclose on a couple who don't even have a mortgage (they paid for their home in cash).
300** The couple takes the matter to court and wins. The bank is ordered to pay the couple's legal fees (somewhere in the $2500-$3000 range). When the bank fails to pay, the couple and their lawyer get the sheriff and a two-man moving truck company and ''foreclose on the bank branch.'' ''Series/TheDailyShow'' covered it wonderfully [[http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-august-8-2011/the-forecloser here]].
301--->'''Jon Oliver:''' I feel bad for 'em. But... ''fuck 'em!''
302** And what could make this more awesome? The lawyer in question had only been practising for ''8 months'', and he still had the balls and expertise to take on one of the biggest banks in the USA and win.
303* One of the few times Website/FourChan did something good! Website/{{Youtube}} videos surfaced of a 14-year-old physically abusing his cat. So what does 4Chan do? They tracked the guy down and passed the details over to Oklahoma police! The punk got arrested and the cat was taken to a safe place.
304* [[http://rt.com/news/man-stabs-invaders-tula-586/ Four thugs]] broke into a house of a businessman in Tula, Russia, armed with knives, bats and ''guns''. They tortured him and his family for money, but once one of them put a gun to his baby's head, [[PapaWolf the man grabbed a knife himself...]] Three of the scumbags died on the spot, the fourth one fled.
305* Any time the police conduct a raid arresting on child pornography rings all across their country, it's a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for them.
306** Several times, burglars ransacking a house have come across the owner's child pornography and [[TakingYouWithMe called the cops]] [[EvenEvilHasStandards on them]].
307* A person tries to hold up a gas station, threatening the workers with a large hunting knife. [[http://notalwaysright.com/courage-under-hire/22826 They didn't give a damn.]] He didn't even realize it was a robbery. After the would-be robber left dejectedly after a telling-off, it took the cashier a moment to figure out, "He was gonna rob us?!" He then took about an hour to calm down.
308* [[http://youtu.be/GyqYN9YRhUg Little girl thoroughly owns man trying to snatch her]]! If you can't/don't want to watch the video, it's even better than it sounds: when he tried to get away, she hauled him back for more, and then chased after him!
309* [[https://notalwaysright.com/in-real-hot-sauce-now-2/71429/ The response]] of this teenage waitress when confronted by a violent, angry customer. Serious badass, with a side order of NervesOfSteel. Her response to her cowardly boss immediately afterwards is a ''Crowning Moment within a Crowning Moment''.
310** The lone bystander who could be bothered to help her also deserves props.
311** How about [[http://notalwaysright.com/we-need-one-of-these-in-every-store-part-2/998 this one?]]
312** And [[https://notalwaysright.com/needs-to-press-paws/76697/ this one.]] The woman moved so fast they had to ''slow down the footage'' so they could see exactly what she did.
313* In July 2014, [[https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=818524438192556 some footage went around the internet of an English woman abusing some migrants]], with hypocritical statements, racial and Islamophobic slurs, and even several punches. What's the best thing about the video? In spite of the constant verbal abuse and physical assault, ''none of the abused so much as raise a fist''. The most they do is block a punch or move her arm out the way, and get some damn good snark in. As one of the commentators put it:
314-->"Well done to the gentleman for keeping his calm, even though he may speak a different language or possibly have non-national heritage, he is a much better representative of England than she ever could possibly be!"
315* A 14-year-old kid [[http://www.carthrottle.com/good-guy-dodge-driver-stops-a-deadly-police-chase-by-smashing-his-ram-into-fleeing-veloster/ stole his grandfather's Hyundai]] and went for a joyride, with the police in pursuit. At one point, the kid drove through a park where kids were playing, almost hitting several of them. When Bryson Rowley, a parent of one of the kids, noticed that the Hyundai appeared to be coming back to the park, [[PapaWolf he decided enough was enough]]. He immediately got into his Dodge Ram and, taking the kid by surprise around a blind corner, [[CarFu ran into the car head-on]]. Both of them were uninjured, with the kid being taken into custody. The Hyundai was totaled, while the Ram suffered [[MadeOfIron nothing more than a slightly dented bumper]]. People from around the neighborhood [[http://www.carthrottle.com/the-heroic-dodge-ram-driver-who-stopped-a-dangerous-police-chase-is-getting-his-truck-repaired-for-free/ donated money so Rowley wouldn't have to pay to replace his bumper]].
316* Federal District [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_G._Heyburn_II Judge John G. Heyburn II]] is just one of many judges who have overturned bans on same-sex marriage. However, his conclusion contains one of the best lines written on the matter. Referring to the opposition, he said, [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe "These arguments are not those of serious people."]] [[TakeThat Burn.]]
317* And then there was the same-sex marriage ruling that ended them all, Supreme Court case ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obergefell_v._Hodges Obergefell v. Hodges]]'', which finally gave gay couples the right to marry nationwide. If you read up on it, the entire case is equal parts Awesome, SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming|Moments}}, and TearJerker, and it's made all the more awesome by the fact that the verdict was delivered in June, which is LGBT Pride Month, a mere ''two days'' before the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.
318* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giles_Corey Giles Corey]]. During the Salem Witch Trials, he was accused of being a witch. But when the time came to enter a plea he refused, because he knew [[LoopholeAbuse if he plead either innocent or guilty his sons would have forfeited his land]]. With the trial not being able to continue without his plea, the court invoked their legal right to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peine_forte_et_dure torture him for a plea]], and took him outside, stripped him naked, laid him down on the ground, put a board on his chest and started putting heavy stones on it. With each stone they asked what his plea was and he remained silent. [[{{Determinator}} He lasted for three days, from September 19th to the 21st, on nothing more than a few mouthfuls of bread and some water]]. Then the final time they asked him, he simply said, "[[DyingMomentOfAwesome More weight.]]"
319* [[https://www.facebook.com/LADbible/posts/1940158869364627 After being the victim of racial abuse]], a young man saves his bully's life after he suddenly collapses, by performing CPR for fifteen minutes until the ambulance arrives; without this he would have died before help arrived. Considering that the asshole abusing him probably wouldn't have been as charitable, it says a lot about this guy's character.
320* On October 1st, 2015, Chris Harper Mercer went on a shooting spree at Oregon's Umpqua Community College, Chris Mintz, an army veteran and student there, got his classmates to safety and confronted the gunman, declaring, [[YouShallNotPass "You aren't getting by me."]] The gunman shot him three times and twice more after he fell to the ground. While nine others around the campus were slain and many more injured, Mintz was credited for saving his classmates with his worst injuries being two broken legs, requiring him to learn to walk again.
321* Corazon Amurao, the sole survivor of Richard Speck's murder spree. In court, at the trial of the man who raped and killed eight of her friends and put her through a night of unimaginable hell, she gave her testimony calmly and clearly -- and then when she was asked the standard question of if she saw the murderer in court, she walked around the witness stand to where he was sitting, looked him straight in the face, pointed at him and said, "This is the man."
322** When interviewing her survival [[note]] She crawled under the bed, then to the next bed with blankets covering her while her hands were tied behind her back. Her would-be killer simply lost count and left. [[/note]], Corazon gives one heck of a BadassBoast.
323--->''You are surprised I survived? [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} But I come from the place where they make balisong.]] Why should you be surprised?''
324* Down in Oklahoma, a man spotted his neighbor attempting to drown his baby twins. What does the man do? [[http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/neighbor-kills-oklahoma-man-trying-drown-twin-babies-police-say-n768116 He turned around and SHOT his neighbor in the back with a revolver]], [[PapaWolf just to save those kids!]]
325* In Finsbury Park, London, in June 2017, a man drove a hired van into a crowd of people leaving late night prayers at a mosque, killing at least one and injuring several others. The perpetrator quickly found himself being mobbed by angry onlookers, while he taunted them and challenged them to kill him -- but then the imam, who had every reason to hate him, stepped in to insist that wasn't the way and nobody should touch him except to hold him down and wait for the police. And they listened.
326* The man known by many as the Golden State Killer, a serial home invader, serial rapist, and serial killer responsible for 100+ home invasions 45 rapes and 12 murders up and down the state of California, eluded capture for 42 years. He was identified as former police officer 72-year-old Joseph James [=DeAngelo=] Jr and arrested in his Citrus Heights home on April 25th, 2018.
327* A moment that was both awesome and funny, [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150116010642/http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/1274688/Chuck/ two muggers tried to rob Chuck Norris with knives]], thinking he wasn't a real martial artist and just an actor. [[CurbStompBattle Chuck showed them the error of their ways]].
328* On July 29, 1995, 13-year-old Thad Philips was abducted by Joe Clark and brought to Clark's house. Clark proceeded to spend the next 43 hours breaking the bones in Philips' legs. Despite his injuries, Philips made at least three attempts to escape, culminating in him breaking down the door of the closet Clark had locked him in, throwing himself down the stairs and dragging himself to a phone and calling 911. Though he was left with a permanant limp, Philips's bravery not only saved his own life, but also probably a number of potential victims that Clark had compiled on a list at his home, and even solved the cold case of 14-year-old Chris Steiner from the previous year.
329* The 2019 shooting in the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bærum_mosque_shooting Al-noor mosque in Bærum, Norway]]. After killing his Chinese-Norwegian stepsister, the perpetrator was forced to attack early, with only three old men present in the mosque. One of them was Muhammad Rafiq, a 65-year-old retired air force officer and real-life OldMaster, who managed to ''pin down the shooter and remove his weapons.'' When the police arrived, Muhammad was holding the shooter in a chokehold, and only had minor injuries.
330* [[https://www.wweek.com/news/2016/08/17/a-hit-man-came-to-kill-susan-kuhnhausen-she-survived-he-didnt/ A nurse in her fifties was attacked at her home by a hammer-wielding hitman, hired by her ex-husband.]] Turns out nurses are pretty hardcore. She survived. He didn't.
331* A bunch of [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/5224797/Thieves-flee-after-breaking-into-Dolph-Lundgrens-Spanish-home.html burglars broke into Dolph Lundgren's house and tied up his wife and daughter in 2009]]. Luckily, before they got to anything serious they saw a family photo and realized ''[[OhCrap they had just tied up Dolph Lundgren's wife.]]'' This was in itself enough reason for them to let her go and run away very quickly, thus also saving some wear and tear on the He-Man sword. Best part? Dolph Lundgren wasn't even present.
332[[/folder]]
333
334[[folder:Politics]]
335* UsefulNotes/WoodrowWilson suffered a stroke during presidency on a cross-country speaking tour. This would have been devastating to America, right? Well, if the First Lady at the time, Edith Wilson, hadn't stepped in for him and taken over all his duties. This effectively also made Edith the first woman president, if only for a few months.
336* The British politician Jack Straw is certainly a controversial figure, and that's putting it mildly. But his performance on ''Series/QuestionTime'' in 2009 against Nick Griffin, (then) leader of the far-right British National Party, is universally applauded. Griffin had, on tape, claimed that "this nonsense about gas chambers [i.e, the Holocaust] is a total lie". He then tried to back away from his earlier claim, saying that he had changed his mind after seeing "German radio intercepts", but because of the European Arrest Warrant, [[ArtisticLicenseLaw he would be extradited and prosecuted in Germany and Austria for it]]. Unfortunately for Griffin, Straw was Britain's Justice Minister at the time, and knew quite a bit more about [=EAWs=] than Griffin did -- he first explained to Nick why that was rubbish, and then offered him a ''personal amnesty'' just in case, so he could explain himself without fear. The humiliated Griffin backed down.
337%%* [[http://www.cc.com/video-clips/wwvi39/the-colbert-report-malice-in-blunderland White House spokesman Eric Schultz']] totally deadpan response when certain people attempted to drum up controversy over a ''3-year-old'' party that the Obamas threw for the children of our Armed Forces.
338%%--> '''Creator/StephenColbert:''' Well, that's just hiding in plain sight! It's the oldest trick in the book.
339* The protests against SOPA and PIPA which brought a previously guaranteed-to-pass, but highly controversial bill to a dead standstill, is a moment of awesome for the entire online community. ''Millions'' of people signed petitions. ''Hundreds'' of online companies blacked out in protest on the same day ('''Wikipedia''' blocked their screens out), and thousands of emails clogged up the inboxes of supporters and government officials. You know how if enough people call with a complaint about an issue it is noted in official record? Yeah, the protesters passed that mark by a couple of thousand. That's not even including the real life protests, where thousands gathered in New York. Several companies were convinced to end their previous support of SOPA when their users boycotted them and sent calm, but firm emails. It was the biggest online protest of all time, possibly one of the biggest protests in history. %%, and the internet may never be the same. Game. Changed.
340** The ACTA protesters deserve a special mention for this as well, as they were able to defeat and push back the bill without the support of the large internet corporations that opposed SOPA.
341%%** Now there's CISPA, and [[http://openmedia.ca/blog/us-spying-bill-cispa-defeated-senate-floor/ once again]] we've managed to stare down another censorship bill...and on our own! However it [[http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2013/02/21/cispa-is-back/ seems to be back for more]]! And once again, we will be ready!
342%%** And now SOPA is trying to be revived ''again''. People, get ready to protest again, since it's including ''streaming'' in its clauses now!
343* In March 1933, the German parliament (Reichstag) was voting on the Enabling Act -- the legal act which would give Adolf Hitler dictatorial powers. The Communists, having been outlawed, couldn't vote, but the other parties were all present. Every single one of them voted in favor... except the Social Democratic Party (SPD), ''all'' of whose 94 members of parliament voted against the act (these 94 were the only opposing votes). At a time when left-leaning people were facing serious persecution (note: 26 members of parliament from SPD were not present at the vote... due to being either arrested or in hiding!). Oh, also, a bunch of SA brownshirt stormtroopers were in the room during this parliamentary session!
344** That's not all. Otto Wels, the chairman of SPD, went up and made a speech -- the only opposing speech on that day, in fact. In the presence of Hitler himself, and his stormtroopers. Here are some highlights, using the translation as given on Wikipedia (there are others, slightly different):
345--->'''Otto Wels:''' [[DayOfTheJackboot At this historic hour]], [[HeroicVow we German Social Democrats pledge ourselves to the principles of humanity and justice, of freedom and Socialism.]] [[YouCannotKillAnIdea No Enabling Law can give you the power to destroy ideas which are eternal and indestructible...]] [[DoNotGoGentle From this new persecution too German Social Democracy can draw new strength.]] [[YouAreNotAlone We send greetings to the persecuted and oppressed. We greet our friends in the Reich. Their steadfastness and loyalty deserve admiration.]] [[DoNotGoGentle The courage with which they maintain their convictions and their unbroken confidence guarantee a brighter future.]]
346** Then, looking directly at Hitler, Wels proclaimed:
347--->'''Otto Wels:''' [[DefiantToTheEnd You can take our lives and our freedom, but you cannot take our honor. We are defenseless, but not honorless.]]
348%%* An interesting case from the 2012 Presidential Elections. As the votes came in, it started to become clear that Ohio would decide if Mitt Romney had a fighting chance or if Barack Obama would be re-elected President. When Fox News' in-house decision team revealed that Obama would win Ohio and the presidency, they found themselves confronted by Karl Rove, who was adamant that they were calling the election prematurely and flinging out talk that Ohio always was Republican and the numbers would reveal that it would remain that way. One of the reporters, in turn, not only asks him, [[WhamLine "Is this just math that you do as a Republican to make yourself feel better or is this real?"]], but she goes down to the team, who tell her that they are confident in their predictions.
349%%* UsefulNotes/RonPaul. [[https://youtu.be/R8u5hnMGOQ8 All]] [[https://youtu.be/5-EaOqA9akc of]] [[https://youtu.be/KHCTUYjj_lU him]]. [[https://youtu.be/7u3iWydQrEU Yep.]] But even if you don't agree with him on a lot of stuff, you gotta admit the guy knows how to stand up for what he believes in.
350* In Shreveport, LA, City Councilman Ron Webb sought to repeal a measure forbidding discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, claiming that Literature/TheBible considered LGBT people to be evil. Dozens of LGBT people showed up to protest but the best one was a transgender woman named Pamela Raintree, who dared Webb to stone her to death in accordance with biblical law. She said, [[http://www.advocate.com/politics/transgender/2014/01/17/trans-woman-dares-bible-quoting-councilman-stone-her-death "I brought the first stone, Mr. Webb, in case that your Bible talk isn't just a smoke screen for personal prejudices."]] Webb withdrew his measure without calling for a vote.
351* UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln gave an early speech condemning the spread of slavery which was either so awesome the professional reporters were mesmerized and put their pencils down, or so strongly worded it was deliberately suppressed.
352* Victoria Woodhull was nominated for President of the United States by the Equal Rights Party, along with abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass as Vice President (although he was not aware of this at the time), in 1872. She created a huge stir with her speeches and newspaper.
353* In May 2015, Senator Rand Paul filibustered for ''ten hours'' in order to stop the renewal of the Patriot Act in the United States, which gave the National Security Administration leave to spy on the American populace.
354%%* Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham won a lot of respect from the entire city of Liverpool for his determined pursuit of re-evaluating the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, considered one of the greatest sports disasters in British history. The reason he did so? [[ShamedByAMob He was heckled]] by the crowd at the 20th anniversary memorial in 2009. Seeing over 28,000 fans' enraged grief caused him to go to Parliament the next day and open a fresh inquiry. His persistence in re-evaluating reports of that fateful day paid off in 2016, as the final verdict handed out what the city and the families of the victims had always believed; that it was in fact police negligence that lead to the deaths and not the fans, as was previously declared by the police. Burnham himself is an Evertonian and when he showed up at the 25th anniversary memorial, he was met with nothing by applause for his efforts.
355%%* Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth, before entering politics, served in the Army in Iraq and was severely wounded, losing both legs and severely damaging an arm. Watch her [[https://youtu.be/VB6bBrX052I confront a man]] who claims disabled veteran benefits because he twisted his ankle playing football in a military prep school and explain what a service related disability really is. The only way she could have done it better was to conclude with, "the witness claims 30% disability. Bailiff, take him out back and arrange that." (Incidentally, the witness later went on to [[https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/06/20/ashburn-ceo-braulio-castillo-convicted-of-murder-in-estranged-wifes-2014-death/ murder his wife.]]
356* Tasmanian politics gets one when for about as long as there had been a Gunns timber company the Greens party had done everything they could to destroy them. In 2012 they succeeded, now however right the party was, [[NeverMyFault however they claim to have no involvement,]] in light of the job losses with Gunns' closure the Greens saw fit to [[EvilIsPetty celebrate this,]] something Liberal Michael Ferguson saw fit to [[https://youtu.be/EtDt8uy-jWc call them out on.]]
357* UsefulNotes/BarackObama's eulogy for the murdered Clementa Pinckney in Charleston, South Carolina has been called not only the greatest rhetorical presentation of his political career, but the best by any American president in at least the last 60 or more years.
358* Way back in 1961, when the Brazilian President UsefulNotes/JanioQuadros renounced his position for reasons unknown, his vice, UsefulNotes/JoaoGoulart (then, representing Brazil in a travel to China) was supposed to take office. The military ministers didn't wanted it, since was thought that Goulart was a communist due his social concerns (despise him being a heir of a wealth familiy and a successfull businessman himself), they wanted to take him out of the succession.
359** Well... UsefulNotes/LeonelBrizola, then Governor of Rio Grande do Sul (and married to Goulart's sister) couldn't take it. So, he started the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanha_da_Legalidade Campanha da Legalidade]]: a movement where he used the radio in several awesome speechs to rally the people of Rio Grande do Sul and Brazil to protect the Constitutional succession in several days where the country was nearing a civil war. He succeed, (think about it: a civilian defeated a military coup using the radio and his voice...) but some political agreements to Goulart take office made that Brazil would became a Parliamentary Republic, something that was reverted two years later.
360** In 1964, the military had [[UsefulNotes/BrazilianMilitaryRegime their revenge]]...
361** [[https://youtu.be/Kv8wiPvjv8Y It became a movie]] in 2019.
362
363
364[[/folder]]
365
366[[folder:Science]]
367* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fleming Alexander Fleming]]. He basically provided humanity with a weapon against one of its most dangerous (and possibly most numerous) enemies with his discovery of penicillin.
368* During World War II, as Nazi Germany was invading Denmark, scientist George de Hevesy at the Niels Bohr Institute wanted to prevent them from confiscating the Nobel Prize medals of Max von Laue and James Franck (both Germans who had opposed the Nazis). He found an eminently scientific solution: he dissolved the gold medals in aqua regia, and put the solution on a shelf, where the nondescript flask stood unnoticed by the Nazis and undisturbed until the war was over. When de Hevesy returned, he precipitated the gold out of the solution and returned it to the Nobel Committee, who recast the gold into medals and returned them to von Laue and Franck.
369* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk Jonas Salk]]
370** He is known as the man who developed the polio vaccine, AKA half the reason why you aren't paralyzed from the neck down now. When the vaccine was declared successful, crowds essentially cheered.
371** He is also known as the man who didn't patent the polio vaccine. Many speculate that if he had patented it, he could have made millions of dollars. He speculated this too, but also realized that if he had patented it, the world might still have a problem with polio existing.
372--->'''Jonas Salk:''' There is no patent [to the polio vaccine]. Could you patent the sun?
373** Furthermore, in the Eighties, he essentially led the research into making a treatment to AIDS. The only reason his research stopped was because he died in 1995.
374* In 1961, UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin said "[[OneLiner Let's go]]" and [[TwinkleSmile smiled]] and then [[Franchise/StarTrek boldly went where no man has ever gone before]] in a two-meter coffin of metal and machinery to become the first man in space. Makes one wonder how they managed to fit his MASSIVE BALLS in a starship that small.
375* NASA Moon landings
376** [[https://youtu.be/na0scpoRBO0 The Moon landing]]. NASA put a ''man on the moon'' using technology less sophisticated than what is in your average ''cell phone''. In '''1969''', before the advent of the Internet or modern computers. ''That'' is the crowning moment of awesome. The even more awesome part was that with tech that primitive, they '''not only''' sent three men to the moon, but brought them back ''alive''.
377*** To better contextualise this as time wears on and even budget cellphones steadily become more powerful than ''any'' computer that existed in the 20th century, this comparison was first drawn when the ''Nokia 3310'' (a device considerably less sophisticated than a typical ''smartwatch'', and roughly on a par with a lower-end fitness tracker) was a highly desirable, state-of-the-art handset, and even the Motorola RAZR (one of the first with a color screen) hadn't yet made its debut.
378** On that note, the entire flight of Apollo 13 was one big Moment of Awesome for both the astronauts and NASA.
379** It may just be the greatest ever Moment of Awesome for humanity, period. As Neil Armstrong himself said, "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
380** In addition, they did not land men on the moon just one time; they did so five more times afterward. Were it not for Apollo 13's accident, it would have been seven times. Even before Apollo 11, NASA had sent men to visit the moon, though not land on it, with the Apollo 8 and 10 missions.
381* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft) Rosetta]]. Landing a probe. On a comet. Using a harpoon.
382* On the evening of 21 December 2015, [=SpaceX=] mission controllers made history in four words: "Stage one has landed." First ever time that a first stage of an orbital launch vehicle had landed, intact, in a condition that allows for re-use (but they're keeping this first one as a trophy). Just under 4 months later, on their first supply-launch to the International Space Station after the failure of CRS-7 in July 2015, they successfully land another first-stage, but this time on a barge at sea less than a twentieth as big as the landing zone on terra-firma that they landed on in December. Then, just under a month after '''that''' recovery, they successfully land a first-stage on a ballistic re-entry trajectory after launching a communications satellite to geostationary transfer orbit. That last one is hardest type of landing to make the first-stage do intact, and it's the most important one to master for Elon Musk's proposed colonization of Mars to become possible.
383* The design of the famous Concorde supersonic passenger aircraft. The technical challenges of making such an aircraft were one thing. The political and economic challenges were quite another. But they were all overcome, and the aircraft gave nearly three decades of service. It even finally turned a profit. It wasn't just a passenger jet: it was an achievement in aerospace, in design, and political co-operation. It was also a stunningly beautiful piece of design, and it became an icon of air travel -- as well as the last hurrah of the era of "old" travel in comfort and style. [[Series/TopGear Jeremy Clarkson]] sums it up in his book ''I Know You Got Soul'':
384-->It was a scientist with NASA who summed up Concorde better than anyone I've ever met: ''"Putting a man on the moon was easy"'', he said, ''"compared with getting Concorde to work."''
385** And they did it without ''any computer aided design WHATSOEVER''. The entire design was hand-drafted by an army of skilled draftspeople and worked out by mechanical engineers with slide rules, one of the last gasps of pure brainpower and hand drawn blueprints. And it remained the fastest, and only supersonic, plane in civilian, revenue service, for more than 25 years, well into the era where computerisation was an everyday fact of life.
386* The fight against disease
387** Humanity succeeding in wiping out the smallpox virus. The vast reduction of other potentially crippling and/or lethal illnesses via vaccine (such as polio and measles) is also pretty awesome.
388** Also, the eradication of rinderpest.
389** The development of the rabies vaccine is also worth mentioning, given the horrors one goes through if they contract the disease.
390** Not to mention we're making headway on cancer, HIV and AIDS. Let it be known that for all humanity's faults; [[AdaptiveAbility if there exists something that wants us dead, we will find a way to eradicate it.]]
391* Creator/EliezerYudkowsky winning the [[http://yudkowsky.net/singularity/aibox AI-Box Experiment]].
392* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Cooper#Mercury-Atlas_9 Gordon Cooper]], an astronaut who's landing capsule failed catastrophically during the Mercury-Atlas-9 mission. He proceeded to scribble measuring lines on the window of his capsule and ''calculated the right time to fire the thruster rockets [[AwesomenessByAnalysis based entirely on eye measurements and his wristwatch]]''. '''''He landed flawlessly.'''''
393* [[http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Lenski_Affair The Lenski Affair]].
394** Professor Richard Lenski had been working on an experiment to study how evolution works for 20 years (as of 2008) with the help of several students and other professors, and published the results on the article "Historical contingency and the evolution of a key innovation in an experimental population of Escherichia coli". Andy Schlafly, infamous editor of Conservapedia, sent him an e-mail asking for all the data about the experiment and casting aspersions on Lenski's character. The professor patiently and respectfully directs him to read the article, and also corrects several misconceptions Andy had asked about in the first letter. Schlafly then replies with yet another request for all information and data, again making the same misconceptions and even implying that Lenski may have engaged in fraud. Lenski's next answer becomes, as Lenski says, "less polite" in answer to Schlafly's lack of politeness. In a very long and comprehensive letter, Lenski completely shows that Schlafly isn't acting in good faith, completely pwns him and teaches everyone who reads it a bit of what he did, and concludes it with a P.S, a P.P.S, [[SerialEscalation a P.P.P.S]] and [[OverlyLongGag a P.P.P.P.S.]] which show that, indeed, Lenski is far more open minded than Schlafly has ever been in the RealLife sense of the word (note that, in Conservapedia, "open minded" is SpySpeak for "I completely agree with Schlafly's opinions, even if they are the most stupid ones possible"). It gives you a nice feeling inside.
395** Schlafly's response? "[[http://www.conservapedia.com/Professor_values#Immoral.2C_Unethical.2C_or_Bizarre_Behavior Richard Lenski of Michigan State University was rude and demeaning when replying to a member of the public who asked about his research.]]"
396* James Clerk Maxwell's formulation of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_equations Maxwell's equations]], and resultant discovery of the true nature of light. The commentary in the ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/1420.html Maxwell's Equations comic]] describes this very well. (There's actually one more result which can be traced directly back to those equations: [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein Einstein]]'s discovery of UsefulNotes/{{Relativity}}. An amazing discovery, to be sure!)
397* [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/03/baby-cured-of-hiv_n_2803041.html This baby girl]] who was [apparently] cured of the HIV virus. Even if she wasn't completely cured (as it's too early to tell), it certainly opens up many doors for future possible vaccines or cures of HIV.
398* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milwaukee_protocol The Milwaukee Protocol]] for treating symptomatic rabies. Until a few years ago, rabies was always fatal in humans once symptoms developed, but the daring work of Dr. Rodney Willoughby Jr. has produced, to date, six survivors of symptomatic rabies. It's far from a cure, as the survivors still sustained neurological damage, and it only works about 10% of the time, but it does give a fighting chance to patients who ten years ago would have been considered terminal.
399* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Hilleman Maurice Hilleman.]] He saved five hundred million lives. As with Borlaug above, see Website/TheOtherWiki for a full account of Hilleman's awesomeness. Briefly: he developed the first seasonal flu vaccines and the vaccines for measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis B, [[SerialEscalation among others]].
400* Lift Labs created a [[https://www.liftlabsdesign.com/index.html#prettyPhoto spoon]] that compensates for the tremors experienced by Parkinson's patients in the hands, allowing them to eat without dropping food much more easily. It also comes with a fork.
401* A high school robots team created a functional robotic hand with a 3d printer and gave it to a 4-year-old girl who had no fingers. [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/20/harmony-taylor-hand-high-school-robotics-team_n_4481441.html Seen here.]] Doubles as a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}.
402** This is far more Awesome than most people realize. One of the primary issues with prosthetics is the price. Because each one must be custom made, even cheap ones run into the thousands of dollars. This is especially bad for children, as they need new ones almost every year because they grow. This technology drops the price about fifty-fold.
403* 10-year-old Clara Lazen managed to create a new molecule [[http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/10-year-old-accidentally-creates-new-explosive-molecule-science-class#mini-panel-comments while in science class]].
404* 16-year-old Azza Abdel Hamid figured out a way to turn her country's waste into $78 million worth of [[http://inhabitat.com/16-year-old-egyptian-scientist-finds-way-to-turn-plastic-waste-into-78-million-of-biofuel/ biofuel each year.]]
405* [[http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/07-dr-drank-broth-gave-ulcer-solved-medical-mystery Barry Marshall proved that bacterial infections caused stomach ulcers]] by infecting and then curing ''himself'' (the bacterium in question doesn't infect mice, and he couldn't get approval for human trials), for which he and his collaborator Robin Warren won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
406* [[http://www.doctorross.co.za/self-operation-tracking-down-a-good-story/ Leonid Rogozov]], a doctor stationed in Antarctica, contracted appendicitis and had to perform the operation ''on himself'' under local anesthesia.
407* Ebola
408** Any doctor that devotes their life to treating the Ebola virus, which is incurable, such as [[http://www.channel4.com/news/ebola-doctor-dead-sierra-leone-virus Sierra Leone's leading doctor]], who treated a hundred patients until his own death.
409** Not to mention Canada's response to the current outbreak. Sending 1,000 doses of an experimental drug that has not been tested on humans to the affected area. This is not the Canada as you know it from fiction! This is heroism!
410* On February 3, 2016, the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator [[http://www.sciencealert.com/germany-s-massive-nuclear-fusion-machine-just-produced-its-first-hydrogen-plasma successfully produced hydrogen plasma through nuclear fusion]]. ''We are one step closer to harnessing the power of the sun.''
411* Smart phones. About 40 000 years into humanity's run, we invented the bipolar transistor, a way to send signals through an electric current. About 40 0'''70''' years in, we can communicate; schedule; tell the time and set alarms; read the news and weather; take pictures; take videos; watch videos; listen to music and podcasts (basically talk radio except there are thousands of them); check health vitals; look up the details of any known species of living thing, the known history of anything or anyone deemed even slightly notable, the nutrition information of virtually any food, a street-by-street map of many countries across the world, descriptions and examples of storytelling devices, and awesome moments; play countless brainteasers, puzzles, and video games; look up finances, transfer money, and pay bills; make any calculation that one is likely to care to make; and a bunch of other things, from a pocket-sized phone. If any of the above takes more than a few seconds to happen, it's seen as a frustration. The phone and carrier service costs as much as a cup or two of coffee a day, with complaints that corporate greed is the main reason it doesn't cost less than that. Those are seventy productive years.
412* Falcon Heavy, a reusable rocket made by [=SpaceX=] and the most powerful rocket in the world, has had its first successful launch. %%HELL. YES.
413** Not only that. They tested the launch with a special payload: [=SpaceX=]'s and Tesla's CEO own personal [[CoolCar Tesla Roadster]], "piloted" by a dummy astronaut with the words [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy "DON'T PANIC"]] shining in the dashboard and [[Creator/IsaacAsimov Isaac Asimov's]] Foundation trilogy in the trunk. And blasting [[Creator/DavidBowie David Bowie's]] Life on Mars. [[http://www.weatherboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Starman1.png This is not photoshopped.]]
414** [[https://youtu.be/A0FZIwabctw The first stages landing at the exact same time.]]
415* Also worthy of a mention is the Soviet [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venera Venera program]], which successfully returned data from UsefulNotes/{{Venus}}, one of the most hostile environments known to science, including [[https://www.scoopnest.com/user/ScienceChannel/808295602987606016-the-surface-of-venus-as-seen-by-soviet-probes-venera-13-and-14-in-1981 colour photographs]]!
416* The twin Mars rovers ''Spirit'' and ''Opportunity'', that arrived to Mars in January 4, 2004, deserve a special place here, as they were intended to last just 90 sols (Martian days, equivalent to 92 Earth ones) days. Both went on and the former and lasted ''more than 2,200 sols'' (up to March 22, 2010), more than 300 of them spent as a fixed science platform being unable to move, while the latter operated for ''5261 sols'', until a large dust storm knocked it out in June 10, 2018, with NASA at the time of this edit still hopping it will come [[BackFromTheDead back]] once its solar panels are cleared away by the Martian winds.
417** To sum up, space exploration ''is'' awesomeness concentrated, even if most of the job is done by robots and not manned ships, when one considers space is the most hazardous environment known to Man.
418** Sadly, as of February 13, 2019, it's been confirmed that Opportunity's mission has come to an end. However, after lasting almost ''15 Earth years,'' covering 28 miles, sending back over 217,000 images, and teaching us more about Mars than we could've ever imagined, it's had a long and eventful life. Get some rest, Opportunity. You've earned it.
419* On January 1, 2019, the venerable New Horizons space probe, even though it had already become a legend when it became the first mission to visit lonely Pluto, went and topped its own best by performing a flyby of the Kuiper Belt Object Ultima Thule. At 4 billion miles from Earth, it stands as the farthest object ever visited by humanity. What's more, given the size and density of the Kuiper Belt, New Horizons was likely the first thing to interact with Ultima Thule in billions of years. To make this achievement even more awesome, [[Music/BrianMay Dr. Brian May]] was one of the scientists on the New Horizons team working on the flyby. When asked by the host of ''NASA Video File'' what he considered the greatest moment of his life, performing with Music/{{Queen}} at Live Aid in 1985 or working with NASA during the Ultima Thule flyby, he defensively replied, "You can't do that to me!" That's right, ''Brian May'' thinks that this achievement was as important to him as the definitive pinnacle of his entire music career.
420[[/folder]]
421
422[[folder:War]]
423* The rescue of the Danish Jews during WWII. After the reverses in the East showed the Danes that their calculation in 1940 -- that they would have to live under German rule and so the best thing was to make it as easy as possible -- was wrong, Danish civil society moved from passivity to active resistance to Nazi "protection". In response, Hitler ordered that Denmark's 7800 Jews should be rounded up and deported to Auschwitz. The Danish underground movement, local police, and fisherman, managed to smuggle 99% of the Danish Jews over the Øresund to neutral Sweden. As per their wishes, the Danes who participated are collectively honored as "Righteous Among the Nations" at Yad Vashem.
424* On the night of 4–5 May 1942, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORP_Błyskawica ORP ''Błyskawica'']] was docked in the town of [[UsefulNotes/IsleOfWight East Cowes]], receiving a refit, when German bombers began attacking the town in an attempt to destroy aircraft and ship building facilities there. ''Błyskawica'''s guns were still operational, and her crew climbed aboard and began firing on the planes whilst still docked in Cowes Harbour. Her guns became so hot that they had to be doused with water from the River Medina, and extra ammunition had to be ferried across the Solent from Portsmouth, but in the end the defence was successful; while East Cowes and the shipyard ''Błyskawica'' was docked at suffered severe damage, the destruction would have been far worse had the ship not intervened.
425* "[[WoodenShipsAndIronMen England expects that every man will do his duty.]]" (Should've been more like 'confides', but that would've had to be sent flag-per-letter while 'expects' could be abbreviated.)
426* UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill's speeches:
427** "The British Empire and the French Republic, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."
428** "If we fail, then the whole world, including the [[AmericaSavesTheDay United States]], will [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt fall into the abyss of a new dark age]] made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of [[ScienceIsBad perverted science]]. [[RousingSpeech Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves, that if]] [[TheEmpire the British Empire and its Commonwealth]] [[BadassBoast lasts for a thousand years, men will still say:]] '''This was their finest hour.'''"
429* The German invasion of Norway:
430** The start of the invasion. Blücher, the flagship of the German fleet, sailed into the Oslo fjord in the middle of the night, passing by the old Oscarsborg fortress. Norway was neutral, so Oscarsborg was only lightly manned by recruits and old veterans, and attacking a German ship would be cause for war. With the Minister of War and Prime Minister both asleep, and without time to wake them and get a message, Colonel Birger Eriksen made a decision to attack the ship. Thanks to surprise and a newly installed battery of torpedos (the rest of the fortress' armaments were from WWI), they destroyed the pride of the German fleet, giving the King and parliament time to flee.
431** Speaking of the king and parliament: Prime Minister Nygaardsvold later gave king Haakon VII his request to resign, effectively surrendering Norway to Germany. Haakon's response? "No." Norway is a constitutional monarchy, and the King's veto is purely symbolic. Had any other king tried to do this at any other time, it would have been cause for uproar. King Haakon and Nygaardsvold fled to England where they led the Norwegian people as the Government-In-Exile for the rest of the war. King Haakon's sigil, "H7", became one of the most important symbols of the Norwegian resistance.
432* Gurkhas:
433** A retired Gurkha soldier on the way home on the train takes on 40 robbers by himself. And wins. Even better, the reason he risked his life? They were going to rape a 18-year-old girl on the train. If they had just taken the cash and other valuables he wouldn't have killed 3 of them, injured 8 and drove all 40 off. His only weapon? A kukri knife. Their weapons? Swords, knives and thankfully non-working guns.
434** The Gurkha soldiers and even the Nepalese themselves have a long history of awesomeness. Even as far back as the early 16th century, the Gurkha soldiers were elite and brilliant soldiers. The entire East Indian branch of the English Army tried to subdue Nepal, but the Gurkha soldiers were so good, and all the regular people (or peasants as they were known back then) were so indomitable and brave that not only did they force England into a stalemate, with England having only gain nominal control over them, the English were so impressed and so respected them that they made Nepal a protectorate. They ended up contracting the Gurkha soldiers out as mercenaries, giving them officer ranks, respected them ''immensely'' as great soldiers, and treated them with a type of equality that was ''never'' heard of even until the 1960s in America! [[labelnote:*]] they were still subordinate to any British officer, but they were treated as valued members of the English army when in America anyone who wasn't white was still in slavery and treated as subhuman. That is pretty Goddamn impressive![[/labelnote]] These soldiers were so good and valuable that in World War One more than 200 000 Gurkhas served in the British army, with ''only 20 000 casualties'', and receiving nearly 2000 gallantry rewards! ''That'' is how awesome these soldiers are.
435** On June 14, 1982, elements of the 1st/7th Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Gurkha Rifles were poised to attack Mt. William, held by Argentinian troops. The Argentinians caught wind of the Gurkhas' presence and promptly retreated, leaving Mt. William to the Gurkhas without a shot being fired.
436** Former Chief of Staff of the Indian Army Sam Manekshaw, himself a pretty Awesome FourStarBadass (his nickname was "Sam Bahadur" -- Sam the Brave) said it best:
437--->"If a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or is a Gurkha."
438** Another moment of awesome from a Gurkha soldier: [[http://www.nepalmelbourne.com/?p=884 fighting off 30 Taliban fighters]] ''[[OneManArmy single-handedly]]''. He was largely annoyed that he had forgotten his khukri that day. He made up for it by beating several enemies to death with a fucking machine gun tripod. Which are incredibly awkward at the best of times, essentially three pieces of two-inch steel pipe with hinges.
439* In 1966, US Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton was forced to do a TV interview in Vietnam while he was a POW, so what did he do? He calmly answered the interviewer's questions while doing Morse code by blinking. He spelled out T-O-R-T-U-R-E, telling American Intelligence that he and his fellow prisoners were being tortured (it is speculated that his captors didn't know he had sent the message until eight years later). He ended up getting promoted to Captain while he was STILL imprisoned.
440* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill Jack Churchill]], who fought in World War II ''with a longbow and a broadsword'', escaped two different concentration camps, played bagpipes in a trench while being surrounded on all sides by enemy soldiers, and lamented that the war was over ''because it meant he couldn't kill Nazis anymore''.
441* Titanic's elder twin Olympic also had her share of collisions, but unlike her hapless sibling, ''absolutely refused to go down''. The first two cases were mere accidents with a tug and a cruiser, but the third one is where it gets [[http://perdurabo10.tripod.com/ships/id45.html awesome]]. Olympic was drafted into service in WWI as a troop ship, only to run into a German submarine. The sub fired a torpedo at the ship but missed. Olympic in return '''rammed the submarine and sank it'''. This is on top of the fact that she was one of the largest commercial ocean liners at the time, and was only drafted due to a shortage of ships. Large troopships were extremely vulnerable targets because if one sunk they would take with them a lot more lives than smaller troopships. The Olympic not only rammed a submarine to death, but survived the entire war intact. This earned her the name "Old Reliable".
442* The town of Misrata, Libya. During the [[UsefulNotes/{{Libya}} 2011 Libyan Civil War]], Misrata became the only rebel stronghold in the west. It was quickly besieged by Gaddafi's forces, and many assumed it would fall. Instead, the citizens of Misrata transformed themselves into an effective fighting force, holding out for weeks until rebel forces, supported by [[DeathFromAbove NATO airpower]], drove out Gaddafi's forces. Misratan troops continued to serve with distinction until the end of the war. The fall of Tripoli was another for the rebels. Everyone was expecting that the battle for Tripoli would be a drawn-out bloodbath, with many wondering if the rebels might end up making Benghazi the post-Gaddafi capital instead. Come the evening of August 20, when the rebels launched a masterful surprise attack, quickly capturing the city intact. There was no bloodbath, and no question that Tripoli would remain the capital of Libya.
443* Operation Entebbe, immortalized as the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entebbe_Raid Entebbe Raid]]. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine takes 105 Jewish passengers hostage from an Air France jet, before flying the aircraft to Uganda, where it is sheltered by the Amin government at Entebbe Airport. Israel refuses to negotiate. Instead, they send 100 commandos to execute an operation that took a week of meticulous planning. Defying the odds, they got 102 of 105 hostages out and lost only one commando, utterly defeating the hostage-takers. As a final insult, the Commandos blew up most of the Ugandan Air Force on the runway on the way out to cover their escape. The raid was called "an impossible mission" at the time, and it is still studied by military scientists as an example of hostage-rescue and special operations done right.
444* Awesome doesn't always involve weaponry and computers. [[http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=11296 Behold some productive nonviolence]] that ''still'' manages to be badass. Or maybe because it was done by [[BadassIsraeli Israelis.]]
445* Polish [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._303_Squadron_RAF No. 303 Fighter Squadron]]. After their valiant but ultimately futile fight in September Campaign, many polish pilots managed to escape and joined Allied armies, especially the Royal Air Force. There, they were formed into 16 squadrons, one them being aforementioned 303. Said squadron then proceed to become one of the most effective fighter force (if not ''the most effective'') ''in the whole Battle of Britain'', destroying 126 (297 as their total service from 1 September 1940 to 8 May 1945) enemy planes and gaining utter respect from their allies. Quoting Flight Lieutenant John Alexander Kent:
446-->"I cannot say how proud I am to have been privileged to help form and lead No. 303 squadron and later to lead such a magnificent fighting force as the Polish Wing. There formed within me in those days an admiration, respect and genuine affection for these really remarkable men which I have never lost. I formed friendship that are as firm as they were those twenty-five years ago and this I find most gratifying. We who were privileged to fly and fight with them will never forget and Britain must never forget how much she owes to the loyalty indomitable spirit and sacrifice of those Polish fliers. They were our staunchest Allies in our darkest days; may they always be remembered as such!"
447* In WWII, the Dutch defence line at Kornwerderzand was not broken after German attacks and only surrendered after the national capitulation. The defenders were saluted by their captors on their way to internment.
448* In the Pacific theatre, a small Dutch submarine force based in Western Australia sank more ships than the American and British navies in that threatre combined.
449* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_off_Samar Battle off Samar]], October 25th 1944.
450** A Japanese battle group under Admiral Kurita centered around the giant battleship ''Yamato'' made a daylight attack against the American landings at Leyte Gulf. ''Yamato alone'' outweighed Task Group ''Taffy Three'', the ''entire'' defense force remaining in the gulf after Halsey's carriers departed northward to attack a decoy force. None of the defending surface combatants were larger than a destroyer, and most were actually the even smaller and lighter-armed destroyer escorts. Such was the ferocity of their defense that Kurita thought he had run right into Halsey's ''entire fleet'' and withdrew.
451** The entire Task Group ''Taffy Three'' was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. They were also awarded the Philippines Presidential Unit Citation. Plus 28 Navy Crosses, 2 Silver Stars and 2 Bronze Stars awarded to individuals. In addition, at least seven later U.S. Navy ships were named for personnel or ships involved in the battle.
452** Special mention should be given to the destroyer USS ''Johnston''. When Kurita's battle group first appeared on the horizon, it was the ''Johnston'' that led the charge. Once within torpedo range, she fired a ten-torpedo salvo, which ''blew the bow off'' the Japanese cruiser ''Kumano'', then sunk another cruiser that stopped to aid her. Then once out of torpedoes, she stuck around to provide fire support to her sister destroyers and act as bait to take Japanese guns off the escort carriers. The ''Johnston'''s skipper, Lt. Cmdr. Ernest Evans, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.
453** The ''Samuel B. Roberts'' also merits mention, as she was far and away one of the smallest participants in the battle at a mere 1,350 ton displacement. Her armament consisted of a pair of 5" cannon, a small battery of anti-aircraft guns, and three torpedoes. She also had no real armor to speak of. Despite this paltry warload, she would proceed to engage the Japanese at point-blank range. With her only three torpedoes, she landed a salvo that blew off the bow of the Japanese heavy cruiser ''Chokai'' and left her limping away. Undeterred, she would sail inside the minimum range of the Japanese heavy cruiser ''Chikuma'' and raked the second vessel with over two hundred rounds, starting dozens of fires on her wooden deck, destroying the bridge, and disabling a turret. Though ''Kongo'' would eventually land a killing blow on ''Samuel B. Roberts'', the tiny vessel had thoroughly maimed two Japanese warships whose combined displacement was ''[[DavidVersusGoliath over twenty times her own]]'', leaving them both extremely vulnerable to the eventual air strikes that would destroy both ''Chokai'' and ''Chikuma''. Lauded as "the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship," the stunning ferocity of her attack led the Japanese to believe that ''Samuel B. Roberts'' was actually a ''Baltimore''-class ship--which is to say a ''heavy cruiser'', more than ten times her acutal size--than the destroyer escort she acually was.
454--->"A large Japanese fleet has been contacted. They are fifteen miles away and headed in our direction. They are believed to have four battleships, eight cruisers, and a number of destroyers. This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can."\
455-- [=Lieutenant Commander=] Robert W. Copeland, Commanding Officer of the ''USS Samuel B. Roberts'', addressing his crew as the battle started.
456* Also from the Pacific Theater, [[Film/TheGreatRaid the raid on Cabanatuan Prison Camp]] by the 6th {{Ranger}} Battalion. The actual raid itself may count, but the ultimate SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome is the battle at the nearby Cabu Bridge, where Capt. Juan Pajota and his around 100-storng guerillas managed to hold off around '''a thousand''' Japanese soldiers, and managed to wipe out more or less half the Japanese stationed on the other side of the bridge. See everything [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Cabanatuan here]].
457** This led to more successful POW rescues in the Philippine Campaign, especially the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_at_Los_Banos Raid at Los Baños]] by [[ItsRainingMen 1st Battalion, 511th Parachute Regiment]]. Some have called it "the greatest airborne operation of all time".
458** Said POW rescues also double as SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments, especially the Ranger raid at Cabanatuan, since all the [=POWs=] rescued were Bataan and Corregidor survivors who thought they will never have a chance to go home again.
459* USS ''Enterprise'' CV-6
460** The entire career of the USS ''Enterprise'' CV-6 is one long string of these. She earned ''twenty'' battle stars, a Presidential Unit Citation, and has the distinguished accolade of being the ''only'' active carrier in the Pacific Theater for an entire year after her sister ships ''Yorktown'' and ''Hornet'' were sunk (at Midway and Santa Cruz, respectively) and ''still'' managed to survive the war. And to top it all off, she was at all of the major battles in the Pacific. Midway, Guadalcanal, Truk, Philippine Sea, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, Okinawa -- it was present for all of them. A squadron of ''Enterprise'''s scout bombers even fought the Japanese at Pearl Harbor.
461*** Of special note is the Battle of Midway. Wade [=McClusky=], the Air Group Commander for ''Enterprise'''s SBD Dauntless dive bombers, had set out to search for the enemy Japanese carriers, and his two squadrons were running low on fuel. [=McClusky=] chose to press on in the face of dwindling fuel reserves, and happened upon the Japanese destroyer ''Arashi,'' which was steaming back to rejoin the carriers after trying and failing to depth-charge the submarine USS ''Nautilus''. They followed Arashi back to the carriers. At the same time, a third dive-bomber squadron from USS ''Yorktown'' approached from the opposite direction. In the span of only ''five minutes,'' the American dive bomber pilots rendered the carriers ''Kaga'', ''Akagi'', and ''Soryu'' little more than flaming wrecks, cutting the IJN's air power in half and completely changing the course of the war in the Pacific.
462** [[Franchise/StarTrek Really no surprise considering she was called the Enterprise.]] When Gene Roddenberry was considering a new name for the ship that would be the center of the show, he was originally going to go with "USS ''Yorktown''". Then, out comes the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_%28CVN-65%29 latest in a line of U.S. Navy ships]] to bear the name ''Enterprise'', and Gene suddenly changed his mind. Art Director Matt Jefferies even compared the fictional ''Enterprise'' to CVN-65 for scale. Thus was born the most famous ''Enterprise'' of all.
463** The first US Navy warship to bear the name was the Revolutionary War sloop which earned the nickname "Lucky Little ''Enterprise''" for her combat record.
464* The Doolittle Raid. Twenty B-25 Mitchell medium bombers -- which were most definitely NOT designed for carrier takeoffs -- launched from the USS ''Hornet'', bombed Tokyo's industrial center, then made it to Chinese territory (though none of the airplanes survived). The actual damage was negligible, but the morale effects of the raid were tremendous for ''both'' sides of the war. Sadly, the Japanese then went on a rampage killing 250,000 Chinese civilians in retribution for the handful of civilians that helped the American airman get to safety.
465* The relief of Bastogne. The city of Bastogne was placed under siege by the Nazis during the Battle of the Bulge, with the 101st Airborne Division trapped within. On December 19th, the Third Army was fighting down on the Saar border of Germany when Eisenhower called a meeting. Before going, General George S. Patton drafted three different contingency plans, guessing the intent. When Ike asked Patton how soon he could have troops in the Ardennes, Patton replied he could do it in 48 hours -- completely insane for an army engaged in a slog. Patton insisted he could do it, and Eisenhower told him to attack on the 22nd with three divisions. Patton took the 4th Armored, 80th Infantry, and 26th Infantry divisions and charged north. Not only did they make it, they managed to relieve the battered 101st. Many historians refer to this as "Patton's finest hour," and it was faithfully reproduced in the movie ''{{Film/Patton}}''. It should be noted that no one among the [[BadassArmy 101st Airborne Division]] agreed that ''they need to be rescued''. In fact, they ''did'' manage to hold the line while suffering from sheer cold, low morale, lack of resources and, being an airborne division, outgunned by the German forces.
466** "Haven't you heard? ... They've got us surrounded -- the poor bastards." -- Easy Company
467** For this, the modern historian John Ellis described Patton - intending this as the highest possible praise - as "the greatest traffic cop in military history". Those wondering why this is high praise should consider the saying "Amateurs talk strategy. Professionals talk logistics".
468* [[https://youtu.be/qNF28p6wkOs This video]] of soldiers reciprocating to a small boy standing to salute them.
469* Austro-Hungarian Empire after UsefulNotes/WorldWarI
470** In 1918, the soldiers of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSoundofMartialMusic Austro-Hungarian Empire (AKA the Hapsburg Monarchy)]] that were able to return home to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carinthia_%28state%29 Carinthia]] (formerly a Duchy within Austria-Hungary, now a state/province of Austria) were in for a surprise. The newly-formed country of the '''Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes''' (AKA UsefulNotes/{{Yugoslavia}}) wanted to make nearly half of Carinthia part of their nation. The soldiers' response: Take up arms again after ''four'' years of hellish warfare and defend their new country Austria, which many people thought would not survive. They managed to fight the enemy forces until 1920 when the issue was decided by a vote. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carinthian_Plebiscite Even the majority of Carinthian-Slovenes voted to stay with Austria.]]
471** The Austro-Hungarian Royal and Imperial Army had another one in a strange kind of way: when UsefulNotes/WorldWarI ended, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed and the last Emperor, Charles X, went into exile. Then the Austro-Hungarian Army surrendered and was dissolved. The army "outlived the state it was created to defend," as A. J. P. Taylor put it.
472* Rome vs. Carthage
473** Hannibal gets one for his victory at the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae Battle of Cannae]]. Facing an army of over 80,000 Romans with his army of 50,000 Carthaginians, he not only won, he actually managed to bait the Romans into a position where his army, which to reiterate was outnumbered by more than 3 to 2, completely surrounded the Romans. This has gone down as one of the greatest tactical feats in military history.
474** Special mention should also go to Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator, especially for the battle of Gerionum. Fabius' disloyal Magister Equitum, Minucius, led half the Roman army into a trap set by Hannibal that would have employed the same double-envelopment that later worked at Cannae. When Fabius was informed that Minucius had walked into a trap, many of his advisers urged him to let Minucius be destroyed, since Minucius was his political opponent. Instead, Fabius, who had earned the then-derisory nickname Cunctator (delayer) for refusing to meet the Carthaginians in battle, declared that "We must hasten to rescue Minucius, who is a valiant man, and a lover of his country." Just as the Carthaginian flanks were linking up to encircle Minucius' army, and as Minucius, realizing that he had led yet another Roman army to destruction, was about to commit ritual suicide, Fabius' army came marching over the hill in full battle array, ready to attack the Carthaginians just where they were linking up to complete the encirclement. The Carthaginians retreated without any further fighting, and Minucius' army was saved. After this, Minucius was formally reconciled to Fabius and declared "My father gave me life. Today you saved my life. You are my second father." That was probably the highest compliment one Roman could ever pay another, so it doubles as a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}. Incidentally, it was Fabius' strategy that ultimately defeated Hannibal, and it is known to this day as Fabian strategy; "Cunctator," originally an insult, eventually became an honorific, although it took the disaster at Cannae for the Romans to see how right Fabius was. Hannibal was one of the greatest tacticians who ever lived, but Fabius was one of the greatest strategists; Hannibal won battles, but Fabius won the war.[[note]]Even though he did not live to see it.[[/note]]
475* General Eisenhower once tried to have the lesbians in the army removed from service, and told Johnnie Phelps to do so. Here is (part) of her [[http://bibliothekara.tumblr.com/post/91896916665/johnnie-phelps-a-woman-sergeant-in-the-army response.]] Afterwards, he told her to "forget the order".
476-->'''Johnnie Phelps:''' Sir, you're right. They're lesbians in the WAC battalion. And if the general is prepared to replace all the file clerks, all the section commanders, all the drivers--every woman in the WAC detachment, and there were about nine hundred and eighty something of us--then I'll be happy to make that list. But I think the general should be aware that among those women are the most highly decorated women in the war. There have been no cases of illegal pregnancy. There have been no cases of AWOL. There have been no cases of misconduct. And as a matter of fact, every six months since we've been here, the general has awarded us a commendation for meritorious conduct.
477* Shipping companies from the Åland Islands used sailing boats to deliver goods from Australia to England. In the middle of World War II. And almost no one dared to attack them as both Allied and Axis countries employed companies from Åland which meant they couldn't tell who the goods belonged to.
478* The Siege of Mafeking during the Second Boer War. A force of around 2000 men and boys held the African village of Mafeking for 217 days against a force of over 10,000 Boer troops. The actions of the boys during the siege led the leader of the defense, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell, to create the Scouting Movement.
479* Jan Kubiš and Jozef Gabčík, Czech and Slovak resistance fighters respectively, who pulled off the successful assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, ''the director of the Gestapo and one of the main architects of the Holocaust''. Over the course of World War II there were many attempts to assassinate Nazi officials, with very few succeeding; Heydrich was the highest ranking Nazi to meet his death this way. Despite the horrific reprisals against Czech civilians that followed, causing many to question whether it was worth it, today Kubiš and Gabčík are regarded as national heroes.
480* The USS ''Constitution'' AKA "Old Ironsides":
481** She is a frigate from the War of 1812. Because the ''Constitution'' was made out of a special kind of wood, cannonballs bounced off her, hence the nickname "Old Ironsides". Yeah, that's right, the cannonballs ''bounced off''.
482** After becoming a training ship at Annapolis, the ''Constitution'' was towed to New England at the outbreak of the American Civil War to prevent her capture by the Confederates should Maryland fall. After the war, while being towed back, she dropped the tow cable and made her own way under sail... and beat the steam tug back to Annapolis by ten hours. Despite being at that point nearly seventy years old. The most recent occasion of her getting under way was in 2012 to celebrate the bicentennial of her famous fight that earned her the nickname ''Old Ironsides''.
483** ''Constitution'' is still carried on the Navy List as an active warship, with an assigned crew of active-duty personnel. Assignment to the crew is awarded on the basis of merit, and competition is ''fierce''.
484*** ''Constitution'' is the oldest commissioned warship afloat. Britain's HMS ''Victory'' (of Trafalgar fame) is older, but she is permanently drydocked.
485* The CCCP/USSR's badass female fighter pilots, the Night Witches. They fought in World War 2, and earned their nickname because [[TheDreaded they were so successful and deadly, the Nazis compared them to witches]]. The only two female fighter aces were Night Witches. They flew combat, and dropped 23,000 tons of bombs. Their leader was Marina Raskova, Hero of the Soviet Union. She received the first state funeral of the war, and has a street in Moscow named after her. Another member, Nadia Popva, was shot down three times, and survived each time. Lydia [[RedBaron "The White Rose Of Stalingrad"]] Litvyak was the first female fighter pilot to shoot down an enemy plane, and do you know how many Nazis planes it took to shoot her down? [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill Eight.]] Zhenya Rudneva fought at the front of the war, died valiantly while flying her 645th combat mission, and, after the Nazis bombed her beloved university, [[BadassBoast she swore revenge on the university's behalf, dedicating her first bomb to the cause of avenging the university.]]
486** On top of which, their nickname was largely earned because the Soviet commanders initially didn't think there was any worth in providing female pilots with valuable, up-to-date top-gun fighters, saving those for the men and instead reserving only the most expendable planes -- typically very outdated, underpowered and poorly armed trainer biplanes, which struggled to pick up much speed or altitude -- for the women. The sound of the air whistling through their cable-tensioned airframes as they passed slowly a mere few hundred feet overhead put the Germans in mind of witches on brooms, even without knowing the sex of the pilots. That they were able to score such victories in planes that would have been considered barely adequate for combat duty a good 10-20 years earlier, during an age of extremely rapid development in powered flight technology, adds an additional layer of awesome.
487* Also from USSR, Marya Oktyabrskaya, after her husband got killed, volunteered to join the army, but was found unfit for duty. She then raised enough money to commision a ''tank'', donated those money to the state and even wrote a personal letter to Stalin, requesting to be made its driver. She only got to spend two months fighting, before being fatally wounded when trying to fix the damaged track while under enemy fire, but she still avenged her husband's death and then some -- in her last battle her tank killed 50 Nazi soldiers and officers and a cannon. Marya was awaded a posthumous Hero of the Soviet Union Order, and her tank became a LegacyCharacter -- her comrades kept giving the name she chose, "Sister in Arms", to new machines after losing the previous ones, and the fourth "Sister" rolled into Berlin victorious.
488* The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Madrid Siege of Madrid]] during the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar Spanish Civil War]]. The war began when a cadre of right-wing generals led by [[FranciscoFranco Francisco Franco]] and backed by [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany the Nazis]] and [[UsefulNotes/FascistItaly Mussolini]] staged a coup to overthrow the democratically elected Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic and replace it with an authoritarian, right-wing regime. Most of the military's best troops and nearly the entire officer corps defected to the rebels, and while Franco's troops were amply supplied by Italy and Germany with weaponry and material, the western democracies would not aid the legitimate government of the Republic for fear of angering Hitler or Mussolini (this was during the 'appeasement' era). Things looked dire for the Republic. Fascist armies were quickly advancing on Madrid, easily sweeping aside whatever resistance they encountered. The [[UsefulNotes/SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn USSR]] promised aid but it wasn't coming fast enough. The world was certain the city was about to fall. [[ForegoneConclusion Reporters in Madrid were so confident they sent communiques reporting the rebels had already taken the city]]. Telegrams arrived in the city congratulating Franco on his victory. Even the government was so sure Madrid could not hold that they quietly abandoned it for Valencia on the coast. The only thing standing between the rebel forces and the capital were a smattering of very green loyalist troops, the Madrid police force and several disorganized, undisciplined militias composed of ordinary citizens. The Nationalists had better training, functioning weapons, more ammunition, air support and tanks. In contrast, the Republicans only had small arms, a few artillery, and more manpower than the enemy forces besieging them. Nevertheless, they all vowed to turn Madrid into [[BadassBoast "the tomb of fascism"]]. The fascists got to the Manzanares river on the outskirts of the city, but no further, because the people of Madrid, with no training and little more than rusty Mauser rifles (even in some cases throwing rocks at the attackers or fighting hand to hand) [[YouShallNotPass successfully held off the rebels' seasoned professional troops for days]], until the promised Soviet aid and the volunteers of the [[EagleSquadron International Brigades]] arrived to relieve the pressure, with the defenders using their new Russian weapons and equipment to rain hell on Franco's men. With Madrid relieved, the Republic was able to remobilize, form a proper army and fight back against the Nationalists. Though of course, in the end [[DownerEnding Franco won]], no one ever forget how the Madrileños, abandoned by the world and their own government, held their own against vastly superior forces and kept the fascists out of Madrid for three years. Despite Franco's violent repression throughout his rule, the siege, and the heroic image of ordinary people alongside militiamen and soldiers defending the capital until the end slipped into Spanish popular culture.'¡No Pasarán!', indeed!
489* Some stories must be taken with a grain of salt, given propaganda, but Vietnam's struggles against the French and American (and allies) produced a laundry list of heroes.
490** Nguyễn Tri Phương and Hoàng Diệu, the Viceroys of Hanoi, and their heroic to-the-death defense of the citadel. They failed (Hoàng Diệu's suicide letter, written in blood, was a TearJerker) -- but the fact remains that they were outgunned and out planned, and yet they were on the verge of repelling the French completely. If the Armory hadn't been blown up, causing resource losses, panic, and decay in morale, they could have stood a chance.
491** The "Sixty Days and Nights of Hanoi", in which the city (once again) worked itself to a fury against the French. Barricades were built everywhere, including wide streets (which is Irony at its best -- after the French Revolution (and the July Rebellion of Literature/LesMiserables fame), the city of Paris underwent repairs to widen the streets so that barricades cannot be easily erected.) People contributed whatever they could to erect said barricades, up to and including ''family altars''. (For context, it's like throwing gravestones in. But then again, those ancestors would probably have approved, given prior defense attempts and rebellion.) Other wonders that day were [[TakingYouWithMe soldiers holding bombs in their arms and rushing French tanks]]. Planes were shot down by ground weapons. ''Hanoians destroyed their own houses when the forces needed space to fight.''
492** The entire campaign and Battle of Điện Biên Phủ. Granted, the French were weakened, but the Vietnamese effort to get there is nothing short of pure awesome.
493*** Điện Biên Phủ was a valley, at the center of which lie French military headquarters. French generals were convinced that the Vietnamese wouldn't be able to bring cannons in, and if they can by some sheer miracle, they wouldn't get out three shots before a CurbStompBattle. The logistics itself was mind-boggling: Throughout the entire campaign, the Việt Minh recruited the help of 260000 laborers, 20911 loaded bicycles (the record amount one bicycle could load was over 300 kilograms), 11800 rafts, hauling 25000 tons of food. After feeding the laborers, 14950 tons of rice, 266 tons of salt, 62 tons of sugar, 577 tons of meat, and 565 tons of dry provisions went to the soldiers. Other regions contributed more than 7000 wheelbarrows, 1800 buffalo carts, 325 horse carriages, and tens of thousands of bicycles.
494*** And yes, they did manage to bring cannons in. The cannons were taken apart, dragged to the front by sheer human strength (several {{Heroic Sacrifice}}s ensued when the cannons slipped on treacherous terrains, including Tô Vĩnh Diện, who threw himself under a 2-ton cannon to stop it crashing. His last words were "Is the cannon alright?"), then reassembled on location. They arranged multiple cannons on the rim of the valley, essentially shooting French fish in a barrel.
495*** The sheer Awesomeness of this was summed up best by the revolutionary poet Tố Hữu:
496---->"Hail to the soldier of Điện Biên! \
497The heroic soldier, with their heads forged in metal fire \
49856 days and nights of carving into mountains, sleeping in tunnels under torrential rain, eating rice patties \
499Their blood mixed with mud, and their wills remained undaunted! \
500[...] Hands that tore mountains and rolled bombs\
501Opening the routes for supplies to the front \
502And the men and women heading to the frontlines \
503[...] Though bombs and bullets destroyed their flesh and bone, \
504No one backed down, no one regretted their green youth..."
505* Two words: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kollaa Kollaa kestää]] ([[LastStand Kollaa will hold]]). It did.
506* Pretty much everything ABOUT the fight put up by Finland against the Soviet Union during the Winter War. The Soviets had anywhere from 125,000 to 420,000 more troops (Soviets had between 425,000 and 760,000 troops, Finland had 300,000 to 340,000), 34 times the number of aircraft (3,880 to Finland’s 114), and 2,514 to 6,541 tanks to Finland’s 32. Three months later, the Soviets had 126,875–167,976 dead or missing, 188,671–207,538 wounded or sick (including at least 61,506 sick or frostbitten), 5,572 captured, 1,200–3,543 tanks, and 261–515 aircraft for a total of 321,000–381,000 casualties. Finland had comparatively suffered 25,904 dead or missing, 43,557 wounded, 800-1,100 captured, 20-30 tanks and 62 aircraft destroyed (along with one notable icebreaker) for a total of just 70,000 casualties. [[CurbStompCushion They may have lost]], [[PyrrhicVictory but was the Soviet victory worth it?]]
507* Admiral [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_Sun-sin Yi Sun-sin]], Korea's greatest war hero, and arguably the greatest naval commander ''in history.'' Just read about his damn career already, the man was ''incomparable'' for his military genius, loyalty, incorruptibility and general badassery. Or better yet, watch the [[https://youtu.be/3ieaDfD_h6s&index=50&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5Aq7g4bil7bnGi0A8gTsawu Extra History]] series ''WebAnimation/ExtraCredits'' did on him. It's stirring stuff. His legacy resonated across the world, too-Admiral George Ballard of the Royal Navy called him an equal to Nelson, while Admiral Togo, a hero of the Russo-Japanese war, was fine with being compared to Nelson, but thought that being compared as the Japanese equal to Admiral Yi was far too much.
508* The Russian brig "Mercury". In 1829, it was cornered by two of the strongest Turkish ships, outgunned ten to one (and one of the ships carrying [[TheQuisling the brig's former commander]]). The crew decided to stand and fight. The last man standing was to blow up the gunpowder chamber for a TakingYouWithMe moment. After a three hour battle, the Turks were forced to break off due to rigging damage, and Mercury went on to rejoin the rest of the Russian fleet. One of the Turk helmsmen wrote in a letter a few days later "I can't imagine a greater act of heroism, but there is no way these guys didn't [[PyrrhicVictory lose half the crew]]". The main damage was actually to the ship itself (on both sides -- the Turks reported zero casualties due to the Russians focusing on their sails), which spent the next two years docked, but human losses were four dead and six or eight wounded out of a crew of 115.
509* The liberation war of Netherlands against Spain in the late 16th century. For the last few decades, Spain head been treating her colony Netherlands like crap, ruining its economy and forcefully inflicting catholic religion on the pro-lutheran Netherlands. What did Netherlands do? Make a partisan force ("the goeses") that once raided an entire fleet of Spanish ships, and a union between 7 states to overthrow Spanish reign. They won the war (despite only having 3 million population) and became a leading sea power less than half a century later.
510* Israel's War of Independence: it declared itself a country, within land given to it under the UN Mandate, on May 14, 1948, as it accepted the UN Mandate, and before that the British Mandate. The Arab countries around it did not accept it. Instead, on May 15, 1948, Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and expeditionary forces from Iraq attacked and invaded a number of Jewish villages, and later forces included Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, forces from Pakistan, and forces from Sudan. Other than Czechoslovakia, no one wanted to help Israel until they knew what way the war was likely to go, and even then, Czechoslovakia sent arms but not troops. Israel managed to not only win the right to exist, but also 60% of the land which the UN Mandate had given to Palestine. Call it controversial, but it's still pretty militarily awesome.
511* 2nd Lieutenant Owen J. Baggett stands as the only man to shoot down an enemy fighter using a ''[[DavidVersusGoliath pistol]]''. He had been part of a B-24 squadron that, in March of 1943, made a bombing run on Japanese-occupied Burma. Japanese fighters attacked the bombers, and Baggett's plane was severely damaged, forcing the crew to bail out. [[SinkTheLifeboats The Japanese stuck around to shoot at the airmen as they were parachuting down, killing two and wounding Baggett.]] [[PlayingPossum He then tried to play dead to trick the Japanese into letting him survive.]] One pilot, however, wanted to confirm the kill and flew in close; when he did, Baggett pulled out his M1911 and pumped four shots into the cockpit, [[LaserGuidedKarma causing the aircraft to stall and plummet]].
512* The Yugoslav Partisans during the 2nd World War: The Partisans are considered to be Europe's most effective anti-Axis resistance movement during World War II. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_Partisans Read more]] about them on Website/{{TheOtherWiki}}
513* Also this {{BadassBoast}} from the Yugoslav Partisan leader (and dictator of Yugoslavia) Tito after the war:
514--> “Stalin: Stop sending people to kill me! We’ve already captured five of them, one with a bomb and another with a rifle… If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send one to Moscow, and I won’t have to send another”
515* The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos. His death was not witnessed, but it is almost certain that he died in battle, and one account claims that his last words were "The city is fallen, and I am still alive." He then ripped of his insignia and charged into battle, dying alongside his people. Thus fell the last emperor of Rome and heir of ancient Troy. Aeneas could not have asked for a greater successor.
516* [[https://explorersweb.com/great-survival-stories-the-japanese-soldier-who-refused-to-believe-the-war-was-over Hiroo Onoda]] is basically a case of {{Determinator}} turned up to eleven. A young Japanese soldier stationed at Lubang Island, Philippines, refused to stand down even after the World War II was over. ''For the next 30 years,'' officer Onoda performed acts of guerilla warfare, engaging in occassional combat against the local police force. Despite many leaflets announcing the end of the war, he refused to back down. The only thing that convinced Onoda to surrender was the arrival of his former commanding officer, Major Yoshimi Taniguchi, in 1974. Despite the rough life that he had as a soldier for a lost cause, Hiroo Onoda passed away in 2014 ''at the great age of 92.''
517[[/folder]]
518
519[[folder:Other]]
520* Creator/WaltDisney: Anyone who takes his reputation and what he accomplished for granted don't realize just how much crap he went through early in his life. First, he went through ''two'' unsuccessful attempts at making his own studio--then, when he finally [[WesternAnimation/OswaldTheLuckyRabbit got a hit star]], it was stolen right out from under him, along with almost all of his animators by a greedy corporate scumbag. [[ForegoneConclusion But did he give up?]] '''[[{{Determinator}} Heck no]]'''. Walt simply quit the studio and decided to become his own boss from there on out, taking with him the only three people who didn't leave his side--his partner Creator/UbIwerks, and the two apprentice animators [[Creator/DisneysNineOldMen Les Clark]] and Wilfred Jackson. From tiny acorns do mighty oaks grow, ''indeed.'' Then they went on to make WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, then later on the Silly Symphonies which constantly pushed technical boundaries and subject matter unheard of in animation, and then proved that feature length animation was viable, then went on to pioneer theme parks... the guy just kept finding ways to keep topping himself, driven by his perfectionism. If he had just lived longer, who knows what more he could have contributed to the world? Meanwhile, Charles Mintz, the man that stole Oswald, was fired from Universal less than a year later for "letting Walt Disney get away", and '''''good riddance.''''' He was then replaced by Walter Lantz, who went on to create Woody Woodpecker. Several decades have passed since his death in 1966, and Disney is now one of the biggest and most successful corporations in the world.
521* Anyone who's familiar with Creator/{{Filmation}} will usually bring up the studio's [[NoBudget filmography]] [[AnimationAgeGhetto and reputation in the animation industry]]. But what they'll never bring up is how co-founder Lou Scheimer was the son of a German Jew who took his family to the U.S. during the 1920s. Of course many Jews fled the country due the Third Reich at the time, But the reason for Scheimer's father leaving? Punching UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler himself in the face while at the Beer Hall Putsch.
522* Creator/TerryPratchett received a knighthood, and ''[[http://www.news.com.au/technology/terry-pratchett-creates-a-sword-with-meteorites/story-e6frfro0-1225926584339 made his own flippin' sword.]] [[RuleOfCool With part of a meteorite!]]''
523* In 1987, at a party held by fashion designer Fernando Sanchez, the philosopher A.J. Ayer, then 77, confronted Mike Tyson, who was forcing himself upon the (then little-known) model Naomi Campbell. When Ayer demanded that Tyson stop, the boxer said: "Do you know who the fuck I am? I'm the heavyweight champion of the world," to which Ayer calmly replied: "And I am the former Wykeham Professor of Logic. We are both pre-eminent in our field. I suggest that we talk about this like rational men." While Tyson was thus distracted by Ayer, Campbell slipped out.
524* In 2008 The Greece (NY) Athena High School basketball team realized that Jason Mc Elwain, their autistic long-time team manager, was about to graduate. So they decided to say 'thank you' at the last home game by letting him play after they were safely ahead during the fourth quarter. He promptly scored 20 points, and they were left wishing they'd put him in a lot earlier.
525* Human childbirth counts as a huge SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for the lady doing it.
526** In Greek (or was it Roman?) mythology, a woman who dies in childbirth ends up in Elysium -- where HEROES end up because of their great deeds.
527** Viking women who died in childbirth were considered to go the WarriorHeaven of Valhalla for a hero's death.
528** The Spartans would only give a proper funeral to two types of people: men who died in battle, and women who died in childbirth. All others were looked down upon.
529* Criss Angel exposed self-proclaimed "psychics" Jim Callahan and Uri Geller at the same time with one little envelope, gives a picture perfect TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, and almost clobbers Callahan. In case you're wondering, what was in the envelope was a card with "9/11" written on it, because in the event that anyone there did prove psychic enough to know what was in the envelope the question would remain: why didn't they put it to good use and do things like warn us about 9/11 on 9/10?
530* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Randi James Randi]] debunking several notorious "psychics", faith healers, and crooked televangelists. The crowner of his career must be the [[https://youtu.be/M9w7jHYriFo&t=8m42s exposure of Peter Popoff as a fraud]].
531* For those who didn't like Jerry Falwell, Creator/ChristopherHitchens's remark to Sean Hannity after his death was one of these: "If you gave Falwell an enema he could be buried in a matchbox."
532* [[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110214/ap_on_re_as/as_malaysia_tiger_attack_2 Woman chases away tiger with ladle. Holy crap.]]
533* In 2008, Dave Carroll witnessed his guitar, among others being thrown around on the tarmac by the baggage-handling crew of United Airlines. He arrived at his destination to find his guitar with a broken neck, then went through ''nine freakin' months'' of trying to negotiate with United, to no avail. So what did he do? He wrote not one, not two, but ''three'' [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic epic]] "United Breaks Guitars" songs, [[https://youtu.be/5YGc4zOqozo here,]] [[https://youtu.be/h-UoERHaSQg here,]] and [[https://youtu.be/P45E0uGVyeg here.]] And the first one got 150,000 views on the day he posted it. And just to make Dave's revenge a little sweeter, since that day, there have been zillions of people sharing stories about what United did to ''their'' luggage ([[https://people.com/human-interest/united-airlines-destroy-wheelchair-valentin-duthion/ and wheelchairs!!!]]) -- don't think anyone in their right mind would fly with United after seeing ''those.'' And all of this just for a guitar. Way to go, Dave -- best TakeThat ever.
534** Carroll later gave a presentation where he commented that at one point he was at another airport on a transfer bus between terminals when someone asked him if he was the United Breaks Guitars guy. When he acknowledged he was, a United plane just happened to be passing by...''and the passengers on the bus spontaneously began singing the chorus of the song''.
535** United's humiliation was so great that they now show the video to new employees to demonstrate what happens with bad customer service.
536** In the early 1980s. Tom Paxton had a similar experience, which he recorded in the song, "Thank You, Republic Airlines".
537* Casey Heynes, the kid who's had enough of a bullies who have been harassing him for years. Just... [[http://deadspin.com/#!5781702/the-ultimate-anti+bullying-psa-kid-fights-back-with-devastating-body-slam see for yourself]]. They call him the [[Franchise/StreetFighter Zangief]] Kid.
538* Anyone who sails around the world with a yacht. Extra bonus if you do it ''alone''. And even more, if you do it ''eight times'', like [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoru_Saitō this Japanese gentleman]].
539* Philippe Petit aka Man on Wire. Walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers. At the very top. Illegally. With no safety net, harness or anything. They made a film about him, and quite rightly too. When asked why, he replied "There is no why." Awesome.
540* Finally getting to do something that was on your bucket list, doesn't matter what it is.
541* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_Joke_Trial Someone posts a joke on Twitter about blowing up an airport, and gets arrested for making a bomb threat.]] The public's response? Thousands repost the joke verbatim on Twitter. With the hashtag [[IAmSpartacus #iamspartacus]].
542* [[http://www.herald-mail.com/news/hm-boonsboro-high-school-graduation-described-as-bittersweet-20110603,0,1606831.story This]] kid's valedictorian speech. (Scroll near to the bottom to see a few lines from his graduation speech.)
543* Whether it was staged or not, this kid's ''epic'' dance to a Music/BonJovi song at a Celtics game is proof positive that it really is possible to [[http://youtu.be/ZoC4yWWxFGs dance like no one is watching.]]
544* A guy decides to do the right thing when he finds [[http://web.archive.org/web/20110610183015/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110609/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_found_riches_returned $17,000 in cash.]]
545* Check out this blog, named [[http://www.badassoftheweek.com Badass of the Week]] it's only about Moments of Awesome. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin It lists one badass a week and what they did to earn that title.]]
546* Building an SUV [[http://games.yahoo.com/blogs/plugged-in/life-size-lego-suv-impractical-awesome-215800705.html out of LEGO]].
547* Meteor showers, just look up a video and you'll see.
548* A [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1214729/James-May-size-Lego-house-wants.html HOUSE made of LEGO]]! It helps that [[Creator/JamesMay James]] "[[Series/TopGear Captain Slow]]" [[Creator/JamesMay May]] spearheaded the whole thing. In the same TV series, May also organised successful attempts to make:
549** [[https://youtu.be/Zr4Gbv9Fan4 A plasticine garden for the Chelsea Flower Show]].
550** A 1:1 scale Airfix model of a Spitfire, complete with a life-size model of himself to go in the cockpit.
551** [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/6001045/James-May-builds-Liverpool-bridge-out-of-Meccano.html A Meccano bridge]].
552** [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6040184/James-May-attempts-world-record-for-Scalextric.html A Scalextric set the length of Brooklands race track]].
553** [[http://www.motorbiketimes.com/news/people/celebrity/the-story-behind-james-may-s-meccano-isle-of-man-motorbike-$21383127.htm A Meccano motorbike]], which wasn't quite as successful as his other projects, but still awesome.
554* In a similar vein, the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biggest_Little_Railway_in_the_World Biggest Little Railway in the World]]", a 71-mile model railway which was hand-built and operated between Fort William and Inverness in Scotland in June 2017. Obstacles included several inclines, crossing a canal, and a 5-metre tall helix incline.
555* [[http://news.yahoo.com/husband-combs-florida-landfill-wifes-engagement-ring-213621158.html This guy]] went through '''10 feet''' of garbage and carcasses to find his wife's engagement ring. Also doubles as a SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment|s}}.
556* [[http://www.metro.co.uk/news/882067-absolute-hero-pilot-made-safe-landing-after-mid-air-brain-aneurysm The pilot]] of a cargo plane in South Africa suffered a brain hemorrhage mid-flight. Despite being paralyzed down the whole left side of his body, he maintained communication with his wife and ground control, informed them that he wasn't well, and then ''landed the plane perfectly'' with no one else on the plane to help him. Sadly, he died in hospital the next day. So... a DyingMomentOfAwesome, then? (salutes)
557* The Roman emperor UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}} was told that he had a higher chance of crossing the gulf of Baiae with his horse than becoming emperor. Not known for his sanity, Caligula, who by all accounts was not a nice guy, had the Roman navy create an enormous row of boats stretching from one side of the gulf to the other after becoming Emperor, after which he did cross with his horse. Of course, this nearly drove Rome bankrupt, in typical Caligula fashion.
558* The 2007 Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day parade featured the cast of ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' singing "With a Little Help from my Friends" by Music/TheBeatles. Awesomeness ensues.
559** Two years later, Bloo starts singing the theme to ''The Courtship of Eddie's Father'', only to get interrupted...by ''Music/RickAstley JustForFun/{{Rickroll}}ing America!''
560* After receiving one too many posts over the span of a year from one troll on Website/{{Twitter}} constantly calling her "selfish" and "not caring about her fans" for not posting more on her account, when the star was attending college and writing up a mid-term paper (and recording a third album and filming a new movie not long ago), former ''Series/HannahMontana'' star Music/EmilyOsment took to the site to post [[http://www.twitlonger.com/show/gf9ulu this response]] in March 2012. [[AndThereWasMuchRejoicing The troll quickly deleted her account after that]].
561* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanal_Edamaruku Sanal Edamaruku]]. An Indian skeptic who publicly challenged an Indian tantrik Pandit Surinder Sharma (one of the most well known spiritual purveyors in India) to kill him on national television. Not only was the tantrik ''not'' successful, the event was so hyped that '''several hundred million people''' tuned in to watch this man completely destroy the tantrik's credibility by literally putting his life on the line.
562* It may have been called an EpicFail to those who like 15-minute fireworks shows, but [[https://youtu.be/ndVhgq1yHdA some of us just don't have the time for it]]. You might want to turn your speakers down for this.
563* In 1921, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Marshall_Williams David Marshall Williams]] was not a man who looked like he had much of a future. He was a railroad worker, but on the side ran a moonshine still. Then during a raid on that still, a deputy sheriff was shot dead. He was charged and convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 to 30 years in prison. That might have been the end of him, were he not [[GadgeteerGenius good with machines]]. He was given extra time in the prison machine yard for it. He eventually got permission to design ''gun parts'' while in ''prison''. He filed patents for a floating chamber and a short-stroke piston for self-loading firearms. His family petitioned for him to be pardoned, and eventually the sheriff who arrested him and the ''widow of the dead deputy'' joined in on the petition. He was released after a decade of jail time in 1931. Then? He went on to design the M1 Carbine for Winchester firearms, one of the most widely used and iconic American weapons of [=WW2=], earning him the nickname "Carbine" Williams.
564* When a planned show on Chinese television with the popular Japanese actress and porn star Sola Aoi was scrapped by the authorities in June 2012, a certain Mr. Li of Pingdingshan got furious and took matters in his own hands, hacked the public LED display in front of the furniture store where he was working, and [[http://english.sina.com/china/p/2012/0620/479081.html managed to show porn movies with Sola Aoi for 20 minutes before he was arrested]].
565* [[https://youtu.be/UexZeFsnLGc&list=PLXsbd-d7oaBeEsEtbRhQkx5A7exUbQ9Fy&index=12&t=0s The suit]] Creator/JimCarrey wore to the 2018 BAFTA awards. His speech had political points not everyone will agree with. But no matter what side of the spectrum you are on, you have to admit, his black suit with golden flowers and leaves embroidered into it is undoubtedly stunning. Just look at how it glimmers in the light!
566* Ohio State University's Marching Band is JustForFun/MadeOfWin.
567** [[https://youtu.be/V3iaxt7a16g Here is their halftime Video Game Tribute.]]
568** And their [[https://youtu.be/GxhWyaD_SUQ Hollywood Blockbusters show]].
569* Years ago, Creator/GeorgeLucas wanted to build a small special effects studio at one his properties in Marin County, California, which would have created much needed jobs and revenue for the region and had much support. However, his rich neighbors feared such a thing would lower their land values and they continually tried to block or at least drag out the process of building the studio, and continued to do so for ''25 years''. In 2012, Lucas finally got sick of his entitled neighbors and finally sold off the property... [[LaserGuidedKarma to a non-profit organization that specializes in building low-income housing projects]], and this time, the neighbors couldn't do anything about it.
570* Felix Baumgartner, on 13 October, 2012, performed a successful skydiving jump from a balloon-mounted capsule 120,000 feet in the air. How high is that? High enough that there's hardly any air left to be in (he had to wear a space suit). Higher than SR-71s flew. And less than fifteen minutes later, he's standing on the ground talking with the recovery crew. The top speed on the jump was 843.6 MPH. This is MACH 1.25, faster than the speed of sound with no craft.
571** Even more awesome was the fact that similar jumps had been performed twice before, in the late ''50s'' and early 60s. The man who completed the very first "Space Jump," Col Joseph Kittinger, was Baumgartner's mentor and capsule communicator during his ascent for the dive.
572* Bus driver vs. passenger:
573** In October 2012, [[https://youtu.be/mvr2Yu7e2is a bus driver]] ''uppercuts'' a rowdy 25-year-old woman for taunting him, hitting him in the face, and spitting on him. Also counts as a SugarWiki/{{Funny Moment|s}}.
574** A special mention to the girl too, who took the uppercut like a boss and went back on the bus. The closest thing many of us in real life will come to an AwesomeMomentOfCrowning.
575* Watching the sunset (or -rise). Especially when it's with a friend or loved one.
576* High School, College and Master's and [=PhD=] Graduations in general. They prove that you've completed important steps in your life.
577* [[http://blog.aarp.org/2013/02/05/how-abba-alhadi-72-saved-some-of-the-worlds-rarest-manuscripts/ 72-year-old Abba Alhadi rescued 28,000 rare books and manuscripts from the library in Timbuktu]] before Islamist rebels had the chance to burn it down. How? He hid them in rice sacks and brought them out on a pushcart right under the rebels' noses. Did we mention that he can't even read?
578* [[http://badassoftheweek.com/wanyandie.html Tom Wanyandie]], a 78-year-old Cree Indian wilderness guide, fought off a literal MamaBear [[PapaWolf attacking his son]] while screaming every profanity of his native language.
579* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Boyle Susan Boyle]] was a unexpectedly successful competitor on a British talent show. The audience laughed at her [[https://youtu.be/yE1Lxw5ZyXk&feature=youtu.be&t=79 until she opened her mouth.]] She got a standing ovation right when she started!
580* In the middle of the 20th century, New York City banned all {{Pinball}} machines on the notion that the game [[NewMediaAreEvil led to delinquency and were a form of gambling.]] The ban stood for over thirty years; it ended in 1976 when writer Creator/RogerSharpe testified before a committee that pinball was ''not'' a game of chance, but required skill and finesse. Sharpe demonstrated this with a courtroom pinball game, capped when [[CallingYourShots he announced that he would launch his next ball through the center lane at the top of the playfield,]] then [[ImprobableAimingSkills proceeded to do so.]] The committee immediately removed the ban. In a touch of {{Irony}}, Sharpe later admits [[AccidentalHero his courtroom success was by sheer luck]].
581* When the United States entered the first partial government shutdown since 1995, non-essential government facilities closed down, including all National Parks and Monuments. But, did that stop [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/01/wwii-veterans-memorial_n_4023667.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Caim%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D384642 a group of World War II veterans]] from seeing the World War II memorial? Hell, no! They charged in, knocking down barricades meant to keep them out and ''visited their damn memorial''. Even more, a number of Senators, frustrated by the shutdown, even helped these old soldiers get in, distracting police as they did.
582* Texas State Marching Band contest, November 5th, 2013. There's a lot of State regulars like Waxahachie and Wakeland, but guess who secures [[http://utdirect.utexas.edu/uilsmbc/lbw2_sched_results.WBX?s_conference=4A&s_round=2&s_display_sw=R tenth?]] ''The two-year-old program and first time at state rookies known as The Lake Ridge Eagle Band.'' Keep in mind that means '''tenth in the entire damn state''' as of November 2013 is held by a two-year-old program out of hundreds of ''way'' older and more experienced bands. They got it ''their first ever state year''. [[https://youtu.be/F9A-USiM1uU Their show certainly reflects the awesome.]]
583* [[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/batkid-miles-scott-fights-crime-in-san-francisco-gotham-city-8944175.html This.]] Seriously, tens of thousands of people (and even the ''US Justice Department''), in the big city of San Francisco, acting like they're in [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Gotham City]], shouting and cheering for the "Batkid" (with fully decorated suit and even a Batmobile) to catch the resident "Riddler" and "Penguin", even having a paper print stating that "Batkid saves the city"... All for a sick kid's wish? He is now in remission. SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming|Moments}}ly [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome awesome]].
584* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen Dr. Sun Yat-sen]]. He went and with the help of nearly every single person in China, managed to overthrow the corrupt and well-hated Qing Dynasty after many failed attempts, and the armies on his side crushed them in one CurbStompBattle after another. And then he created Modern China. What's not to love? Despite the [[Useful/NoMoreEmperors Warlord era]] that followed and his [[UsefulNotes/ChiangKaiShek protege]] turning out to be a brutal [[TheGeneralissimo military dictator]], both Taiwan and the People's Republic agree that Dr. Sun was indeed the founder of modern China, and he is still revered in both countries today.[[note]]Even among pro-independence supporters in Taiwan, he's considered a great humanitarian that genuinely wanted to make things better for China's people.[[/note]]
585* Vice Admiral Thomas "Tomcat" Connolly. They named the aircraft he was directly responsible for bringing to fruition after him, the F-14 Tomcat. All it took was sacrificing his all-but-certain chance of gaining a 4th star, ticking off his boss, the Secretary of the Navy, his boss' boss (Defense Secretary Robert [=McNamara=]), and effectively ending his Navy career by publicly going against the wishes and bullying of his bosses to toe the line at the Senate hearing at which they were all asked to testify.
586** The short version: [=McNamara=] was trying to push a plane, the TFX, on the Air Force, Marines, and Navy as a means of saving development costs and money on service-specific planes. The aircraft was too much of a compromise and was hideously underpowered for use on an aircraft carrier and ran into serious cost overruns on the project. VADM Connolly was asked to directly state his personal, not official, opinion, as to whether the TFX plane was salvageable for Navy carrier operations. His statement to the chairman? "There isn't enough thrust in Christendom to fix this plane." This single statement guaranteed the TFX would fail and resulted in the Navy being allowed to pursue the VFX project which became the F-14 Tomcat.
587** The TFX didn't die, though. In fact it enjoyed a long and revered stint as the F-111 "Aardvark" fighter-bomber for the US Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force, remembered for being one of the best tactical ground-attack aircraft ever to see service.
588* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March The Long March.]] Thousands of Chinese Communist soldiers crossing through mountains, marshes, bridges and forests, chased by Nationalist troops, local mercenaries, fighter planes and angry tribesmen, fighting with inferior weaponry, along with lack of food, and many dying of starvation, ''managed to reach their destination'' and resist all attempts by the Nationalist government to annihilate them. OK, some was propaganda, and it did help create one of the worst regimes in history, but it's still a very impressive feat.
589* Lots of professional musicians do incredible things all the time, just to please their fans. Sometimes, this gets a bit extreme...
590** In the middle of December, 2011, Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal was in a car accident. Less than a week later, he played a 3-hour concert despite not having healed up completely! And that includes carrying a 30-pound guitar a lot of the time. For ease of comparison, the average weight of a guitar is 6 to 10 pounds... And most concerts are typically just around 2 hours long.
591** In 2013, Music/{{Metallica}} played the first ever concert on Antarctica. On the ''friggin' South Pole''! They had an audience of 300 scientists and who-knows-how-many penguins.
592** Also in 2013, Music/LadyGaga announced that she will be playing the first ever concert JustForFun/InSpace! Probably only because someone else has already played under water and Antarctis is no longer the next logical extreme...
593* A 30-year-old man was morbidly obese along with an alcohol problem and severe depression. He then met a woman from UK online via Draw Something. What happened from there? The man was afraid of losing his friendship with this woman, so he actually stopped drinking and lost about 400 pounds in a year ... [[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2615082/Man-lost-400lbs-help-friend-met-randomly-playing-game-online.html and eventually met the woman in person to go to climb up the Eiffel Tower]]. Little awesome things like that.
594* Some of the latest discoveries by scientists definitely count. In 2013, they invented a Real-Life Lightsaber! And in May 2014, they found a way to turn ''light into matter!'' Light exists everywhere, it's just sometimes not visible, and they've made it possible to turn it into solid matter. In other words, ''Humanity is now capable of creating matter out of thin air!'' If that's not awesome, ''nothing'' is.
595* Jon Meis, an ordinary Seattle Pacific University Student who pepper-sprayed, tackled and, with the help of others, held down a rampaging gunman opening fire in Seattle College before he had a chance to take any more lives.
596* Firefighting. This is a career where you are willingly diving into other people's burning buildings, save their lives and whatever they can, ''and then do it again the next day if need be.'' This is a career that, by its nature, requires a human to utterly rewire their fight or flight response in order to just do their jobs, in order to save complete strangers for no reward. If your child says "I want to be a hero", tell them to be not a police officer or a soldier, but a firefighter.
597* Russell Oliver, otherwise known as Cash Man, is the gregarious owner of Oliver's Jewelry in Toronto. Has been for over 40 years. His commercials where he rockets out of a phone booth in a blue leotard with a red cape and boots got him hit with a $300,000 copyright/trademark lawsuit in the late 1990s by DC Comics. [[https://youtu.be/Qg0z9kMjgdM Here's Oliver getting to tell the news about the lawsuit that was going to ensue with Cash Man vs. Superman right in front of the CBC.]] The best part about it is how cool headed he was staying despite blatant advertising and an annoying douche of a news reporter. (The case was thrown out before it got to court. Cash Man stopped wearing the outfit, but everyone knows who he is anyway.)
598* Miss Tandi Dupree's unforgettable "[[https://youtu.be/WrW0kySM6CE Holding Out for a Hero]]" performance in 2001, from her ''Franchise/{{Megaman}}'' [[BigEntrance Robot Master style entrance]] to the uncanny choreographed dance.
599* Remember the time Creator/JonLovitz beat the ever-loving shit out of Andy Dick? Yeah, [[http://gawker.com/279278/jon-lovitz-vs-andy-dick-the-laugh-factory-beat-down that happened]]! Probably not a good idea for [[MeaningfulName Dick]] to brag about getting Creator/PhilHartman's wife back on drugs. BewareTheNiceOnes.
600* When nobody stepped in while [[http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/21/woman-is-groped-by-man-drags-him-by-his-hair-to-police-station-5114208/ this woman]] was being groped by a man at a train station, she took matters into her own hands and dragged him by his hair to the nearest police station.
601* In the 2000s Flemish radio presenter Peter Van De Veire from station ''Studio Brussel'' had a caller on air who wanted to request a song for his girlfriend. He told him that he wanted to hear "Bitch" by Meredith Brooks to let her know that their relationship was through and that she was a bitch too. Van De Veire lost his patience live on air, told the jerk his behaviour was low and said: "For you I only play [[Music/MellowGold "Loser"]] by Music/{{Beck|musician}}. Goodbye and get lost!" This incident has become infamous in Van De Veire's career and may be his crowning moment of awesome.
602* Robot vs. robot challenges:
603** In 2012, artist Kogoro Kurata and roboticist Wataru Yoshizaki created the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuratas Kuratas]], a real-life HumongousMecha. In 2015, American company [=MegaBots=] created their own Humongous Mecha, the Mark II, and introduced it to the world in style by [[https://youtu.be/XVJTGLL2SnI challenging the Kuratas to a duel]]. Kurata's reply? "'''[[https://youtu.be/7u8mheM2Hrg WE ACCEPT]].'''" Are we on our way to [[{{Defictionalization}} defictionalizing]] ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam''?!
604** Not to be outdone, China has made their fighting robot, The Monkey King, and challenged America. Wait your turn, China. Wait your turn.....
605** Fight has occurred, and when the dust settles....the victor is....Eagle Prime, the Megabots robot! America wins the first ever giant robot battle! Japan has proved themselves a WorthyOpponent for sure, of course. Still, the battle was indeed very intense to watch.
606** Even though America won the match, Kuratas was responsible for most of the Moments during the fight, concluding the first round with a [[OneHitKill single punch to its opponent's cockpit that toppled it]], then scoring itself a brief reprieve in the second round through releasing a drone which landed on Eagle Prime's cockpit and released a point-blank smoke screen.
607* In April 2016, the University of Virginia baseball team traveled to a three-game series against the #1 ranked University of Miami. While there, their bus driver, who frequently drove buses for UVA sports teams, lost consciousness ''while driving the team bus.'' So the head coach did the only natural thing: in his own words, "I actually got my leg in between his legs and was able to get my foot on the brake, eventually." An added bonus: by getting up to help the driver, he and his assistant avoided being ''impaled by a fence pole the bus hit.'' [[http://www.richmond.com/sports/college/schools/university-virginia/article_0afa9855-5142-572a-9396-9d9dafd9734f.html Though the driver died, thankfully no one else was hurt.]] Virginia then went on to win two of the three games, and [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments will wear a patch on their uniform as a tribute to the driver]].
608* An abused girlfriend set up plans so that she could legally kick out her abusive boyfriend from their new apartment if he didn't clean up his act. When she enacted it, the man [[https://www.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/comments/4xu0yy/my_girlfriend_elaborately_made_me_homeless/ ran to Reddit]] for help because he didn't know what to do. He got NoSympathy from them and they told them he blew it.
609* On November 28, 2016, a student at Ohio State University, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, went on a rampage supposedly because of perceived injustice against Muslims. Only eleven people were injured due to the quick actions of Alan Horujko, an Ohio State officer and graduate of that same school, who struck him down within a minute of his rampage starting.
610* [[https://youtu.be/FIRT7lf8byw A man rescues his dog from a kangaroo]] ''by punching it''.
611** And now, a man rescues his tiny dog by ''[[http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2015/04/28/placer-county-man-punches-bear-in-face-to-save-his-dog/ punching a BEAR.]]''
612* [[https://nypost.com/2021/02/24/tennessee-woman-jumps-into-frozen-pool-to-save-her-dog/ This]] Tennesee woman who doesn't stop trying to rescue her dog for one moment.
613* Some years ago, a young woman named Mandisa appeared on ''Series/AmericanIdol'' and overheard some comments Simon was making about her. Not her singing, which would have been hurtful but understandable, but her weight, which drove her to tears. How did she respond? By going on stage, revealing that she knew and forgiving him on national TV. Simon was completely humbled by this and Mandisa has since gone on to be an ''extremely'' successful Christian singer, even writing a book about her ''American Idol'' experience.
614* On September 20th, 2015, [[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html?_r=0 Turing Pharmaceuticals obtained the drug Daraprim and raised its per tablet price over 4000% to $750 USD]]. A month later, [[http://www.occupydemocrats.com/price-gouging-pharma-ceo-fuming-as-rival-creates-1-alternative-aids-drug/ Imprimis Pharmaceuticals created an alternative drug]] that not only had the main ingredient that the previous drug had, but also had a second ingredient that helped counteract the first ingredient's side effect ''and'' was being sold for $99 USD per-100 tablets, or ''under a dollar each''.
615** And even better, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli#Criminal_prosecution_and_conviction the CEO of the company at the time]] was [[LaserGuidedKarma later convicted of securities fraud.]]
616* Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen is not a household name in the States, but he may as well be Denmark's own [[UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt Theodore Roosevelt]]. The man was an explorer who made multiple dangerous expeditions to the arctic and Greenland during the early 20th century, many of them with his friend and fellow explorer Knud Rasmussen. On one expedition, he was trapped under an avalanche, and dug himself out after making a solid knife out of his own frozen feces (yes that's right, a literal ''poop knife''). And immediately after he returned to camp, he amputated his own frostbitten toes with a plier and hammer. Because he was against drinking alcohol, he did it ''without a single drop of anesthetic''.
617** He established a trading post in the far north of Greenland, and spent 50 years living among the Inuit people, even picking up their language. In fact, his first wife was an Inuit woman who bore two children, and when she died of [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu Spanish Flu]], he buried her himself since the local church wouldn't bury someone who was not baptized.
618** And if all that wasn't enough, '''the man fought Nazis'''. Not only did he actively defend Jews from anti-Semites, during Denmark's occupation in WWII, Freuchen joined up with the local resistance, and ferried refugees while helping to spread anti-Nazi propaganda. He was so effective that the Nazis put a death sentence on him. Luckily, Freuchen escaped imprisonment and fled to Sweden where he continued his work.
619** Freuchen worked on the film ''Eskimo'' (which featured completely Inuit dialogue) as an advisor and the film's main villain. During the premier in Berlin prior to WWII, Freuchen infamously lifted up Hitler's favorite director Creator/LeniReifenstahl over his head, and twirled her around while laughing like a maniac. He also authored 33 books in his lifetime, and passed away from a heart attack three days after finishing his final book.
620** And to top it all off, after moving to the U.S., Freuchen became the fifth person to win ''[[The64000Question The $64,000 Question]]'' game show.
621* Scottish bus driver Charmaine Laurie was driving in snow that [[SnowMeansDeath warranted a red warning]][[note]]the Met Office reserves red warnings for when the weather ''is going to'' be shit enough ''to kill people'' -- not ''might'', ''is going to''[[/note]], when she saw a Mini in front of her ''attempting a three-point turn''. Despite having little time to react and having to deal with the horrendous SlippySlideyIceWorld-like conditions, [[BadassDriver she somehow managed to swerve around the car and narrowly avoided an accident]]. The whole incident was [[https://youtu.be/mxuVzLU1SOM filmed on a dashcam]] (complete with the van driver's [[OhCrap reaction]]) and ended up [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-43255368 making headline news]].
622* Creator/WinonaRyder posted this story about her [[BadassPacifist non-violent]] but awesome "fuck you" to a SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp who wanted her autograph: http://imaredshirt.tumblr.com/post/172215528720/ithelpstodream-fuck-yes
623* In 2007, Richard Hammond got caught up in traffic during a flood. He his Porche 911 in a flood and ran 15 miles to get home for his daughter's fourth birthday.
624* In 1958, Creator/SeanConnery co-starred with Creator/LanaTurner in the film ''Another Time, Another Place''. When Turner's boyfriend, the gangster Johnny Stompanato, heard that they might be having an affair, he arrived on the set and threatened Connery with a gun. Connery responded by disarming him, punching him out and throwing him off the set.
625* Creator/RichardHarris attended a Creator/SammyDavisJr show, when a heckler kept hurling racist and anti-semitic slurs at him. Harris, a friend of Davis, repeatedly told the idiot to be quiet and that didn't work, "I took the law into my own hands and hit him with it".
626* He may have [[MagnumOpusDissonance preferred to have been more recognized for his work in the military]], but William Higinbotham gets an awesome moment for creating ''the'' first ever videogame in history and starting what would become an entire new medium with ''VideoGame/TennisForTwo''.
627* Creator/ChristopherLee did something of unspecified nature during and after WWII, likely involving killing Nazis. He scared Creator/PeterJackson by telling him that people don't yell when they are stabbed but just sigh as the air leaves their lung. Lee also released four heavy metal albums after he hit ninety.
628* Men's LivingLegend singles skater Yuzuru Hanyu.
629** He has 37 gold medals across both his junior and senior career, broken 19 world records (many of which are ''his''), once held all the world records for men's singles skating, is the first and only male singles skater to achieve a Super Slam[[note]]having won all major competitions in his senior and junior career[[/note]], is a two-time ''consecutive'' Olympic gold medalist (the first since Dick Button in 1952), and the youngest to win Olympic gold (also since Dick Button in 1948). See Wikipedia for a more complete list of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuzuru_Hanyu his achievements.]] He is considered a consummate skater by experts, combining technicality and artistry.
630** He is TheDreaded in his field[[note]](to the point where fellow skaters have a -- only partially jocular -- moment of silence for whoever has to skate after him)[[/note]], despite having racked up a long list of injuries that would make a physiotherapist cry, of the CareerEndingInjury type. The most prominent is probably the horrific crash with Yan Han at the 2014 Cup of China warmup. Despite protestations, Hanyu skated his program visibly disoriented, with bandages around his head and on his chin, slumped limply against his coach as he exited the rink, and burst into tears in the kiss-and-cry area. He still won silver.
631** As a child, in addition to having asthma, he couldn't focus on skating for more than 5 minutes, preferring to play baseball instead. A series of unfortunate events gave him perspective: losing his home rink (due to financial problems of the rink) as a junior skater, and surviving the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, having to flee the collapsing rink with his skates on.
632** He donates parts of his earnings to efforts of rebuilding Sendai, for which he became a HometownHero (he was paraded through the city to adoring crowds of all ages after both of his Olympic gold), and the rain of Franchise/WinnieThePooh bears that fill the ice after his performances gets donated to orphanages and children's centers.
633** Despite the fame and fortune (including a very, ''very'' intense fanbase that made him a household name pursued by brands for endorsement), he considers achieving his dreams and beating the challenges that skating provides his primary goals. He remains considerate, kind, and friendly, even to his rivals. He became good friends with Javier Fernandez simply because both skaters were ''so nice'', they couldn't have an acrid rivalry the magnitude of Evgeni Plushenko (Hanyu's idol) and Alexei Yagudin.[[note]]Unfortunately, the relationship seems to have fallen apart after Fernandez essentially called Hanyu a liar for apparently blaming a "nonexistent" hole on the Beijing 2022 Olympic ice. There are photos of the hole. However, in public, the two remain nothing but cordial.[[/note]] He acts with BigBrotherInstinct to younger skaters too, including Shoma Uno (another rival) -- giving Shoma his coat when he thought the younger skater was cold, crawling on all fours behind Shoma to avoid getting into the camera as Shoma was being interviewed, etc. He stops in the middle of practice to catch bugs off the ice and release them. He both competes with intense, fiery determination, and relishes skating (and life in general) with a refreshing joy.
634** After capping his amateur career off with being a three-time Olympian, he announced his transition into becoming a professional skater, by which time the pre-eminent skaters who went senior at the same time as him have long since retired. He then proceeded to host a series of sold-out ice shows with increasingly large audience capacity[[note]]''GIFT'' was held at the Tokyo Dome, which seats a max of 57,000[[/note]] going beyond traditional live TV towards cinema broadcasts, Internet livestreams, and even distribution on Creator/DisneyPlus and Creator/{{Hulu}} Japan.
635** It's been said that Hanyu is bigger than (competitive) figure skating, and for good reason -- some newspapers even have a "Yuzuru Hanyu" section in addition to their sports coverage. He may be off competition ice but he doesn't think of himself as having retired, rather continuing to bring the sport/art to new heights as he continues to pursue his goal of landing the quadruple axel. This jump, well-known as Hanyu's personal target, was considered BeyondTheImpossible until Ilia Malinin (who did a Hanyu tribute as a junior skater) landed it in competition. (Some critics and fans believe that other skaters would not have attempted to even pursue the jump, as it was extremely high-risk, if Hanyu hadn't been so public with his goal to land the 4A in the first place.) Hanyu, for his part, managed to land a jump that was certified (not yet ratified, so not "fully" a 4A) at the Beijing 2022 Olympics on a swollen ankle. His 2018 Pyeongchang gold was won on heavy-duty painkillers for that same ankle.
636** His influence is so palpable, multiple sportspeople and artists have paid tribute to him with skating programs, dance performances, songs written for him, art drawn of him, and more. Japan and beyond watched him at the Olympics with bated breath, including the royal family.
637* A woman [[https://youtu.be/Ew_IQsVO3kg shoves a grizzly bear off a ledge to protect her dogs]] with zero hesitation.
638* [[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11028401/Incredible-moment-super-hero-pizza-delivery-man-saves-FIVE-children-burning-inferno-house.html Nicholas Bostic, a 25-year-old Pizza delivery man in Indiana,]] doesn't hesitate to run into a burning building to rescue the kids inside. When told that the 6-year-old was still inside, he runs back inside to get them, only to become trapped with them on the second floor due to the thick smoke. So what does he do? ''He punches out a second-story window and jumps out with the 6-year-old in his arms''. He suffered severe smoke inhalation, burns, and a large laceration from the fall, while the kids were left mostly unharmed.
639* [[https://youtu.be/JtGsdiYdObQ The the world’s largest beach cleanup.]] Started by one man, Afro Shah was upset to see the state of the beach he remembered playing at in his childhood and decided to take matters into his own hands.
640* July 7, 2001: At Daytona International Speedway, NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. was mired in traffic after a late caution, restarted 6th with 6 laps to go, and somehow, with little drafting assistance, powered his way to the lead in 2 laps and won. Doubles as [[Heartwarming/RealLifeSports heartwarming]], winning the first race at the track since his father, Dale Sr., was killed in a last lap crash that February.
641* Stand-up comedian Ariel Elias [[https://youtu.be/e9yddO1GTF0 narrowly avoided getting pelted by a can of beer]] after getting the audience to laugh at a heckler. Her response was to just pick up the can and down its contents in one chug, as if to say "you missed, but thanks for the free drink".
642[[/folder]]

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