Some men became legends not because they never faced fear or pain, but because of what they managed to endure when most people would have given up.
The warrior who became a legend
Miyamoto Musashi
Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi reportedly killed his way through dozens of duels without a single defeat. He created a unique style of fighting with two swords simultaneously.
Musashi authored The Book of Five Rings, a classic treatise on strategy that remains popular. Facts and myths about Musashi are difficult to sort out, but there is no question that he achieved legendary stature as a disciplined and masterful fighter.
The survivor against the mountain
Beck Weathers
Mountaineer Beck Weathers is a pathologist who survived the 1996 Mount Everest storm. He lost his sight in the blizzard-like conditions, fell to the ground, and was left for dead by his fellow climbers.
After nearly dying for hours in the extreme cold and brutal winds of Everest, he rose up, walked, and stumbled back to camp. Weathers lost his right hand, fingers on his left hand, and portions of his face from frostbite but somehow survived when no one thought he would.
The president who lived like an adventurer
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt led an active life full of vigor. In his youth, Roosevelt exerted himself doing hard physical work to overcome disease and later toughed it out as a cowboy in the Dakota Territory. Roosevelt rode with the Rough Riders in the Spanish-American War and ventured into hazardous lands in South America.
He even survived an assassination attempt during a campaign stop in 1912. After being shot in the chest, Roosevelt finished a large portion of his planned speech before heading to the hospital.
The soldier who kept fighting
Audie Murphy
Audie Murphy became one of World War II’s most decorated combat soldiers. Small in size and turned down by several branches, he eventually served in North Africa and Europe.
During one incident in France in 1945, Murphy held off German troops for hours while standing on top of a burning tank destroyer and directing artillery fire over a field telephone. Murphy survived the war with numerous decorations, including the Medal of Honor.
The explorer who survived the impossible
Ernest Shackleton
Explorer Ernest Shackleton didn’t achieve fame by finishing his greatest journey. He’s celebrated because he rescued his entire crew from disaster.
In 1915, his ship Endurance was trapped in Antarctic ice. The ice slowly crushed his ship. He and his crew survived on the floating ice for months before they reached an island. Shackleton crossed 800 miles of treacherous sea in an open boat to get help. Everyone on Endurance lived.
The fighter who became impossible to kill
Adrian Carton de Wiart
British Army officer Adrian Carton de Wiart survived injuries that sound too remarkable to be true. Serving during wartime conflicts throughout the early twentieth century, Carton de Wiart lost an eye, as well as a hand, and was shot in different parts of the body.
During those wars, he crash-landed planes, escaped prisoner-of-war camps, and returned to duty after recovering from wounds that would have killed most soldiers.
The leader who endured captivity
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela’s strength was of a different sort. Mandela served 27 years in prison because of his involvement in anti-apartheid activities in South Africa.
Robben Island was where Mandela spent 18 of his years in prison under very harsh conditions. But even after 27 years of imprisonment, he refused to compromise his political aspirations and went on to help lead the negotiations to end apartheid.
The boxer who became larger than the sport
Muhammad Ali
Ali’s toughness was not only physical but mental as well. Muhammad Ali fought some of the hardest fights in boxing history, including the “Thrilla in Manila” with Joe Frazier. Ali spent several of the prime years of his career stripped of his boxing title after he refused to be inducted into the military during the Vietnam War.
Although the U. S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction, Ali still spent years out of the ring. Ali’s courage became synonymous not only with absorbing blows but also staying true to his convictions despite harsh ramifications.
The undefeated heavyweight
Rocky Marciano
Boxing legend Rocky Marciano gained fame with his relentless pressure, phenomenal stamina, and resilience. Marciano retired with an unprecedented professional record of 49 wins and 0 losses, 43 by knockout, in 1956.
Marciano was never viewed as the best skilled heavyweight of all time, but fighters found it hard to deal with his incessant pounding and power.
The man who survived the impossible
Aron Ralston
In 2003, American outdoorsman Aron Ralston was hiking alone in a canyon in Utah when a boulder fell and trapped his right arm between the rock and the canyon wall. Nobody knew exactly where he had gone, and rescue wasn’t coming.
After surviving for over five days with a limited supply of food and water, Ralston decided to amputate his own forearm in order to free himself from the boulder. He rappelled down the wall of the canyon and continued hiking until he met other hikers. His story became famous as one of the greatest stories of human survival.
The climber who crawled back
Joe Simpson
Joe Simpson is a British mountaineer who fell while descending Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985. When Simpson suffered a serious leg fracture, his partner Simon Yates tried to lower him down the mountain.
Yates ultimately decided to cut the rope holding him after believing Simpson was deceased. Simpson survived the fall into a crevasse, and after climbing out, crawled and hopped with one good leg for days until reaching base camp.
The man who broke the sound barrier
Chuck Yeager
US Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager became legendary for his fearlessness when, in 1947, he became the first man verified to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. Less well-known is that Yeager suffered two broken ribs in a horse riding accident days before the flight.
Yeager didn’t want the flight delayed, so he kept it a secret because he thought they wouldn’t let him fly. The ribs hurt him so badly he needed assistance closing the aircraft’s hatch before takeoff. Yeager still performed the hazardous flight, which pushed the Bell X-1 past Mach 1, securing his place in history.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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