Post a Hero of your Country. [Archive] - The Apricity Forum: A European Cultural Community

Lithium

05-11-2011, 12:03 PM

http://www.stroiarch.com/images/2008/2/stroi_48_VasilLevski.jpg
Vasil Levski[1] (Bulgarian: Васил Левски, originally spelled Василъ Львскій,[2] pronounced [vɐˈsiɫ ˈlɛfski]) was the nickname of Vasil Ivanov Kunchev[3] (Васил Иванов Кунчев; 18 July 1837–18 February 1873), a Bulgarian revolutionary renowned as the national hero of Bulgaria. Dubbed the Apostle of Freedom, Levski ideologised and strategised a revolutionary movement to liberate Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. Founding the Internal Revolutionary Organisation, Levski sought to foment a nationwide uprising through a network of secret regional committees.

Born in the sub-Balkan town of Karlovo to middle class parents, Levski became an Orthodox monk before emigrating to join the two Bulgarian Legions in Serbia and other Bulgarian revolutionary groups. Abroad, he acquired the nickname Levski, "Leonine". After working as a teacher in Bulgarian lands, he propagated his views and developed the concept of his Bulgaria-based revolutionary organisation, an innovative idea that superseded the foreign-based detachment strategy of the past. In Romania, Levski helped institute the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, composed of Bulgarian expatriates. During his tours of Bulgaria, Levski established a wide network of insurrectionary committees. Ottoman authorities, however, captured him at an inn near Lovech and executed him by hanging in Sofia.

Levski looked beyond the act of liberation: he envisioned a "pure and sacred"[4][5] Bulgarian republic of ethnic and religious equality. His concepts have been described as a struggle for human rights, inspired by the progressive liberalism of the French Revolution and 19th century Western European society. Levski is commemorated with monuments in Bulgaria, and numerous national institutions bear his name. In 2007, he topped a nationwide television poll as the all-time greatest Bulgarian.

Talvi

05-11-2011, 12:03 PM

I dont know if he is a "hero" but a highly respected man nevertheless.

Lennart Meri. Writer, producer, politician. The president of the re-independent Estonia after the fall of Soviet Union. Did a lot to help rebuild the country. Elected for president twice. 1992-2001. He was also deported to Siberia in 1941 during the Soviet Occupation.

http://images.fotoplakat.ee/xallery/37b93b/4324ad/images/Kaksikportree_korras.jpg

Jack B

05-11-2011, 12:21 PM

Michael Collins, Irish revolutionary leader.

http://sarasmichaelcollinssite.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/mickatportobello.290173150_std.jpg

http://montyhart.free.fr/images/Michael_Collins1.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3u5h6z-HQXY/Ss3uwHYYWII/AAAAAAAACpc/CaFU7JAulVM/s400/Michael+Collins+Statue.jpg

http://emuseum.pointblank.ie/online_catalogue/thumbs/744_Lavery_J.jpg

Lábaru

05-11-2011, 12:50 PM

Francisco Pizarro González

"when the arrogance of an Inca emperor and his 80,000 troops were defeated by only 200 Spanish conquerors."

Sorry, it's impossible to sum over the adventures of the supreme conqueror.

http://coterraneus.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/lima_pizarro.jpg

Pizarro was born in the town of Trujillo, in modern day Extremadura, Spain.

http://lialdia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/franciscopizarro.jpg

In 1513, Pizarro accompanied Vasco Núñez de Balboa in his crossing of the Isthmus of Panama and they became the first Europeans to view the Pacific coast of the New World.....

....The leader of the expedition had no intention of returning, and when Tafur arrived at the now famous Isla de Gallo, Pizarro drew a line in the sand, saying: "There lies Peru with its riches; Here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian."..

...Only thirteen men decided to stay with Pizarro and later became known as "The Famous Thirteen" (Los trece de la fama), while the rest of the expeditioners left back with Tafur aboard his ships.

Famous painting of the real event, became a legend.

http://www.viajeahorro.com/wp-content/plugins/image-shadow/cache/539084b5b30227d694cc91f1d9230178.jpg

Conquest of Peru (1532)

In 1532 Pizarro once again landed in the coasts near Ecuador, where some gold, silver, and emeralds were procured and then dispatched to Almagro, who had stayed in Panama to gather more recruits. Though Pizarro's main objective was to then set sail and dock at Tumbes like his previous expedition, he was forced to confront the Punian natives in the Battle of Puná, leaving three Spaniards dead and 400 dead or wounded Punians.

The fall of the divine Inca emperor "When only 168 men defeated tens of thousands"

...after various days away, returned with an envoy from the Inca himself and a few presents with an invitation for a meeting with the Spaniards....

http://educasitios.educ.ar/grupo1063/files/Image1105.jpg

Following the defeat of his brother, Huascar, Atahualpa had been resting in the Sierra of northern Peru, near Cajamarca, in the nearby thermal baths known today as the Baños del Inca (Incan Baths). After marching for almost two months towards Cajamarca, Pizarro and his force of just 106 foot-soldiers and 62 horsemen arrived and initiated proceedings for a meeting with Atahualpa. Pizarro sent Hernando de Soto, friar Vicente de Valverde and native interpreter Felipillo to approach Atahualpa at Cajamarca's central plaza. Atahualpa, however, refused the Spanish presence in his land by saying he would "be no man's tributary." His complacency, because there were fewer than 200 Spanish as opposed to his 80,000 soldiers sealed his fate and that of the Incan empire.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vaLkh3Mo3Go/TTaB71TLguI/AAAAAAAAAoM/DmaTJsh90us/s1600/1532captura_atahualpa.jpg

Atahualpa's refusal led Pizarro and his force to attack the Incan army in what became the Battle of Cajamarca on 16 November 1532. The Spanish were successful and Pizarro executed Atahualpa's 12-man honor guard and took the Inca captive at the so-called ransom room. Despite fulfilling his promise of filling one room (22 feet (7 m) by 17 feet (5 m) [3]) with gold and two with silver, Atahualpa was convicted of killing his brother and plotting against Pizarro and his forces, and was executed by garrote on 26 July 1533.

(the 168 Spanish conquistadors were surrounded by forces of hundreds of thousands of Indians to just one day's march of distance.)

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/conquistador-incan-empire-3.jpg

"This city is the greatest and the finest ever seen in this country or anywhere in the Indies... We can assure your Majesty that it is so beautiful and has such fine buildings that it would be remarkable even in Spain."

http://commercialcorporateillustrationsillustrators.com/h-ill-his/IH-97.jpg

Today is hated and admired in Peru.

Impressive.

Nglund

05-11-2011, 01:13 PM

For the purists:

Harold Godwinson, (last) King of The English.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fd/Harold2.jpg/210px-Harold2.jpg

http://www.shakespeareandhistory.com/resources/Historical_Figures/Harold%20Godwinson.jpg.opt252x314o0,0s252x314.jpg

Wat Tyler, Leader of The Peasants' Revolt.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01420/letters-110609_1420479c.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/DeathWatTyler.jpg

For the dirty rest:

Edward of Woodstock, also known as "The Black Prince"...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b3/Edward_Black_Prince.jpg/170px-Edward_Black_Prince.jpg

http://www7b.biglobe.ne.jp/~bprince/hr/foxdavies/img/174-2a.gif

Francis Drake, well...do I really need to explain?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/20/1590_or_later_Marcus_Gheeraerts%2C_Sir_Francis_Dra ke_Buckland_Abbey%2C_Devon.jpg/180px-1590_or_later_Marcus_Gheeraerts%2C_Sir_Francis_Dra ke_Buckland_Abbey%2C_Devon.jpg

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/55/149498593_490daf4bed_z.jpg?zz=1

Eldritch

05-11-2011, 01:22 PM

Labeat

05-11-2011, 01:36 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Cerciz-topulli.jpg

Çerçiz Topulli (1880 - 15 July 1915) was an Albanian kachak, writer, and patriot, and is a People's Hero of Albania. He was the younger brother of Bajo Topulli.

In April 1907 he led the movement that acted against the Ottoman Empire in Southern Albania. He took the decision of killing the Gjirokastër's Turkish commander and led the Mashkullora War on March 18, 1908.

He wrote an article "From the Mountains of Albania" in the journal "The Hope of Albania" in its issue of January 1907. In that article he condemned the many thefts that the Turkish administration would commit towards the Albanains and asked for full independence of Albania. In the article he made calls for an armed insurgency.

After the proclamation of the independence of Albania on November 28, 1912 Topulli fought to protect Albania from the Montenegrins. He was killed in the Shtoi plain (Shkoder) from the Montenegrin invadors. In 1937 his bones were brought back to Gjirokastër.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/MihalGrameno.jpg

Mihal Grameno born in Korçë in a merchant family, he studied there at the local secondary school before emigrating to Romania in 1885. It was in Bucharest that he got involved in the Albanian National Awakening and in 1889 became secretary of the Drita society.

In 1907, he joined the newly formed Çerçiz Topulli's kachak band, an early guerrilla unit fighting against Turkish troops in Albania. They were considered the apostoles of Albanianism and would go from village to village to discuss the Albanian predicament.

Turkish officials sent out military patrols to capture the bandits. The activity of the band consisted of only one battle in two years, when the 5 people band was surrounded by 150 Turkish units in Mashkullore. Four out of five escaped the encirclement. Other bands of this nature, not having a journalist in their company, such as Grameno have remained unsung heroes.

Eurocentric

05-11-2011, 01:55 PM

For me:

Dom Pedro II
http://i55.tinypic.com/2zri5vm.jpg
Dom Pedro II (Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous",[1][2] was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_II_of_Brazil

Egon Albretchhttp://i51.tinypic.com/24awgv5.jpg

Hauptmann Egon Albrecht (Curitiba, Paraná, 19 May 1918 – 25 August 1944) was a German Luftwaffe ace and recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross during World War II. Albrecht claimed 25 aerial victories, 10 over the Western Front and 15 over the Eastern Front. The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross was awarded to recognise extreme battlefield bravery or successful military leadership.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Albrecht

Ayrton Senna http://i56.tinypic.com/246l1q9.jpg
Ayrton Senna da Silva (São Paulo, São Paulo, March 21, 1960 – May 1, 1994) was a Brazilian racing driver. A three-time Formula One world champion, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers of all time.[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayrton_Senna

S.E.Castan
http://i53.tinypic.com/50mofd.jpg
Siegfried Ellwanger Castan (Candelária, Rio Grande do Sul, September 30,1928 – September 11, 2010) was Brazilian historian revisionist.
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4348506/Holocaust__Jewish_or_German__by_Brazilian__S.E._Ca stan[/url]

Falkata

05-11-2011, 01:56 PM

Blas de Lezo ;)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Don_Blas_de_Lezo_-Museo_Naval-.jpg

Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta (3 February 1689 – 7 September 1741), also known as "Patapalo" (Pegleg), and later as "Mediohombre" (Half-man) for the many wounds suffered in his long military life, was a Spanish admiral, and one of the greatest strategists and commanders in the history of the Spanish Navy. He is best known for his successful defence of Cartagena in 1741 (six ships and 2830 men) against an overwhelming British fleet (186 ships, 2000 cannons and 23600 men) commanded by admiral Edward Vernon.

Born in Pasajes, Guipúzcoa, Basque Country of Spain, Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta commenced his naval career in the French navy in 1701 as a midshipman. In 1704 he fought in the War of Spanish Succession as a crew member in the Franco-Spanish fleet which threw back the combined forces of Britain and Netherlands at the Battle of Vélez Málaga. There Lezo lost his left leg. He received a cannon-shot and he had his leg amputated under the knee without anesthesia and without saying a word or making a noise
Promoted to ensign, he was present at the battles off Peñíscola, Spain and Palermo in Sicily; his service in these and other actions resulted in his promotion to ship's lieutenant. The defense of Toulon cost him his left eye. He demonstrated a shrewd command in a number of convoys, deceiving the Royal Navy off east Spanish coast. In 1711 he served in the Navy under the orders of Andrés de Pez. In 1713 he was promoted to captain. In 1714 he lost his right arm in the Siege of Barcelona. Later in this campaign, at the head of one frigate, he captured eleven British ships, including the Stanhope.

At the conclusion of the War of Spanish Succession he was entrusted with the command of the flagship Lanfranco and with it the control and generalship of the South Seas Fleet on February 16, 1723. He destroyed and drove out British and Dutch pirates from the Pacific coasts of the Americas, and captured twelve ships. He was married in Peru in 1725.

In 1730 he returned to Spain and was promoted to chief of the Mediterranean Fleet; with this force he went to the Republic of Genoa to enforce the payment of two million pesos owed to Spain that had been retained in the Bank of San Jorge. Deeming the honour of the Spanish flag to be at stake, Blas de Lezo menaced the city with bombardment.

Blas de Lezo's frigate towing its prize, the British ship Stanhope.In 1732, on board the Santiago, he and José Carrillo de Albornoz commanded an expedition to Oran with 54 ships and 30,000 men and recaptured the city from the Ottoman Empire. Bay Hassan managed to reunite his troops and surrounded the city; Lezo returned to its aid with six ships and 5,000 men and managed to drive off the Algerian pirate after a hard fight. Dissatisfied with this he took his 60-gun flagship into the corsair's refuge of Mostaganem's bay, a bastion defended by two forts and 4,000 Moors. He inflicted heavy damage on the forts and town. In the following months he established a naval blockade, preventing the Algerians from receiving reinforcements from Istanbul, thereby gaining valuable time for the securing of Oran's defense, until an epidemic forced him to return to Cadiz.

In 1734 the king promoted him to General Lieutenant of the Navy. He returned to America with the ships Fuerte and Conquistador in 1737 as General Commander of Cartagena de Indias, a city that he had to defend against the British admiral Edward Vernon in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias (1741), which proved a turning point in the War of Jenkins' Ear. The complex series of ship to ship skirmishes, sieges and land battles against overwhelming forces lasted sixty-seven days. It was de Lezo's finest victory.

The defeat of the British invasion force assured the preservation of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. Blas de Lezo contracted the plague, probably due to the many unburied corpses, most of them British soldiers, and died at Cartagena de Indias that year. His burial site remains lost to history.

Peyrol

05-11-2011, 03:06 PM

Thanks to all for the "galleries"

Anyway, go back centuries

Romolo, also known as Quirinus, founder of Rome and first king of the Roman Kingdom

http://www.arredaearte.com/ebay/2-ROMOLO-E-REMOLO-SR72388.jpg

Muzio Scevola, the roman who try to kill king Porsenna of Etruria/Tuscia
http://www.roccioso.it/roma/storia/imgroma101.jpg

...end of Monarchy...

Publio Cornelio Scipione " l'Africano", defeater of Cartagine
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_rA15I8y2lSU/SthacQy8XOI/AAAAAAAADW8/WVWhlNoli-k/s400/Busto+di+Scipione+detto+l%27Africano.jpg

...this man don't need a presentation...
http://www.windoweb.it/guida/cultura/cultura_foto/giulio_cesare_2.jpg

...end of the Roman Republic.

alzo zero

05-11-2011, 03:10 PM

Leaders of the revolutionaries during the "10 Days of Brescia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Days_of_Brescia)":

Tito Speri:

http://www.lombardiabeniculturali.it/img_db/bcoa/D0090/2/l/1296_di01296.jpg

and Pietro Boifava:

http://www.brescialeonessa.it/xgiorni/protagon/img/boif0509.jpg

Wyn

05-11-2011, 03:27 PM

Alfred the Great, Rex Angulsaxonum - King of the Anglo-Saxons, powerful leader of English soldiers against Norse invaders.

http://i.imgur.com/QFVUV.png

Hereward the Wake, leader of local resistance against the Norman invasion. The image below is an engraving from the 1800s entitled 'How Hereward Cleared Bourne of Frenchmen.'

http://i.imgur.com/1dhSB.jpg

Peyrol

05-11-2011, 03:40 PM

Ottaviano Augusto, founder of the Empire and First Emperor
http://www.summagallicana.it/lessico/l/Livia_Augusto_Prima_Porta.jpg

Emperor Claudio

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2644/4221345223_f2dfb2c430.jpg

Emperor Vespasiano
http://www.pontuali.com/marco/images/articoli/vespasiano.jpg

Emperor Tito, the "ravager of Palestina" (NOTE: he had a partial Dalmatian/illirian ascendence)
http://www.museicapitolini.org/var/museicivici/storage/images/musei/musei_capitolini/percorsi/per_sale/museo_capitolino/sala_degli_imperatori/ritratto_di_tito/10087-1-ita-IT/ritratto_di_tito_sqlarge.jpg

Emperor Domiziano
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Domiziano_da_collezione_albani,_fine_del_I_sec._dc ._02.JPG/181px-Domiziano_da_collezione_albani,_fine_del_I_sec._dc ._02.JPG

Odoacer

05-11-2011, 04:36 PM

Gen. Robert E. Lee

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Robert_Edward_Lee.jpg

He was a foe without hate; a friend without treachery; a soldier without cruelty; a victor without oppression, and a victim without murmuring. He was a public officer without vices; a private citizen without wrong; a neighbour without reproach; a Christian without hypocrisy, and a man without guile. He was a Caesar, without his ambition; Frederick, without his tyranny; Napoleon, without his selfishness, and Washington, without his reward.

Peyrol

05-11-2011, 05:12 PM

^ i've always admired General Lee.

Ushtari

05-11-2011, 05:16 PM

Since i live in Sweden, i post one for em

Gustav I of Sweden, born Gustav Eriksson and later known as Gustav Vasa (12 May 1496[citation needed] – 29 September 1560), was King of Sweden from 1523 until his death. He was the first monarch of the House of Vasa, an influential noble family which came to be the royal house of Sweden for much of the 16th and 17th centuries. Gustav I was elected regent in 1521 after leading a rebellion against Christian II of Denmark, the leader of the Kalmar Union who controlled most of Sweden at the time.

In traditional Swedish history he has been labelled the founder of modern Sweden, and the "father of the nation".

http://www.livrustkammaren.se/Regentl%C3%A4ngden/Sve/Regenter/Bilder/GustavVasaBeskuren~__H.jpg

Winterwolf

05-11-2011, 06:23 PM

Friedrich II., der Große (Frederick the Great) (1712 – 1786)

http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files/costumes/895/35713/friedrich_.jpg

Interested primarily in music and philosophy and not the arts of war during his youth, Frederick unsuccessfully attempted to flee from his authoritarian father, Frederick William I, with childhood friend, Hans Hermann von Katte, whose execution he was forced to watch after they had been captured. Upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked Austria and claimed Silesia during the Silesian Wars, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. Near the end of his life, Frederick physically connected most of his realm by conquering Polish territories in the First Partition of Poland.

Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism. For years he was a correspondent of Voltaire, with whom the king had an intimate, if turbulent, friendship. He modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and promoted religious tolerance throughout his realm. Frederick patronized the arts and philosophers, and wrote flute music. Frederick is buried at his favorite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, Frederick was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II of Prussia, son of his brother, Prince Augustus William of Prussia.

Labeat

05-11-2011, 06:31 PM

http://www.kosovaelire.com/histori/portrete/Mic-Sokoli-F.109_.jpg

Mic Sokoli (1839 - April 1881) was a Kosovan fighter from the League of Prizren. He is a People's Hero of Albania.

He participated in the battles of Gjakova against the Turkish Mehmet Ali Pasha, and distinguished himself from other warriors in the Battle of Nokshiq against the Montenegrin aggressors. His battles in Plavë, Guci, Hoti, Gruda, Tuzi, Prizren, Gjakovë, Ferizaj, Gjilan, and Shkup were all fought against Slavic aggression.

He died in April 1881 during the Battle of Siviva against the Ottoman forces under Dervish Pasha, Mic Sokoli performed a rare act of bravery by thrusting his body in front of an enemy cannon, and fell heroicly in battle.

Ivanushka-supertzar

05-11-2011, 06:46 PM

The one and only - Peter The Great. The leader. The explorer. The innovator. Lord of Swamps. Supertzar.

http://www.russia-ic.com/img/ill/history-85.jpg

http://img1.liveinternet.ru/images/attach/c/1//60/59/60059298_Peter_benois.jpg

http://www.tonywhartonfrps.com/USERIMAGES/Peter%20the%20Great%20Statue,%20St.%20Petersburg.j pg

http://pics.livejournal.com/aldanov/pic/002z5x1s

Dario Argento

05-11-2011, 07:15 PM

Diego Armando Maradona

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CT8JoUD3wqQ/TDiTx15LSOI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/aQwb0qEALVA/s1600/maradona+y+la+copa+del+mundo.jpg

http://www.humor12.com/data/media/42/diego_maradona_www_Humor12_com.jpg

Thraex

05-11-2011, 07:16 PM

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00779/Radovan-Karadzic-46_779524c.jpg

Labeat

05-11-2011, 07:19 PM

Forget Me Not its a thread about heroes, not cowards and criminals.

Hess

05-11-2011, 07:26 PM

Nikola Zrinski

http://rpmedia.ask.com/ts?u=/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/Nikola_Zrinski_Sigetski_-_spomenik_u_%C4%8Cakovcu.JPG/240px-Nikola_Zrinski_Sigetski_-_spomenik_u_%C4%8Cakovcu.JPG

A Croatian general who Inflicted 30,000 losses on the invading Ottoman's with his garrison of 3,000 troops at the Siege of Szigetvar.

Although the Ottomans eventually took the fort and killed Zrinski, their push into Vienna was halted and they were forced to retreat back to Turkey.

Cardinal Richelieu called the Siege of Szigetvar "the battle that saved civilization".

Efim45

05-11-2011, 07:31 PM

http://www.mayflowerhistory.com/images/MylesStandish.gif
Myles Standish; passenger on the Mayflower, commander of the Plymouth Colony militia, founder of Duxbury, Massachusetts.

Wanderlust

05-11-2011, 07:32 PM

Diego Armando Maradona

http://www.humor12.com/data/media/42/diego_maradona_www_Humor12_com.jpg
I am not Argentinian but allow me to say that Diego is indeed a symbol (not exactly a hero IMO though,but still) so we tend to ''forgive'' blunders and mistakes this kind of people make.I mean he has given too much joy to so many people.. :) So please do not make fun of him because of his addiction,I guess he had suffered a lot because of that.Nothing personal but this is a thread about heroes and I found that a little bit disrespectful.

Thraex

05-11-2011, 07:32 PM

Forget Me Not its a thread about heroes, not cowards and criminals.

e6bMpE7kqNU

Labeat

05-11-2011, 07:33 PM

http://zemrashqiptare.net/images/articles/2007_03/261/u1_vrana.jpg

Vrana Konti or Kont Uran Altisferi (? - 1458) was a 15th century Albanian count and one of the closest collaborators of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg. Up to his death in 1458 he was the counselor of Skanderbeg and one of his best commanders.

Vrana Konti participated in all major battles of Skanderbeg up to 1458. He is known mainly for his resistance as the commander of the Albanian garrison during the First Siege of Krujë. He was proposed by the Sultan Murad II a great sum of money and a high ranking post in Ottoman administration as a condition for his surrender but he refused this offer. In Albanian culture he is usually represented as a wise man counselling Skanderbeg.

Peyrol

05-12-2011, 10:47 AM

Pietro Micca, the piemonteis soldier/hero who defeats the french army during the siege of Torino (France wanted the annexation of Piemonte).

http://www.texbr.com/internacional/imagens/ritrato_pietro_micca.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2620/4172440608_a3a8e64a74_o.jpg

Lábaru

05-12-2011, 11:09 AM

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_AbeQ-V24DWc/Swhz4wDuklI/AAAAAAAABZY/jPka4tprxvU/s400/HernanC.jpg

http://www.bibliotecasvirtuales.com/biblioteca/LiteraturaEspanola/HernanCortes/HernandoCortesvictoryOtumbaoverAztecsbattlebyManue lIbanez.jpg

Was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers that began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

http://edu.glogster.com/media/5/30/71/7/30710721.jpg

With his own black legend as a good Spanish conquistador, his adventures can be read here -----> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s

http://recuerdosdepandora.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/hernan-cortes.jpg

Peyrol

05-12-2011, 11:11 AM

^ i've always admired also the great Conquistadores of the Americas

The Ripper

05-12-2011, 11:31 AM

Lalli (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalli), slayer of St. Henry.

http://terasmies.pbworks.com/f/1196778860/800px-Henrik_Lalli_Ekman%5B1%5D.jpg

St. Henry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry,_Bishop_of_Uppsala), patron saint of Turku Cathedral, martyred by Lalli.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Bishop_henry_from_taivassalo_church2.jpg

Eugen Schauman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugen_Schauman), assassin of the loathed governor-general, Bobrikoff

http://www.hs.fi/kuvat/iso_webkuva/1076152256800.jpeg

Simo Häyhä (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_Häyhä), sniper in the Winter War, most credited kills for a sniper ever as far as I'm aware. His face was deformed when he took an exploding bullet to the jaw.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kujDS7zCRBY/TQAh_6Qg8PI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/MGsMS8yBYxc/s1600/01Simo-hayha.jpg

Mannerheim.

http://eduwww.mikkeli.fi/opetus/paamajakoulu/mannerhe/kuvat/risti.jpg

There are several more, of course, especially from the wars.

Heretik

05-12-2011, 12:07 PM

Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/Madar%C3%A1sz_-_Zr%C3%ADnyi_%C3%A9s_Frangep%C3%A1n.jpg/800px-Madar%C3%A1sz_-_Zr%C3%ADnyi_%C3%A9s_Frangep%C3%A1n.jpg

The Magnate conspiracy, also known as the Zrinski–Frankopan Conspiracy (Croatian: Zrinsko-frankopanska urota) in Croatia, and Wesselényi conspiracy (Hungarian: Wesselényi-összeesküvés) in Hungary, was a 17th century attempt to throw off Habsburg and other foreign influences over Hungary and Croatia.[1] The attempted coup was caused by the unpopular Peace of Vasvár, struck in 1664 between Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and the Ottoman Empire. The poorly organized attempt at revolt gave the Habsburgs reason to clamp down on their opponents. It was named after Hungarian Count Ferenc Wesselényi, and by Croatian counts Nikola Zrinski, Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan.

Complete article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnate_conspiracy)

Talvi

05-12-2011, 12:57 PM

Those Estonians who fought for and signed the first treaty for an independent Estonia in 1920.

Tartu peace Treaty
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Tartu_rahu_allkirjad.jpg/427px-Tartu_rahu_allkirjad.jpg

http://kudevita.webs.com/Tartu%20rahu%20s6lmijad.jpg

http://www.nlib.ee/html/expo/p90/p1/p-11-304.jpg

Some soldiers.
http://www.hot.ee/vabadussoda/vsoda.jpg

Cato

05-12-2011, 02:14 PM

Robert E. Lee.

http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/77/2077-004-79BF2B7D.jpg

Thraex

05-12-2011, 06:49 PM

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/03/11/milosevicdemo_wideweb__470x329,0.jpg

Bridie

05-12-2011, 06:59 PM

There can only be one....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3HkUKoGoc4

Labeat

05-12-2011, 07:04 PM

Forget Me Not this is message for that your video with turko-gypsie music, and for your cowards and criminals which you consider heroes.

Buz7F4HXjAs

Detfri

05-12-2011, 07:11 PM

From Abruzzo with love :
Gabriele D'Annunzio

http://liciamilella.altervista.org/joomla/images/stories/gabriele20dannunzio.jpg

He was a journalist, novelist, writer and many other things, but he became an hero when he did this:

After the start of World War I, D'Annunzio returned to Italy and made public speeches in favor of Italy's entry on the side of the Triple Entente. Since taking a flight with Wilbur Wright in 1908, D'Annunzio had been interested in aviation. With the war beginning he volunteered and achieved further celebrity as a fighter pilot, losing the sight of an eye in a flying accident. In February 1918 he took part in a daring, if militarily irrelevant, raid on the harbour of Bakar (known in Italy as La beffa di Buccari, lit. the Bakar Mockery), helping to raise the spirits of the Italian public, still battered by the Caporetto disaster. On 9 August 1918, as commander of the 87th fighter squadron "La Serenissima", he organized one of the great feats of the war, leading 9 planes in a 700-mile round trip to drop propaganda leaflets on Vienna. This is called in Italian "il Volo su Vienna", "the Flight over Vienna".

The War strengthened his ultra-nationalist and irredentist views, and he campaigned widely for Italy to assume a role alongside her wartime Allies as a first-rate European power. Angered by the proposed handing over of the city of Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) which had an Italian majority population, at the Paris Peace Conference, on 12 September 1919, he led the seizure by 2,000 Italian nationalist irregulars of the city, forcing the withdrawal of the inter-Allied (American, British and French) occupying forces.[4] The plotters sought to have Italy annex Fiume, but were denied. Instead, Italy initiated a blockade of Fiume while demanding that the plotters surrender. D'Annunzio then declared Fiume an independent state, the Italian Regency of Carnaro; the Charter of Carnaro foreshadowed much of the later Italian Fascist system, with himself as "Duce" (condottiere). Some elements of the Royal Italian Navy, such as the destroyer Espero joined up with D'Annunzio's local forces.[5] He attempted to organize an alternative to the League of Nations for (selected) oppressed nations of the world (such as the Italians of Fiume), and sought to make alliances with various separatist groups throughout the Balkans (especially groups of Italians, though also some Slavic groups), although without much success. D'Annunzio ignored the Treaty of Rapallo and declared war on Italy itself, only finally surrendering the city in December 1920 after a bombardment by the Italian navy.

Heretik

05-12-2011, 10:07 PM

From Abruzzo with love :
Gabriele D'Annunzio

And that's who you call a hero? E pa serem ti se na takvog heroja.

Thraex

05-12-2011, 10:15 PM

Gavrilo Princip:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Gavrilloprincip.jpg

http://masterxela.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/ww1-assassination21.jpg

Lábaru

05-12-2011, 11:03 PM

Don Luis Daoiz de Torres and Don Pedro Velarde y Santillán

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q43/heydrich42/_ejercito.jpg

Two Spanish heroes, they resisted against the French in the invasion of Madrid with just a handful of civilians, fighting against a larger number of French, they took prisoner the French colonel.

Famous painting of the death of Daoiz

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Manuel_castellano_death_dalaoiz.jpg

Daoiz died sword in hand, having killed a French officer, were massacred by dozens of French bayonets, everyone, including civilians, were killed.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Daoiz_o_Velarde.jpg

Today they are remembered with these lions outside of the Congress of Deputies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Daoiz_de_Torres

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Velarde_y_Santill%C3%A1n

Le duc d'Abrantès

05-12-2011, 11:18 PM

Dom Afonso Henriques for waging successfully the Reconquista Cristã against the Moorish invadors of Europe.

http://www.embportmalta.com/Images/afonso-henriques.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IyON-S5kV6M/SDDpKl8pVVI/AAAAAAAABMI/ijpL4KpQlGg/s400/Dom+Afonso+Henriques,+herois+medievais.jpg http://www.arqnet.pt/imagens2/ph_afonso1.jpg

Afonso I or Dom Afonso Henriques [1] (c. 1109, Guimarães or Viseu – 6 December 1185, Coimbra), more commonly known as Afonso Henriques (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈfõsu ẽˈʁikɨʃ]), nicknamed "the Conqueror" (Portuguese: o Conquistador), "the Founder" (o Fundador) or "the Great" (o Grande) by the Portuguese, and El-Bortukali ("the Portuguese") and Ibn-Arrik ("son of Henry", "Henriques") by the Moors whom he fought, was the first King of Portugal. He achieved the independence of the southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia—County of Portugal—from the Kingdom of León, in 1139, doubling its area with the Reconquista, an objective that he pursued until his death, in 1185, after forty-six years of wars against the Moors.

Comte Arnau

05-13-2011, 12:54 AM

Guifré el Pilós (Wilfred the Hairy), 840-897, regarded as the founder of Catalonia, already called Father of the Nation in 1380.

http://www.xarxa-omnia.org/ripoll/web_cerclefilatelic/guifre2.gif

Jaume I el Conqueridor (James I the Conqueror), 1208-1276, expanded the Crown of Aragon on all sides (into Valencia to the south, Languedoc to the north, and the Balearic Islands to the east), wrested the county of Barcelona from nominal French suzerainty and integrated it into his crown, compiled the Llibre del Consulat de Mar, which governed maritime trade and helped establish Aragonese supremacy in the western Mediterranean, and was an important figure in the development of Catalan, sponsoring Catalan literature and writing a quasi-autobiographical chronicle of his reign: the Llibre dels feyts (Book of Deeds).

http://www.andandara.com/Sociedad/index_archivos/9_octubre/jaumeI.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1okTH58NfiY/TWKZVk2qjEI/AAAAAAAAATU/WNnrRDKVmMs/s1600/color%2BJaume%2BI%2Bjuansamuhomec.jpg

Pere III el Gran (Peter III the Great), 1239-1285, one of the greatest and most appreciated kings of the Crown of Aragon, conqueror of Sicily ('No fish dares swim in the Mediterranean without the four red bars on its back'), a patron of arts and a troubadour himself.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Pedro_III_el_Grande_en_el_collado_de_las_Panizas.j pg/557px-Pedro_III_el_Grande_en_el_collado_de_las_Panizas.j pg

Cato

05-13-2011, 12:17 PM

Not a soldier but a hero nonetheless.

Johnny Cash: poet-philosopher, scholar, singer, songwriter, troubled Christian and the Man in Black. A living legend in his time who still continues to inspire people with his mournful songs.

http://images.wikia.com/lyricwiki/images/9/9b/JohnnyCash.jpg

Lábaru

05-13-2011, 12:31 PM

Lurker

05-13-2011, 01:13 PM

I start with this two.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, "l'eroe dei Due Mondi" (the hero of Two Worlds")

He fought for the independence of Santa Catarina and Paranà from Brazil, for the secession of Uruguay from the Rioplatense Confederation, and finally for the Unification of Italy and in the USA Civil War.

http://www.sansalvo.net/archivi/immagini/2010/G/GiuseppeGaribaldi2.jpg

http://www.pane-rose.it/cms_utilities/media.php?id=1152

Just a correction: Garibaldi fought for the independence of Rio Grande do Sul (República Farroupilha) and Santa Catarina (República Juliana) in Brazil. Paraná wasn't even a different state from São Paulo at the time, and his forces didn't reach there.

Peyrol

05-13-2011, 01:30 PM

Just a correction: Garibaldi fought for the independence of Rio Grande do Sul (República Farroupilha) and Santa Catarina (República Juliana) in Brazil. Paraná wasn't even a different state from São Paulo at the time, and his forces didn't reach there.

Thanks for the correction.
I've mistaken the state: laugh:

Radojica

05-13-2011, 05:37 PM

Karadjordje, leader of The First Serbian uprising against Turks

http://www.zastava-arms.rs/cms/assets/drgalleries/316/big_001_Karadjordje.jpg
Stevan Sindjelic

http://www.serbia.rajevac.com/warPoliticsImages/big/sindjelicCegar_GMS.jpg

Knez Mihailo Obrenovic

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/sr/7/74/KnezMihailoObrenovic.jpg

Field Marshal Stepa Stepanovic

http://www.nightlife-belgrade.com/content/image/miracles/stepa-stepanovic.jpg

Winterwolf

05-13-2011, 06:03 PM

Otto I., the Great (912-973)

Otto I Theutonicorum rex ("Otto the First, King of the Germans").
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Otto_I_Manuscriptum_Mediolanense_c_1200.jpg

http://www.badenhausen.net/badenhsn/otto1_1.jpg

Married to Eadgyth of England in 929, Otto succeeded his father as king of Germany (officially still known as East Francia) in 936.

He arranged for his coronation to be held in Charlemagne's former capital, Aachen.
From the outset of his reign he signalled that he was the successor to Charlemagne, whose last heirs in East Francia had died out in 911, and that he had the German church, with its powerful bishops and abbots, behind him.

Ecclesiastical politics
As a key element of his domestic policy, Otto sought to strengthen ecclesiastical authorities, chiefly bishops and abbots, at the expense of the secular nobility who threatened his own power. To control the forces that the Church represented, Otto made consistent use of three institutions. One was the royal investiture of bishops and abbots with the symbols of their offices, both spiritual, for Otto was the anointed King of the Germans, and temporal, in which Otto secured his bishops and abbots as his vassals through a commendation ceremony.
Because Otto personally appointed the bishops and abbots, these reforms strengthened his central authority, and the upper ranks of the German church functioned in some respect as an arm of the imperial bureaucracy. Conflict over these powerful bishoprics between Otto's successors and the growing power of the Papacy during the Gregorian Reforms would eventually lead to the Investiture Conflict and the undoing of central authority in Germany in the 11th century.

937-941 break of nobility rebellions
Otto's early reign was marked by a series of ducal revolts opposing the new royal Saxon dynasty, but Otto successfully managed to quell the high nobility rebellions. To prevent further revolts, Otto arranged for all the important duchies in the German kingdom to be held by close family members or to form alliances via marriage f.e. to Swabia and Bavaria.

936-955 submission of western Slavs and pacification of Magyars
Only recently incorporated Western Slavic tribes rebelled against German imperial power, but were again reduced to submission.
In 937, Otto defeated Hungarian raids into Saxony. When Otto was in war with his vassals, the Hungarian made new raids into Germany, but they suffered two bloody defeats in the Harz Mountains, near Stetternburg and in the Dromling. In 944, the Hungarians invaded the empire, but were defeated in Carinthia by Duke Berthold. In 950, Henry defeated the Hungarians that invaded Bavaria.
Otto in 950 made an expedition into Bohemia and was recognized as overlord by Duke Boleslaus I of Bohemia.
Extensive Magyar raids in southern Germany in 954 compelled the German nobles to reunite. In 955, Otto cemented his authority by routing Magyar forces at the Battle of Lechfeld (10 August 955) and the Western Slavic Obodrites at the Battle of Recknitz (16 October 955).

The Battle of Lechfeld 955

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Michael_Echter_Ungarnschlacht.jpg

On the field of battle the German lords raised Otto on their shields in the Germanic manner and proclaimed him Emperor. A few years later, on the strength of this, Otto went to Rome and had himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII.

After the defeat Hungarians reached the end of the almost 100-year era, when they were seen as the dominating military force in Europe

It is beyond doubt, though, that after 955 the Hungarians completely ceased all campaigns westwards.

Campaigns in France
In the summer of 940, Otto I entered France to punish Louis for his interference in Lorraine. He forced Louis back to the Seine and made him sign a treaty with Burgundy. In 942, a compact was concluded between Otto and Louis at Vouzieres. In the late summer of 946, Otto again invaded France, but had limited success. Laon, Rheims, and Senlis were all besieged, but only Rheims was captured.
In 953 Otto was successful in reasserting his authority in Lorraine.

Campaigns in Italy
Meanwhile, Italy had fallen into political chaos. On the death (950), possibly by poisoning, of Lothair of Arles, the Italian throne was inherited by a woman, Adelaide of Italy, the respective daughter, daughter-in-law, and widow of the last three kings of Italy. A local noble, Berengar of Ivrea, declared himself king of Italy, abducted Adelaide, and tried to legitimize his reign by forcing Adelaide to marry his son Adalbert. However, Adelaide escaped to Canossa and requested German intervention. Luidolf and Henry independently invaded northern Italy to take advantage of the situation, but in 951 Otto frustrated his son's and his brother's ambitions by invading Italy himself. He received the homage of the Italian nobility, assumed the title "King of the Lombards" and in 952 forced Berengar and Adalbert to pay homage, allowing them to rule Italy as his vassals. Having been widowed since 946, he married Adelaide himself.

The Ottonian Renaissance
A limited renaissance of the arts and architecture depended on court patronage of Otto and his immediate successors. The "Ottonian Renaissance" was manifest in some revived cathedral schools, such as that of Bruno I, Archbishop of Cologne, and in the production of illuminated manuscripts, the major art form of the age, from a handful of elite scriptoria, such as that at Quedlinburg Abbey, founded by Otto in 936. The Imperial abbeys and the Imperial court became the centers of religious and spiritual life, led by the example of women of the royal family.

Imperial coronation
In the early 960s, Italy was again in political turmoil, and when Berengar occupied the northern Papal States, Pope John XII asked Otto for assistance. Otto returned to Italy and on 2 February 962, the pope crowned him emperor. Ten days later, the pope and emperor ratified the Diploma Ottonianum, under which the emperor became the guarantor of the independence of the papal states. This was the first effective guarantee of such protection since the Carolingian Empire.

After Otto left Rome and reconquered the Papal States from Berengar, however, John became fearful of the emperor's power and sent envoys to the Magyars and the Byzantine Empire to form a league against Otto. In November 963, Otto returned to Rome and convened a synod of bishops that deposed John and crowned Leo VIII, at that time a layman, as pope.

When the emperor left Rome, however, civil war broke out in the city between supporters of the emperor and of John. John returned to power amidst great bloodshed and excommunicated those who had deposed him, forcing Otto to return to Rome a third time in July 964 to depose Pope Benedict V (John having died two months earlier). On this occasion, Otto extracted from the citizens of Rome a promise not to elect a pope without imperial approval.
In 972, the Byzantine emperor John I Tzimisces recognized Otto's imperial title and agreed to a marriage between Otto's son and heir Otto II and his niece Theophanu. Pandulf was released from captivity.

After his death in 973 he was buried next to his first wife Edith of Wessex in the Cathedral of Magdeburg.

Cato

05-13-2011, 09:59 PM

Fun fact, Cash is descended from the royalty/aristocray of medieval Scotland.

Ivanushka-supertzar

05-13-2011, 10:14 PM

Just drop Johny part and youll got a real American hero

http://mnogo-deneg.net/foto1/dollar_1.jpg

Cedric

06-23-2011, 07:15 AM

Field Marshall Arthur Wellesley aka The Duke of Wellington.

Technically from Ireland but he was a British Anglo soldier none the less.

Famous for defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and never losing a major battle.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Sir_Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington.png/245px-Sir_Arthur_Wellesley,_1st_Duke_of_Wellington.png

Cato

06-24-2011, 12:22 AM

George S. Patton.
http://i.acdn.us/image/A1714/171498/300_171498.jpg

Pallantides

06-24-2011, 01:45 PM

Norway is a country of heroes.

Eldritch

06-28-2011, 10:27 PM

St. Henry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry,_Bishop_of_Uppsala), patron saint of Turku Cathedral, martyred by Lalli.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Bishop_henry_from_taivassalo_church2.jpg

Minor correction: St. Henry is the patron saint of the whole country.

Here's another Finnish hero: Pekka Antinpoika Vesainen, whose name headlines one of the chapters in our enduring love affair with Russia.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fi/thumb/a/af/Vesaisen_patsas.jpg/514px-Vesaisen_patsas.jpg

Gamera

06-28-2011, 10:38 PM

Not really a traditional "hero", more like an interesting story. ;)

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MHnA5hJubcU/S9Tkl-OI5vI/AAAAAAAABpc/86LcT1yytAU/s400/ELVIRA+chaudoir.jpg

How a Peruvian beauty stopped a Nazi tank division in its tracks

A good-time girl from Peru stopped the 15,000 men of a crack German SS panzer division in their tracks on D-Day.
As British and American troops fought their way up the Normandy beaches on June 6, 1944, 2nd SS Panzer - the Das Reich Division - was hundreds of miles to the south near Bordeaux.
The formation was there because of a telegram from Elvira Chaudoir, the daughter of a Peruvian diplomat, to a Spanish bank asking it to send £50 to her dentist in London. It was a coded message she knew would be passed to the Germans, and the figure of £50 meant that the Allied invasion would take place not in Normandy but in the Bay of Biscay.
The Abwehr, the German intelligence service, thought Chaudoir was working for them, whereas in fact she was a British double agent spreading false information as part of Operation Fortitude, the deception plan designed to mask the true location of the Allied invasion. So, Das Reich, whose presence in Normandy might have spelt disaster for Overlord, was in the wrong place at the right time.
An MI5 file released today at the National Archives in Kew chronicles one of the more glamorous spies of the Second World War. Chaudoir was a high society gambler who managed to run up huge debts at Crockfords and the Hamilton Club while pursuing a colourful sex life. Weekends were spent at house parties thrown by Lord Carnarvon, with the likes of the Duke of Marlborough and Duff Cooper.
But there was another, less frivolous side to Chaudoir. She had been recruited by Lt Col Claude Dansey, the deputy head of MI6, who in 1942 sent her on a mission to Vichy France, where her father was the Peruvian chargé d'affaires. While there, she was introduced to one of Hermann Goering's agents, known only as Biel, with whom she formed a ''personal relationship''. He offered her £100 a month if she would send economic and political intelligence from Britain.
On her return to London, she was handed over to MI5's double-cross operators who ran her as a double agent under the codename Bronx, sending false information to Biel.
Her file describes the poker parties, her £1,000 debt (£28,000 today) and the small allowance from her parents which constituted her only income. Her MI5 handlers observed: ''She is a typical member of the cosmopolitan smart set and, though possibly lazy, is not un-intelligent.
"At the present moment she is living in a flat in Hertford Street, Mayfair, and there is some reason to believe she is living with a man who has a flat in the same house. It is not known whether she is continuing with her lesbian tendencies."
Chaudoir's means of contacting Biel was by coded telegram to Antonio de Almeida, the general manager of the Espirito Santo Bank in Madrid, an institution known to be friendly to the Germans. Initially, Chaudoir's intelligence consisted of political gossip or economic information, but as the Allied invasion loomed the Germans pressed her for information on its location. The telegram to the bank was to specify different amounts of money according to the location.
The £50 ''Bay of Biscay'' warning was sent late in May, less than a fortnight before D-Day.
The ruse appears to have worked because the Das Reich mobilised on June 7 - the day after the Normandy landings. Elsewhere in France, German armoured formations lay inactive, false information supplied under Fortitude having successfully concealed Normandy as the real destination of the invasion fleets.
When the division began its journey north, it was hampered by sabotage operations of the French Resistance and Allied fighter bomber sweeps. The division took its frustration out on the French population, hanging 99 people from the lamp-posts in Tulle and killing all 624 men, women and children in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane.
Despite the obvious weakness of Chaudoir's intelligence, the Germans continued to trust her. She supplied bogus information on Britain's defences against VI and V2 rocket attack.
After the war she lived anonymously in a small village in the South of France.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1497640/How-a-Peruvian-beauty-stopped-a-Nazi-tank-division-in-its-tracks.html

safinator

06-28-2011, 10:43 PM

Skanderbeg

http://www.viaggioadriatico.it/ViaggiADR/upload/cartella-anna-rita/foto%20albania%20per%20itinerario%20di%20casola/lezha-alessio/skanderbeg-1.jpg

Pallantides

06-28-2011, 11:40 PM

Norway is a country of heroes.

Quoted for truth!

Malva

06-29-2011, 12:27 AM

http://images.yodibujo.es/img/el-cid-campeador-83027.jpg

Terek

06-29-2011, 04:30 AM

http://s.photosight.ru/img/c/4b6/3216141_large.jpeg

http://i.newskey.ru/shownews/picture/big/128236

Джохар, ты слишком мало жил...:icon_sad:

Красавчик ву Дудийн...

oyster

06-29-2011, 05:38 AM

Dracula :)

MagnaLaurentia

06-29-2011, 06:10 AM

Paul de Chomedey sieur de Maisonneuve
http://www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r14310/Luth/images/Maisonneuve/ANQ-P600.jpg

Louis de Buade et de Palluau comte de Frontenac
http://frontenac.pagesperso-orange.fr/Images/portrait_Frontenac1.jpg

Pierre Le Moyne sieur d'Iberville et d'Ardilière
http://recit.csbe.qc.ca/historitic/local/cache-vignettes/L360xH431/pierre_le_moyne_d_iberville-2-c62da.jpg

OneWolf

06-29-2011, 07:06 AM

I chose these boys-

http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2009/11/11/129024640582371988.jpg

:thumbs up

Lucretius

06-29-2011, 07:10 AM

Giacomo Casanova ducaconte di Seingalt

3456789 orgasms given 3234242 received.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3Qs5jYtnzdk/TcGdn9SSoLI/AAAAAAAAOZo/ab8yKSBRbo8/s1600/giacomo+casanova.jpg

Eldritch

06-29-2011, 01:25 PM

Giacomo Casanova ducaconte di Seingalt

3456789 orgasms given 3234242 received.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3Qs5jYtnzdk/TcGdn9SSoLI/AAAAAAAAOZo/ab8yKSBRbo8/s1600/giacomo+casanova.jpg

You know that it's a myth that "casanova" type men have to be good in bed. The secret is to be good everywhere else.

Anyway that reminds me: don't we have any other heroes than warriors and military men? :confused:

I think for sure that Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artturi_Ilmari_Virtanen) is a hero. His contributions to agriculture and biochemistry helped make food more plentiful and secure in post-WW2 Europe.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Virtanen.jpg

Lucretius

06-29-2011, 01:31 PM

Yes,you right! He is only remembered for his conquest of hundreds of women well satisfied (ten eggs before every effort) but most people forget that he was a big philosopher who talked with Voltaire,Holbach,Beccaria and many more. He wrote the best italian autobiographical romance and many theatrical pieces.

Graham

06-29-2011, 01:52 PM

Robert the Bruce (1274-1329)

Robert I (11 July 1274 – 7 June 1329), often known as Robert the Bruce (Medieval Gaelic: Roibert a Briuis; modern Scottish Gaelic: Raibeart Bruis; Norman French: Robert de Brus or Robert de Bruys), was King of Scots from March 25, 1306, until his death in 1329.

His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage (originating in Brix, Manche, Normandy), and his maternal of Franco-Gaelic. He became one of Scotland's greatest kings, as well as one of the most famous warriors of his generation, eventually leading Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence against the Kingdom of England. He claimed the Scottish throne as a fourth great-grandson of David I of Scotland, and saw the recognition of Scotland as an independent nation during his reign. Today in Scotland, Bruce is remembered as a national hero.

His body is buried in Dunfermline Abbey, while his heart is buried in Melrose Abbey. His embalmed heart was to be taken on crusade by his lieutenant and friend Sir James Douglas to the Holy Land, but only reached Moorish Granada, where it acted as a talisman for the Scottish contingent at the Battle of Teba.
Tomb of Robert the Bruce, Dunfermline Abbey
http://humphrysfamilytree.com/Scotland/Bitmaps/bruce.grave.3.jpghttp://www.ltscotland.org.uk/Images/brucetomb_tcm4-572245.jpg
His heart Melrose Abbey
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_drqO7qJ_y4o/TGcNE_yXpEI/AAAAAAAAF1g/aEnvuQV28ow/s1600/Melrose_Abbey_-_Marker_for_heart_of_Robert_the_Bruce.jpg
http://www.bugbitten.com/images/98795443cdbf0375dd946728e2f4e51a/Its_Aboot_TimeJo_goes_North-114255/Its_Aboot_TimeJo_goes_North-3970417.jpeg

BeerBaron

06-29-2011, 01:55 PM

John Garand born in Montreal invented the M1 Garand rifle that was called by Gen. Patton "the greatest single battle implement ever devised by man"

don't care if anyone thinks he's a hero because of that but I love my M1

Pallantides

06-29-2011, 01:55 PM

http://img.filmfront.no/pictures/release/large/1145062625_lars_monsen_paa_tur.jpg

Motörhead Remember Me

06-29-2011, 08:16 PM

http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/mestareitajaperillisia/img/mestarit/matti_nykanen.jpg
Matti "Mervinator" Nykänen

Matti Ensio Nykänen is a Finnish former ski jumper, best ever in that sport, winning five Olympic medals , nine World championships medals and 22 Finnish championships medals .
Since the 1990s, however, his status as a celebrity has mainly been fueled not by his sporting achievements, but instead by his colourful personal relationships, his career as a singer, and various incidents often related to heavy use of alcohol and occasionally violent behaviour. He was sentenced to jail for 26 months following a stabbing incident in 2004, and again for 16 months after aggravated assault on his wife in 2009.
Nykänen has been in the headlines of tabloid newspapers more often than any other person in Finland.
When Nykänen's ski jumping career was drawing to a close, a group of businessmen proposed to make him a singer. His first album Yllätysten yö was released in 1992 and sold over 25,000 copies. Nykänen became the second Olympic gold medalist after Tapio Rautavaara to sell a golden record in Finland. The next album Samurai (1993) was not as successful.
At the end of 1990s, due to serious financial problems, Nykänen worked as a stripper in a Järvenpää restaurant. The restaurateur was reproached for exploitation of Nykänen.

In 2002 Nykänen made a comeback as a singer and released the single "Ehkä otin, ehkä en". Also he gave his name to a cider brand with the same advertisement slogan was released. In 2006 Nykänen released his third studio album Ehkä otin, ehkä en.[15] Most of his musical career Nykänen has worked with professional musician Jussi Niemi. Nykänen has toured Finland performing 2 to 3 times a week with the Samurai ensemble led by Niemi.
In November 2009 Nykänen began to present his own cooking web series "Mattihan se sopan keitti" (Matti cooked the soup litteraliry, Matti caused the mess!).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matti_Nyk%C3%A4nen

Our nationalhero and Mervi - a millionaire sausage heiress (it's true)
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRucihMzyHLrwjcmkFlAYk1D6DiZmvZQ JjHcstk50c7Uf6TpCEU1A&t=1
Sausage heiress or not- the Mervinator has struck
http://vilmaroosa.blogit.fi/files/2009/05/mervi-tapola.jpg
Matti and Mervi have separated and got back together more than all other Finns together.

Matti is also famous for his quotes:
“Every chance is an opportunity."
"Tomorrow is always the future.”
"When you're alone up on the jumping tower it's up yours[up to you]"
"Sometimes I get a feeling that I have done this before - a Bon voyage [Deja vu]"
"There's a fifty-sixty chance"

He has said so much, there's a whole book full of Matti quotes!

Mordid

06-29-2011, 08:40 PM

Marie Skłodowska Curie (7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish–French physicist–chemist famous for her pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes[1]—in physics and chemistry. She was the first female professor at the University of Paris. She was the first woman to be entombed on her own merits (in 1995) in the Paris Panthéon.

She was born Maria Salomea Skłodowska in Warsaw, in Russian Poland, and lived there to age twenty-four. In 1891 she followed her older sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. She shared her Nobel Prize in Physics (1903) with her husband Pierre Curie (and with Henri Becquerel). Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie and son-in-law, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, would similarly share a Nobel Prize. She was the sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and is the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciences.

Her achievements include a theory of radioactivity (a term that she coined[2]), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two elements, polonium and radium. Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms, using radioactive isotopes. She founded the Curie Institutes: the Curie Institute (Paris) and the Curie Institute (Warsaw).

While an actively loyal French citizen, Skłodowska–Curie (as she styled herself) never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element that she discovered "polonium" (1898) for her native country.[3] During World War I she became a member of the Committee for a Free Poland (Komitet Wolnej Polski).[4] In 1932 she founded a Radium Institute (now the Maria Skłodowska–Curie Institute of Oncology) in her home town, Warsaw, headed by her physician-sister Bronisława.
http://www.newman.ac.uk/Students_Websites/~j.a.mcleod/Images/Marie%20Curie.jpg
http://roomss6.wikispaces.com/file/view/marie_curie.jpg/225427010/marie_curie.jpg

Odoacer

06-29-2011, 09:28 PM

Anyway that reminds me: don't we have any other heroes than warriors and military men? :confused:

Really, the whole idea of a hero originally revolved around great warriors. :wink

But anyway, extending the idea to non-martial courage & excellence is not a terrible development. Here is another American hero who, although he did serve in the military, is not remembered for his great victories in battle. :)

Charles Lindbergh

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/LindberghStLouis.jpg

Sahson

06-29-2011, 09:45 PM

http://www.trailergypsies.com/_images/New-Ulm-Hermann-2.jpg

ARMINIUS

was a chieftain of the Germanic Cherusci who defeated a Roman army in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. His influence held an allied coalition of Germanic tribes together in opposition to the Romans but after decisive defeats by the Roman general Germanicus, nephew of the Emperor Tiberius, his influence waned and he was assassinated on the orders of rival Germanic chiefs. Although Arminius was ultimately unsuccessful in forging unity among the Germanic tribes, the loss of the Roman legions in the Teutoburg forest had a far-reaching effect on the subsequent history of both the ancient Germanic tribes and on the Roman Empire. The Romans were to make no more concerted attempts to conquer and permanently hold Germania beyond the river Rhine.

Eldritch

07-01-2011, 08:09 PM

Matti is also famous for his quotes:
“Every chance is an opportunity."
"Tomorrow is always the future.”
"When you're alone up on the jumping tower it's up yours[up to you]"
"Sometimes I get a feeling that I have done this before - a Bon voyage [Deja vu]"
"There's a fifty-sixty chance"

He has said so much, there's a whole book full of Matti quotes!

My favourite is "if they kick me off the national ski jumping team, I'm moving to Copenhagen and applying for Swedish citizenship !!1!" :thumb001:

Laubach

07-03-2011, 07:46 PM

Emperor D. Pedro II

Dom Pedro II (English: Peter II; 2 December 1825 – 5 December 1891), nicknamed "the Magnanimous",[1][2] was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years.[A] Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of the House of Braganza (Portuguese: Bragança). His father's abrupt abdication and flight to Europe in 1831 left a five-year-old Pedro as Emperor and led to a grim and lonely childhood and adolescence. Obliged to spend his time studying in preparation for rule, he knew only brief moments of happiness and encountered few friends of his age. His experiences with court intrigues and political disputes during this period greatly affected his later character. Pedro II grew into a man with a strong sense of duty and devotion toward his country and his people. On the other hand, he increasingly resented his role as monarch.

Inheriting an empire on the verge of disintegration, Pedro II turned Portuguese-speaking Brazil into an emerging power in the international arena. The nation grew to be distinguished from its Hispanic neighbors on account of its political stability, zealously guarded freedom of speech, respect for civil rights, vibrant economic growth and especially for its form of government: a functional, representative parliamentary monarchy. Brazil was also victorious in three international conflicts (the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the Paraguayan War) under his rule, as well as prevailing in several other international disputes and domestic tensions. Pedro steadfastly pushed through the abolition of slavery despite opposition from powerful political and economic interests. A savant in his own right, the Emperor established a reputation as a vigorous sponsor of learning, culture and the sciences. He won the respect and admiration of scholars such as Charles Darwin, Victor Hugo and Friedrich Nietzsche, and was a friend to Richard Wagner, Louis Pasteur and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, among others.

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4023/dompedroiicirca1887.jpg

Pallantides

07-15-2011, 02:05 PM

Julebruskongen(Christmas-Soda King) from Drammen in Buskerud.
gJg5btxIjYA
LWxYrPswG9s

http://static.vg.no/uploaded/image/bilderigg/2006/12/18/1166444868924_177.jpg
http://static.vg.no/leonora/bildarkiv/1134921273.49809.jpg
http://www.nybyen.no/humor/video/Julebruskongen.JPG
http://bilder.vgb.no/5/4col/img_475980be18fec.jpg
http://www.gaaping.no/julebruskongen1.jpg
http://gfx.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2004/12/05/julebrusXart280.jpg

Boudica

07-15-2011, 02:21 PM

http://serafinosays.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Pictures-Of-Marines.jpg
http://pro-patria.us/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/M14_DM.246192456_std.jpg
http://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/0317-us-military/7583488-1-eng-US/0317-us-military_full_600.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7YZY9r2yxLM/TeN-odUEVfI/AAAAAAAABa4/ZwXRbakF1Ik/s1600/American_Military_Cemetery-Bayeux.jpg

Allenson

07-15-2011, 02:51 PM

Ethan Allen:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Allen

Kind of an ugly dude, but a Vermont hero all the same.

http://www.nndb.com/people/297/000049150/allen80.jpg

We Allens rock.

Adrian

07-15-2011, 03:04 PM

Pirro of Epir

The Ripper

07-15-2011, 03:48 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Lonnrot2.jpg

Elias Lönnrot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Lönnrot), collector of traditional oral poetry and compiler and editor of the Kalevala. He built up interest for the modern Finnish national romantic project, and one could argue, laid its foundations as an independent national culture. He was also a champion and developer of the Finnish language and a doctor who helped the poor of his native Sammatti.

Gaztelu

07-15-2011, 05:57 PM

A modern day hero:

http://i354.photobucket.com/albums/r435/phanandainhan/xabi_alonso.jpg

Xabier Alonso Olano is a Spanish World Cup-winning footballer who currently plays for Real Madrid C.F.

An old hero:

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll265/edjoc/StIgnatiusofLoyola.jpg

Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish knight from a Basque noble family, hermit, priest since 1537, and theologian, who founded the Society of Jesus and was its first Superior General.

johngaunt

07-15-2011, 06:54 PM

Richard the Lionheart

Reported to have been 6'2, huge for the time, with fiery red hair, this Englishman earnt the reputation as a bit of a berserker on the battlefield (hence lionheart)

http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/RichardLionheart.jpg

Corporal Bryan Budd VC

As they moved forward the section came under a withering fire that incapacitated three of his men. The continued enemy fire and these losses forced the section to take cover. But, Corporal Budd continued the assault on his own, knowing full well the likely consequences of doing so without the close support of his remaining men. He was wounded but continued to move forward, attacking and killing the enemy as he rushed their position. He killed 7 taliban by himself before securing the position.

Inspired by Corporal Budd's example, the rest of the platoon reorganised and pushed forward their attack, eliminating more of the enemy and eventually forcing their withdrawal.

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5ZrTXNLKFQk/Ssb47Tv_QwI/AAAAAAAAEL8/SuAaD7FZve8/s400/Cpl-Bryan-Budd-VC_352x235.jpg&imgrefurl=http://iom-rmpa.blogspot.com/2009/10/vc-hero-immortalised-in-painting.html&usg=__F30gOk9e8FFQrkWloF7x8B38gAo=&h=235&w=352&sz=16&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=om4V5MH7k2nkGM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=170&ei=QIwgTvSQCMTXsgam_s2MAg&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCorporal%2BBryan%2BBudd%2BVC%26um%3D1 %26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D610%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=862&vpy=320&dur=872&hovh=183&hovw=275&tx=178&ty=128&page=1&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:16,s:0

Blossom

07-15-2011, 06:57 PM

http://decabo.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/batman2.jpg

Groenewolf

07-15-2011, 07:01 PM

http://www.strabrecht.nl/sectie/ckv/06b/SchilderNl/73_Rembrandt_detail_Julius_Civilis_1661.jpg

Julius Civilis, leader and organizer of the uprising against the Romans when the later violated the terms of the alliance.

OneWolf

07-15-2011, 07:16 PM

George Bush.......

http://www.woodtrimdash.com/Bush_Binoculars%20New.jpg

:embarrassed

Lucretius

07-15-2011, 07:33 PM

Tommaso Campanella,great man and excellent philosopher,being excellent has caused him so many troubles with the church.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Cozza_Tommaso_Campanella.jpg

Le duc d'Abrantès

07-15-2011, 07:41 PM

Joaquim Mouzinho de Albuquerque

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/88/Mouzinho_a.jpg/468px-Mouzinho_a.jpg

Mouzinho Joaquim Augusto de Albuquerque (Batalha, 12 November 1855 - Lisbon, 8 January 1902) was a Portuguese cavalry officer who won great fame in Portugal for the capture of the nguni emperor Gungunhana Chaimite (1895) and the subsequent conduct of the pacification campaign of subjugation of local populations to the Portuguese colonial administration, in what would become Mozambique. One of the most brilliant Portuguese military figures, hero of Chaimite and Gaza during the glorious campaigns in Africa (1894-1895), and one of the most remarkable colonial administrators.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Chaimite.jpg

The spectacular capture of Gungunhana and a press campaign which has arisen upon his arrival at Lisbon, made of Mouzinho Albuquerque a widely respected figure in the Portuguese society of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It was then seen as symbol of hope and of Portuguese reaction to the threat posed by the expansionism of the great European powers at the time for the interests of the Portuguese in Africa.

He was governor of the Gaza district and Governor of Mozambique, a post he resigned in 1898, when he returned to Portugal. He was appointed responsible for the education of the royal prince D. Luis Filipe de Bragança. He committed suicide in 1902, although some sources attribute the death to homicide.

Turkophagos

07-16-2011, 12:11 AM

Cynaegirus

Cynegeirus or Cynaegeirus (Greek: Κυνέγειρος or Κυναίγειρος, ?-490 BC) was an ancient Greek hero of Athens and brother of the playwright Aeschylus.

He was the son of Euphorion from Eleusis and member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica. In 490 BC Cynegeirus and his brother Aeschylus, fought to defend Athens against Darius's invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon. Despite the numerical superiority of the Persians, they were routed and fled to their ships. The Athenians pursued the Persians back to their ships, and Cynegeirus in his attempt to push away a Persian ship with his bare hands had his hand cut off at the wrist and died. According to another version of his death, recorded by the Roman historian Justin, when Cynaegyrus lost his right hand, he grasped the enemy's vessel with his left. Here the hero, having successively lost both his hands, hangs on by his teeth, and even in his mutilated state fought desperately with the last mentioned weapons, " like a rabid wild beast!"

The incident of the heroic death of Cynegeirus became an emblem of cultural memory in ancient Greece and was described in literature in order to inspire patriotic feelings to future generations.It was also painted by Polygnotus on the Stoa Poikile in Athens in 460 BC, while the ancient traveler and geographer Pausanias described the painting in his 2nd century AD work.

Don

07-16-2011, 12:19 AM

http://www.aceros-de-hispania.com/imagen/espadas-cid/charlton-heston.jpg
(No, not charlton heston, despite he did a great job...)

Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar. El Cid. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Cid)

The paradigm of a Hero.

http://enunlugardelared.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/elcid.jpg

Adrian

07-16-2011, 10:25 AM

Skanderbeg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skanderbeg

Thraex

07-16-2011, 10:28 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Albanian_Grand_Viziers

Fixed that for ya.

Ushtari

07-16-2011, 10:40 AM

Fixed that for ya.
While we fought and kept our lands free from Turks, you were simply a vassal nation for them. You could if you want, ally with the Vatican and Skenderbeg, but choosed to give your military support to Skenderbegs enemy. You had the chance to get rid of them once and for all, but you had it good as a vassal nation:rolleyes:

Adrian

07-16-2011, 10:40 AM

Adem Jashari.

Adrian

07-16-2011, 10:41 AM

While we fought and keept our lands free from Turks, you were simply a vassal nation for them. You could if you want, ally with the Vatican and Skenderbeg, but choosed to give your military support to Skenderbegs enemy. You had the chance to get rid of them once and for all, but you had it good as a vassal nation:rolleyes:

Futja kurves. Mos humb kohe me te ;)

Te pershendes vella :)

Loki

07-16-2011, 11:11 AM

The guy in my avatar - Andries Pretorius. A close relative of mine, I am descended from one of his uncles. He was the most respected and influential South African of his time, his son (the first president of the Boer republic of the Transvaal) founded SA's capital city Pretoria (which was named after him). His looks run strong in my paternal line, I've been told I look like him (especially when I sport a moustache :P ).

Pretorius was a great commander - and he had one of the most spectacular military victories ever in history at Blood River (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blood_River), where 464 of his men defeated about 20,000 Zulus - only 3 wounded on their side, while over 3,000 Zulus were killed. The British never had such success against the Zulus.

Said of him:

A female admirer wrote of him as "a handsome, tall figure of between six and seven feet, upright, friendly, and captivating."

After the bitterness of the Anglo-Boer struggles had died down, Pretorius frequently came into amicable intercourse with British officials, who invariably spoke of him in terms not merely of high respect but of warm friendliness.

Perhaps the highest testimony to the regard in which he was universally held is the fact that, as he lay on his deathbed, several native chiefs who had heard of his illness and had come to pay their respects exhibited intense grief "as they knelt successively and kissed his hand." He died on July 23, 1853, at Magaliesberg.

Aces High

07-16-2011, 11:18 AM

British never had such success against the Zulus.

Maybe...but seeing as we defeated both the zulus and the Boers and got the country into the bargain i think we can say without too much exageration that the British came out on top.:cool:

We may have lost the odd battle....but we always won the wars.

Loki

07-16-2011, 11:20 AM

Maybe...but seeing as we defeated both the zulus and the Boers and got the country into the bargain i think we can say without too much exageration that the British came out on top.:cool:

We may have lost the odd battle....but we always won the wars.

That is true, but then again the British Empire had massive numbers on their side. ;) I'm taking about specific battles. You don't want to compare Isandlwana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana) with Blood River ...

Joe McCarthy

07-16-2011, 11:36 AM

We may have lost the odd battle....but we always won the wars.

Now might be the time to show you a pic of a guy named George Washington. Do a bit of reading on Lord Charles Cornwallis and the Yorktown campaign.

Aces High

07-16-2011, 11:42 AM

True,but i look at the bigger picture.
For instance look at Jan Smuts,the most fervent anti Briton there was....who in the end was eating out of the benevolant hand of the British empire like a little well trained lap dog.

We might have lost a few battles,but we knew how to win the war.

Nothing to be taken away from Boer victories of course or skill in the bush.(not an easy thing for me to admit being Rhodesian)

Aces High

07-16-2011, 11:45 AM

Now might be the time to show you a pic of a guy named George Washington.

Intercene rivalry doesnt count,fighting amongst ourselves.We do that when theres nobody else to fight.

Joe McCarthy

07-16-2011, 11:50 AM

Loki

07-16-2011, 11:50 AM

For instance look at Jan Smuts,the most fervent anti Briton there was....who in the end was eating out of the benevolant hand of the British empire like a little well trained lap dog.

LOL? Jan Smuts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_smuts) was an asset to the British Empire, more than the other way around. He fought the British in the Boer War, but afterwards for the British in both world wars, even as a field marshal in WW2. But you are right, many Boers consider him a traitor. My father did.

El Comunero Errante

07-16-2011, 01:18 PM

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/blasdelezo.jpg

You see, all that rape and pillage stuff is decidedly less desirable when you're the one getting raped and pillaged, and for most of the Golden Age of Piracy it was Spain's galleons and doubloons getting forcibly confiscated in the name of some other random European crown. The Spanish had done a damned impressive job of conquering a massive, formidable continent-spanning empire and milking it for enough valuable metal to give a set of gold teeth to the Martian Face, and they didn't really appreciate a bunch of dirty gringos dishing out sail-by shootings, murdering their people and making off with all their hard-earned shit. Sometimes there wasn't much they could do about it – government-sponsored privateers (not to mention formal enemy navies) were pretty adept at taking whatever they could by force of violence and they weren't exactly interested in going easy on the Spanish just because they'd done all the hard work of exploiting the natives for valuable resources. But every once in a while, a man would rise up – a guy like the insanely-hardcore one-armed, one-eyed, one-legged Admiral Don Blas de Lezo y Olavarrieta – and kick his awesome-looking peg leg so far into those buccaneers' rectums that they'd be picking splinters out of their teeth for months. But Blas de Lezo was even more than that – this guy was so crotch-destroyingly awesome that not only did he whip the dicks off of the navies of four European powers and destroy squadrons of pirate ships, but he also commanded the Spanish military in the most dominant ass-pounding suffered by the British Admiralty in the 18th century.

More on : http://www.badassoftheweek.com/blasdelezo.html

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/pujol.jpg

Being the guy who almost single-handedly ensured that the Germans were completely unprepared the Allied invasion of Normandy is pretty damn impressive. Doing it without so much as lifting a rifle is so badass that I think I just crapped.

Juan Pujol Garcia, the man who may possibly be the most successful double-agent in history, is the complete opposite of everything you think about when you think of badass secret agents. He was ordinary-looking, married, balding, and wore kind of nerdy glasses, and never owned a wristwatch that shot lasers. He never snuck into a top-secret high-security enemy facility disguised as a frogman, flying side-kicked a dude into a nuclear reactor, and stole biological weapons schematics from a rogue terrorist nation. He didn't lead foreign authorities on high-speed car chases through crowded streets, plow commandeered armored vehicles through blown glass museums, or stop the Doomsday Laser from fragnosticating the human population into radioactive ash by flicking a coin into the machine seconds before it activated. He didn't have illicit affairs, sleep with piles of beautiful women stacked up on top of each other, or gamble away millions in complicated casino table games that don't make any goddamned sense to anybody watching. No, this unconventional spy-tastic badass had one thing going for him – he was probably the best bullshit artist ever. That's all he needed to weave a web of intrigue so hardcore it would make Tom Clancy start barfing blood.

more here: http://www.badassoftheweek.com/pujol.html

Trying to avoid turning this thread into another Spanish monopoly I will limitate to mention some Spanish heroes that have been largely forgotten and not the much more obvious traditional list

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Comuneros.jpg

The Revolt of the Comuneros (Spanish: Guerra de las Comunidades de Castilla, "War of the Communities of Castile") was an uprising by citizens of Castile against the rule of Charles V and his administration between 1520 and 1521. At its height, the rebels controlled the heart of Castile, ruling the cities of Valladolid, Tordesillas, and Toledo.

The names of Maldonado, Padilla and Bravo, are still, for those Castilians who know what being Castilian means, the symbol of defiance against foreign rule. This guys were the real Preservationists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Comuneros

Indiohammer

07-16-2011, 01:29 PM

José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi
http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/efemerides/junio/2127lizar.gif

José Joaquín Fernández de Lizardi (1776–1827), Mexican writer and political journalist, best known as the author of El Periquillo Sarniento (1816), reputed to be the first novel written in Latin America.

Lizardi, as he is generally known, was born in Mexico City when it was still the capital of the colonial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain. His father was a physician employed in and around Mexico City, who for a time supplemented the family incoming by writing. His mother likewise came from a family of modest but "decent" means; her own father had been a bookseller in the nearby city of Puebla.

The death of Lizardi’s father after a short illness in 1798 forced the young man to leave his studies in the Colegio de San Ildefonso and enter the civil service as a minor magistrate in the Taxco-Acapulco region. He married in Taxco in 1805.

The necessity of providing for a growing family led Lizardi to supplement his meager income as his father had, by writing. He began his literary career in 1808 by publishing a poem in honor of Ferdinand VII of Spain. Though Ferdinand VII later became a target of nationalist rage among pro-independence Mexicans because of his tendency toward despotism, his politics were still unknown in 1808, the year of the Napoleonic invasion of Spain. With Napoleon’s brother-in-law usurping the Spanish throne and the legitimate king in exile, raising a public voice in his favor was a patriotic stance for a Mexican intellectual, and in line with Lizardi’s later proto-nationalist views.

At the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence in November 1810, Morelos’s insurgent forces fought their way into Taxco where Lizardi was heading the local government as acting Subdelegado (the highest provincial government position in the colonial system). After an initial insurgent victory, Lizardi tried to play both sides: he turned over the city’s armory to the insurgents, but he also informed the viceroyalty of rebel movements. Judged in the context of his later writings, these actions do not appear hypocritical. Lizardi was always supportive of the intellectual aims and reformist politics of the insurgents, but was equally opposed to war and bloodshed. By peacefully capitulating Taxco to the insurgents, he aimed to avoid loss of life in the city then under his command. Following the royalist recapture of Taxco in January 1811, Lizardi was taken prisoner as a rebel sympathizer and sent with the other prisoners of war to Mexico City. There he appealed successfully to the viceroy, arguing that he had acted only to protect Taxco and its citizens from harm.

Lizardi was now free and living in Mexico City, but he had lost his job and his possessions. He turned now to full-time writing and publishing to support his family, publishing more than twenty lightly satirical poems in broadsheets and pamphlets in the course of the year. After a limited freedom of the press was declared in Mexico on October 5, 1812 (see Spanish Constitution of 1812), Lizardi quickly organized one of the first non-governmental newspapers in the country. The first issue of his El Pensador Mexicano ("The Mexican Thinker," a title he adopted as his own pseudonym) came out on October 9, just four days after press freedom was allowed.

In his journalism, Lizardi turned from the light social criticism of his earlier broadsheets to direct commentary on the political problems of the day, attacking the autocratic tendencies of the viceregal government and supporting the liberal aspirations represented by the Cortes in Spain. His articles show the influence of Enlightenment ideas derived from clandestine readings of forbidden books by Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, a hazardous route to take in those hopeful but uncertain times. In the ninth issue of El Pensador Mexicano (December 1812), Lizardi attacked viceroy Francisco Javier Venegas directly, resulting in his arrest. He continued to issue the paper from his jail cell, but he dismayed pro-independence readers by suppressing his sympathies for the insurgents and muting critiques of the system that had imprisoned him. When a new viceroy, Félix María Calleja, was named in March 1813, Lizardi lavished praise on him; the viceroy responded by freeing Lizardi after seven months of jail.

Lizardi continued to write and publish his periodicals after his release, but increased attention from royalist censors and the Inquisition muted his critical tone. When victory over Napoleon in Europe led to the reestablishment of an authoritarian monarchy, the overthrow of the Spanish Cortes, and the abrogation of freedom of the press in 1814, Lizardi turned from journalism to literature as a means of expressing his social criticism. This social and political conjuncture led to Lizardi's writing and publication of El Periquillo Sarniento, which is commonly recognized as the first Mexican and indeed the first Latin American novel.

Though it is a novel in form and scope, El Periquillo Sarniento resembled Lizardi’s periodicals in several ways: he printed and sold it in weekly chapter installments throughout 1816; he wove extensive commentary on the political and moral climate of Mexico into the narration; and, like his periodicals, the novel was eventually halted by censorship. The first three volumes slipped past the censor, as Lizardi had hoped they would in their fictionalized guise, but Lizardi’s direct attack on the institution of slavery in the fourth volume was enough to have the publication stopped. The final sixteen chapters of El Periquillo were only published in 1830 - 1831, after Lizardi’s death and a decade following Mexican independence. Lizardi’s other works of fiction also appeared by installments during the years of renewed royalist repression that lasted until 1820: Fábulas (collection of fables, 1817), Noches tristes (novel, 1818), La Quijotita y su prima (novel, 1818–1819), and Don Catrín de la Fachenda (completed 1820, published 1832).

With the re-establishment of the liberal Spanish constitution in 1820, Lizardi returned to journalism, only to be attacked, imprisoned, and censored again by a changing roster of political enemies. Royalists repressed him until the independence of Mexico in 1821; centralists opposed to his federalist leanings attacked him after independence; throughout, he suffered attacks by the Catholic hierarchy, opposed to his Masonic leanings.

Lizardi died of tuberculosis in 1827 at the age of 50. Because of his family’s extreme poverty he was buried in an anonymous grave, without the epitaph he had hoped would be engraved on his tombstone: "Here lie the ashes of the Mexican Thinker, who did the best he could for his country."

Pallantides

07-16-2011, 10:35 PM

Odd and Geir
http://www.filmweb.no/bilder/multimedia/archive/00094/Odd_fra_Slipp_Jimmy__94596b.jpghttp://www.dvdhuset.no/skjermbilder/filmlex/49963_l.jpg

johngaunt

07-16-2011, 10:38 PM

Odd and Geir
http://www.filmweb.no/bilder/multimedia/archive/00094/Odd_fra_Slipp_Jimmy__94596b.jpghttp://www.dvdhuset.no/skjermbilder/filmlex/49963_l.jpg

Someone is actually called odd?!

Does that have the same meaning in Noggy??:D

Pallantides

07-16-2011, 10:44 PM

Someone is actually called odd?!

Does that have the same meaning in Noggy??:D

Odd is a Norwegian name:)

ODD
Gender: Masculine

Usage: Norwegian

Possibly derived from Old Norse oddr meaning "point of a sword".

The English word 'odd' is 'rar' in Norwegian.

johngaunt

07-16-2011, 10:45 PM

That is true, but then again the British Empire had massive numbers on their side. ;) I'm taking about specific battles. You don't want to compare Isandlwana (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Isandlwana) with Blood River ...

Rorke's drift, those Welshmen were pretty handy when it came to close encounters.
http://www.rorkesdriftvc.com/

Its commonly known that the boers were better marksmen, and tought the Brits a thing or two before ww1. Luckily it did.

Infact in the first encounter between the Germans and the BEF in ww1, the Germans are said to have remarked that they thought every Brit had a machine gun due to their accuracy, they were dropping them like flies. Thanks, in part to the boers.

Source: http://www.harris-academy.com/departments/history/Trenches/danielh/danielh.4.htm

Althought Ive read it elsewhere too.

Odoacer

07-19-2011, 04:09 PM

Neil Armstrong

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0d/Neil_Armstrong_pose.jpg

Inese

07-19-2011, 04:36 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/lv/3/36/Berkis_Krisjanis.jpg

Krisjanis Berkis --- Latvian Riflemen in First Worldwar

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/lv/b/ba/Voldemārs_Veiss.jpg

Voldemars Veiss --- Lieutenant Colonel in the Latvian Army and a Standartenführer in the German Waffen-SS.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/lv/thumb/b/b0/O.Perro.jpg/180px-O.Perro.jpg

Oskars Perro --- First Latvian in Second Worldwar who was awarded with the iron cross.

Don

07-20-2011, 08:23 PM

Oskars Perro
:p

The Revolt of the Comuneros (Spanish: Guerra de las Comunidades de Castilla, "War of the Communities of Castile") was an uprising by citizens of Castile against the rule of Charles V and his administration between 1520 and 1521. At its height, the rebels controlled the heart of Castile, ruling the cities of Valladolid, Tordesillas, and Toledo.

The names of Maldonado, Padilla and Bravo, are still, for those Castilians who know what being Castilian means, the symbol of defiance against foreign rule. This guys were the real Preservationists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolt_of_the_Comuneros

My signature:
Antes de subir al cadalso, Juan de Padilla se dirigió a su camarada Juan Bravo con unas célebres palabras: "Señor Bravo: ayer era día de pelear como caballero...hoy es día de morir como cristiano". Ante esto, Juan Bravo pidió ser ejecutado antes que Padilla, "…para no ver la muerte de tan buen caballero". Horas más tarde, también fue ejecutado y decapitado el salmantino Francisco Maldonado.

Aprox translation.

Just before entering to the gallows, Juan de Padilla told his comrade Juan Bravo some famous words: "Señor Bravo: yesterday was day of fighting like Caballero... today is day to die like Christian." After these words, Juan Bravo asked to be executed before Padilla, "...to avoid the view of the death of such a good Caballero." . Hours later was also executed and beheaded the Salamantino (from Salamanca) Francisco de Maldonado."

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Comuneros.jpg
Don Juan de Padilla looking at the beheaded corpse of his admired comrade, el Caballero Don Juan Bravo, instants before his turn.

Don Juan de Padilla is a very important figure for my maternal lineage... the word "Fuensalida" is a clue to explain it.

esaima

07-20-2011, 09:29 PM

As far as I know Independence war´s lieutenant Kuperjanov was.

Julius Kuperjanov (1894-1919) was an Estonian military commander during the Estonian War of Independence and commanding officer of the Kuperjanov Partisan Battalion.

Kuperjanov was a schoolteacher in the village of Kambja. At the start of World War I, he was mobilised into the Imperial Russian Army and commissioned after receiving basic officer training. He was wounded in both legs.

In 1917 he joined the Estonian forces during the start of the War of Independence. In December 1918, he received permission to form a ranger battalion. Students were among the first to join the Tartu County Partisan Battalion.

On 14 January 1919, Julius Kuperjanov was among the liberators of Tartu. He died some weeks later of wounds received leading an attack during the decisive Battle of Paju.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Kuperjanov

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Kuperjanov.jpg/200px-Kuperjanov.jpg

http://www.kuperjanov.ee/images/764.jpg

http://www.histrodamus.ee/upload/files/paju2.jpg

Ouistreham

07-20-2011, 09:44 PM

The most unbelievable story ever told. But a true, abundantly documented story.

The teenage farm girl from Lorraine who became the greatest military leader of her time before she was 18.

Joan of Arc

Enough said.

http://catreims.free.fr/images/his013.gif

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Joan_of_arc_miniature_graded.jpg

The Ripper

07-21-2011, 02:51 PM

Mikael Granlund

http://eva01.statkal.fi/plus/img/hires/20110527/hires_110527ilmaveivi_lo.jpg

TBwTl3g9pAY

:thumb001::D

johngaunt

07-21-2011, 06:02 PM

Odoacer

07-21-2011, 06:24 PM

The French, being French, burned her at the stake.

Fantastic.

This is not entirely accurate, given the English involvement in her trial.

Lucretius

07-23-2011, 08:07 PM

Evangelista Torricelli

Great Phisician and mathematician,ergo,great philosopher.

http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/03/4703-004-85465A62.jpg

Horrible moustaches by the way.

Pallantides

07-23-2011, 10:34 PM

http://www.vgtv.no/#!id=42407

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/7600/oleoglise.png

Peerkons

07-23-2011, 10:42 PM

http://www.jzb.lv/files/images/krajumi/novadnieki/Kalpks_O.jpg
Oskars Kalpaks (January 6, 1882–March 6, 1919) was the commander of 1st Latvian Independent Battalion, also known as "Kalpaks Battalion".

Kalpaks was born to a farming family. Having decided to become a soldier he completed Irkutsk military school and then commenced service with the 183rd Pultusk Infantry Regiment. He displayed talent as a commander and heroism in battle during the First World War and was awarded the most significant Russian military decorations and made Regiment Commander in 1917.

Afer the proclamation of Latvia's independence on 18 November 1918, Kalpaks enlisted with the Ministry of Defence. He organised the defence of Vidzeme against Bolshevik attacks. On 31 December Kalpaks became Commander-in-Chief of all the armed units at the disposal of the Provisional Government of Latvia.

Under his leadership, Latvia's first armed formations became battle capable. On 28 February 1919, Kalpaks was awarded the rank of Colonel. From January to March 1919 the 1st Latvian Battalion fought with the German VI Reserve Corps to repel the Bolshevik raids into Kurzeme and this was the start of Latvia's struggle for liberation. On 6 March 1919 near Airītes, Kalpaks was killed in a skirmish with German Freikorps troops.

After his death, Kalpaks was posthumously awarded Latvia's highest military award, the Order of Lāčplēsis — first, second and third class.

Although never officially assigned to this rank or position, Kalpaks is regarded as the first Commander in Chief of Latvian Armed Forces.

Thraex

07-23-2011, 10:48 PM

Radomir Putnik, the eternal hero of All Serbia. He commandeered Serbian armies and decisively defeated the Austrians in several battles even as his health was deteriorating severely.

http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/2474/radomir.jpg

Amaterasu

08-03-2011, 05:25 AM

Uesugi Kenshinsama.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2f/Uesugi_Kenshin.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uesugi_Kenshin

Harry Lighthorse Lee (father of General Lee of the south).

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/HenryLee.jpeg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Lee_III

Laubach

08-03-2011, 05:31 AM

Alberto Santos Dumont

Alberto Santos-Dumont (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈsɐ̃tus duˈmõw̃]; July 20, 1873 – July 23, 1932) was a Brazilian early pioneer of aviation. Heir of a prosperous coffee producer family, Santos Dumont dedicated himself to science studies in Paris, France, where he spent most of his adult life.

Santos-Dumont designed, built and flew one of the first practical dirigibles. In doing so he demonstrated that routine, controlled flight was possible. This "conquest of the air", in particular winning the Deutsch de la Meurthe prize on October 19, 1901 on a flight that rounded the Eiffel Tower, made him one of the most famous people in the world during the early 20th century.

In addition to his pioneering work in airships, Santos-Dumont made the first European public flight of an airplane on October 23, 1906. Designated 14-bis or Oiseau de proie (French for "bird of prey"), the flying machine was the first fixed-wing aircraft witnessed by the European press and French aviation authorities to take off and successfully fly. Santos-Dumont is considered the "Father of Aviation" in Brazil, his native country.[2] His flight is the first to have been certified by the Aéro Club de France and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).[3][4]

Santos-Dumont occupied the 38th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, from 1931 until his death in 1932.

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4576/albertosantosdumont02.jpg

Aces High

08-05-2011, 09:27 AM

NqNVyO6MGL0

Smaland

08-06-2011, 04:39 AM

"666" were the last three digits of this aircraft's tail number, and it had a reputation for getting "shot to h*ll" every time it went up on a mission. "Old 666" was the nickname for a B-17E bomber that was flown by Major Jay Zeamer, MOH and the rest of his crew during World War II. Zeamer, fellow Medal of Honor winner Joe Sarnoski, and the rest of the crew have been forgotten, and so they deserve to be remembered. The video below tells their story.

6Im086TCu3I

Logan

08-07-2011, 10:03 PM

An old one.

http://www.vhinkle.com/feudal/beowulf-map.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Beowulf.firstpage.jpeg
http://www.personal.kent.edu/~areischu/Beowulf.jpg

Cymel

08-07-2011, 10:28 PM

Wilhelm Tell

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/Gessler_und_Tell.jpg/800px-Gessler_und_Tell.jpg

Frederick

08-07-2011, 10:47 PM

Just saw this is the "War and Military" part of the forum.
And that hero is no military hero. So I edited him out. ;)

SaxonCeorl

08-07-2011, 10:51 PM

Gail Halvorsen - The "Candy Bomber"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Gail_Halvorsen_ca._1983.jpg/220px-Gail_Halvorsen_ca._1983.jpg

Colonel Gail Halvorsen (born October 10, 1920) is a retired career officer and command pilot in the United States Air Force known as the original Candy Bomber or the "Rosinenbomber" in Germany. He is best known for piloting C-47s and C-54s during the Berlin airlift during 1948–1949.

Shortly before landing at the Tempelhof airport in the American sector of Berlin, Halvorsen would drop candy attached to parachutes to children below. This action, which was dubbed Operation Little Vittles and sparked similar efforts by other crews, was the source of the popular name for the pilots: the candy bombers. Halvorsen had wanted to help raise the morale of the children during the time of uncertainty and privation.

Halvorsen started by giving a few treats to children watching the planes from outside the Tempelhof base. Wanting to give more, he promised to drop more candy from his plane the next day. Because the planes would arrive every 90 seconds, the children naturally couldn't distinguish his aircraft from the others. However, Halvorsen promised to wiggle the wings to identify himself, which led to his nickname "Onkel Wackelflügel" ("Uncle Wiggly Wings"). The other American candy bombers became known as the Rosinenbombers (Raisin Bombers). Halvorsen's initiative drew the attention of the operation's commanding officer, Lieutenant General William H. Tunner, who approved of it and ordered it expanded into Operation Little Vittles.

The operation was soon noticed by the press and gained widespread attention. A wave of public support led to donations which enabled Halvorsen and his crew to drop 850 pounds of candy. By the end of the airlift, around 25 plane crews had dropped 23 tons of chocolate, chewing gum, and other candies over various places in Berlin. The Confectioners Association of America donated large amounts to the effort, and American school children cooperated in attaching the candies to parachutes.

Halvorsen's actions as the original candy bomber may have had a substantial impact on the postwar perception of Americans in Germany, and it is still pointed to as a symbol of German-American relations. He has appeared many times on German TV over the years, often paired with some of the children, now grown adults, who received his candy parachutes. In 1974 he was decorated with the "Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz" (Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany), one of Germany's highest Medals. During the opening march for the 2002 Winter Olympics on February 8, Halvorsen carried the German team's national placard into Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium.

In 2008, Halvorsen was honored as Grand Marshal of the German-American Steuben Parade in New York City. He was celebrated by tens of thousands of spectators on Fifth Avenue.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Halvorsen

Smaland

08-08-2011, 07:31 AM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/LauriTorni2.jpg
A 1954 U.S. Army photograph of Lauri Törni (1919-1965), under his American name Larry Thorne.

Törni saw action in the

• Winter War of 1939-40, the
• Continuation War of 1941-44, the
• Waffen SS in 1944-45, and the
• Vietnam War, from 1963-1965.

Legacy (from the Wikipedia article)

His U.S. memorial is the Larry Thorne Headquarters Building, 10th SFG(A), Fort Carson, Colorado. In Finland, the survivors, friends and families of Detachment Törni formed the Lauri Törni Tradition Guild.

In the book The Green Berets by Robin Moore, the "Sven Kornie" main character in the first chapter was based on Larry Thorne. The book was later made into a movie by the same name starring John Wayne.

In the 2004 TV programme Suuret Suomalaiset ("Great Finns"), Larry Thorne was voted the 52nd greatest Finn of all time.

"US Special Forces Legend Larry Thorne" (http://www.suite101.com/content/us-special-forces-legend-larry-thorne-a62447)

Wikipedia article about Törni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauri_T%C3%B6rni)

Lasituacion

08-08-2011, 07:40 AM

NK0jly2nwRU

Not national but one of mine

Sabinae

08-08-2011, 08:19 AM

BeerBaron

08-08-2011, 08:30 AM

Stefan the Great (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_III_of_Moldavia)
http://storage0.dms.mpinteractiv.ro/media/401/321/15246/5133471/2/stefancoverinterior.jpg
http://beautifulmoldova.com/cugaleriefoto/documents/Stefan_cel_Mare.jpg

Is that in bucharest or constanta? There is one that i saw in constanta that was different but made in the same style in a park.

Sabinae

08-08-2011, 08:40 AM

Is that in bucharest or constanta? There is one that i saw in constanta that was different but made in the same style in a park.

The statue of Stefan the Great I posted is from Iasi.
source (http://www.geolocation.ws/v/W/4d5782561d41c86ece04ba1a/the-statue-of-stephen-the-great-in-front/en)

safinator

10-30-2011, 04:52 PM

Who gave the indipendence to Albania

http://www.sa-kra.ch/sakras-art/images/Pikturat/Ismail%20Qemali.jpg

Turkophagos

10-30-2011, 05:04 PM

Pirro of Epir

Pyrrhus or Pyrrhos (Greek: Πύρρος, Pyrros; 319/318 BC–272 BC) was a Greek[1][2] general and statesman of the Hellenistic era.[3][4] He was king of the Greek tribe of Molossians,[3][5] of the royal Aeacid house[6] (from circa 297 BC), and later he became king of Epirus (r. 306–302, 297–272 BC) and Macedon (r. 288–284, 273–272 BC). He was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome.

The Molossians (Greek: Μολοσσοί, Molossoi) were an ancient Greek tribe that inhabited the region of Epirus since the Mycenaean era.[1] On their northeast frontier they had the Chaonians and to their southern frontier the kingdom of the Thesprotians, to their north were the Illyrians.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Map_of_ancient_Epirus_and_environs.png

Alex Delarge

10-30-2011, 05:30 PM

D. João I, or John I of Portugal:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_khJdq31MpvA/TKPMd8-k7nI/AAAAAAAABgU/7vgWYI2bDF4/s1600/Joao_I.jpg

After our first dynasty came to an end with a succession crisis, he stepped up as the illegitimate son of the previous king. At the same time the king of Spain also had pretentions to our throne. So Jonh I, by making an alliance with England, managed to drive the spanish away and started our most sucessful dynasty, the one that had a global empire. :)

That dynasty ended in 1580 when king Sebastian (pictured below) died heirless and his uncle Phillip II of Spain took our throne.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Rei_D._Sebasti%C3%A3o.jpg

microrobert

10-30-2011, 05:54 PM

http://www.semlh35.fr/Photos/Surcouf.gif

Robert Surcouf (12 December 1773–8 July 1827) was a famous French corsair. During his legendary career, he captured 47 ships and was renowned for his gallantry and chivalry, earning the nickname of Roi des Corsaires ("King of Corsairs").

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Surcouf

Matritensis

10-30-2011, 06:07 PM

askra

10-30-2011, 06:11 PM

http://www.circolosardegna.brianzaest.it/Eleonora%20d'Arborea.jpg

Eleanor of Arborea

from wikipedia
Eleanor (Sardinian: Eleonora) (1347 – 1404) was the giudicessa ("judge") of Arborea from 1383 to her death. She was one of the last — and most powerful and significant — Sardinian judges; as well as the island's most renowned heroine.

Biography

Born at Molins de Rei, Catalonia, Eleanor was the daughter of Marianus IV of Arborea, who had become in 1346 giudice of Arborea, on the west coast of Sardinia, and his wife Timbora de Roccabertí. It has been said that their family, the Cappai de Bas family, belonged to the House of Visconti. The house of Arborea, whose power extended over about one third of Sardinia, was the only independent part of the island at that point in history. During her childhood, she was raised with a natural tendency towards war and weapons.
Her father married Eleanor to Brancaleone Doria, a Genoese nobleman who held the fief of Castelgenovese, in order to strengthen local alliances. Marianus died in 1376 and was succeeded by his son Hugh III. In March 1383, there was a republican uprising in Arborea and Hugh was murdered. Eleanor defeated the rebels and became regent to her infant son Frederick, who as next male heir became the official monarch of Arborea.

The four historical realms of the Giudicati (at the time of Eleanor Arborea had expanded to much of the island, the Kingdom of Aragon holding the rest, comprising little more than Alghero and Cagliari).
For the next four years Arborea was at war with the Crown of Aragon, which claimed the island. It lost much of its Sardinian possessions to Eleanor. Arborea obtained almost all of the island during this war. After rallying Sardinian forces, Eleanor was able to negotiate a favourable treaty. Her eldest son Frederick died during this war and was succeeded by her younger son, Marianus V. An alliance was formed with Genoa which sustained Arborea's independence for another generation. She died at Oristano in 1404.

Eleanor composed the Carta de Logu, a body of laws which came into force in April 1395. They were considered to be far in advance of the laws of other countries, the penalty for most crimes being a fine, and the property rights of women being preserved. These laws remained in force in Sardinia until the Italian unification of 1861.

Eleanor was particularly interested in ornithology. As a friend of birds, she was the first to legislate protection to a certain species of bird (falcon). Based on this, the Eleonora's Falcon (Falco eleonorae) was named after her.

***

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/J.M._Angioy.jpeg

Juanne Maria Angioy

Giovanni Maria Angioy (Sardinian: Juanne Maria Angioy) (21 October 1751 – 22 February 1808) was a Sardinian politician and patriot and to this day he is considered a national hero in Sardinia.

Angioy guided the Sardinian Revolution (1794–1796) against the feudal privileges and laws that still existed on the island of Sardinia. For this reason he was persecuted from the house of Savoy that ruled Sardinia at the time: he had to escape from the island and found exile in France, where he died. Angioy was not only a politician, but also a university lecturer, judge at the Royal Audience, entrepreneur and banker.

Giovanni Maria Angioy is considered one of the greatest Sardinian patriots, as his political activity was eventually aimed at creating a Sardinian republic, free and independent, having eliminated the feudal yoke on the island.

Matritensis

10-30-2011, 06:20 PM

http://users.ipfw.edu/jehle/poesia/Garcila2.jpg

Garcilaso de la Vega,poet and soldier.KIA in France,in 1536.

Saturni

10-30-2011, 06:42 PM

http://withfriendship.com/images/i/40788/general-curtis-lemay.gif

Gen. Curtis LeMay, the man who kept WWIII from happening.

morski

10-30-2011, 07:15 PM

http://www.desant.net/files/tn/127442850621321.jpg

Hadzhi Dimitar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadzhi_Dimitar) and Stefan Karadzha (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Karadzha)

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/29786_398689209549_284290314549_4257622_1205494_n. jpg

Hristo Botev (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hristo_botev)

Хаджи Димитър

от Христо Ботев

Жив е той, жив е! Там на Балкана,

потънал в кърви лежи и пъшка

юнак с дълбока на гърди рана,

юнак във младост и в сила мъжка.

На една страна захвърлил пушка,

на друга сабля на две строшена;

очи темнеят, глава се люшка,

уста проклинат цяла вселена!

Лежи юнакът, а на небето

слънцето спряно сърдито пече;

жътварка пее нейде в полето,

и кръвта още по–силно тече!

Жътва е сега... Пейте, робини,

тез тъжни песни! Грей и ти, слънце,

в таз робска земя! Ще да загине

и тоя юнак... Но млъкни, сърце!

Тоз, който падне в бой за свобода,

той не умира: него жалеят

земя и небе, звяр и природа

и певци песни за него пеят...

Денем му сянка пази орлица,

и вълк му кротко раната ближи;

над него сокол, юнашка птица,

и тя се за брат, за юнак грижи!

Настане вечер – месец изгрее,

звезди обсипят сводът небесен;

гора зашуми, вятър повее, –

Балканът пее хайдушка песен!

И самодиви в бяла премена,

чудни, прекрасни, песен поемнат, –

тихо нагазят трева зелена

и при юнакът дойдат, та седнат.

Една му с билки раната върже,

друга го пръсне с вода студена,

третя го в уста целуне бърже, –

и той я гледа, – мила, зесмена!

"Кажи ми, сестро де – Караджата?

Де е и мойта вярна дружина?

Кажи ми, пък ми вземи душата, –

аз искам, сестро, тук да загина!"

И плеснат с ръце, па се прегърнат,

и с песни хвръкнат те в небесата, –

летят и пеят, дорде осъмнат,

и търсят духът на Караджата...

Но съмна вече! И на Балкана

юнакът лежи, кръвта му тече, –

вълкът му ближе лютата рана,

и слънцето пак пече ли – пече!

Hevneren

10-30-2011, 07:54 PM

Fridtjof Nansen (the man in my avatar).

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1922/nansen-bio.html

microrobert

10-30-2011, 08:43 PM

http://storage.canalblog.com/18/92/15075/30333285.jpg

Jean Mermoz (December 9, 1901, Aubenton, Aisne – December 7, 1936) was a French aviator, viewed as a hero by many in both Argentina and his native France, where many schools bear his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Mermoz

Joe McCarthy

10-30-2011, 09:04 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_C._York

http://nicesingles.com/SgtYork.jpg

Alvin Cullum York (December 13, 1887 – September 2, 1964) was one of the most decorated American soldiers in World War I.[1] He received the Medal of Honor for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest, taking 32 machine guns, killing 28 German soldiers and capturing 132 others. This action occurred during the U.S.-led portion of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France, which was part of a broader Allied offensive masterminded by Marshal Ferdinand Foch to breach the Hindenburg line and ultimately force the opposing German forces to capitulate.

ironman

10-30-2011, 09:30 PM

Captain Ralph Kerr CBE (16 August 1891 – 24 May 1941) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served in the First and Second World Wars, and was killed in the sinking of HMS Hood by the German battleship Bismarck at the Battle of the Denmark Strait.

http://i339.photobucket.com/albums/n449/ruffusruffcut/Ralph_Kerr.jpg

HMS Hood
Kerr took command of the battlecruiser HMS Hood on 15 February 1941. Command of the Navy's largest capital ship was a major change, Kerr having only previously commanded destroyers. He took her to sea on the completion of her refit in mid March, and carried out gunnery exercises and patrols off Iceland. He was commander of Hood for just three months, when he was killed at the Battle of the Denmark Strait, along with most of his crew, when Hood was sunk by the German battleship Bismarck. He was posthumously Mentioned in Despatches. Kerr is commemorated on Portsmouth Naval Memorial.

Sylvanus

10-30-2011, 10:07 PM

Janos Hunyadi - Iancu de Hunedoara - Sibinjanin Janko the "turkish thresher" the great warlord who defeated the superior force of the ottoman turk sultan Mehmed II at Belgrad (Fehervar, both of them mean Whitecastle) in 1456.

http://www.owl.hu/owl/3gallery/gownpic2007/2007_03_12q.jpg

Joe McCarthy

10-30-2011, 10:19 PM

The Lawspeaker

10-30-2011, 10:36 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Bol%2C_Michiel_de_Ruyter.jpg

Michiel Adriaenszoon de Ruyter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michiel_de_Ruyter) (Dutch pronunciation: [miˈχil ˈaˑdrijaˑnˌsoˑn də ˈrœy̆tər]; 24 March 1607 – 29 April 1676) is the most famous and one of the most skilled admirals in Dutch history. De Ruyter is most famous for his role in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century. He fought the English and French and scored several major victories against them, the best known probably being the Raid on the Medway. The pious De Ruyter was very much loved by his sailors and soldiers; from them his most significant nickname derived: Bestevaêr (older Dutch for 'grandfather'.)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Piet_Hein.jpg

Pieter Pietersen Heyn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Heyn) (25 November 1577 – 18 June 1629) was a Dutch naval officer and folk hero during the Eighty Years' War between the United Provinces and Spain.

Spanish treasure fleet

In 1628, Admiral Hein, with Witte de With as his flag captain, sailed out to capture a Spanish treasure fleet loaded with silver from their American colonies and the Philippines. With him was Admiral Hendrick Lonck and he was later joined by a squadron of Vice-Admiral Joost Banckert, as well as by the pirate Moses Cohen Henriques. Part of the Spanish fleet in Venezuela had been warned because a Dutch cabin boy had lost his way on Blanquilla and was captured, betraying the plan, but the other half from Mexico continued its voyage, unaware of the threat. Sixteen Spanish ships were intercepted; one galleon was taken after a surprise encounter during the night, nine smaller merchants were talked into a surrender; two small ships were taken at sea fleeing, four fleeing galleons were trapped on the Cuban coast in the Bay of Matanzas.

After some musket volleys from Dutch sloops their crews surrendered also and Hein captured 11,509,524 guilders of booty in gold, silver, and other expensive trade goods, as indigo and cochineal, without any bloodshed. The Dutch didn't take prisoners: they gave the Spanish crews ample supplies for a march to Havana. The released were surprised to hear the admiral personally giving them directions in fluent Spanish; Hein after all was well acquainted with the region as he had been confined to it during his internment after 1603. The treasure was the company's greatest victory in the Caribbean.

As a result, the money funded the Dutch army for eight months allowing it to capture the fortress 's Hertogenbosch and the shareholders enjoyed a cash dividend of 50% for that year. He returned to the Netherlands in 1629, where he was hailed as a hero. Watching the crowds cheering him standing on the balcony of the town hall of Leyden he remarked to the burgomaster: "Now they praise me because I gained riches without the least danger; but earlier when I risked my life in full combat they didn't even know I existed...". Hein was the first and the last to capture such a large part of a Spanish "silver fleet" from America.

morski

10-31-2011, 02:01 AM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Petko-voyvoda.jpg

Kapitan Petko Voyvoda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapitan_Petko_Voyvoda)

jiiKGCM4VYg

eYft44ZQmGs

MaYiHKQ2QNM

Rayna Popgeorgieva Futekova (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rayna_Popgeorgieva_Futekova)

r0KDznFhs5I

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petrova_Niva

SC6XNkEp0bA

Now that's very dear to me. I am a descendant of Bulgarians(born in the Ottoman Empire in Mosu Begli near Odrin) from Eastern Thrace- Odrin who fled the Mohammedan slaughter in 1913(that was basically an ethnic clensing) when Bulgaria was in war with all its neighbours- Serbia, Greece, Monte Negro, Romania and Turkey.

And that one is for the unknown soldier, i.e. for all the heroes who fought for the fatherland.

x7dtCJwRIDg

AussieScott

10-31-2011, 02:16 AM

Pauline Hanson - Founder of the political party "One Nation" in the early 90's

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2f/Pauline_Hanson.jpg/220px-Pauline_Hanson.jpg

If it was not for this women Australia would not be 92% white today. Her success, bought John Howard's rise and forced the Liberal (Conservatives of the liberal right) further to the conservative Right than anything possible in the last 30 years. Though in Howard's later years he betrayed Australia to a Eurasian future and the current Labor/Green party is continuing the trend.

Now we have the rise of Katter's Australian party, were the old Nationals are joining, abandoning the LNP(Liberal National party). The Progressive Labor/The Greens party despise them and the Liberals(fake conservatives of right liberalism) fear them.

Hopefully we will get our guns back, reduce immigration, improve our agrarian society, and secure our borders...:thumbs up:thumbs up:thumbs up:D:D:D:D

morski

10-31-2011, 02:50 AM

For all Christian Balkanians, defenders of the faith and Europe:

Battle of Chernomen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chernomen)

ivUTeM_17-k

microrobert

10-31-2011, 09:52 AM

http://www.grenoble-tourism.com/uploads/Image/9c/WEB_CHEMIN_421_1253277720.jpg

Pierre Terrail LeVieux, seigneur de Bayard (1473 – Rovasenda (VC) 30 April 1524) was a French soldier, generally known as the Chevalier de Bayard.

Throughout the centuries since his death, he has been known as "the knight without fear and beyond reproach" (le chevalier sans peur et sans reproche). He himself however, preferred the name given him by his contemporaries for his gaiety and kindness, "le bon chevalier", or "the good knight".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Terrail,_seigneur_de_Bayard

microrobert

10-31-2011, 10:02 AM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f2/Charles_Martel_01.jpg/300px-Charles_Martel_01.jpg

Charles Martel (Latin: Carolus Martellus) (c. 688 – 22 October 741), Also known as Charles the Hammer, was a Frankish military and political leader, who served as Mayor of the Palace under the Merovingian kings and ruled de facto during an interregnum (737–43) at the end of his life, using the title Duke and Prince of the Franks.

He is remembered for winning the Battle of Tours (also known as the Battle of Poitiers) in 732, in which he defeated an invading Muslim army and halted northward Islamic expansion in western Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martel

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Steuben_-_Bataille_de_Poitiers.png/705px-Steuben_-_Bataille_de_Poitiers.png

The Battle of Tours, also called the Battle of Poitiers

Pallantides

10-31-2011, 01:22 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Tordenskiold.jpg

Peter Jansen Wessel Tordenskiold (October 28, 1691 – November 12, 1720), commonly referred to as Tordenskjold (lit. Thunder Shield), was a Norwegian nobleman and an eminent naval flag officer in the service of the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy. He rose to the rank of Vice-Admiral for his services in the Great Northern War. Born in Trondheim, Peter Wessel travelled to Copenhagen in 1704, and was employed in the navy. He won a name for himself through audacity and courage, and was ennobled as Peter Tordenskiold by King Frederick IV in 1716. His greatest exploit came later that year, as he destroyed the supply fleet of Charles XII of Sweden at the Battle of Dynekilen. In 1720, he was killed in a duel. In Denmark as well as in Norway he is probably considered the most famous naval hero. His was an unusually successful rise in rank, considering he died when he was only 29 years old.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tordenskjold

The Ripper

10-31-2011, 01:51 PM

http://www.hs.fi/kuvat/iso_webkuva/1076152256800.jpeg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Grave_of_Eugen_Schauman.jpg

Eugen Schauman (10 May 1875 in Kharkov, Russian Empire – 16 June 1904 in Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland, Russian Empire) was a Finnish nationalist and nobleman who assassinated the Governor-General Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov.

Leliana

10-31-2011, 06:06 PM

Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, together with King Sobieski of Poland chief in command of the defenders of Vienna against the Ottomans.

http://sosheimat.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/ernst_rc3bcdiger_von_starhemberg.jpg

microrobert

10-31-2011, 06:25 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/79/Georges_guynemer_par_lucien.jpg

Georges Guynemer (24 December 1894 - 11 September 1917 missing) was a top fighter ace for France during World War I, and a French national hero at the time of his death.

Guynemer's death was a profound shock to France; nevertheless, he remained an icon for the duration of the war.

Remember Guynemer’s mottos: FAIRE FACE (face up to it) was then adopted by the French Air Force Academy (FAFA) as their motto. A few words that well expresses the French pilots’ bravery.

The WWI French ace Georges Guynemer used to say:

- “Il y a une limite à toute chose, et il faut toujours la dépasser.

“Everything has a limit which has always got to be surpassed.”

- “Lorsque l’on n’a pas tout donné, on n’a rien donné.”

“As long as you have not given your all, you have given nothing”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Guynemer

microrobert

10-31-2011, 07:00 PM

http://www.vokrugsveta.ru/encyclopedia/images/thumb/8/83/Ney.jpg/300px-Ney.jpg

Michel Ney, 1st Duc d'Elchingen, 1st Prince de la Moskowa (10 January 1769 – 7 December 1815) was a French soldier and military commander during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

He was one of the original 18 Marshals of France created by Napoleon I.

He was known as Le Rougeaud ("red faced" or "ruddy" by his men and nicknamed le Brave des Braves ("the bravest of the brave") by Napoleon.

When Napoleon was defeated, dethroned, and exiled for the second time in the summer of 1815, Ney was arrested (on 3 August 1815), and tried (4 December 1815) for treason by the Chamber of Peers.

On 6 December 1815 he was condemned, and executed by firing squad in Paris near the Luxembourg Garden on 7 December 1815 – an event that deeply divided the French public.

He refused to wear a blindfold and was allowed the right to give the order to fire, reportedly saying:

"Soldiers, when I give the command to fire, fire straight at my heart. Wait for the order. It will be my last to you. I protest against my condemnation. I have fought a hundred battles for France, and not one against her ... Soldiers, Fire!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Ney

Smaland

10-31-2011, 07:12 PM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/66/Roger_Taney_-_Healy.jpg/220px-Roger_Taney_-_Healy.jpg

Most Americans don't even know of Taney (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_B._Taney), let alone think of him as a hero; but he had the moral courage to stand alone against Abraham Lincoln and his usurpation of federal power, at the possible risk of prison.

According to Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution, "The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it." Article 1 is concerned with Congress, not the Presidency, and so this sentence deals with Congressional power alone.

In the spring of 1861, after the Battle of Fort Sumter, Lincoln began to move federal troops across Maryland to Washington, D.C. After some troop trains were attacked, and after it seemed as though Confederates might take control of the state, Lincoln unconstitutionally authorized federal army officers to suspend the right of habeas corpus if they thought it necessary.

John Merryman, a lieutenant in the Maryland militia, was arrested by Union general William H. Keim on 25 May, and imprisoned at Fort McHenry. Merryman's attorneys contacted Taney, and he responded with the writ of habeas corpus Ex parte Merryman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ex_parte_Merryman). Although the writ was ultimately ignored by Lincoln, it commanded General George Cadwalader, the fort's commander, to bring Merryman before Taney the next day.

Taney was concerned that he might be arrested for issuing the writ.
Taney's own memoir, completed from his unfinished autobiography by Samuel Tyler in 1872, refers to the Chief Justice's fears of arrest. According to Tyler, as Taney "left the house of his son-in-law, Mr. Campbell" en route to his courtroom "remarked that it was likely he should be imprisoned in Fort McHenry before night, but that he was going to Court to do his duty.

(From the Wiki article about the Taney Arrest Warrant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taney_Arrest_Warrant))

During Lincoln's presidency, Ward Hill Lamon was his friend and bodyguard. Although its veracity is disputed, in the 1880's he wrote a manuscript that suggested that Taney's concern about being arrested was not without foundation. In the document, Lamon stated that

After due consideration the administration determined upon the arrest of the Chief Justice. A warrant or order was issued for his arrest. Then arose the question of service. Who should make the arrest and where should the imprisonment be? This was done by the President with instructions to use his own discretion about making the arrest unless he should receive further orders from him.

(From the same Wiki article)

According to the same article, "The warrant was never served, according to Lamon, for reasons that are not given."

In his judicial opinion, Taney wrote that

These great and fundamental laws, which congress itself could not suspend, have been disregarded and suspended, like the writ of habeas corpus, by a military order, supported by force of arms. Such is the case now before me, and I can only say that if the authority which the constitution has confided to the judiciary department and judicial officers, may thus, upon any pretext or under any circumstances, be usurped by the military power, at its discretion, the people of the United States are no longer living under a government of laws, but every citizen holds life, liberty and property at the will and pleasure of the army officer in whose military district he may happen to be found.

Veneda

10-31-2011, 08:51 PM

Countess Emilia Plater (1806-1831) Polish-Lithuanian heroine

Countess Emilia Plater (Broel-Plater) was a Polish-Lithuanian noblewoman and revolutionary from the lands of the partitioned Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. She fought in the November Uprising of 1830-1831 (Polish-Russian War also known as the Cadet Revolution) and is considered a national hero in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus, which were former parts of the Commonwealth.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fAccTSJqtZU/TZqvobBVnII/AAAAAAAAC8g/xykdeFm71cA/s1600/anonymous+Emilia_Plater+a.png

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Emilia_Plater.PNG

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Mj64vGPk-o/TZqven-L0WI/AAAAAAAAC8c/GgQjW2IoN_8/s1600/j+rosen+Emila_Plater_conducting_Polish_scythemen_i n_1831.png
Emilia Plater leading Polish scythemen

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Emilija_Pliateryte_Reversum_2006.png
50 litas coin dedicated to the Uprising of 1831 and the 200th Birth Anniversary of its heroine Emilija Pliateryte

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/Emilija_Pliateryte_monument_in_Kapciamiestis.jpg
Monument of Emilija Pliateryte in Kapciamiestis, Lithuania, when she is buried

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilia_Plater

Malva

03-08-2012, 06:03 PM

Not only one...

On the 10th of march, the celebration of the "martyrs of the tradicion" will be held in Madrid to honor the memory of deads fallen in the crusade of 1936-39, along with those Carlists murdered by the ETA terrorism.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_M2pLQlUfS4Y/Sa1QILdLoxI/AAAAAAAAAIU/jMm0o3F5Po4/s400/antedios.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nrTRTgV5wm8/Tz7aPJdDWuI/AAAAAAAAA6E/0m5x1FlftCY/s1600/martires+de+la+tradicion.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Fo5f1tGdK-o/SdfP7f8_dxI/AAAAAAAABKs/DQHTqs6SC9o/s400/Recordatorio+1980,.jpg

Teyrn

03-09-2012, 03:14 AM

Barry Goldwater.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Barry_Goldwater_photo1962.jpg

Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr. Conservative".

Goldwater is the politician most often credited for sparking the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. He also had a substantial impact on the libertarian movement.

Goldwater rejected the legacy of the New Deal and fought through the conservative coalition to defeat the New Deal coalition. He mobilized a large conservative constituency to win the hard-fought Republican primaries. Goldwater's right-wing campaign platform ultimately failed to gain the support of the electorate and he lost the 1964 presidential election to incumbent Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson by one of the largest landslides in history, bringing down many Republican candidates as well. The Johnson campaign and other critics painted him as a reactionary, while supporters praised his crusades against the Soviet Union, labor unions, and the welfare state. His defeat allowed Johnson and the Democrats in Congress to pass the Great Society programs, but the defeat of so many older Republicans in 1964 also cleared the way for a younger generation of American conservatives to mobilize. Goldwater was much less active as a national leader of conservatives after 1964; his supporters mostly rallied behind Ronald Reagan, who became governor of California in 1967 and the 40th President of the United States in 1981.

Goldwater returned to the Senate in 1969, and specialized in defense policy, bringing to the table his experience as a senior officer in the Air Force Reserve. His greatest accomplishment was arguably the passage of the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, which restructured the higher levels of the Pentagon by increasing the power of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to direct military action. In 1974, as an elder statesman of the party, Goldwater successfully urged President Richard Nixon to resign when evidence of a cover-up in the Watergate scandal became overwhelming and impeachment was imminent. By the 1980s, the increasing influence of the Christian right on the Republican Party so conflicted with Goldwater's libertarian views that he became a vocal opponent of the religious right on issues such as abortion, gay rights and the role of religion in public life.

Jake Featherston

03-09-2012, 03:35 AM

He fought for the independence of Santa Catarina and Paranà from Brazil, for the secession of Uruguay from the Rioplatense Confederation, and finally for the Unification of Italy and in the USA Civil War.

Garibaldi did not fight on behalf of the Northern Unionists (with whom he sympathized):

At the outbreak of the American Civil War (in 1861), Garibaldi volunteered his services to President Abraham Lincoln. Garibaldi was offered a Major General's commission in the U.S. Army through the letter from Secretary of State William H. Seward to H. S. Sanford, the U.S. Minister at Brussels, July 17, 1861.[9] On September 18, 1861, Sanford sent the following reply to Seward:
He [Garibaldi] said that the only way in which he could render service, as he ardently desired to do, to the cause of the United States, was as Commander-in-chief of its forces, that he would only go as such, and with the additional contingent power—to be governed by events—of declaring the abolition of slavery; that he would be of little use without the first, and without the second it would appear like a civil war in which the world at large could have little interest or sympathy.[10]
According to Italian historian Petacco, "Garibaldi was ready to accept Lincoln's 1862 offer but on one condition: that the war's objective be declared as the abolition of slavery. But at that stage Lincoln was unwilling to make such a statement lest he worsen an agricultural crisis."[11] On August 6, 1863, after the Emancipation Proclamation had been issued, Garibaldi wrote to Lincoln: "Posterity will call you the great emancipator, a more enviable title than any crown could be, and greater than any merely mundane treasure."

I am not an expert on Garibaldi (by any means), but based on my limited reading with respect to the events of his life, he strikes me as an imperialist who despoiled southern Italy, and frankly an agent of British imperialism.

Jake Featherston

03-09-2012, 03:36 AM

"Old Hickory"

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Andrew_jackson_head.jpg/494px-Andrew_jackson_head.jpg

Andrew Jackson of Tennessee, 7th President of the USA (1829-1837)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_New_Orleans

Nixon

03-09-2012, 03:44 AM

Former Ontario Premier Mike Harris

http://i.thestar.com/images/9e/cc/3cdaf0064bf0ab67d719c54464b7.jpeg

microrobert

03-09-2012, 04:04 AM

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/Robert_Surcouf_portrait.jpg/220px-Robert_Surcouf_portrait.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Saint-Malo_-_Surcouf_et_le_Fort_National_crop.jpg/170px-Saint-Malo_-_Surcouf_et_le_Fort_National_crop.jpg

Statue of Surcouf in Saint-Malo

Robert Surcouf (12 December 1773–8 July 1827) was a famous French corsair.
During his legendary career, he captured 47 ships and was renowned for his gallantry and chivalry, earning the nickname of Roi des Corsaires ("King of Corsairs").

Quote

Discussing with a British officer:

"You French fight for money, while we British fight for honour."

"Sir, a man fights for what he lacks the most."

Nairi

03-09-2012, 04:32 AM

Hayk

BC 2492

Hayk Nahapet (Armenian: Հայկ; also known as Haig; transliterated as Haik) is the legendary patriarch and founder of the Armenian nation. His story is told in the History of Armenia attributed to the Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi (410 to 490 AD)

http://www.armenianhighland.com/images/nkarner/nkar_3412.jpg

P1CvwcAuA3s

http://www.armin.am/content_images/image/Hayk.jpg

пустиняк

03-09-2012, 12:50 PM

I think that Levski and Botev are posted already so I'll post other of my favorite Bulgarian heroes

Hadzhi Dimitar
http://strannopriemnicata.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/d185d0b0d0b4d0b6d0b8-d0b4d0b8d0bcd0b8d182d18ad180.jpg

Georgi Nikolov Delchev
http://katan.blog.bg/photos/52924/original/@-!.jpg

Todor Aleksandrov
http://www.desant.net/files/129383793416206.jpg

Ivan Mihailov
http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-snc4/71156_45594558450_1700013_n.jpg

Vlado Chernozemski
http://www.vmroyouth.org/files/images/image011.preview.jpg

Also I don't know whether everybody regards him as hero but he is one of the greatest Bulgarians.
Hristo Stoichkov
http://flairweekly.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/stoichkov-gi_1673626c.jpg

Hurrem sultana

03-09-2012, 12:54 PM

Hadzhi Dimitar

hadzhi? :D

пустиняк

03-09-2012, 12:55 PM

hadzhi? :D

Although the term hajji suggests the pilgrimage of a Muslim person to Mecca, it was also widely used by Christians in the Ottoman Empire to refer to a Christian who has completed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Its status as an honorific title remained unchanged.

Hurrem sultana

03-09-2012, 12:56 PM

Mujo Hrnjica

http://kudmujohrnjica.com/user/cimage/Hrnjica-Mujo-i-njegova-kula-big.jpg

Teyrn

03-09-2012, 01:35 PM

Charles Lindbergh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/docroot/dulcinea/fd_images/features/profiles/l/charles-lindbergh/features/0/image.jpg

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974) (nicknamed "Slim", "Lucky Lindy", and "The Lone Eagle") was an American aviator, author, inventor, explorer, and social activist.

As a 25-year-old U.S. Air Mail pilot Lindbergh emerged suddenly from virtual obscurity to instantaneous world fame as the result of his Orteig Prize-winning solo non-stop flight on May 20–21, 1927, made from Roosevelt Field located in Garden City on New York's Long Island to Le Bourget Field in Paris, France, a distance of nearly 3,600 statute miles (5,800 km), in the single-seat, single-engine purpose built Ryan monoplane Spirit of St. Louis. Lindbergh, a U.S. Army reserve officer, was also awarded the nation's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his historic exploit.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Lindbergh used his fame to promote the development of both commercial aviation and Air Mail services in the United States and the Americas. In March 1932, however, his infant son, Charles, Jr., was kidnapped and murdered in what was soon dubbed the "Crime of the Century". This eventually led to the Lindbergh family being "driven into voluntary exile" in Europe to which they sailed in secrecy from New York under assumed names in late December 1935 to "seek a safe, secluded residence away from the tremendous public hysteria" in America. The Lindberghs did not return to the United States until April, 1939.

Before the United States formally entered World War II, Lindbergh had been an outspoken advocate of keeping the U.S. out of the world conflict, as had his father, Congressman Charles August Lindbergh, during World War I. Although Lindbergh was a leader in the anti-war America First movement, he nevertheless strongly supported the war effort after Pearl Harbor and flew many combat missions in the Pacific Theater of World War II as a civilian consultant even though President Franklin D. Roosevelt had refused to reinstate his Army Air Corps colonel's commission that he had resigned in April 1941.

In his later years, Lindbergh became a prolific prize-winning author, international explorer, inventor, and environmentalist.

sandro

03-09-2012, 01:39 PM

Queen of Georgia - Tamar . "King of Kings of all the East, Tamar...". A mural from the church of Dormition in Vardzia, c. 1184-1186.Tamar (Georgian: თამარი, also transliterated as T'amar or Thamar) (c. 1160 – 18 January 1213), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was Queen Regnant of Georgia from 1184 to 1213. Tamar presided over the "Golden age" of the medieval Georgian monarchy.[1] Her position as the first woman to rule Georgia in her own right was emphasized by the title mep'e ("king"), commonly afforded to Tamar in the medieval Georgian sources.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Queen_Tamar_-_Vardzia_fresco.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Tamari2150.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Tamar_fresco.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Vardzia_Chapel_fresco.jpg

sandro

03-09-2012, 01:55 PM

Vakhtang I of Iberia.Vakhtang I "Gorgasali" (Georgian: ვახტანგ I გორგასალი) (c. 439 or 443 — 502 or 522), of the Chosroid dynasty, was a king of Iberia, natively known as Kartli (modern eastern Georgia) in the second half of the 5th and first quarter of the 6th century. Gorgasali is a sobriquet meaning in Iranian "wolf’s head". He led his people, in an ill-fated alliance with the Eastern Roman Empire, into a lengthy struggle against Sassanid Iranian hegemony, which ended in Vakhtang's defeat and weakening of the kingdom of Iberia. Tradition also ascribes him reorganization of the Georgian church and foundation of Tbilisi, Georgia’s modern capital.According to the Life of Vakhtang Gorgasali, the king was given at his birth an Iranian name Varazkhosrovtang, rendered in Georgian as Vakhtang.[5] The name may indeed be derived from Iranian *warx-tang (vahrka-tanū) — "wolf-bodied", a possible reflection of the wolf cult in ancient Georgia.[6] Beginning in the late 13th century, numerous Georgian princes and kings took the name Vakhtang.[1] Toumanoff observes that the name Vakhtang has no Classical equivalent and infers that the king’s sobriquet Gorgasal — given to Vakhtang because of the shape of the helmet he wore — was rendered by the 6th-century Roman historian Procopius as Gurgenes (Greek: Γουργένης). Toumanoff's identification of Vakhtang with Gurgenes has not been universally accepted.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/Wachtang_I._Gorgassali.jpg
http://burusi.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/c3e797881815.jpg
http://akobia.geoweb.ge/img/gorg_v.jpg

song about King Vakhtang"Gorgasali"of IBERIA
Au6mlEiWLi8

Permafrost

02-06-2013, 07:31 PM

http://i46.tinypic.com/2jbjtyo.jpg

Greetings to Austrians from 1918 :p :D

EagleAtHeart

02-06-2013, 07:33 PM

http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/284641638919326697_dC8Q38vO_b.jpg

Leonardo daVinci. Not a general or statesman, but possibly the smartest man that ever lived.

Austo

02-06-2013, 07:36 PM

Andreas Hofer.

He defeated the french army under napoleon 3 times with farmers.

http://www.oelm.at/wp-content/uploads/Hofer-Portr%C3%A4t-Defregger-225x300.jpg

Pallantides

02-06-2013, 07:41 PM

I bet your country don't have a hero like this...

Yn-oemgzlEU

Gray hair, glasses, suitcase
Humble, clever
Constantly working for peace
Uganda, Congo
And the Oslo treaty plan
Oh my God, what a plan

Not as famous as Gahr Støre
Not a daddy's boy like Jens
But when handgrenades are flying
There's just one man you can trust

When there's war and all is hell
Send in Jan Egeland
The United Nations superhero man

Mad dictator with a gun
Send in Jan Egeland
Oh how I wish, I was Jan Egeland

Blue eyes, firm hands, nice legs
Clean shaved body
Drinking his proteinshakes
Spray-tan, skin cream
And buttocks like he was eighteen
He's a peacekeeping machine

And he stares, into the mirror
Flexing muscles in the night
And says "Boy, I think you're ready
To protect some human rights"

When there's war and all is hell
Bring in Jan Egeland
The United Nations Superhero man

He plays golf with Kofi Annan
And looks at maps with George Cloon
Oh how I wish, I was Jan Egeland

When he's sad he goes to funerals,
in unusually heavy rain
Large amounts of water in his face
But it cannot hide his pain

He breaks down just like a homo
And starts crying just like a girl
But I guess you can cry and still be a man
if your dayjob is saving the world

When there's war and all is hell
Send in Jan Egeland
He's a macho musclepumping crying God

If there's one man you should trust
It is the Janny-boy
Oh how I wish, I was Jan Egeland

Styggnacke

02-06-2013, 07:45 PM

Engelbrekt

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Modell_till_statyn_%C3%B6ver_Engelbrekt_Engelbrekt sson_i_%C3%96rebro_(ur_Svenska_Familj-Journalen).png

Adamastor

02-06-2013, 07:55 PM

Viriathus (or Viriato).
He is regarded as the first Portuguese national hero, one of the finest militants, who have successfully defiled Roman rule, having led the Lusitanians to countless victories against the Romans.
He, was never defeated in the battlefield, only while asleep by two of his fellow comrades, bribed by Rome.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PAY18SnkC2c/S-2SpZMHZUI/AAAAAAAAGVM/gAIofPHg88s/s1600/Viriato.JPG
Viriathus, Statue in Viseu, Portugal.

"And, in fine, he carried on the war not for the sake of personal gain or power nor through anger, but for the sake of warlike deeds in themselves; hence he was accounted at once a lover of war and a master of war." - Cassius Dio

Noxcho

02-06-2013, 08:09 PM

Copied from another thread about ancestors.

There is one prominent figure among them (my ancestors) that is considered a Chechen folk hero. His name is Boysghar Beno (russianised Байсангур Беноевский: Baysangur Benoevsky).

http://img0.liveinternet.ru/images/foto/b/1/apps/1/272/1272704_baisangur_so_svoim_otryadom_benoevcev.jpg
http://files.moidagestan.ru/post/13124/1633.jpg

Here is a brief biography.

Boysghar Beno

Boysghar Beno was a famous Chechen warlord of XIX century and Naib of Imam Shamil, active member of the Great Caucasian War 1817-1864 period and national hero of the Chechen people.

He was born in 1794 in the Chechen village of Benoy, in a peasant family called Edie. Little is known about the period of Boysghar's life before 1830.

He began fighting actively at about 38 years of age. The tall and skinny Boysghar amazed everyone with his desperate bravery. On one occasion Imam Shamil said: "While Boysghar remains alive - we will not lose the war," - these words were true to some extent since after his death the Waynakh resistance began to decline. At the age of 51 he lost an eye and an arm, at the age of 53 a cannonball tore his leg from underneath him and he was captured. Soltamurad's battalion eventually managed to release Boysghar from captivity. It is said that when Imam Shamil saw Boysghar after he was released, having lost an eye and two limbs, he could not hold back the tears.

Boysghar barely had time to recover from his injuries, as he quickly returned to the battlefield. In the decisive battle in Gunib, the resistance forces were surrounded by the Russian army of about 40 thousand soldiers. Many warriors and leaders surrendered or were captured, including Imam Shamil himself. When Boysghar realised that Imam Shamil was planning to surrender and walking towards the enemy general, Boysghar shouted at him ordering him to turn around and face him, but Imam Shamil did not comply knowing that the honourable Boysghar would never shame himself by shooting him in the back. Boysghar along with his battalion of 100 fighters refused to surrender and the one-armed, one-legged and one-eyed Boysghar decided to break through the ring of Russian soldiers. Only 30 men were able to break through the enemy lines and Boysghar was among them.

He was able to regroup and renew the resistance efforts against the Imperial Army led by Major General Musa Kunduhova. In his last battle, Boysghar ordered his men to tie him to his horse so he wouldn't fall off. His horse was killed during the battle and he was captured. He was brought to Khasavyurt to hang. When he stood, with his head through the gallows rope, the executioner called out for a volunteer to kick the support from underneath him. No one dared to get up except for one volunteer. When the villian approached to knock Boysghar's one leg off the support, Boysghar jumped off the support himself and kicked the man in his face, and thus ended his heroic life at the age of 67, fighting till the bitter end with unparalleled courage.

Frank Grimes

02-06-2013, 08:14 PM

http://ursi2003.udc.es/fotos/images/Maria%20Pita.jpg

María Mayor Fernández de Cámara y Pita (Sigrás, 1565 – 1643), known as María Pita, was a Galician (Spanish) heroine of the defense of Corunna in 1589 against the English Armada.[1]

María Pita was married four times and had two children. Her heroic deeds were honoured and rewarded by Philip II of Spain, who granted her the pension of a military officer, which she received following the death of her husband who was killed during the battle.[2]

On the 4th of May 1589, English forces, already in control of the lower city, breached the defences of the old city. She was assisting her husband, an army captain manning the defences, when he was killed by a crossbow bolt that struck him in the head. An English soldier with a banner, who was making his way to the highest part of the wall, was killed by Pita. She appeared on the heights of the wall herself, shouting: Quien tenga honra, que me siga ("Whoever has honour, follow me!") whereupon the English incursion was driven back by the defenders. The English later gave up the assault and retreated to their ships. Other women also participated directly in the defence of Corunna; a surviving record tells of one Inés de Ben receiving treatment for two shots received in the siege.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Pita

Alboz

02-06-2013, 08:38 PM

0k2GJW8F38M

0:42

Gjergj Kastrioti(6 May 1405 – 17 January 1468), widely known as Skanderbeg, was a 15th-century Albanian lord.
He was appointed as the governor of the Sanjak of Dibra by the Ottoman Turks in 1440. In 1444, he initiated and organized the League of Lezhë, which proclaimed him Chief of the League of the Albanian people, and defended the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire for more than two decades.
Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and he was considered by many in western Europe to be a model of Christian resistance against the Ottoman Muslims.

1:10

Queen Teuta was an Illyrian queen of the Ardiaei tribe who reigned approximately from 231 BC to 227 BC.
Despite her ongoing acts of piracy, she is revered for her resistance and free will against her persecutors.

3:32

Ali Pasha of Tepelena or of Yannina, surnamed Aslan, "the Lion", or the "Lion of Yannina", (1740 - 24 January 1822) was an Ottoman Albanian ruler of the western part of Rumelia, the Ottoman Empire's European territory which was also called Pashalik of Yanina.

3:47

Shote Galica (1895 - 1927) was a warrior of çeta (guerrilla group, from the word Centuriae, military formation) of the Albanian insurgent national liberation with the goal of unification of all Albanian territories, and supporting a democratic national government in Albania.

Azem Galica, was an Albanian nationalist who fought for the unification of Kosovo with Albania.

4:00

Mic Sokoli (1839 - 1881) was an Albanian nationalist figure.
He was a noted guerrilla leader during the years of the League of Prizren and took part in the fighting in Yakova against Mehmet Ali Pasha.
Mic Sokoli is remembered in particular for an act that has entered the chronicles of Albanian legendry as a deed of exemplary heroism. At the battle of Slivova against Ottoman forces in April 1881, he thrust himself against a Turkish cannon, his chest pressed against its mouth, and died heroically in battle.

4:32

Pashko Vasa (1825, Shkodër, Albania, Ottoman Empire – June 29, 1892, Beirut, Lebanon, Ottoman Empire) also known as Vaso Pasha or Vaso Pashë Shkodrani, was an Albanian writer, poet and publicist of the Albanian National Awakening.

4:41

Frasheri Brothers

Abdyl Frashëri (June 1, 1839 - October 23, 1892) was a prominent Hero of Albania.
Frasheri was an Albanian Statesman, diplomat, and politician in the Ottoman Empire.
He is one of the first Albanian political ideologues of the Albanian National Awakening, being an initiator and prominent Leader of Albanian League of Prizren.

Sami Frashëri (June 1, 1850 – June 18, 1904) was an Albanian writer, philosopher, playwright and a prominent figure of the National Renaissance movement of Albania, together with his two brothers Abdyl and Naim.

Naim Frashëri (25 May 1846 – 20 October 1900) was an Albanian poet and writer. He was one of the most prominent figures of the Albanian National Awakening of the 19th century, together with his two brothers Sami and Abdyl.
He is widely regarded as the national poet of Albania.

4:45

Çerçiz Topulli (1880 - 15 July 1915) was a patriotic nationalist figure and guerrilla fighter.
He was known for fighting the Turks in 1907 and 1908 and then, after the Turks left, the Greeks, who invaded in 1913 and 1914.

5:02

Hasan Prishtina originally known as Hasan Berisha (born 1873 in Vıçıtırın, Kosovo Province, Ottoman Empire – died 1933 in Thessaloniki, Greece) was an Albanian politician, who served as Prime Minister of Albania in December 1921.

5:12

Isa Boletini (January 15, 1864 – January 23, 1916) was an Albanian nationalist figure and guerilla fighter, born in the village of Boletin near Mitroviça, Ottoman Empire. He was a freedom fighter in Kosovo and became a major figure of Albanian resistance against the Ottomans, Serbia and Montenegro.

5:36

Theofan Stilian Noli, better known as Fan Noli (January 6, 1882 – March 13, 1965) was an Albanian-American writer, scholar, diplomat, politician, historian, orator, and founder of the Albanian Orthodox Church, who served as prime minister and regent of Albania in 1924 during the June Revolution.

5:44

Gjergj Fishta (October 23, 1871 – December 30, 1940) was an Albanian Franciscan friar, poet, rilindas, and a translator.
Notably he was the chairman of the commission of the Congress of Monastir, which sanctioned the Albanian alphabet.
In 1921 he became the Vice President of the Albanian parliament.
In 1937 he completed and published his epic masterpiece Lahuta e Malcís, an epic poem written in Gheg dialect of Albanian. It contains 17,000 lines and is considered the "Albanian Iliad".
Gjergj Fishta was the first Albanian candidate for the The Nobel Prize in Literature.

5:54

Adem Jashari (28 November 1955 – 7 March 1998) is considered to be one of the chief architects of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Jashari was a chief commander in the Drenica operation zone of the KLA.

5:57

Ibrahim Rugova (2 December 1944 – 21 January 2006) was the first President of Kosovo, serving from 1992 to 2000 and again from 2002 to 2006, and a prominent Kosovo Albanian political leader, scholar, and writer.
He oversaw a popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful resistance to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for U.S. and European support, especially during the Kosovo War.