[Jake_the_beast]

Just want to get some oppinons. Can be any period from just a few seconds ago to the dawn of man if you want.

Mine is the end of the American civil war. April 9th 1865. General Lee, a man who could have extended the war into further bloodbath to escape chooses to surrender to General Grant. He goes to surrender thinking he will be executed so his men could return home. You wouldn't get that from many other leader. Truly a selfless act. Generous of Grant as well for such an offer. leave your guns and go home. Then as the soldiers march down the road, Col Chamberland orders his men to give a soldiers salute to the rebs as a sign of respect. The confederate General Gordon stops, and salutes in responce along with his men.

From years of brothers fighting brothers and fathers fighting sons, it all ended with respect shown on both sides. No malice, or bitter feelings between the two armies. It's very rare to find an event of such humanity.

[D0J]

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

Top bloke.

[davhopkins]

For me, it's gotta be the forest legend of Robin Hood.

[bestofyou]

The apparent German soldier that deserted his post (in what must have been in Poland) and tried to warn the Russians of Germany's planned offensive that soon followed.

And of course Milo of Croton

Also when a boy named Frodo saved the world from darkness by throwing a ring in a volcano

[oldham_fran]

I like how Henry VII was a lot sneakier than we all thought he was. Apparently, once he became King, he convinced Parliament to set the starting date of his reign to the day before the Battle of Bosworth. Therefore, everyone who fought against him (and on the side of the King at the time, Richard III) was automatically a traitor, allowing Henry to claim their land and subsequently increase his own wealth.

[doloroushazy]

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

or just all of www.twitter.com/historyweird

[Davij038]

Anything said by Napolean is awesome.

General Rommels tactics during world war 2- he used to get planes to create sandstorms in the desert to make (often numerically superior and better positioned) enemy positions think that entire armoured columns were advancing towards them and surrendering.

[Omar_Little]

I have always had a lot of respect for Lawrence Oates. Might not be a big scale story but a true gentleman nonetheless.

[Angry Spartan]

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

[Cannotbelieveit]

Stanislav Petrov - The man who saved the world.

Read this - http://www.brightstarsound.com/world_hero/article.html

[Primo]

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

His life has interested me for a while. There is a link to his work on the page - a good resource if your interested in the Ottoman Empire or diplomatic history in general.

[mb9236]

The time Napoleon was chased by wild rabbits. I forget when I first heard this, but it's still amongst my favourites:

http://archiearchive.wordpress.com/2...iating-defeat/

[northwest rain]

I like the story of Stanislav Petrov, "The Man Who Saved the World".

"On September 26, 1983, he was the duty officer at the command center for the Oko nuclear early-warning system when the system reported a missile being launched from the United States. Petrov judged that the report was a false alarm. This decision may have prevented an erroneousretaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its Western allies. Investigation later confirmed that the satellite warning system had malfunctioned."

Also, another story is about William Halsted; the man who invented rubber gloves in 1889. His contributions to surgery were numerous, but one little story - in my opinion - stood out the most. A start of a love affair described in surgical literature! Halsted and Caroline married year after the rubber glove was invented.

In the winter of 1889 and 1890—I cannot recall the month—the nurse in charge of my operating-room complained that the solutions of mercuric chloride produced a dermatitis of her arms and hands. As she was an unusually efficient woman, I gave the matter my consideration and one day in New York requested the Goodyear Rubber Company to make as an experiment two pair of thin rubber gloves with gauntlets. On trial these proved to be so satisfactory that additional gloves were ordered. In the autumn, on my return to town, an assistant who passed the instruments and threaded the needles was also provided with rubber gloves to wear at the operations. At first the operator wore them only when exploratory incisions into joints were made. After a time the assistants became so accustomed to working in gloves that they also wore them as operators and would remark that they seemed to be less expert with the bare hands than with the gloved hands.

[Bardem]

If anyone has twitter, follow @historyweird (https://twitter.com/historyweird). Some of it is dubious but still v. wacky.

1771: London milk, writes Smollett, tastes of "bruised snails", "foul rinsings", "spittle, snot and tobacco" and "the spewing of infants".

1810: The UK's first Indian restaurant opens in Marylebone but goes broke after a year. Its owner became 'Official Shampooer' to George IV.

Once, in a war with Brazil, Francisco Solano López of Paraguay (1826-70) send out a battalion of 12-year-olds wearing false beards.

[TheHistoryStudent]

It's more a quote than a story, but the time the Duke of Wellington was at a battle and a soldier came up and said:

Soldier:"By God sir!, I've lost my leg!"

To which Wellington responded...

Wellington: "By God sir!, So you have."

Just amuses me for some reason - although I've no idea whether it's true or not (and I'm more inclined to believe it's false actually.

[Robbie242]

Women's suffrage is sooooooo fun I'm enjoying it soooooooooooo much in class -.- I like the Russian revolution/nazi germany more though civil rights is also good

[Zilver Fox]

URGENT- Guys something i think is really very interesting is the history about a king you have never heard. Read about Prithviraj Chauhan. Type his name on google . I found his history really engaging and amazing. never have i or any of you ever probably seen anything as unique as he did...... A summary of his story is , he was a great king and conqueror, he conquered a fair amount of territories, he took away a princess and married her from an enemy king and he died a heroic death. read more about him, i recomend it.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[MrHayden]

There's a rather pleasant legend of an interaction of Richard I and Salahadin at the Battle of Jaffa, in which Salahadin became aware that Richard had lost his horse, and so ordered him to be sent a replacement out of respect for his fellow general. Another good one is the stand of the 21 Sikhs, entertainingly re-told - and no doubt re-written - by Badass of the Week.

[pol pot noodles]

(Original post by Davij038)
General Rommels tactics during world war 2- he used to get planes to create sandstorms in the desert to make (often numerically superior and better positioned) enemy positions think that entire armoured columns were advancing towards them and surrendering.

Sounds false to me. The British were Rommel's only opponents in the Western Desert campaign, and as far as I'm aware we never fell victim to a trick like that.

[alnewone]

Hannibal versus the romans. He was epic general!