# Historic achievement most resembling fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 11, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642 "2007-04-11T14:48:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/1 "2007-04-11T14:48:47Z")
I’m currently reading **The Greatest Game Ever Played.** It tells the story of the 1913 US Open (golf) where a 20-year old amateur - Francis Ouimet - goes head to head with arguably the greatest pro at the time - Harry Vardon. Ouimet wins! You may recall this was a movie a couple of years back. Whether you like golf or not, I highly recommend the movie and/or the book. But reading this I keep thinking you couldn’t make up stuff as incredible as this. Ouimet and Vardon both are born into crushing poverty. Vardon conquers the golf world, before suffering a potentially career-ending illness, from which he fights back to regain his status at or near the top. Ouimet grow up across the street from and caddying at the club where the 1913 Open is held. At the tourney Ouimet’s intended caddy is a no-show, and he ends up using the caddy’s 10-year old brother. The last 2 rounds are played in a torrential downpour. Coming down to the wire the outcome is too close to call… Reading this book I keep thinking “You couldn’t make this stuff up! No one would believe you!” I was wondering if you guys might offer your examples of the most unbelievable tales of human achievement. Stories that you wouldn’t believe possible if they hadn’t actually occurred. Also, identify any books or movies you believe relate these instances well. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/2 "2007-04-11T14:53:29Z")
Not to get the thread off on the wrong foot, but anything involving the rise of a religion or cult, especially stories relating to large chunks of people being converted en masse decades or centuries after the founding religious figure would have passed from living memory. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/3 "2007-04-11T15:01:43Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Not to get the thread off on the wrong foot… . [/QUOTE] That’s gotta come close to setting a record for the crappiest response to a well-intentioned OP. Clearly you had no intention OTHER THAN getting the thread off on the wrong foot. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/4 "2007-04-11T15:36:44Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale] That’s gotta come close to setting a record for the crappiest response to a well-intentioned OP. Clearly you had no intention OTHER THAN getting the thread off on the wrong foot. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] What Dinsdale said. Early in the history of FedEx, founder Fred Smith found himself unable to make payroll and facing the failure of his business without a large immediate cash infusion. So he went to Vegas, bet what little he had, and won. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/5 "2007-04-11T15:44:46Z")
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer] What Dinsdale said. Early in the history of FedEx, founder Fred Smith found himself unable to make payroll and facing the failure of his business without a large immediate cash infusion. So he went to Vegas, bet what little he had, and won. [/QUOTE] Cool! Was that before or after that plane went down, stranding the FedEx guy on a desert island? 😉 I’ll look into this. Undoubtedly an exception to the greater number of guys who went to Vegas to bail out their start-ups, only to bet red when they should have bet black, only to have their histories written in bankruptcy court… ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/6 "2007-04-11T15:52:38Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale] Cool! Was that before or after that plane went down, stranding the FedEx guy on a desert island? 😉 [/quote] Long before. I seem to recall it being told the last FedEx sales convention (held in Las Vegas, which is why it came up) that I attended. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/7 "2007-04-11T15:53:55Z")
1.) **The Dam Busters** – the true story of the special bombs and bombing technique used to destroy several German dams in a brief set of runs. The engineering was so utterly bizarre that it’s amazing that it worked – the bombs were built into cylinders that “skipped” like a rock over the surface of the lake behind the dam. If released at the proper height, distance, and speed, the bomb ended up right at the wall of the dam, where it sank and blew up niext to the inner wall, concentrating the force of the explosion right at the dam and destroying it. (Whereas if they dropped the bombs in the lake the water would dampen the force of the explosion. It wouldn’t work). It was written up as a book by Paul Brickhill (Who wrote tThe Great Escape – and was in that prison camp) and later made into a classic movie. George Lucas saw it, and liberally lifted from it for the Death Star Trench sequence of the first Star Wars – right down to using verbatim dialogue. Please note that the real-life bombadiers did NOT turn off their targeting computers – they relied on their crude targeting devices to hit their “thermal exhaust port”. Amazing that such odd technology worked – but it did. If someone were writing it as a piece of fiction it would’ve failed, or only partly worked. 2.) Alistair Cooke’s most popular column/broadcast was a “Letter from America” from 1950 about a stolen baby. The baby was a premature baby, and even a few hours out of its incubator would be fatal, and the baby was missing for days… Here, read it: > **[BBC Radio 4 - Letter from America by Alistair Cooke](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00f6hbp)** > > Alistair Cooke’s weekly talks on American life, history and politics from 1946 – 2004. ---
**Author:** ![Antinor01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecae2f/32.png) [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/8 "2007-04-11T15:57:10Z")
I would have to go with the battle of Thermopylae as recently popularized by the movie 300. Even with the 700 backup for a group of 1000, they kicked ass in a way that is usually only seen in over the top action flicks. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/9 "2007-04-11T16:04:31Z")
The conquests of the Aztec and Inca Empires by small bands of Spanish adventurers in the 1500s. Cortez conquered the bloodthirsty Aztecs with a force which initially consisted of 600 men. Pizarro conquered the largest empire on Earth at the time, with millions of inhabitants, with fewer than 200 men. Both conquests included events and scenes that equal some of the wildest and most incredible inventions of fiction - for example, the _Noche Triste_, when Cortez’s forces barely escaped from the Aztec island capital Tenochtitlan after the death of Moctezuma by battling their way across the causeways across the lake under fierce attack, or the Battle of Cajamarca, in which Pizarro’s tiny force defeated an Inca army of perhaps 80,000 men and took the emperor captive. I don’t think that either has ever been adequately been portrayed in film. _The Conquest of New Spain_, written by Bernal Diaz, one of Cortez’ foot soldiers, is one of the best accounts of the conquest of Mexico by an eyewitness. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/10 "2007-04-11T16:07:50Z")
Thermopylae is a good choice as are a lot of ancient battles. Another I’d pick is the story of the [Ten Thousand](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anabasis_%28Xenophon%29). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/11 "2007-04-11T16:11:06Z")
A couple of unlikely sports stories recently became Oscar-nominated movies: [Seabiscuit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seabiscuit) and [Cinderella Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_J._Braddock) (about Heavyweight boxing champ Jimmy Braddock). ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/12 "2007-04-11T16:15:11Z")
The story of The Amistad is another one. Prisoners on a slave ship break out, take over the ship, but don’t know how to navigate it back to Africa and wind up in America, where a court battle takes place to decide their fate…and they are sent back to Africa. I would never have believed something like this if it had been written as a story…send slaves back to Africa? Never happen! Except it did. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/13 "2007-04-11T16:36:58Z")
The story of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s [Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition) is a great one. In 1914 the expedition gets their ship caught in Antarctic ice. They stay in the ice for a few months, then some of them go off on an astonishing voyage to get help. Then three of them sail 800 miles across Antarctic waters in a rowboat. _Then_ three of them walk across the island of South Georgia in 36 hours, a feat that modern, experienced, well-nourished climbers have failed to duplicate. They finally get help at a whaling station. It takes four tries, but they pick up the guys they left behind and _every single person_ gets home safely, after 22 months. What’s more, they had a guy with a movie camera with them, and you can see a bunch of actual footage. Interested? Check out [the documentary about the expedition](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264578/). Careful not to break your jaw when it hits the floor. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/14 "2007-04-11T16:43:24Z")
How about some of Audie Murphy’s exploits? From wiki, here’s his Medal of Honor citation: > [@](#): > > Citation: Second Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by six tanks and waves of infantry. Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, one of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire, which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from three sides, but his deadly fire killed thousands of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad that was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued his single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way back to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack, which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. Lt. Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/15 "2007-04-11T17:11:16Z")
[QUOTE=Dinsdale] That’s gotta come close to setting a record for the crappiest response to a well-intentioned OP. Clearly you had no intention OTHER THAN getting the thread off on the wrong foot. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Clearly my intention was to say that I find the idea of people removed from, say, Jesus or Buddha or Muhammad by tens of thousands of miles of space and hundreds of years of time finding themselves in what they consider to be a personal relationship with that historical figure to be something which, if presented as fiction, I would find a stretch of credulity. Clearly I knew that I might get some offenderati kneejerk reaction which is why I prefaced it as I did. Clearly that wasn’t good enough in the face of someone who clearly has the power to read minds to figure out what’s going on in my head better than I do. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/16 "2007-04-11T17:16:03Z")
Neat stuff, all of it. Keep it coming. I tend to think of myself as a not particularly sappy kinda guy, but there is something that makes me feel all sappy - almost inspired - when I hear some of these incredible accomplishments. **Gates of Fire** is a pretty amazing representation of Thermopylae. I was going to offer Shackleton - read a few books on that expedition myself. Perhaps especially notable for the fact that they had a photographer along with them! Polar explorers always amaze me at what they would put themselves through. Saw both **Seabisuit** and **Cindarella Man** , and read **Seabiscuit**. Both great examples of what is possible when a good storyteller gets ahold of good material. Next time I hit the library I’ll look up the book on Braddock. In terms of unbelievable hardships, I’ll offer [Through a Howling Wilderness](http://www.amazon.com/Through-Howling-Wilderness-Benedict-Arnolds/dp/0312339046/ref=sr_1_1/102-7591888-1783349?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176311501&sr=8-1), the story of Benedict Arnold leading troops on a stroll from Maine to attack Quebec in the winter of 1775. Brr! Just thinking of it makes me want to warm up some hot chocolate in the microwave, button up my sweater, and take a nap! ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/17 "2007-04-11T17:16:50Z")
The 2007 Fiesta Bowl - Boise St. vs. Oklahoma. Stuff of legend. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/18 "2007-04-11T17:38:58Z")
Battle of Hastings: William’s herald asks to be allowed to strike the first blow and permission is granted. He then charges the English lines alone, killing several defenders before he himself is struck down. (Okay, Wiki disputes this, but since when is history never disputed?) King Jean II is captured in the Battle of Poitiers. His ransom is set at 3,000,000 crowns and he is released on the honor of later coming up with the ransom. Back in the French court, troubles arise in coming up with the ransom, so he _gives himself back up to the English_. It was amazing at the time, too, but the very un-prisonlike environment French and English nobles enjoyed when in each others stay explains part of it. I don’t recall which specific battle this is, but the Vikings invading England were caught on a island with only a narrow causeway between them and the English, who repel wave after wave trying to cross into the open. The Vikings ask to be let onto the mainland in order to have a fairer fight: permission was granted. The Vikings won the ensuing fight. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/19 "2007-04-11T17:41:06Z")
How about **Men Against the Sea**? As a novel, it’s the sequel to **Mutiny on the Bounty** , but tells the true story of Captain Bligh after the mutiny, where he and 18 of his crew were put into a 23-ft launch (so loaded down that the sides were only a few inches above the water), with a few days’ food and water, a sextant and pocket watch, and a few swords. Bligh navigated 3600 nautical miles with the loss of only one person (killed by natives). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2007, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642/20 "2007-04-11T17:43:32Z")
> [@](#): > > How about Men Against the Sea? As a novel, it’s the sequel to Mutiny on the Bounty, but tells the true story of Captain Bligh after the mutiny, where he and 18 of his crew were put into a 23-ft launch (so loaded down that the sides were only a few inches above the water), with a few days’ food and water, a sextant and pocket watch, and a few swords. Bligh navigated 3600 nautical miles with the loss of only one person (killed by natives). You don’t have to go to Nordhoff and Hall’s novel for that – you can get all the drama from Bligh’s own diary, which was published several times. I bought and read the paperback version back in high school. > **[Amazon.com: The Mutiny on Board H.M.S. Bounty: The Captain's Account of the...](https://www.amazon.com/Mutiny-Board-H-M-S-Bounty-Captains/dp/1589762282)** > > Amazon.com: The Mutiny on Board H.M.S. Bounty: The Captain's Account of the Mutiny and His 3,600 Mile Voyage in an Open Boat: 9781589762282: Bligh, William: Books [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/historic-achievement-most-resembling-fiction/399642.md?page=2)