Wow, that’s like, a really good piece. Way more than I’d expect from “The Onion.”
You know, the story of Lord Thomas Cochrane and the cruise of the *Speedy * could make a pretty good novel.
I don’t see how you can view it as cyclic, given how preposterously more popular Harry Potter is than any other publishing phenomenon within recent memory.
Wow. “A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, Berg spoke several languages and regularly read ten newspapers a day.” Tools of ignorance, indeed.
Similar to the 10,000, at the end of World War I there was a Czech brigade that found themselves on the wrong side of the line in Russia with the Russian civil war erupting around them. It was easier to go east than west so they did – all the way to Vladivostok, taking on all comers, Reds and Whites. They arrived with about 30 trainloads of stuff including a lot of gold, which they traded for passage across the Pacific and Atlantic to get home the long way.
What a fantastic story that would make. I haven’t been able to find any books on it, though, just a bare mention in some histories.
Also, how how J.K. Rowling stated the series is pretty remarkable.
I was just recalling what a fascinating historical drama the life of King Leopold II of Belgium could be in thhe right hands.
War stories:
The Battle of Roarke’s Drift. 100 British beat 3000 Zulus.
The Winter War. The USSR invades Finland. And loses.
Sports Stories:
The Jamaican Bobsled team.
Eddie the Eagle.
Sounds a lot like Chicken Run. 
I’m a big Shackleton admirer, too. An amazing guy, and an astonishing adventure.
George Washington’s remarkable victory in the Battle of Trenton, in bitter cold and mere days before his army would be forced to virtually disband, is rightly the stuff of legend: Battle of Trenton - Wikipedia
Although it’s not an “achievement” (unless you count sheer longevity as such), the fact that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died within hours of one another, fifty years to the day after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, is simply uncanny. If you had read it in a historical novel, you’d roll your eyes.
Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the 20th Maine saved the Union left at Gettysburg against terrible odds, and Chamberlain himself (self-taught soldier, college professor, linguist, educator, governor of Maine, president of Bowdoin) seems almost too good to be true: Joshua Chamberlain - Wikipedia
To add to Shakleton’s accomplishments, he didn’t lose a single man in that whole mess. That’s what floors me about his accomplishment.
The burning and wreck of the SS Morro Castle. Captains only die under mysterious circumstances just before a major disaster in bad fiction, right?
Finally, let’s look at the contributions that Dr. Minor made to the OED. A man confined for life to mental institutions for dangerous schizophrenia (He’d killed a man, but had been found not guilty because of his demonstrable insanity.) who proved to be one of the most valuable volunteers providing information for the men working to make the OED.
You might like this book. Haven’t read it myself, but it’s gotten good reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Professor-Madman-Insanity-English-Dictionary/dp/0060839783/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8053598-3149753?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176495946&sr=1-1
And one thing about Shackleton’s adventure that sometimes gets overlooked is that after his rescue, he went back to Antarctica to rescue the Ross Sea party.
The Sultana riverboat fire. Who would think that a riverboat could carry 2,300 people (or that 1,700 of them would die when the boat caught fire)?
I haven’t read that before (although I know the “Holy Fucking Shit” edition), but that is a very wise and prescient piece. Thanks for posting that.
The fight to eradicate the thuggee cult in India is pretty dramatic, at least as described by the chapter I just read in this so far excellent book. It kind of reminded me of an early-Victorian version of The Untouchables: straight arrow William Sleeman lays down the law against a muderous, secret cult, fighting against corrupt politicians and a recalcitrant population along the way. Fascinating stuff.
The story of Helen Keller’s life is pretty amazing; there’s nothing as dramatic as wars or battles or fantastic escapes, but who’d think a person deaf and blind from infancy would grow up to graduate from Radcliffe with honors, help found the ACLU, and become a writer and outspoken political activist? That chick had brains and serious ovarian fortitude, and I admire her greatly.
How about the story of mountain climber Joe Simpson, recounted in the book and documentary Touching the Void?
Simpson fell into a crevasse after his climbing partner, who presumed him dead, cut the rope connecting them. He spent three days crawling five miles back to base camp with a broken leg. No matter how many times I watch the documentary, I’m still shocked when he shows up alive at the end.
If it were a movie starring Bruce Willis, the ending would seem completely ridiculous and over the top.
I remember after seeing the story about Russian sniper Vasily Zaytsev thinking, “wow…that would make a great movie”.
It made an ok movie.
The St. Nazaire Raid seems a bit out there, with the British destroying a heavily-defended drydock in Occupied France by ramming it with a destroyer packed full of explosives.
And then there is Pardo’s Push, an incident during the Vietnam Conflict where USAF Captain Bob Pardo used his F-4 Phantom to push a crippled wingman’s plane out of enemy territory using the wingman’s tailhook and his own plane’s canopy. Pardo and his backseater were eventually awarded the Silver Star for this. This was referenced in a 5th season episode of JAG when Harm did the same stunt with a pair of F-14s.
I love this thread, the stories with the Wikipedia links are fascinating.
Incidentally, this was also the basis of a really good episode of Space: Above and Beyond.
Oh, another one I had forgotten, the Christmas Truce during WWI, which lasted from Christmas Eve to Christmas Night in 1914 (though in some areas, lasting as late as New Years). This unofficial ceasefire saw the exchange of gifts, singing of Christmas carols, burial services for the dead in No Man’s Land, and a temporary cessation of artillery bombardments.
On Christmas Eve for every year in the war after that, artillery bombardments were ordered to prevent similar truces from occurring.
The 1972 Summit Series (Canada versus the Soviet Union). If the final game was the closing scene of a movie, you’d say something like, “Yeah, right. Talk about Hollywood cliches”.
I apologize if someone has already mentioned this upthread, but I checked and didn’t notice it (btw, its absence is truly surprising, but I guess that’s because I’m a Canuck)