These people create history. They are the ones who make impossible things happen. Not only do they uplift their own lives but sometimes, in the process, completely transform the world. We bring to you 10 such Incredible “Fine, I’ll Do it Myself” Moments In History.

1. Corporal Desmond Doss was a combat medic in World War II. Combat medics were ordered not to fight during the war. However, in a fight at Hacksaw Ridge, Okinawa, Desmond disobeyed the orders and rescued 75 soldiers. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery and determination.

Image Credit : US National Archives / Nationalww2museum.org

When Desmond Doss joined the army, he was harassed as he had vowed never to kill. Some soldiers in the army considered him a pest, questioned his sincerity, and threw shoes at him while he prayed. He consequently became a medic and acted as a conscientious objector in the battle.

In 1945, the men in Desmond’s division were repeatedly trying to capture the Maeda Escarpment, an imposing rock on Hacksaw Ridge. Finally, they reached the top of the cliff. Suddenly, the enemy forces rushed them in a vicious counterattack.

Officers ordered an immediate retreat. Soldiers rushed to climb back down the steep cliff. However, Desmond refused to follow the orders. He stayed with the 75 injured soldiers who were left behind.

He worked relentlessly throughout the night and helped all the remaining soldiers to climb back down. His iron determination and courage resulted in at least 75 lives saved that day. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his bravery and determination. (1, 2)

2. Elisha Graves Otis was the inventor of a safety device that prevents elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails. However, nobody believed in his invention. So, he risked his life and hoisted himself up extremely high and had somebody cut the cable with an ax to prove how safe his elevator was. He succeeded as well.

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Elisha Graves Otis was an engineer and business-owner in New England. At the age of 40, he looked for different ways to get all the old debris up to the upper levels of his factory. He invented a safety device to prevent elevators from falling if the hoisting cable fails in 1852.

He approached other factories with his invention. However, they did not show much interest. He decided to start his own elevator company, initially known as Union Elevator Works and later Otis Brothers & Co.

However, he did not receive any orders over the next several months. People did not believe in his product. Finally, he got his big chance at New York World’s Fair held in 1853. At the New York Crystal Palace, Elisha amazed a crowd when he ordered the only rope holding the platform on which he was standing to be cut.

An axeman severed the rope and the platform fell only inches before coming to a halt. After the World’s Fair, Otis received continuous orders, doubling in number each year. (1, 2)

3. Barry James Marshall along with his colleague Robin Warren found out that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) plays a major role in causing many peptic ulcers. However, other scientists ridiculed him. Finally, he drank a broth containing cultured H. pylori and developed an ulcer within a few days.

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Barry James Marshall, an Australian physician met Robin Warren, a Registrar in Medicine at the Royal Perth Hospital, in 1981. Both were curious to find out the cause behind peptic ulcers. Together, they performed the initial culture of H. pylori and developed their hypothesis related to the bacterial cause of peptic ulcer and gastric cancer in 1982.

However, other scientists ridiculed this theory. They did not believe that any bacteria could live in the acidic environment of the stomach. Interestingly, this did not deter Barry and Robin. They submitted their findings to the Gastroenterological Society of Australia in 1983, but the reviewers rated it badly.

They tried to infect piglets with the bacteria but all their attempts failed. Finally, in 1984, Barry did something that no one ever expected. After having a baseline endoscopy done, he drank a broth containing cultured H. pylori, expecting to develop, perhaps years later, an ulcer.

He was surprised when, only three days later, he developed vague nausea and halitosis. On day eight, he had a repeat endoscopy, which showed massive inflammation, and a biopsy from which H. pylori was cultured, showing it had colonized in his stomach. For his commendable work, later, both Barry and Robin were awarded the Nobel Prize in 2005. (1, 2, 3)

4. When his pregnant wife di‌ed on a narrow and treacherous pass while trying to cross a huge mountain, Dashrath Manjhi decided to build a road single-handedly. People mocked him. However, after 22 years of hard work, Dashrath shortened travel between the Atri and Wazirganj blocks of the town of Gaya from 55 kilometers to 15 kilometers by using only a hammer and chisel.

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Dashrath Manjhi, an agricultural laborer, belonged to a small village, Gehlaur, in Bihar, India. The village had very narrow roads. One day in 1959, Dashrath Manjhi’s pregnant wife, Falguni Devi, was taking lunch to her husband. To reach the fields, she needed to climb the mountain. However, the road was very narrow. She slipped and fell from the mountain. In the hospital, she was declared dead.

He did not want others to face the same fate as his wife. So, he decided to carve a road on his own. The other villagers mocked him as this seemed to be an impossible task. Dashrath just took a hammer and chisel, and he began his mission. Even his father ridiculed him for wasting his time and challenging a huge mountain. But Dashrath was adamant and firm in his decision. Years passed on, but he did not give up.

He single-handedly and successfully carved out a 360-foot-long, 30-foot-high, and 30-foot-wide passage through the mountain. He made a difference in the lives of villagers by shortening the 55 kilometers distance to 15 kilometers. Finally, in 1982, after Manjhi’s 22 years of toil, the government joining his efforts to make the road by carving a path through the mountain. (1, 2)

5. Ferruccio Lamborghini, an automobile enthusiast, adored theFerrari 250GT. He realized that the clutch of the car was not of good quality and decided to meet Enzo Ferrari. Enzo insulted Ferrucio, so Ferrucio decided to open his own automobile company, Lamborghini. 

Image Credit : Tenuta Lamborghini/ Winespectator.com

After World War II, Ferrucio Lamborghini, an Italian, opened his own garage. He built a tractor for his dad to make the different agricultural processes easier for him. Soon, his tractor became popular and his wealth increased tremendously. Ferrucio was an automobile enthusiast. He loved fancy sports cars and owned many of them.

One of them was a Ferrari 250Gt. However, he realized that there was some problem with the car. He decided to fix it himself and found out that the clutch used in the 250GT was of similar quality as the one he used while making his tractors. He decided to meet up with Enzo Ferrari, the owner of Ferrari.

When he told Enzo about the problem, Enzo did not take much interest. Not only did Enzo disagree with him, but he insulted Ferrucio as well. Ferrucio did not give up.

He decided to make the best fancy sports car himself and opened a new branch under his name called “Automobili Lamborghini” in1963. He debuted his very first model, the Lamborghini 350GTV, in just four months. Today, Lamborghini is one of the top car companies in the world. (1, 2)

6. Elon Musk wanted to buy rockets. He contacted the  Russians in 2001, however, they asked for an exorbitant price and did not take him seriously. As a result, Musk told aerospace consultant Jim Cantrell who was working with him that they would build the rockets themselves.

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Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal, wanted to buy rockets in 2001. He knew that Russians could sell him rockets at reasonable prices. In October 2001, Elon traveled to Moscow with Jim Cantrell, an aerospace supplies fixer, and Adeo Ressi to buy refurbished Dnepr Intercontinental ballistic missiles.

They together met a group of companies. However, during the meetings, Elon was seen as a novice and was consequently spat on by one of the Russian chief designers. Again, in 2002, the trio met the same company. This time, the company was willing to sell him a rocket but at an exorbitant price of US$8 million for one rocket. Elon felt the rocket was too expensive and stormed out of the meeting.

Finally, he decided to build his rockets and founded SpaceX in May 2002. He borrowed books from Jim Cantrell and started reading about rocketry. He pitched to experts and created a network of advisors.

On May 30, 2020, SpaceX successfully launched two NASA astronauts into orbit on a Crew Dragon spacecraft during SpaceX Demo-2, making SpaceX the first private company to send astronauts to the International Space Station. (1, 2)

7. Martine Rothblatt found out that her daughter had been diagnosed with a life-threatening disease, pulmonary hypertension. At that time, there was no cure for this disease. She started reading biological textbooks and discovered a molecule that could cure her daughter. Later on, she created a company and saved thousands of lives.

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Martine Rothblatt, a lawyer, found out that her daughter, Jenesis, was suffering from pulmonary hypertension in the 1990s. In an interview, she mentioned that, “The doctors said, ‘There are no medicines approved for it; she’s got maybe three months to live… I felt like my only purpose in life now was not to help move to the stars with satellites and stuff like that. It was to save Jenesis. So, I just stopped everything I was doing.”

She started reading biological textbooks, looking for a cure – and she actually found one. She found one specific molecule that might be able to help. Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline owned the molecule but didn’t want to develop it.

She gathered a scientific team to convince Glaxo to let her buy the rights, founding the company now called “United Therapeutics” in 1994. Today, her daughter is healthy and alive. Her company has saved thousands of lives. (1, 2)

8. King Henry VIII wanted to annul his marriage to his first wife. However, the Catholic Pope did not permit him. So, Henry VIII broke his ties with the Pope and created his new church, The Church of England, in the 1530s.

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King Henry VIII wanted a male heir for the throne. However, his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had borne him only a daughter. Meanwhile, he became infatuated with one of his wife’s ladies-in-waiting, Anne Boleyn. She became pregnant.

She refused to become his mistress and asked him to marry her. Henry VIII asked the Pope for his permission to annul his first marriage. The Pope argued against the divorce and did not give his permission. Henry VIII made various attempts to convince the Pope but nothing happened.

Therefore, King Henry VIII passed the Act of Succession and then the Act of Supremacy in 1534. These recognized that the King was the only supreme head of the Church of England called “Anglicana Ecclesia.”

Henry adopted the title given to him by the Pope in 1521, that of Defender of the Faith. He married Anne, and she was declared the queen of England. (1, 2)

9. While managing computers in a laboratory in 1986, Clifford Stoll noticed that an unauthorized user used the Internet without paying money. Although the amount was just 75 cents, he saw a potential hacker. He approached various US agencies, like the FBI. However, the FBI was not willing to share any information for such an amount. Finally, he pursued the investigation on his own and caught the hacker.

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Clifford Stoll used to manage computers at Lawrence Berkeley National Authority in California. One day in 1986, his supervisor asked him to check an error of 75 cents in the computer usage account. Clifford realized that this error was due to a non-payment of unauthorized use of the computer for nine seconds.

While any other manager might have ignored it, Clifford did not take it lightly. He began tracing the hacker. However, he knew that he could not do it alone. He approached different investigation agencies. One of them was the FBI. However, the FBI felt the issue was trivial and did not pay much attention to it.

These adversities did not deter Clifford. He pursued the investigation on his own. Stoll kept a daily logbook of the hacker’s activities. Eventually, he found out that the hacker had stolen multiple passwords, pirated various computer accounts, and even attempted to breach US military security.

The FBI soon realized the gravity of the issue and decided to help Clifford. They set up a trap for Markus Hess, the hacker, and caught him. In the coming years, Clifford became the icon of cybersecurity in the world. (1, 2, 3)

10. During World War II, Juan Pujol García, a Spaniard, approached British and American intelligence to offer them his spy services, but both countries rebuffed him. Finally, he faked his death and created his own counter-intelligence operation for the Allies.

Image Credit : Nationalarchives.gov.uk

During the Spanish Civil War, Juan Pujol Garcia, a Spaniard, developed hatred towards the fascist regimes. He wanted to help the Allies. Juan contacted both British and American intelligence agencies in 1939, but both rejected his offer.

Determined to help, he faked his death and created a false identity. Juan met German officials and pretended to be a pro-Nazi Spanish government official. He convinced them and became a successful German agent. He was instructed to travel to Britain and recruit additional agents; instead, he moved to Lisbon and created bogus reports about Britain from a variety of public sources.

He invented fictitious sub-agents who could be blamed for false information and mistakes. Eventually, he made the German fund a network of 27 agents, all fictitious. His reports were intercepted by the British Ultra communications interceptions program and seemed so credible that the British counter-intelligence service, MI5, launched a full-scale spy hunt. The Allies realized their mistake and accepted Juan’s spy services in 1942. (1, 2)