21 People Who Took History Into Their Own Hands

History is often less about one brilliant/brave/well-endowed man than we like to think. It’s really hard to accomplish world-changing feats without a good team or even a whole army in place, but it’s easier to tell stories about one guy, so we tend to just identify one to pin it on and call it a day. Have you ever seen a movie shot from the perspective of more than, like, five characters? Shit would be a nightmare.

Still, there were times in history when someone had to say, “Fuck it, I’ll do it myself.” Whether they were holding off invading forces when no one else was available to do so or developing groundbreaking medical treatments that the man (ethics boards and grant givers) won’t touch, when user EmergencyPsychology5 asked r/AskReddit, “What is the greatest ‘fuck it, I’ll do it myself’ moment in history?” Reddit enlightened us about the path of the solitary spearhead.