History’s 50 Most Awesome Badasses You Should Know About – Part 3

In 1883, the body of a bear and Frank Devereaux were found dead beside each other with the ground around them thrashed for 20 square feet. It is that the man and bear fought to death.

When he was 9 years old John Fairfax settled a dispute with a pistol. He was kicked out of the Boy Scouts for firing on another group with a firearm. At 13 he ran away to live like Tarzan in the Amazon jungle. When he was 20 he decided to commit suicide - by Jaguar! He did bring a pistol with him in case he changed his mind, which he did, and he subsequently shot and skinned the animal. He spent three years as a pirate after trying to bike and hitchhike across South America. Then when it was all said and done he rowed solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and later the Pacific in tandem with another.

Agustina of Aragon was en route to a fort to deliver apples to the Spanish soldiers during the Spanish War of Independence when she found them fleeing in the face of a French attack. She ran ahead and manned the cannons, shaming the soldiers so badly that they felt compelled to return to the fight. With her assistance, they drove off the French. She was eventually captured, but escaped and became a leader of a band of guerilla fighters. She even served as a battery commander in the Battle of Victoria. They called her the Spanish Joan of Arc.

When Chinese general Zhuge Liang had to defend a town against 150,000 troops with just 100 men, he told his men to hide, flung open the gates and sat on the walls playing the lute. The opposing general, certain it was a trap, ordered a retreat.

Saburo Sakai was a Japanese air ace who was shot in the face during a dogfight in World War 2. Blind in one eye and partially paralyzed, “he flew upside down to prevent blood from blinding his other eye.” He flew for five hours to get back to the base, made his report and then had surgery without anesthesia.

In 1907, a Mexican railroad brakeman named Jesus Garcia saved the entire town of Nacozari in Sonora by singlehandedly driving a damaged and burning train containing dynamite. He drove the train 6 kilometers away from the town before it finally exploded, killing him.

In 2008, British Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Croucher flung himself back-first onto a grenade to save his comrades. Though the explosion threw him in the air, his rucksack absorbed the blast and he walked away with just a nosebleed and a headache.

Abraham Lincoln is enshrined in the wrestling hall of fame. Defeated only once in approximately 300 matches, Lincoln reportedly talked a little smack in the ring. According to Carl Sandburg's biography of Lincoln, Honest Abe once challenged an entire crowd of onlookers after dispatching an opponent: “I’m the big buck of this lick. If any of you want to try it, come on and whet your horns.” There were no takers.

There was a real team of Jewish assassins called “The Avengers” who tracked down and executed Nazi war criminals after WWII.

During World War 1, French flying ace Charles Nungesser managed to score 45 victories. A German plane once challenged him to single combat on the next day. When he arrived the next day, he was met with six German fighter planes. He managed to shoot down two of them before he returned back home. By the end of the war, he suffered skull fracture, brain concussion, fractured upper and lower jaw, a piece of shrapnel in the right arm, dislocated knees, clavicle, wrist and ankle, a bullet wound in mouth and ear, atrophied tendon in left leg and calf, teeth loss and numerous contusions.