Most Underrated Person in History

[Raregolddragon]

Tesla

 

[mumakurau]

Norman Borlaug, the man who saved a billion lives. Yes, I'm serious, look him up.

He saved a billion lives, but he's been mentioned repeatedly in this thread. Vasily Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov saved more lives, yet they haven't been mentioned yet because they're even more obscure. Even a big Norman Borlaug fan I know had never heard of Arkhipov.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet nuclear submarine was attacked by an American destroyers. The officers on the submarine voted on whether or not they'd launch a nuclear bomb at the American fleet - if they voted unanimously, they'd do it, inevitably killing billions of people in the ensuing nuclear war. Arkhipov was the sole dissenting vote.

Stanislav Petrov was overseeing the missile warning system in the Soviet Union in 1983, a low point for Soviet-US relations. The automated systems detected an American nuclear missile headed for the Soviet Union. According to the USSR's launch-on-warning policy, the proper response would be to launch a barrage of nuclear missiles at the US, starting a nuclear winter and killing billions of people. Petrov instead decided to ignore the warning.

When more nuclear missiles showed up onscreen, Petrov decided that it must be a false alarm. With multiple missiles inbound on Soviet territory, the computer automatically sent warnings to Petrov's superiors. Petrov called those superiors and told them that the attack warning was a false alarm, based entirely on gut instinct. His instinct was, of course, correct.

If Arkhipov or Petrov had let their superiors push the button, we'd be hiding from ghouls and begging for purified water right now. They got no recognition for saving the world. Arkhipov's heroism on that nuclear submarine was covered up until the end of the Cold War, and Petrov was disciplined for failing to follow protocol - protocol that would have caused the end of the world.


There were also American heroes who prevented the US from attacking the Soviet Union. However, I haven't been able to find the names of these underrated unsung heroes.

Those two were certainly heroic, but I still favor Borlaug over those two. Yes, that may have saved more lives than Borlaug, but the lives Borlaug saved were not from just one country but from all over the world. A grand majority were of a different race than him. And he did it with his own two hands. Arkhipov and Petrov simply called a false alarm; they have not done anything to evolve the standard of humanity.

He is a hero.

 

[Misterian]

Sir John Harrington
He invented the toilet.

I thought it was the Ancient Romans that invented the toilet, they were the ones that invented indoor plumbing.

Anyway, the most underrated person in my opinion? Benito Mussolini.

Far as I know, putting my anti-totalitarianism aside, he had a good thing going running Facist Italy until he paid the price for deciding to side with Hitler.

 

[mumakurau]

Tesla

Y'know what... I'm calling BS on Tesla being underrated. He's been in history books, he's been on the lips of most anybody with an interest in science at least once, and his more iconic works are still referenced in pop culture from time to time. Plus, his name has been mentioned a million times in this thread already.

 

[Lord Krunk]

Gough Whitlam.

Brought out a heck of a lot of reforms to Australia (America, you know that free health care bizzo you just recieved? Well, he did that 40 years earlier for us), then gets shafted by the Liberals who owned the Senate at the time (again, for those of you out of the loop the Liberals are ironically our Conservative party).

Then when he sets out to challenge them, the Governor General fires him. The Liberals take over Parliament, takes credit for most of the stuff he did when he was in, and remove everything else (for example, free education).

We never got a decent PM (excepting Bob Hawke) after that. On the bright side, the Governor General is nothing but a figurehead that signs documents now.

EDIT: Scrap that. Nikola Tesla is definitely more underrated.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I would say Hitler to be a dick and Godwin's Law this thread. But I don't really know know much about this sort of stuff. So I'll just agree with the other guys and say Nikola Tesla.

 

[Tuken]

Nikola Tesla. This guy made Einstein look like an average man. He really did, too, they used to work together.

He made AC electricity, the magnetic generators, Tesla coil, and a lot of cool stuff.

Nikola Tesla.

Without his advancements in electricity technology would've never gotten to where it is today.

Nicola Tesla. He did a shitload of inventions, and some got 'stolen' by other scientists(or so they say). And he invented the Tesla Coil. How awesome is that? It's like a Van de Graaff generator, only diferent, and can be used to zap US Grizzly tanks.

nicola tesla is the most awesome person ever

Nicola Tes--

*Just then, Nicola Tesla crashes through the wall on his robotic tyrannosaurus*

DAMN IT MAN! he exclaims, did you see Edison? That tramp of the ages, ONWARD!

And with a crack of his reigns he has vanished into time itself, leaving behind only a pile of hats.

They are all your hats.

I was going to say Nikola Tesla, but he's already been posted here.

Nikola Tesla.

That assface Edison gets all the credit for science in that time period.

Fuck Edison!

Nikola Tesla by a fairly wide margin. One of the greatest, most insane geniuses of our time, responsible for so many important discoveries, particularly alternating current. Brought down by the douchebag thief Edison...

Nikola Tesla....those bastards Westinghouse and Edison stole sooooooo much from him!!!

Nikola Tesla

Tesla

This.

Tesla

Y'know what... I'm calling BS on Tesla being underrated. He's been in history books, he's been on the lips of most anybody with an interest in science at least once, and his more iconic works are still referenced in pop culture from time to time. Plus, his name has been mentioned a million times in this thread already.

He's barely mentioned in history books and many of his advances in science have been claimed by others.
For a man of his caliber, he is the definition of under-rated.

Don't "call BS" just because he's been rightfully mentioned.

 

[mrdude2010]

Erwin Rommel.

We're so lucky OKW didn't listen to his requests.

i believe in the movie "Patton" right after he wins the final big desert battle that kicks Rommel out of Africa he says "i read your book, asshole"


OT Herbert Hoover; he was actually trying to implement some of the changes FDR implemented by the conservative congress refused to cooperate with him, and as a result he gets a lot of flak for not only being elected unfortunately into an economic crash but also for mismanaging the recovery when it was congress who failed to pass his solutions to the crisis... admittedly his solutions didnt go far enough, but he doesnt deserve nearly the load of blame heaped on him

 

[Commissar Sae]

I was going to say Mustafa Kemal Atatürk but I agree that Norman Borlaug is probably more important.

Incidently I don't think we hate Kublai Kham for his botched invasion of Japan enough.

How do you get the idea to transport a cavalry army in riverboats on the open sea? Let alone doing it in typhoon season? Bloody idiot.

To be fair, the mongols didn't really expect the freak hurricanes (Kamikaze--> ie: Divine Wind) to wipe out half their fleet.

I vote for Emperor Norton the first of the United States. Partially because he was awesome, but also because he's my avatar.

 

[Commissar Sae]

Erwin Rommel.

We're so lucky OKW didn't listen to his requests.

i believe in the movie "Patton" right after he wins the final big desert battle that kicks Rommel out of Africa he says "i read your book, asshole"

From what I remember that line actually goes "You Magnificent Bastard, I read your book!" Spawned its own trope.

 

[mumakurau]

Nikola Tesla. This guy made Einstein look like an average man. He really did, too, they used to work together.

He made AC electricity, the magnetic generators, Tesla coil, and a lot of cool stuff.

Nikola Tesla.

Without his advancements in electricity technology would've never gotten to where it is today.

Nicola Tesla. He did a shitload of inventions, and some got 'stolen' by other scientists(or so they say). And he invented the Tesla Coil. How awesome is that? It's like a Van de Graaff generator, only diferent, and can be used to zap US Grizzly tanks.

nicola tesla is the most awesome person ever

Nicola Tes--

*Just then, Nicola Tesla crashes through the wall on his robotic tyrannosaurus*

DAMN IT MAN! he exclaims, did you see Edison? That tramp of the ages, ONWARD!

And with a crack of his reigns he has vanished into time itself, leaving behind only a pile of hats.

They are all your hats.

I was going to say Nikola Tesla, but he's already been posted here.

Nikola Tesla.

That assface Edison gets all the credit for science in that time period.

Fuck Edison!

Nikola Tesla by a fairly wide margin. One of the greatest, most insane geniuses of our time, responsible for so many important discoveries, particularly alternating current. Brought down by the douchebag thief Edison...

Nikola Tesla....those bastards Westinghouse and Edison stole sooooooo much from him!!!

Nikola Tesla

Tesla

This.

Tesla

Y'know what... I'm calling BS on Tesla being underrated. He's been in history books, he's been on the lips of most anybody with an interest in science at least once, and his more iconic works are still referenced in pop culture from time to time. Plus, his name has been mentioned a million times in this thread already.

He's barely mentioned in history books and many of his advances in science have been claimed by others.
For a man of his caliber, he is the definition of under-rated.

Don't "call BS" just because he's been rightfully mentioned.

Well, at least he was in the history books of my school. Also, in order for his work to be claimed, they must be recognized a having great scientific potential; this gives weight to his name.

Finally, this is a thread is about "the most underrated" person. I feel his is known well enough that he doesn't qualify. So, I'm still calling BS.

(PS: No, need for quotations, bub. I am plainly calling bullshit.)

EDIT: Don't get me wrong here. I think that Tesla is one of the most underrated persons. But I feel that other people are even least recognized.

 

[Stone Wera]

Andrew Jackson. He often dueled while in office. In fact, he allowed a fellow duelist the first shot and won! He was the first president in history to ever try to be assassinated, guess what. Both of the assassin's perfectly working pistols misfired! They had to drag Andrew Jackson off the assassin! He walked down the street with a large stick for beating people! The man was crazy! Never has American morale been higher...

 

[Blydden]

Alton Brown. Cooking genius and film-making genius. Combined, you get a cooking show mixed with Bill Nye mixed with Mr. Rogers.

The show Good Eats, is really a lot better than I am making it sound. (Only bad thing is that each episode is only 30 minutes. I WANT 60!)

 

[sgtshock]

How about every single person on the list of the Righteous Among the Nations. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righteous_among_the_Nations]

It's a list of people from different countries who harbored or helped to escape Jews from Germeny during the Holocaust. The list includes Oskar Schindler, as well as many people who saved up to 50 times as many people as Schindler did, that you've probably never heard of.

 

[Chamale]

Norman Borlaug, the man who saved a billion lives. Yes, I'm serious, look him up.

He saved a billion lives, but he's been mentioned repeatedly in this thread. Vasily Arkhipov and Stanislav Petrov saved more lives, yet they haven't been mentioned yet because they're even more obscure. Even a big Norman Borlaug fan I know had never heard of Arkhipov.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, a Soviet nuclear submarine was attacked by an American destroyers. The officers on the submarine voted on whether or not they'd launch a nuclear bomb at the American fleet - if they voted unanimously, they'd do it, inevitably killing billions of people in the ensuing nuclear war. Arkhipov was the sole dissenting vote.

Stanislav Petrov was overseeing the missile warning system in the Soviet Union in 1983, a low point for Soviet-US relations. The automated systems detected an American nuclear missile headed for the Soviet Union. According to the USSR's launch-on-warning policy, the proper response would be to launch a barrage of nuclear missiles at the US, starting a nuclear winter and killing billions of people. Petrov instead decided to ignore the warning.

When more nuclear missiles showed up onscreen, Petrov decided that it must be a false alarm. With multiple missiles inbound on Soviet territory, the computer automatically sent warnings to Petrov's superiors. Petrov called those superiors and told them that the attack warning was a false alarm, based entirely on gut instinct. His instinct was, of course, correct.

If Arkhipov or Petrov had let their superiors push the button, we'd be hiding from ghouls and begging for purified water right now. They got no recognition for saving the world. Arkhipov's heroism on that nuclear submarine was covered up until the end of the Cold War, and Petrov was disciplined for failing to follow protocol - protocol that would have caused the end of the world.


There were also American heroes who prevented the US from attacking the Soviet Union. However, I haven't been able to find the names of these underrated unsung heroes.

Those two were certainly heroic, but I still favor Borlaug over those two. Yes, that may have saved more lives than Borlaug, but the lives Borlaug saved were not from just one country but from all over the world. A grand majority were of a different race than him. And he did it with his own two hands. Arkhipov and Petrov simply called a false alarm; they have not done anything to evolve the standard of humanity.

He is a hero.

The people saved by Petrov and Arkhipov were from all over the world. If there had been a nuclear war between the US and USSR, everyone in NATO and the Warsaw Pact would have been hit by nuclear weapons. I've read studies saying that nuclear winter would drop world temperatures by 30 degrees Celcius - a drop large enough to kill billions and threaten the very survival of our species. I'm not trying to diminish the significance of Norman Borlaug's accomplishments, of course.

Borlaug definitely deserves credit for his heroism, and in terms of total lifetime work was a bigger hero than Arkhipov or Petrov. But this thread discusses how underrated they were. Look at the recognition they got, and the awards they received: Norman Borlaug is one of only 6 people to win the Nobel Prize, Medal of Freedom, and Congressional Gold Medal. He's received millions of dollars worth of cash awards for all of his work.

The heroics of Arkhipov and Petrov were classified until well after the Cold War ended. It took a decade for Petrov to get recognized for what he did, and 3 decades for Arkhipov. Petrov won a World Citizen Award and $1,000. Arkhipov hasn't been awarded anything.

To put this in perspective once more, these 3 people have saved billions of lives and possibly the very human race. Norman Borlaug may be underrated, but he's still one of only 6 people to earn the Nobel Prize, Medal of Freedom, and Congressional Gold Medal. That puts him on the same list as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mother Teresa.

Meanwhile, Stanislav and Arkhipov are incredibly underrated. Allow me to put it in perspective. These two heroes put together have earned less fame and less money than this idiot [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HbkkZjcY0Q] for their actions. When someone saves all of Humanity from decades of suffering and there are less people who know about them than the number of views on a dumb Youtube clip, that's a pretty underrated hero right there.

 

[rabidmidget]

Nikola Tesla, he got screwed over by Edison and Marconi, despite making huge contributions to science.

He had plans for a motherf*cking death ray! Knowing him, it would have worked too.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

Since Tesla and Andrew Jackson have been mentioned already, I'm afraid I have nothing to really contribute.

Thomas Jefferson is surprisingly underrated though, even though in the later years of his presidency he made some insanely stupid decisions.

Yeah thomas Jefferson.

What stupid decisions are you talking about?

Towards the last years of his presidency, he made some trade decisions that angered a lot of people. His approval rating was pretty damn low by the end of his presidency.
But he did a lot of good for our country, aside from the Louisiana Purchase, that he probably belongs on this list.

 

[Dr. Gorgenflex]

Alexander Graham Bell. He gets a lot of respect but not as much as he deserves. Telephone, Hydrofoil boat, metal detectors, and heavier-than-air aircraft. Fuck Tesla he is mentioned much more than my main man AGB.

 

['Aredor]

Erwin Rommel.

Was venerated by the Nazis and still today often comes up in conversations as "sure they were a horrible bunch, but you have to admire Rommel's military genius". And he's about the only Nazi that we continued naming things and streets after.

He's about the only nazi who wasn't a nazi. He was a German, and was implicated in the july bomb plot because he was one of the few germans who had the balls to disagree with Hitler.

Ah, but he actually had no part in the assassination attempt. And his disagreement with Hitler was strictly militaristic, he knew the war couldn't be won and Hitler refused to accept it. Until then, Rommel was very loyal to Hitler and even admired him for his strong leadership. He was quite a bit naive, politically, and didn't really care about Hitlers ideology, it didn't matter to him.

He fought for his country not for nazism.

Agreed, that's how he felt, but it's hard to make that distinction, because in the end, if you fight a war for a country lead by the Nazis, well, you help them further their course. And he let himself be used as a propaganda figure.

So I agree with you, he wasn't really a Nazi at heart and did quite a few "good" things, but still: he worked under Hitler and followed his orders. Not a monster, but I'm still surprised we do honour him that much.

The only reason the nazis venerated him was because he was the only guy at the time who wasn't recoiling from the Russians, until he was absent at El Alamein (which he probably wouldn't have held anyways given his resources).

Oh, you misunderstand, it's perfectly okay that the Nazis recognized his military genius, what I'm trying to say is that he was treated as a great big hero, used in propaganda films and so on, they built up the "Mythos Rommel", so my point is: he wasn't underrated at the time. Internationally neither, Churchill had a lot of respect for him, as did Patton.

Now that that's off my chest, regarding his under-appreciation seeing as your living in Germany whereas I have only ever visited, I'll take your word for it regarding the street names etc.

If you're interested, there was also a destroyer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_destroyer_Rommel_(D187)], three Barracks, a student dormitory and so on.