Victors may write the history, but
inspiring success stories can all too
often overshadow less spectacular
tales of brave people who pushed society
forward without honors or recognition.
Even the ones who paved the way for the
eventual victor.

We all know Neil Armstrong, but fewer
remember the second man to set foot on
the moon, Buzz Aldrin. The third moon-
walker, Charles Conrad , may have known
that nobody was watching, which is
probably why, instead of solemn words, he
let rip with a simple “Whoopee!”
Norwegian Roald Amundsen also received
much more credit than British Robert F.
Scott after beating him to the North Pole
by just a month. Scott died on his way
back, which of course didn’t help, soon
after realizing how close he’d come to
glory. But really, in the bigger scheme of
things, what’s a month?
And have you ever heard the name of Bert
Hinkler ? Probably not. He flew across the
Atlantic second, soon after Charles
Lindbergh launched headlines worldwide.
Still, being first is often difficult to prove
and even then, not always a guarantee of
fame. Take Thorfinn Karlsefni . He was one
of the Vikings who settled in
Newfoundland, Canada, about 500 years
before Columbus set sail for the New
World. Yet the sailor from Genoa is still
widely credited as being the European
who discovered America.

The Wright brothers might not have been
the first to fly an airplane either. Richard
Pearse , a farmer from New Zealand, is said
to have flown 350 yards with a plane of
his own invention, nine months before the
Wright brothers took off. Another
contender for the title is Gustave
Whitehead , a German engineer living
Connecticut who claimed to have flown in
1901, two years before the Wrights did.
Countless pioneers have gone
unrecognized in the field of engineering,
where a patent often means the difference
between glory and oblivion. The
microprocessor, for example, was first
invented by Geoffrey Dummer, a British
electronics engineer. But he abandoned
the idea after his presentation of the
device failed to impress the attendees of a
conference in 1952. Six years later, Jack St.
Claire Kilby, an American scientist, filed a
patent for an almost identical device. The
invention made billions for Texas
Instruments.
The most emblematic case of legal woes is
probably that of Antonio Meucci , who
invented the first phone-like device in
1854. He filed a caveat at the U.S. Patent
Office, essentially putting a temporary hold
on the idea before filing for a full patent.
But soon he went bankrupt and could not
afford the $10 fee to renew it. It expired in
1874 and, two years later, Alexander
Graham Bell filed his patent.
In 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives
declared , “If Meucci had been able to pay
the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after
1874, no patent could have been issued to
Bell,” but school books still list Bell as the
telephone’s inventor.
Many women’s contributions have also
fallen through the cracks. In 1962, James
Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel
Prize for discovering the DNA’s double
helix structure, an achievement that was
only possible because of Rosalind Franklin,
the biophysicist who took the first pictures
of life’s building blocks and received no
credit for the discovery.

Sometimes even those who completely fail
to reach their objectives pave the road for
others to succeed. It’s the case of countless
19th-century explorers who, driven by
curiosity and national rivalry, joined a
race to the farthest corners of the Earth.
When John Hanning Speke discovered the
source of the Nile in 1858 he did so, in
part, based on the unsuccessful previous
attempts of little-known explorers like
Robert James Gordon, Henry Pike Welford
and John Ledyard, all of whom lost their
lives trying to solve the century’s most
gripping mystery.
Also forgotten have been many who helped
their life partners to the finish line, like
Florence Barbara von Sass, the wife of
famous African adventurer Sam Baker. She
accompanied him in all his expeditions.
Still, history’s most neglected heroes might
be the local men and women who worked
tirelessly to get others into the history
books and received barely a footnote in
return.

It’s the case of most African porters whose
role in exploring their own continent has
been widely understated. Their first names
— Bombay, Chuma, Susi, Uledi — are
sometimes mentioned in explorers’
journals and some received honors from
the Royal Geographic Society , but their
exploits have gone largely unsung.
Likewise, Sherpa guides risk their lives
helping Westerners up the Himalayas but
their names are often left out when
recounting mountaineering feats. A
notable exception was Nepalese Tenzing
Norgay , who received wide recognition
and a medal from the Queen of England
for reaching the summit of Mount Everest
with his friend Edmund Hillary.
History’s limelight is capricious. Why
should those who fall slightly short of the
mark not be recognized for persistence
and courage?
Theodore Roosevelt put it best in a 1910
speech : “It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of
deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually
in the arena (…) who at the worst, if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who neither know
victory nor defeat.”

Can't read the whole post. But ur right from the topic nd d first few lines. Just like the three idiots movie. Mr virus-who knows d first man on the moon. Everyone knew. But he asks. Who d second man is. No1 knew

PeetaBishop: Victors may write the history, but
inspiring success stories can all too
often overshadow less spectacular
tales of brave people who pushed society
forward without honors or recognition.
Even the ones who paved the way for the
eventual victor.

We all know Neil Armstrong, but fewer
remember the second man to set foot on
the moon, Buzz Aldrin. The third moon-
walker, Charles Conrad , may have known
that nobody was watching, which is
probably why, instead of solemn words, he
let rip with a simple “Whoopee!”
Norwegian Roald Amundsen also received
much more credit than British Robert F.
Scott after beating him to the North Pole
by just a month. Scott died on his way
back, which of course didn’t help, soon
after realizing how close he’d come to
glory. But really, in the bigger scheme of
things, what’s a month?
And have you ever heard the name of Bert
Hinkler ? Probably not. He flew across the
Atlantic second, soon after Charles
Lindbergh launched headlines worldwide.
Still, being first is often difficult to prove
and even then, not always a guarantee of
fame. Take Thorfinn Karlsefni . He was one
of the Vikings who settled in
Newfoundland, Canada, about 500 years
before Columbus set sail for the New
World. Yet the sailor from Genoa is still
widely credited as being the European
who discovered America.

The Wright brothers might not have been
the first to fly an airplane either. Richard
Pearse , a farmer from New Zealand, is said
to have flown 350 yards with a plane of
his own invention, nine months before the
Wright brothers took off. Another
contender for the title is Gustave
Whitehead , a German engineer living
Connecticut who claimed to have flown in
1901, two years before the Wrights did.
Countless pioneers have gone
unrecognized in the field of engineering,
where a patent often means the difference
between glory and oblivion. The
microprocessor, for example, was first
invented by Geoffrey Dummer, a British
electronics engineer. But he abandoned
the idea after his presentation of the
device failed to impress the attendees of a
conference in 1952. Six years later, Jack St.
Claire Kilby, an American scientist, filed a
patent for an almost identical device. The
invention made billions for Texas
Instruments.
The most emblematic case of legal woes is
probably that of Antonio Meucci , who
invented the first phone-like device in
1854. He filed a caveat at the U.S. Patent
Office, essentially putting a temporary hold
on the idea before filing for a full patent.
But soon he went bankrupt and could not
afford the $10 fee to renew it. It expired in
1874 and, two years later, Alexander
Graham Bell filed his patent.
In 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives
declared , “If Meucci had been able to pay
the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after
1874, no patent could have been issued to
Bell,” but school books still list Bell as the
telephone’s inventor.
Many women’s contributions have also
fallen through the cracks. In 1962, James
Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel
Prize for discovering the DNA’s double
helix structure, an achievement that was
only possible because of Rosalind Franklin,
the biophysicist who took the first pictures
of life’s building blocks and received no
credit for the discovery.

Sometimes even those who completely fail
to reach their objectives pave the road for
others to succeed. It’s the case of countless
19th-century explorers who, driven by
curiosity and national rivalry, joined a
race to the farthest corners of the Earth.
When John Hanning Speke discovered the
source of the Nile in 1858 he did so, in
part, based on the unsuccessful previous
attempts of little-known explorers like
Robert James Gordon, Henry Pike Welford
and John Ledyard, all of whom lost their
lives trying to solve the century’s most
gripping mystery.
Also forgotten have been many who helped
their life partners to the finish line, like
Florence Barbara von Sass, the wife of
famous African adventurer Sam Baker. She
accompanied him in all his expeditions.
Still, history’s most neglected heroes might
be the local men and women who worked
tirelessly to get others into the history
books and received barely a footnote in
return.

It’s the case of most African porters whose
role in exploring their own continent has
been widely understated. Their first names
— Bombay, Chuma, Susi, Uledi — are
sometimes mentioned in explorers’
journals and some received honors from
the Royal Geographic Society , but their
exploits have gone largely unsung.
Likewise, Sherpa guides risk their lives
helping Westerners up the Himalayas but
their names are often left out when
recounting mountaineering feats. A
notable exception was Nepalese Tenzing
Norgay , who received wide recognition
and a medal from the Queen of England
for reaching the summit of Mount Everest
with his friend Edmund Hillary.
History’s limelight is capricious. Why
should those who fall slightly short of the
mark not be recognized for persistence
and courage?
Theodore Roosevelt put it best in a 1910
speech : “It is not the critic who counts;
not the man who points out how the
strong man stumbles, or where the doer of
deeds could have done them better. The
credit belongs to the man who is actually
in the arena (…) who at the worst, if he
fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so
that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who neither know
victory nor defeat.”

.nice write-up inspiring

Very helpful discussion. Thank you.