Who is your favorite historical figure

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Mine is Billy The Kid because I love the Old West and the legend of the kid is interesting because he was this young, rebel outlaw with a heart.

I want to hear who your favorite historical figure is

Mine is Che Guevara or Karl Marx!

An unnamed Zulu man who publicly chastized the Zulu King Shaka for allowing a multiday massacre to occur at the death of Shaka's mother. Over 10,000 men, women and children had already been killed for being unable to keep up the endless mourning ceremony and the man walked up to the throne and told Shaka, that everybody eventually lost their mother and he was destroying his own people. Shaka habitually ordered the instant execution, usually by impaling, of several to dozens of people a day for the the slightest reason and even arbitrary happenstance. Frowning, coughing, a sneeze or just looking up at a cloud meant death in the court of the absolute despot. So the man was walking into sure death essentially. But amazingly, Shaka relented and ordered an end to the mourning and the man was not punnished. It's unfortunate history did not record the man's name but, it did record his insanely courageous act.

Mine is Princess Diana. She did a lot to help children around the world and she helped to get rid of the war mines.

Several.

- Charlemagne, my current profile theme. Who else in history has had the honour of expanding a massive European empire, driving out a lot of invaders and still finding time to have an insane amount of intercourse, eventually setting in motion a chain of people having intercourse that led to me being born approximately 1251 years later? Well, his father and grandfather, but they overthrew a bunch of lazy kings and defeated muslim invaders in a hilarious way, respectively.
- William Wallace. It takes either a man very crazy or a man very brave to give up his life in a rather nasty way just so he might have a larger slice of the cake that is barren hills and freezing winters.
- Robert Mugabe. He's not dead yet, and still in power as far as anyone can tell despite rumours of him being on his deathbed in Singapore a while ago, but he's fascinating. It's the tale of how someone can be so mindblowingly incompetent and still somehow manage to stay in power despite having caused more African poverty in the region than any European colonial power could ever have imagined.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbRom1Rz8OA[/youtube]

Mine is Isabel I of Castile. She was a very great queen. I wish I could be more like her.

I like Laura Ingalls Wilder. I grew up worshiping her and I was obsessed with the Little House series.

My favorite is a young woman in early-15th century Poland who disguised herself as a man to attend the University of Krakow. She shared sleeping quarters and bathing facilities with the male students but managed to maintain her disguise for two years. When she was finally exposed and tried, she was asked why she did it, and answered "amore Studii"-- "for the love of learning." Beyond that nothing historical is known about her, but popular legend has her name as Nawojka.

When I have the money, I'm planning to get a tattoo on my arm that says "amore Studii." Reminds me of my own goals and the opportunities I'm fortunate to have.

Though I'm under the impression "historical" in this context means "known by nearly everyone" as being a major contributor to society in some way, shape or form, most of the the ones in my reply (with the exception of Goethe) had some influence, though not significant enough to be a well-recognized figure. German dystopian poet Gottfried Benn, author of the Eddas, Snorri Sturlus(s)on, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and inventor Sir Hiram S. Maxim.

Good Question! Mine would probably have to be St. Josemaría Escrivá. He founded the still controversial Opus Dei laity, but he has a lot of inspirational yet simple literature. He really knew how to put things in perspective.

Toss up between Aristotle and Charles Darwin. There is absolutely no way I could choose one over the other.

Abraham Lincoln FTW!!

In addition to freeing the slaves, he was a world-class vampire hunter, and our first LGBT president.

Nikola Tesla
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla