Bravado from French meaning exploit (mostly ironical). A bravado can be an infinitive number of things. To rank events like this is hard. Judge for yourself...
1. Moses. Chief, priest and prophet. Was found in the reeds as child. Walked as adult 2,000 kilometers through the desert wearing sandals. Splitted an ocean.
2. Sir Edmund Hillary. Bee-keeper from NewZeeland that together with sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first on the highest point on earth, Mount Everest in may 1953. Sir Edmund Hillary biography. Tenzing Norgay and his moment on Mount Everest.
3. Sir Ernest Shackleton. Irish legendary polar adventurer. Led several expeditions to the Antarctica. He never reached far due do different problems, but he never lost a man. Died of a heart attack in 1921 on the way to the place he loved most... Buried in the Antarctic where you still can see his grave. Shackleton and the Endurance expedition.
4. Hermann Buhl. After 31 people's death on Nanga Parbat, the summit was reached by a single man: Hermann Buhl. Even today this is regarded as an almost super-human climb. Four years later he made the first ascent of Broad Peak, just to get killed a few days later while attempting Chogolisa. Hermann Buhl biography. Hermann Buhl and the first ascent of Nanga Parbat.
5. An unidentified human male addicted to speed that managed to get his hands on a JATO-rocket (Jet Assisted Take Off). A rocket used on huge military cargo planes that is supposed to take off from short airports. Somehow he managed to attach this to his Chevy Impala and headed to a long straight road in the empty desert of Arizona. He jumped in, started the engine and accelerated. - and switched to rocket speed... What is known is that at an approximately speed of 560 km/h he tried to break with the only result that both his tires and breaks melted! From there on the Impala was was transformed into a high flying rocket, leaving the ground, continuing for some kilometres in the air until a mountain wall was in the way... Nobody saw this happen and it was by pure luck a police patrolling found the wreck. He thought it had found a jet-airplane, but in the labratory it was discovered he had found an... ...Impala! Belive it if you want, some say it's an urban myth...
6. Eddie Edwards. More known as The Eagle. British ski-jumper that competed rather than good. Survived the Olympic Championships in 1988 as last man in the results. Eddie landed on 55 meters with his unique jump style in the 90 meters ski-jump.
7. The wife of the Russian Fjodor Vassilev. She lived an assiduous life in a village 240 kilometers south of Moscow. Besides her daily obligations she had time to put 69 children to the world year 1725 - 1765. Totally 27 pregnancies. Twins 16 times, triplets seven times and quartlettes four times. A record mother of rank, though the history books only remember the name of the man in the house...
8. Ferdinand Magellan. Portuguese adventurer of a noble family. The first who traveled around the world in the beginning of the 1500-century. Of the five ship in his fleet only one returned after three years. Unfortenely Magellan wasn't on board. Of 300 men, only 115 survived the trip... Books about Fredinand Magellan.
9. Teiichi Igarash. Birthday celebrator who showed it's never to late for anything. Climbed Japan's highest mountain - Fuji 3776 meters and celebrated his 100 years day on the top.
10. Jurij Romanenko. Russian cosmonaut. Never laid lazy in his space rocket. Endurance record on space training bicycle - 1,000 kilometers.
11. Nicolo III. Persevering casanova in Ferrara/Italy. Had over 800 mistresses during his life. Strange enough he had his wife executed by chopping her head for being unfaithful only once.
12. Poon Lim. Survived 133 days alone on a raft after his ship had been torpedoed in the Atlantic. Was found in April 1943 by fishermen outside the Brazilian coast. He was very hungry. Sole survivor about Poon Lim and his raft.
13. Sir John Franklin. Adventurer on sea that was killed with his entire crew during an attempt to find the northeast passage 1845. A though guy who on an earlier trip to the Arctic had to eat: "burned leather pieces mixed with moss and horn and bones from a dead dear fried together with some old shoes" Books about Sir John Franklin.
14. Ragnar Jonsson. Legendary trapper in Canada. Lived on what the nature had to offer for over 60 years. Lived in a little cabin with his dogs as his only company. He was the last Swedish trapper and died in 1988.
15. Feidippides. Exploit man and messenger. Runner of the first marathon without knowing it. 450 before Christ he hurried on for 42.195 kilometers to leave the message that the Athens had defeated the Perses at Marathon. Fell died to the ground at arrival.
16. Holy Simon. Spent the last 45 years of his life on the top of a stone pillar in Syria. Born 521, dead 597. Was of course given the nickname "pillar saint".
17. Daniel Goodwin. Climbed up the wall of Sears Tower in Chicago with sucker-foot boots as his only help. He was immediately arrested by the police after the bravado.
18. Mikael Strandberg. Swedish adventurer, writer and bicyclist that became the first to cross the Sahara dessert on bike during his 24 months long North Cape - Cape of Good Hope expedition.
19. Forgotten Wrestlers. At the Olympic Championships in Stockholm 1912 there was an event called: wrestling without time-limit. The longest match lasted for 11 hours and 40 minutes. A lot of halfnelsons there...
20. Jacques Piccard, a physics professor from Switzerland that in 1960 dived down in the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean with the famous bathyscope "Trieste". With him was U.S. Navy lieutenant Don Walsh. Jacques and Don reached the bottom at a depth of 11,500 meters. The journey took eight and a half hour. This record will never be beaten since bigger depth doesn't exist.
21. Anna Edyson Taylor. 43 year old widow and teacher from Michigan was the first person that dared to travel down the Niagara falls in a barrel year 1901. Stepped out unhurt with only a tiny wound behind one ear. She was conscious but stuttered in the beginning.
22. David Livingstone. Minister from London. The most famous of all explorers in Africa. Walked through the Kalahari desert, looked his way to the most isolated villages. He was on traveling foot all his life. Died tired and sick on a beach in Africa 1873. Books/videos by or about David Livingstone.
23. Robert Peary and Frederic Cook. Two Americans that in 1909 made a bet on who would become the first human on the North Pole. Both reach the goal(?), but it is uncertain who won the bet. Peary brought with him 12 sledges, 133 dogs. As company on the way he had his black friend Matthew Henson and four Eskimos. Books/videos by or about Peary, Cook and Henson.
24. Swami Maujgiri Maharaj. Indian that stood up for 17 years. Made his penance during the years 1955 - 1973.
25. Dimitru Dan. Rumanian that made the longest walk in history - 96,000 kilometers. The quick Rumanian walked approximately 43.85 kilometers each day between April 1st 1910 - mars 24th 1916.
26. Frantz Reichelt. Brave tailor from Paris that was obsessed to invent some sort of wings that combined the parachute with the birds-wings-principle. After some minor disasters he was ready for the big challenge. In 1912 he threw himself out from the Eifel-tower... Four seconds later he was dead.
27. Niel Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men on the moon. Or where they only in a temporary film studio in Area 51? Some people doubt this really happened and that it all is a big hoax, a conspiracy produced by the American giverment and NASA to get ahead of the Soviet Union in the cold war race. If so, this might be the bravado of all bravados!
28. Göran Kropp. Swedish climber and adventurer, jumped up on his bicycle, biked to Himalaya, carried all his gears and food alone to BC, Stepped up on Mount Everest and biked home again. Göran Kropp biography.
29. Guy Delage. In 1995 he swam eastward from Africa's Cape Verde Islands to Barbados (southeast of Puerto Rico). Logging six to eight hours a day behind a 15-foot raft that carried his communications gear and food supply, Delage ate and slept on the craft when not in the water. After 55 days he had covered 2,100 nautical miles.
30 . Maurice Wilson, he could neither fly an aeroplane or had any climbing experience, nevertheless he stated that he would fly from England to Mount Everest and crash high on the north side and climb the last part to the summit. In 1934 he made his bid, he managed to fly all the way to India. From there he headed for Everest... His body was found 21,000 feet up on the East Ronghuk Glacier on July 9 1934. He had died in his sleep of exhaustion and cold.
"Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible..." - Doug Larson