History Nearly Ended Early
They may have been history’s most influential people, but they weren’t immune to faulty machinery, collapsing vehicles, unpredictable weather, or human error. Some of the most mentioned names in textbooks escaped accidents so severe that witnesses assumed no one made it out alive. Others endured injuries that permanently shaped their work and reputation. Whatever the case, these 20 people had miraculous recoveries from events that should have likely claimed their lives.
1. Ernest Hemingway Survived Two Crashes in Two Days
While sightseeing in Uganda in January 1954, Ernest Hemingway’s small plane clipped a telegraph wire and crashed near the Nile. As if that wasn’t enough, the following day, a rescue aircraft carrying Hemingway and his wife crashed during takeoff and caught fire, forcing him to escape. It was bad enough that early reports mistakenly announced his death.
Look Magazine, Photographer (NARA record: 1106476) on Wikimedia
2. Charles Dickens Walked Away From a Derailment
Charles Dickens was simply traveling through Kent on June 9, 1865, when his train derailed at Staplehurst. Workers removed part of the track over a viaduct, and Dickens was smack dab in the aftermath. His carriage was left dangling above the riverbed, but he climbed through a window and even managed to help injured passengers—and retrieve the unfinished manuscript of Our Mutual Friend.
3. Frida Kahlo Was Impaled During a Bus Collision
On September 17, 1925, a bus carrying 18-year-old Frida Kahlo collided with a streetcar in Mexico City. A metal handrail actually pierced her body; the impact fractured her spine, pelvis, ribs, collarbone, and right leg. It left her to undergo months of immobilization, but it also encouraged Kahlo to begin painting seriously.
Toni Frissell / Adam Cuerden on Wikimedia
4. Winston Churchill Walked Into Traffic
Everyone always jokes about things being backwards overseas, but Churchill experienced the mix-up firsthand. While visiting New York City in 1931, he stepped onto Fifth Avenue after checking for traffic from the direction familiar to British pedestrians. An approaching car struck him, leaving him with cracked ribs, a scalp wound, and other injuries that required hospital treatment.
Central Office of Information on Wikimedia
5. Harriet Tubman Was Struck by a Flying Metal Weight
As an enslaved teenager, Harriet Tubman once dug in her heels and refused to help an overseer restrain another enslaved person, who at the time was attempting to flee. The overseer hurled a two-pound metal weight at the man, but it struck Tubman in the head and nearly killed her instead. She recovered without proper medical care, though the injury caused seizures for the rest of her life.
Photographer: Horatio Seymour Squyer, 1848 - 18 Dec 1905 on Wikimedia
6. John F. Kennedy’s Patrol Boat Was Cut in Half
During the early hours of August 2, 1943, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri rammed JFK’s PT-109 in the Solomon Islands. The collision managed to slice through the wooden boat and threw most of its crew into burning, fuel-covered water. In addition to saving himself, Kennedy was also able to tow an injured sailor toward an island to safety with him.
Walt Cisco, Dallas Morning News on Wikimedia
7. John McCain Escaped an Accidental Carrier Explosion
John McCain was sitting in his A-4 Skyhawk aboard the USS Forrestal in 1967 when an electrical malfunction accidentally launched a rocket across the flight deck. As you can imagine, it did some serious damage, rupturing a fuel tank and creating a fire that detonated bombs in the process. The whole thing killed 134 sailors, but McCain escaped his aircraft.
8. Gene Roddenberry Crawled From a Burning Airliner
Before creating Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry worked as a commercial pilot for Pan American World Airways. It wasn’t all sailing through the skies, however, and in June 1947, an engine fire caused his flight to crash in the Syrian desert. It ended 15 of the 36 lives aboard and broke two of Roddenberry’s ribs. That said, he did pull other passengers from the flames and organized the search for help.
9. Roald Dahl Crashed Into the Libyan Desert
Newly trained RAF pilot Roald Dahl once got lost while flying to an airstrip in Libya in September 1940 after receiving incorrect directions. Running low on fuel and also flying in the approaching dark, he attempted a forced landing before striking a boulder and slamming face-first into his instrument panel while the aircraft caught fire. Dahl crawled away with a fractured skull and temporary blindness, then kept flying after months of recovery.
10. T. E. Lawrence Survived a Crash That Killed Both Pilots
T. E. Lawrence was just trying to get from Paris to Cairo in 1919 when his RAF bomber crashed. The airplane struck the ground upside down, ending the pilot and co-pilot’s lives. Lawrence, however, emerged with two broken ribs and a fractured shoulder blade.
11. Howard Hughes Flew Into a Beverly Hills Neighborhood
Howard Hughes was testing the experimental XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft over LA in 1946 when a propeller malfunction caused him to lose control. The plane tore through several houses before exploding in Beverly Hills, which somehow didn’t claim Hughes’s life. It did, however, leave him with crushed bones.
Acme Newspictures on Wikimedia
12. Eddie Rickenbacker Spent Weeks Lost at Sea
World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker was crossing the Pacific on a military inspection mission in October 1942 when his B-17 became lost. Not only that, but it also ran out of fuel. After the bomber ditched in the ocean, he and the surviving crew bundled into life rafts with limited supplies, forcing them to endure exposure and starvation for almost three weeks before a search plane finally found them.
User Varus on de.wikipedia on Wikimedia
13. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Survived a Takeoff Disaster
In February 1938, The Little Prince author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry attempted a record-setting flight from New York to southern Chile. The thing is, his heavily loaded airplane didn’t gain enough altitude during takeoff and crashed beyond the runway. Saint-Exupéry suffered serious fractures and spent months recovering.
14. Charles Lindbergh Parachuted From Four Failing Aircraft
Believe it or not, Charles Lindbergh had already experienced several emergencies before making his famous solo Atlantic crossing in 1927. Between 1924 and 1926 alone, everything from equipment failures and midair collisions forced him to abandon four different airplanes and parachute to safety.
15. Orville Wright Survived Aviation’s First Fatal Crash
During a demonstration in 1908, a propeller blade broke on an airplane piloted by Orville Wright. He plunged approximately 75 feet and struck the ground, seriously injuring himself and fatally wounding passenger Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge. Wright had broken ribs and a fractured leg but recovered and returned to the skies the following year.
16. Louis Zamperini Survived a Bomber Crash
Olympic runner Louis Zamperini was actually serving as a bombardier in 1943 when mechanical problems brought his B-24 down in the Pacific. Only three of the 11 men aboard made it out alive, and they were left on rafts with almost no usable supplies. Zamperini remained at sea for 47 days, surviving sharks and gunfire from a Japanese aircraft before being found.
17. Ernest Shackleton Watched the Ice Crush His Ship
Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance once got lodged in Antarctic pack ice during his 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. Months of pressure crushed the hull, forcing him and his 27 men to camp on drifting ice before the ship finally sank. By the end, though, Shackleton helped secure the rescue of every member of his crew.
Bain News Service, publisher on Wikimedia
18. Niki Lauda Was Pulled From a Burning Race Car
F1 has never been the safest sport, but that was never clearer than Formula One champion Niki Lauda’s crash. He lost control during the German Grand Prix in 1976—his car struck an embankment, burst into flames, and was even hit by another vehicle, leaving Lauda trapped. Despite severe burns and lung damage, he somehow returned to competition only six weeks later.
Gillfoto from Juneau, Alaska, United States on Wikimedia
19. George Lucas Was Thrown From His Rolling Car
Days before his 1962 high school graduation, George Lucas was driving near his family’s California ranch when another car nailed his from the side. His car rolled several times, but Lucas was actually thrown free after his racing seat belt snapped during the impact. The near-fatal experience ended his plans to become a race-car driver and redirected his attention toward filmmaking.
Joey Gannon from Pittsburgh, PA on Wikimedia
20. Stephen King Was Hit by a Distracted Driver
Stephen King was merely walking beside a road near Lovell, Maine, in 1999 when a minivan veered onto the shoulder and struck him. The collision threw him into a ditch and left him with a collapsed lung, a broken hip, and multiple fractures in his right leg. Doctors had seriously considered amputating the leg, but five operations and extensive rehab allowed him to keep it.
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