20 Historical Figures Who Escaped Death

You’ve probably heard that the Cuban leader has survived more than six hundred assassination attempts over the course of his long life. The CIA tried everything, from booby-trapped cigars to poison-soaked diving suits, but none of these elaborate plans actually succeeded. It’s almost impressive to see how he managed to outlive nearly everyone who had been specifically hired to eliminate him.

This Russian mystic was known to be particularly difficult to kill when a group of nobles decided they absolutely had to get rid of him. It is said that they poisoned his food, shot him several times, and beat him mercilessly, but he continued to defend himself and try to escape despite everything. Finally, they had to throw him into a frozen river to ensure the matter was settled once and for all.

Passengers nicknamed her “Miss Unsinkable.” This flight attendant and nurse survived the sinkings of both the Titanic and the Britannic, which occurred on separate voyages. She even survived the maiden voyage of the Olympic, when it collided with another ship. One could say she was lucky—or, conversely, unlucky—to have been on board during so many tragedies.

Roy Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times. Yes, you read that right—seven times. And to think that being struck just once was already bad luck. This forest ranger survived for years, despite the minuscule odds of surviving even a single lightning strike.

Imagine being in Hiroshima when the first atomic bomb exploded, then returning home to Nagasaki just in time to see the second one strike. This engineer survived both nuclear explosions and even lived to the venerable age of ninety-three. His story is a poignant testament to human resilience in the face of unimaginable technological destruction.

Juliane, then a teenager, survived a fall of more than three kilometers from an airplane—while still strapped into her seat—during a storm in Peru. She suffered only a broken collarbone during her dizzying fall and survived for eleven days in the jungle afterward. Her incredible survival instinct enabled her to face the dangers of the wild until she was finally found.

This Croatian music teacher is often considered the luckiest man in the world after surviving a train crash, a plane crash, and several car explosions. After narrowly escaping death for decades, he topped it all off by winning a million dollars in the lottery on his 81st birthday. It seems the universe has decided to reward him for all the stress it has put him through over the years.

While he was delivering a campaign speech in Milwaukee, an would-be assassin shot the former president at point-blank range, hitting him squarely in the chest. Instead of rushing to the hospital, Teddy realized that his thick manuscript and metal glasses case had slowed the bullet and decided to finish his ninety-minute speech. He told the stunned crowd that it would take more than a single bullet to bring down a “Bull Moose.”

Flight attendant Vesna fell 10,000 meters when her plane exploded. It was the longest fall anyone has ever survived without a parachute. She landed in the snow, which cushioned her fall, and survived to tell her story.

This legendary French privateer spent his life fighting decisive naval battles against the British, even though he was vastly outnumbered. Although he was exposed to cannon and musket fire on a daily basis, he emerged unscathed from every skirmish and retired a wealthy man. One cannot help but admire a man who managed to make a living by escaping death on the high seas for so long.

Long before he led Great Britain during World War II, the young Churchill had escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp during the Boer War. He traveled hundreds of kilometers through enemy territory, with nothing but a little chocolate and a good dose of luck to rely on. This daring escape made him a national hero and paved the way for his future political dominance.

Along with his equipment and his two traveling companions, Mawson fell into a crevasse during his expedition to Antarctica. He spent thirty days crawling through the snow before reaching solid ground, even surviving another fall into a different crevasse. When he arrived at camp, the skin on his feet had been torn off, but he was alive.

This British officer was wounded in the face, head, stomach, ankle, leg, hip, and ear during several wars. He also survived two plane crashes and escaped from a prisoner-of-war camp by digging a tunnel, famously stating that he had actually enjoyed those conflicts. He even went so far as to bite his own fingers when a doctor refused to amputate them—which is pretty much the epitome of human tenacity.

Joan of Arc was struck in the shoulder by a crossbow bolt during a battle. She had the presence of mind to remove the bolt herself before plunging back into the fray. Her willpower seemed to keep her standing long after her body should have given out.

While on a fur-trapping expedition, a grizzly bear mauled this pioneer so severely that his friends left him for dead in a shallow pit. He woke up alone, crawled more than three hundred kilometers to the nearest fort, and survived by eating raw rattlesnakes and wild berries. His story is so poignant that it eventually inspired a major Hollywood film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

During the French and Indian War, the future first president saw two of his horses shot down beneath him and found four bullet holes in his coat. He miraculously emerged unscathed, leading many of his contemporaries to believe that he was under divine protection. It’s incredible to think that the history of the United States could have been completely different.

In 1650, this Englishwoman was hanged for a crime, but when the doctors opened her coffin to perform an autopsy, they found that she was still breathing. They gave her some hot liquor, and she made a full recovery; she eventually received an official pardon, as everyone felt she had suffered enough.

After being exiled from the Soviet Union, the revolutionary survived several assassination attempts meticulously orchestrated by Joseph Stalin’s secret police. A particularly violent machine-gun attack on his home failed because he and his wife hid under their beds while bullets rained down on the room.

When a deranged assassin attempted to shoot the seventh president of the United States with two different pistols, both weapons mysteriously failed to fire, even though they were in perfect working order. Instead of fleeing, the elderly Jackson began striking the assailant with his heavy cane until his aides intervened. The probability that both weapons would malfunction is approximately one in one hundred twenty-five thousand.

During the Mexican Revolution, this soldier was captured and sentenced to death by firing squad, which fired nine bullets at him. He was even given a “coup de grâce” to the head at point-blank range, but somehow managed to remain conscious and crawl away once the soldiers had left. He lived for several more decades after his own execution, showing off his scars on television shows as if they were a true miracle.