There have been times in history when certain groups of people have faced the unthinkable. The odds were stacked wildly against them. Their limits were tested. Hope seemed like a luxury, and survival was the only goal.
Miraculously, they made it out alive; not necessarily because of skill or strategy, but because there is strength in numbers. These individuals stood together to help each other get through the darkest of times and emerge back into the light – unbeaten.
Someone asked “What’s a real historical event where a group of people endured unimaginable hardship and still made it out alive?”
The question sparked a wave of inspiring stories. From miners trapped underground, to people stuck in ice, and communities who withstood brutality and oppression, each tale is a reminder of the unbreakable human spirit and how what might seem impossible can be possible when people stand together.
#1
A group of Chilean miners survived for more than a month a mile+ underground after a collapse trapped them in the mine. Rescuers were able to drill down to the “refuge” where they hoped some men had taken shelter. They did find the men there, and gradually brought them up through the hole one by one in a special capsule. Probably the deepest mine rescue ever, by a long shot.
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#2
The Trail of Tears. The Long March. The Siege of Stalingrad. .
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#3
I had great grandparents who survived the Holodomor in Ukraine.
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#4
Trail of Tears. As well as other forced relocations. Many didn’t make it out alive, but the people endured as a whole.
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#5
The Harriet Tubman led Underground Railroad is a powerful example enslaved people escaping brutal oppression, navigating dangerous terrain, and risking everything for freedom, with Tubman guiding many to safety despite constant threats. Their courage and resilience under unimaginable hardship changed history.
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#6
My grandma’s village during the Great Chinese Famine. They had to eat insects, tree barks and even actual soil. But most of them made it out alive. Surprisingly most of them lived quite long as well (many are in their 80s to 90s right now and going strong).
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#7
Japanese prisoner of war camps in WW2.
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#8
Captain Bligh and the crew released to die in the South Pacific by Fletcher Christian and the mutineers. In an extraordinary act of seamanship Bligh navigated to the Dutch East Indies – a voyage of over 1400 Km in just a launch, and not a single man died.
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#9
Apollo 13. Absolutely insane. Rest in peace Jim Lovell.
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#10
Soccer team stuck underground water cave in South East Asia.
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#11
The crew of the Endurance, which survived 2 years in the Weddell Sea after their ship got stuck in the ice.
Then the ice tore the ship to shreds so they had to camp directly on the ice…until it started melting and had to take the lifeboats all the way to Elephant island.
From there, the team leader, Ernest Shackleton took a crew to South Georgia to get some help from whalers there. The problem was that the settlement was on the Eastern shore of the island, and they beached their craft on the West coast. So they made makeshift cleats and pulled off the first crossing of the island (a feat not repeated until 40-ish years later) to reach the nearest whaling station.
There’s a great book recounting the expedition. It’s amazing how they all made it out alive (just one guy had to be amputated on Elephant island due to frostbite).
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#12
The Irish Potato Famine (genocide). Millions died when the blight struck the potato crop. I say genocide because it wasn’t their only food but the English sent other food offshore to feed their troops in India. Some however, of course, did make it through.
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#13
The 1996 Mount Everest disaster. Although not everybody made it out alive.
Jon Krakeur, who was an established writer, was on the expedition and he survived to tell the story beautifully in _Into Thin Air_.
It’s probably my favourite book of all time.
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#14
One of the oldest: The March of the 10.000, chronicled in Anabasis by Xenophon, who was there and became one of their leaders. In 400BC 10.000 Greek mercenaries fight for the Persian pretender-king, they win an important battle, but their king dies. Now they’re stuck in the middle of enemy territory and everyone is out to get them. Their march lasts two years and a significant portion don’t survive.
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#15
The Donner Party.
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#16
The Indianapolis.
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#17
I am Jewish so vaguely gestures at history.
#18
As a teen I was into the ‘lifeboat’ survival genre. There’s several books about people who spent more than a month at sea in a raft or lifeboat. Survive the Savage Sea was a memorable one, as was The Raft and 117 Days Adrift.
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#19
New Orleans residents during Hurricane Katrina. Lots died, but many made it out alive.
#20
The open boat voyage of captain Bligh after the mutiny
4000 miles through the South Pacific in 47 days in a 23 foot long skiff carrying 18 men.
#21
The Transatlantic Slave Trade. Absolutely unimaginable hardship followed by the remainder of their lives being unimaginable hardship followed by their descendants facing unimaginable hardship for centuries.
#22
Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow.
Most of the folks died, but many somehow managed to live through it and made it back to friendly states or France.
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#23
The Plymouth Colony went through a *lot* more than either expression of pop history will tell you.
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#24
One that still amazes me is the 2018 Thai cave rescue. A boys soccer team and their coach got trapped deep inside a flooded cave system for more than two weeks after sudden monsoon rains cut off the exit. They had no food at first, the oxygen levels were dropping, and the only light came from headlamps during rare rescue visits. Divers had to navigate dangerous, pitch black underwater passages to reach them, and getting everyone out required an international team of specialists. In the end, every single person survived, even though the situation seemed impossible in the beginning.
#25
Willem Barentsz and his crew in 1596. When their ship became stuck in the ice near Nova Zembla, they build a house which they called ‘Het Behouden Huys’ from the remains to wait out the winter and to go back when the ice would melt in the spring. 12 of the 17 survived.
#26
I used to live in a sanctuary city that took in many migrants who were displaced due to civil conflict around the world. Some of the kids I knew and hung out with included Lost Boys of Sudan and Bosnian immigrants. They were the kindest people I have ever met.
#27
Endurance is the #1 in my mind. Absolutely incredible story of human resilience.
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#28
Dancing Plague of 1518. Hundreds in Strasbourg danced for days, some collapsed, and officials literally hired musicians to help them “dance it out.” It made everything worse.
#29
The Endurance Shackleton Expedition.
28 men stranded on the south pole in 1914-1916 for1,5 years. Nothing to eat but seals and fish.
Just imagine the gear they had in that time period in freezing conditions.
The crew survived which is incredible in and on it self, but they also sailed for days to reach the next island, on the south pole, in the antartic in a life boat- crazy accomplishment.
Bonus one would be: Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571.
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