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For my contribution, I give you Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard...



The rest of Maynard's men then burst from the hold, shouting and firing. The plan to surprise Teach and his crew worked; the pirates were apparently taken aback at the assault. Teach rallied his men and the two groups fought across the deck, which was already slick with blood from those killed or injured by Teach's broadside. Maynard and Teach fired their flintlocks at each other, then threw them away. Teach drew his cutlass and managed to break Maynard's sword. Against superior training and a slight advantage in numbers, the pirates were pushed back toward the bow, allowing the Jane?'?s crew to surround Maynard and Teach, who was by then completely isolated.^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard#cite_note-90][80][/url]} As Maynard drew back to fire once again, Teach moved in to attack him, but was slashed across the neck by one of Maynard's men. Badly wounded, he was then attacked and killed by several more of Maynard's crew. The remaining pirates quickly surrendered. Those left on the Adventure were captured by the Ranger?'?s crew, including one who planned to set fire to the powder room and blow up the ship. Varying accounts exist of the battle's list of casualties; Maynard reported that 8 of his men and 12 pirates were killed. Brand reported that 10 pirates and 11 of Maynard's men were killed. Spotswood claimed ten pirates and ten of the King's men dead.^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard#cite_note-91][81][/url]}

Maynard later examined Teach's body, noting that it had been shot no fewer than five times and cut about twenty. He also found several items of correspondence, including a letter to the pirate from Tobias Knight. Teach's corpse was thrown into the inlet while his head was suspended from the bowsprit of Maynard's sloop (so the reward could be collected).^{[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackbeard#cite_note-92][82][/url]}


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/Capture-of-Blackbeard.jpg/1024px-Capture-of-Blackbeard.jpg

The Battle of Dien Bien Phu (French: Bataille de Diên Biên Phu; Vietnamese: Chi?n d?ch Ði?n Biên Ph?) was the climactic confrontation of the First Indochina War between the French Union's French Far East Expeditionary Corps and Viet Minh communist-nationalist revolutionaries. It was, from the French view before the event, a set piece battle to draw out the enemy and destroy them with superior French firepower. The battle occurred between March and May 1954 and culminated in a comprehensive French defeat that influenced negotiations over the future of Indochina at Geneva. Military historian Martin Windrow wrote that Dien Bien Phu was "the first time that a non-European colonial independence movement had evolved through all the stages from guerrilla bands to a conventionally organized and equipped army able to defeat a modern Western occupier in pitched battle."[12]

As a result of blunders in French decision-making, the French began an operation to insert then support the soldiers at Dien Bien Phu, deep in the hills of northwestern Vietnam. Its purpose was to cut off Viet Minh supply lines into the neighboring Kingdom of Laos, a French ally, and tactically draw the Viet Minh into a major confrontation that would cripple them. The Viet Minh, however, under General Vo Nguyen Giap, surrounded and besieged the French, who knew of the weapons but were unaware of the vast amounts being brought in of the Viet Minh's heavy artillery (including anti-aircraft guns) and their ability to move these weapons through difficult terrain up the rear slopes of the mountains surrounding the French positions, dig tunnels through the mountain, and place the artillery pieces overlooking the French encampment. This positioning of the artillery made it nearly impervious to counter-battery fire.

When the Viet Minh opened fire with a massive bombardment from the artillery, the French artillery commander, Charles Piroth, committed suicide (with a hand grenade) in shame for being unprepared for and unable to structure any sort of counter-battery fire. The Viet Minh occupied the highlands around Dien Bien Phu and bombarded the French positions. Tenacious fighting on the ground ensued, reminiscent of the trench warfare of World War I. The French repeatedly repulsed Viet Minh assaults on their positions. Supplies and reinforcements were delivered by air, though as the key French positions were overrun the French perimeter contracted and air resupply on which the French had placed their hopes became impossible, and as the anti-aircraft fire took its toll, fewer and fewer of those supplies reached them. The garrison was overrun after a two-month siege and most French forces surrendered. A few escaped to Laos. The French government resigned and the new Prime Minister, the left of centre Pierre Mendès France, supported French withdrawal from Indochina.

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Andy Warhol was a swinger, and I suspect quite a few people met his end.

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The Alamo men & Stonewall Jackson.  

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If they survived against insane odds, is that OK?

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http://www.moc.org/sites/default/files/cleburne1.png

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http://media-1.web.britannica.com/eb-media/85/78385-004-4D20E900.jpg

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http://www.badassoftheweek.com/gordonandshughart.html

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http://www.badassoftheweek.com/gordonandshughart.html

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<a href="http://s239.photobucket.com/user/mailbcw/media/maxresdefault.jpg.html" target="_blank">http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff98/mailbcw/maxresdefault.jpg</a>

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http://www.badassoftheweek.com/gordonandshughart.html

" In No engagement in its entire history has the United States Navy shown more gallantry, guts and gumption than in those two morning hours between 0730 and 0930 off Samar"

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What was that Polish battle at the beginning of WW2 where a company held off two brigades or something like that



They fought until they ran out of ammunition and every man was wounded. The captain ordered the survivors to surrender, then committed suicide.  

The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement fought by the Royal Navy against the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies, during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815).

The battle was the most decisive naval victory of the war. Twenty-seven British ships of the line led by Admiral Lord Nelson aboard HMS Victory defeated thirty-three French and Spanish ships of the line under French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve off the southwest coast of Spain, just west of Cape Trafalgar. The Franco-Spanish fleet lost twenty-two ships, without a single British vessel being lost.

The British victory spectacularly confirmed the naval supremacy that Britain had established during the eighteenth century and was achieved in part through Nelson's departure from the prevailing naval tactical orthodoxy, which involved engaging an enemy fleet in a single line of battle parallel to the enemy to facilitate signalling in battle and disengagement, and to maximise fields of fire and target areas. Nelson instead divided his smaller force into two columns directed perpendicularly against the larger enemy fleet, with decisive results.

Nelson was mortally wounded during the battle, becoming one of Britain's greatest war heroes. The commander of the joint French and Spanish forces, Admiral Villeneuve, was captured along with his ship Bucentaure. Spanish Admiral Federico Gravina escaped with the remnant of the fleet and succumbed months later to wounds sustained during the battle.

Quoted:
What was that Polish battle at the beginning of WW2 where a company held off two brigades or something like that

They fought until they ran out of ammunition and every man was wounded. The captain ordered the survivors to surrender, then committed suicide.