Samuel Morse inventing Morse Code after it took weeks to find out his wife was ill then passed away. Sending messages quickly. -u/racerred5

Barry Marshall and H.Plyori. In 1984, Marshall, a gastroenterologist wanted to prove that H.Pylori bacteria caused ulcers. Since nobody believed him, he swallowed a petri dish containing the bacteria - which resulted in him getting ulcers. -u/Sacred_GT

Jonas Salk, inventor of the polio vaccine, tested it on himself.

Maurice Hilleman invented 40 vaccines. When his oldest daughter caught mumps he took a sample from her, developed a vaccine, and gave it to his youngest daughter -u/UnconstrictedEmu

In 1961, Russian surgeon Leonid Rogozov performed an appendectomy on himself. -u/Johndo448

Todd MacFarlane was pissed off at Marvel when he was an artist working there because he didn’t see any royalty or extra money from characters. Venom in particular which blew up and Marvel merchandised the hell out of it and only gave MacFarlane his salary. MacFarlane responded by founding Image Comics which as its mission statement gives creators full rights to anything they make. The Walking Dead had to coordinate with the creators of the comic series not the comic label, for example. Image is still doing well 30 years later. -u/Noggin-a-Floggin

In 1959 India Dashrath Manjhi’s wife died as she fell off the mountain and was unable to get medical attention due to the fact that the nearest medical facility was far away and there was no direct route between the mountains. Using only a hammer and chisel he carved a path 110 m long, 7.7 m deep in places and 9.1 m wide to form a road through the ridge of rocks. It took him 22 years to get it done but he managed to reduce the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj sectors of the Gaya district (where he was working) from 55 km to 15 km. Don’t know of anything else that would come close! -u/Worth-Extension-2540

Lamborghini - Ferrari thought they had no place giving them advice as a company that made tractors so they decided to show them up by making their own cars. -u/PieckIsExactlyRight

J. R. R. Tolkien from what I heard got inspiration to writing the Lord of the Rings series when he was reading a story to one of his kids. He was so upset with the books he thought that he could write better stories than this. -u/Still_Needleworker11

Let's not forget that Isaac Newton ran out of math to work with and was like "I guess I'll just invent Calculus then" -u/FlakyCrew5

Léo Major. "Major single-handedly captured 93 German soldiers during The Battle of the Scheldt in Zeeland in the southern Netherlands. During a reconnaissance, whilst alone, he spotted two German soldiers walking along a dike. As it was raining and cold, Major said to himself, "I am frozen and wet because of you so you will pay." He captured the first German and attempted to use him as bait so he could capture the other. The second attempted to use his gun, but Major quickly killed him. He went on to capture their commanding officer and forced him to surrender. The German garrison surrendered themselves after three more were shot dead by Major. In a nearby village, SS troops who witnessed German soldiers being escorted by a Canadian soldier shot at their own soldiers, injuring a few and killing seven. Major disregarded the enemy fire and kept escorting his prisoners to the Canadian front line. Major then ordered a passing Canadian tank to fire on the SS troops. He marched back to camp with nearly a hundred prisoners. Thus, he was chosen to receive a DCM. He declined the invitation to be decorated, however, because according to him General Montgomery (who was giving the award) was "incompetent" and in no position to be giving out medals." -u/West_Samurai

Doris Miller - African American US NAVY cook that manned an Anti-Aircraft gun during the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. -u/Damionstjames

Captain Joseph Bennett - Was an original Seabee. His team of engineers were the very same men ambushed during construction. Despite orders not to, after catching a round to the chest stopped only by his silver cigarette case, this pissed off Irishman lept off his bulldozer and returned fire with his two 1887 NAVY revolvers, killing 4 Japanese soldiers, before walking back to his bulldozer to continue to work. -u/Damionstjames

King Henry VIII creating divorce and a church just to get a new wife and attempt for a child. -u/hiddeninplainsight23

Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 169–147 win over the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. -u/Doge_0O

Alan Turing, who theorized "Turing Machines" that we call computers today, that could break codes. So he joined the allied forces, developed technology that changed the course of human history and helped win WWII, just to be able to produce his theoretical device. -u/TheChainsawVigilante

Dr. Jerry Lin Nielson self treated her breast cancer while she was stationed in Antarctica. -u/Youngish_widoe

Bill O’Reilly’s epic meltdown! -u/jediblues420

Steve Jobs. He made a career out of giving almost everybody the finger and going his own way. And, ultimately, the whole world ended up following him. Still think he was an a**. -u/cavapoo43

Probably Abraham Lincoln stopping slavery he became president to do something about it and in the end succeeded. -u/custard-49

Sony was looking for someone to partner with to enter the gaming market. They had a deal with Sega but that fell through. Sony decided to finish their project anyway. And thus; the Playstation was born; and killed Sega out of the console market. -u/raikaria2

Alexander the Great has to be the ultimate 'Fuck u' I'll do it myself. The guy was in his early 20s, when he said 'Fuck it', I'll invade Persia, the greatest empire in the world and defeat the biggest army in the world. It would be akin to Taiwan invading China. His generals thought he was mad. He didn't even stop there. The guy was the GOAT. -u/Peaked-too-soon

Leroy Jenkins. -u/HadlaMindar

Axl Rose, St. Louis 1991. I still crack up thinking about this. "HERE I AMMMMMM AND YOUR ROCKET QUE-HEY TAKE THAT, TAKE THAT GUY AND TAKE THAT!!!! ILL TAKE IT GOD D*** IT!!" Axle than proceeds to jump into the f***ing audience, beat the s**t out of the guy with the camera, while the band still plays in the background, thus starting one of the most destructive riots in music history. -u/Turbobrickx7

Ernest Hemingway killing himself. He survived several near death experiences, including 2 plane crashes and was injured by mortar fire during WWI. -u/hairlikehagrid