Carton de Wiart was raised in a world of privilege, but he was never soft.

It became a trope in movies and TV. The steely-eyed assassin who lurks in shadows ruthlessly taking money to end a life is simply mesmerizing. We can’t look away.

The grisly beating of Rodney King ultimately precipitated some of the worst rioting in American history. Early in the morning of March 3, 1991, Rodney Glen King was driving a 1987 Hyundai Excel along the Foothill Freeway in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. He was accompanied by his friends Freddie Helms and Bryant [...]

The fact that he was 6’4″ and weighed 320 pounds didn’t hurt his gridiron prospects.

In 2011, Yang’s story formed the basis for a South Korean movie titled My Way. However, documentary filmmakers in Korea have researched the story and cast doubt on its veracity.

During World War 2 the German Tiger tank earned an outsized reputation among those who faced it.

In the winter of 2004 a joint US, Iraqi, and British operation kicked off in Iraq. Local forces called it Operation Al-Fajr. Allied troops titled it Operation Phantom Fury. The world came to know this simply epic scrap as the Second Battle of Fallujah.

There is something visceral about the last stand. A small forlorn band bereft of support arrayed against insurmountable odds fighting to the last simply strikes a primal chord. Examples are well-documented. The Hot Gates at Thermopylae, Custer’s slaughter, and the Alamo stand out. These many tales of selfless bravery are profound and powerful. One lesser-known example is the siege of Bukit Kepong.

Why the heck couldn’t they have just left this poor guy alone? He lived in a cabin about the size of a large dinner table some sixty miles from civilization. He clearly just wanted to be by himself. Yet the Canadian government just couldn’t stand it.