For those who don’t know about this stuff, thalidomide is an anti-nausea medication that had never been tested on women before it was approved for general use. Doctors immediately started prescribing it for morning sickness after it got on the market in Europe.
However, it affected the development of fetuses, resulting in many children being born with underdeveloped or nonexistent limbs. It’s still used in some instances since it can be a useful drug, as long as the person taking it isn’t or has no chance of becoming pregnant.
She saved so very many people from disability, and nowdays no one even knows who she is.
I really cannot say about him being the greatest person in the history, but he is the reason green revolution came into action and billions of people were fed all over the world.
Norman Borlaug
The Man Who Saved a Billion Lives
The Man Who Saved a Billion Lives
Photograph by CIMMYT
Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25, 1914 – Sept. 12, 2009) was an American biologist, humanitarian and Nobel laureate who has been called “the father of the Green Revolution”, “agriculture’s greatest spokesperson” and “The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives”. He is one of seven people to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal and was also awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour.
Borlaug received his B.Sc. Biology 1937 and Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He took up an agricultural research position in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties. During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963. Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security in those nations. These collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution, and Borlaug is often credited with saving over a billion people worldwide from starvation. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply.
This is a pretty subjective question but there is one man I think who definitely deserves a better place in history than the one afforded him. His name is KING JADI RANA:
Soon after when the shrines and fire temples were destroyed, mosques would be built in their place, often of the same materials. Many libraries were burned and much cultural heritage was lost. Gradually there were increased number of laws regulating Zoroastrian behavior, limiting their ability to participate in society. Over time, persecution of Zoroastrians became more common and widespread, and the number of believers decreased significantly.
The refugees accepted the conditions and founded the settlement of Sanjan (Gujarat), which is said to have been named after the city of their origin. This attracted other Zoroastrians from Iran and they have since lived in peace with the Hindus and their relationship with Hindus is full of accord and amity. Above all they are free to practice their faith.
Today, the community exists in western India and Mumbai, and it currently contains the largest concentration of Zoroastrians in the world, numbering around 100,000. All because of the kindness and generosity of this pious king, the last remnants of this titanic former superpower lives on.
This isn’t a terribly serious answer, but the question reminded me of a story from my family. My grandparents had a complete encyclopedia back in the 1930s and loved to play trivia games at home. In particular my grandmother and uncle would try to stump each other by naming some historical figure that they didn’t know.
Once my grandmother asked if my uncle knew of a British member of Parliament, who was later created a lord, and was a controversial yet celebrated historian of World War I. She continued to list his many accomplishments, but my uncle was totally flummoxed and couldn’t guess his name. My grandmother triumphantly said it was George Peabody Gooch, but my uncle thought the name sounded so ridiculous that it had to be made up and refused to believe her. Sure enough, that was his real name, and he really did all the things she said. Yet how many people have heard of him? Not many, I’ll wager.
The point is that ultimately history tends to “forget” an awful lot. Even during what we strangely call “recorded” history, the vast majority of people go totally unnoticed by us today, simply for lack of a complete historical record. Even as major a figure as Jesus Christ — or Pontius Pilate, for that matter — is barely known outside the Gospels. Other figures like King Arthur became so embellished over time that the person we think of today bears no resemblance at all to whomever the original historical figure was (if he ever existed at all, which is doubtful). Even in this day and age where it seems like everything is written down somewhere, it is striking how much remains unaccessible to the general public. Go back 200 years ago, 500 years ago, or 1000 years ago, and the amount of things that were actually written down and which survived to the present day in libraries or museums drops logarithmically. Just by way of illustration, how many people can trace their ancestry back beyond the 1700s? Not terribly many, especially on a global scale.
Once my grandmother asked if my uncle knew of a British member of Parliament, who was later created a lord, and was a controversial yet celebrated historian of World War I. She continued to list his many accomplishments, but my uncle was totally flummoxed and couldn’t guess his name. My grandmother triumphantly said it was George Peabody Gooch, but my uncle thought the name sounded so ridiculous that it had to be made up and refused to believe her. Sure enough, that was his real name, and he really did all the things she said. Yet how many people have heard of him? Not many, I’ll wager.
The point is that ultimately history tends to “forget” an awful lot. Even during what we strangely call “recorded” history, the vast majority of people go totally unnoticed by us today, simply for lack of a complete historical record. Even as major a figure as Jesus Christ — or Pontius Pilate, for that matter — is barely known outside the Gospels. Other figures like King Arthur became so embellished over time that the person we think of today bears no resemblance at all to whomever the original historical figure was (if he ever existed at all, which is doubtful). Even in this day and age where it seems like everything is written down somewhere, it is striking how much remains unaccessible to the general public. Go back 200 years ago, 500 years ago, or 1000 years ago, and the amount of things that were actually written down and which survived to the present day in libraries or museums drops logarithmically. Just by way of illustration, how many people can trace their ancestry back beyond the 1700s? Not terribly many, especially on a global scale.
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