5 People Who Saved the World!

a lot of people take the world around them for granted green skies blue grass wait no it's the other way around what i'm saying is planet earth is an incredible home for us all but throughout history there have been several times when that nearly wasn't the case you might not have known this but humanity actually came to multiple points where things would have gotten really bad if it wasn't for a single person's actions in some of these instances these individuals literally saved billions of lives these are some incredible stories where the world would have been a much darker place without their bravery so who are these people you might be asking let me tell you here are five people who saved the world vasilus archipov after serving during the soviet japanese war of 1945 vasilis arkapov went to the caspian higher naval school to train as a submariner this decision would lead him to a solid career as a submarine deputy commander and oh yeah uh saving the world thank god for the education system vasilis would later be posted to one of the most famous submarines of all time the soviet union's k-19 this is where he would bravely face a nuclear meltdown on board he and others on the crew exposed themselves to deadly radiation trying to stop the submarine reactor from blowing up and poisoning the ocean and they were successful but vasilis and many of the crew were irradiated with many of them later dying but vasilis survived the ordeal but it seemed that stopping one calamity just wasn't enough for this man he would soon be saving all of us during october of 1962 vasilis was serving aboard b-59 a submarine with the ability to launch nuclear weapons at the very same time the cuban missile crisis was underway a one-month and four-day standoff between america and the soviet union that many believed would end the world in destruction and basically the end of human civilization as we knew it the u.s navy was blockading cuba at the time in an attempt to stop the soviets from delivering nuclear missiles to the island it was basically the biggest game of mexican standoff in history but vasilis and the crew of b-59 were detected by the u.s navy who began to drop depth charges to force the submarine to surface the captain of b-59 valentin grigorovich refused to surface and at the same time they stopped receiving any signals from moscow due to their depth so the captain assumed that war had broken out between america and the soviets and therefore it was their duty to launch their nuclear missiles against the us mainland while the captain and other officers wanted to fire the weapons only vasilis stood in their way tempers flared and there was a battle of the wills as the submarine systems failed around them thankfully vasilis due in part to his heroic efforts during the k-19 meltdown and the respect that the crew had for him due to those actions was able to eventually persuade the captain to surface in the words of arthur m schestlinger jr an advisor for president john f kennedy during the conflict this was not only the most dangerous moment of the cold war it was the most dangerous moment in human history we came this close to destroying ourselves i know it's pretty heavy isn't it here's a picture of a kitten to make you feel better look at how fluffy the cute teeth big eyes there you go you feeling better alright let's continue james harrison most of the people on this list saved the world through averting a war or terrible disaster james harrison did something just as important by doing something as simple as giving blood living in australia james harrison decided to help the world in the smallest way back in 1954 that was the first year that he decided to give blood now some people donate blood once which is still a great thing to do i'm not knocking you but james wanted to give blood as much as he could within the safety limits of the time the reason for this was that when he was 14 years old he had an operation on his chest that required a significant amount of blood from donors to keep him alive he felt indebted to those anonymous donors who saved his life and so he wanted to give back to the world and pass the favor on because he was so generous and a repeat blood donor doctors randomly evaluating the blood supply coming into them found that james's blood was special if you drank it you became immortal no just kidding no instead james's blood was naturally infused with a rare type of antibody it was almost like a superpower well one that works specifically against a single disease this antibody was able to fight against a unique antigen responsible for a life-threatening disease called hemolytic disease of the newborn or hdn for short when a mother is carrying her child before birth she can develop this exact antigen which passes on to the unborn child through the placenta the antigens then break down the red blood cells inside the baby's body starving it of the blood it needs to develop and survive this can cause severe anemia and even death in many instances doctors theorized that if they took the antibodies from james harrison's blood and injected it into the pregnant mothers who were producing the antigen then this would neutralize the problem and save the baby's life and it worked james has given blood now a whopping 1173 times but he had to stop after australia's laws prohibit anyone over the age of 81 giving blood he has saved thousands of lives doing this making our world a better place he's even been given the medal of order in australia good on you my friend i would love to do that except i'm terrified of needles keep your needles away from me james blunt it's clear that the cold war between america and the soviet union resulted in many close calls we could have easily have been thrown back to a pre-industrial era or worse should there have been an all-out war between these two titanic powers however even after the cold war ended russia and the western world have still had a few too many disagreements if there was going to be a full-on world war 3 between russia and the rest of the world who would save us and don't say superman have you seen superman 4 the quest for peace my god that was terrible the last person you'd expect to save the world in this situation would be a pop star right but that's exactly what happened back in 1999 just before james blunt had a string of hits on the uk charts he served in the british military he was sent as a member of the blues and royal squadron to serve with nato gathering reconnaissance information along the north macedonia yugoslavia border while there james was one of 30 000 peacekeeping troops who were ordered to secure the pristina national airport unfortunately a contingent of russian military also had the same idea when the nato troops neared the airport they were shocked to find that russian personnel had already occupied it james was the head of his company and was given a direct order by the u.s general to attack the airport had james and the others there agreed with that order i might not even be here to tell you about it in this video lucky you risking a court-martial james denied the order and told his men to stand down but before he could be arrested for defying orders a british general by the name of sir mike jackson intervened and supported james in the other men's decision he was quoted as saying i'm not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting world war 3. thankfully the russians and the nato troops were able to sort out the issue cooler heads prevailed if they hadn't that faithful day could have been the flash point for world war three but because of james blunt we literally all lived and that is a beautiful thing you see what i did there you know the song you're beautiful okay forget it just stanislav petrov born on the 7th of september 1939 behind the soviet union's iron curtain stanislav petrov was destined to serve in the soviet military after completing his training in 1972 he joined the soviet air defense forces he quickly impressed his supervisors and he was involved in overseeing early warning systems designed to detect ballistic missiles launched at russia from nato countries especially along its border with europe with such a great career in the military and a real enthusiasm for his job you wouldn't think stanislav would have saved the world but he did at this time stanislav was working as a deputy officer at cerpikov15 man my russian is going to be great by the end of this video this bunker was situated near moscow and was the command center responsible for the soviets early warning systems including satellite data designed to instantly relay when they were under attack ever since the beginning of the cold war there was always the understanding that the west and the soviet union would each keep each other in check with mutually assured destruction if one decided to attack the other with nuclear weapons then there would be an instant reprisal that was what this system was designed to detect to let the soviets military command know that the west was attacking and that it was time to hit back and launch all their missiles if it sounds insane to you that the entire world was constantly on the precipice of war with someone possibly misreading a readout or misinterpreting data only to subsequently start a nuclear war that's because well it is and if it weren't for our hero stanislav petrov such a mistake would have been made shortly after midnight on the 26th of september 1983 stanislav was on duty when the bunker's computers reported that a large intercontinental missile had actually been launched from the united states toward the soviet union soon after the computer reported another four missiles hurtling towards russia of course we know now that this was a malfunctioning computer system but no one knew that at the time despite risking imprisonment or worse stanislav could not believe that america had started world war 3 and so he refused to relay the information to those who would launch a massive counter-attack and on that day stanislav petrov single-handedly stopped humanity from wiping itself out stan the man i stan i stand i don't know i'm running out of stan jokes let's move on irina sendler what we perceive as our world can differ from person to person for many of us it's our family and friends for others it's their status or their job when any of these crumble it feels like the world is truly ending but for irena sendler her world the one she saved was a testament to her bravery kindness and ingenuity had she failed 2500 people would have died and the world would have most certainly had been a darker place during the second world war irena sendler worked for the department of social welfare and public health for the city of warsaw in poland but this was merely a cover for her true activities she was involved in a number of secret organizations that would have gotten her killed by the nazis during the occupation of poland from 1939 to 1945 had she been caught alongside several others she dedicated herself to smuggling jewish children out of warsaw using the cover of her job title she was given access to the warsaw ghetto this was an area of the city where the nazis had forced over 400 000 jews to live sealing the area off from the rest of society irina was able to enter the area claiming that she was there to assess sanitary conditions secretly however she smuggled in medicine and supplies to the people there she also brought in food and other necessities and did this many many many times each time she knew that if she were caught it would have been a death sentence not just for her but her entire family in the summer of 1942 they enacted the mass extermination of jewish populations and so irina did everything that she could to smuggle babies and small children out of the warsaw ghetto so that they would not be killed they would then either be adopted by willing families or taken to orphanages and the staff there would hide the fact that they were of jewish descent in october of 1943 irena was arrested by the gestapo and tortured but she would not give up the names of her co-conspirators or the locations of the children that she had saved after this she was taken to be executed but she was released on the way to her death by nazi soldiers who had been bribed by irena's associates and friends after this she took up a fake identity as a nurse working with children and continued to hide jewish children from persecution wherever she could it's believed that irina and her friends saved over 2 500 people during the brutal regime she may not have saved every person on the planet but because of her bravery she in part saved the world showing others that it was worth fighting for and how if humanity is ever to rise above its own evil then we must do it together and with courage be sure to tune in every monday wednesday and saturday at 3 p.m eastern standard time for brand new content from me and remember to follow me on discord and twitch as well as my team who make these videos possible you'll find all of their respective links in the description below this video thanks for watching

Channel: Matthew Santoro

Views: 200,154

Keywords:

Id: k_A-fICfYto

Length: 13min 34sec (814 seconds)

Published: Mon May 17 2021