NationStates Jolt Archive

Tom Cruise, Will Smith and Britney should take a hike, for here I am talking about your historical heroes. People who, for good or bad, you cannot help but admire for the difference they have made to a region, a country or the world as a whole. More importantly, does their own career and do their achievements affect the way in which you lead your own life?

I myself, admire Oliver Cromwell, for preventing a revolution from destroying itself and laying the foundations for the modern British constitution while presiding over a reign of broad religious toleration as not experienced previously.

I also, cannot help admire the sheer ability of Napoleon Bonaparte, even if he was a vain-glorious, reactionary git!

So who is your hero?

...


Unicron.




Okay, okay, fine.





Optimus Prime.

Socrates. While he might not have been the first to ponder some of the great questions of the world, I personally like his method for searching for the answers. He was the basis for Platonic and Aristotelian thought, as Plato was his pupil and Aristotle Plato’s. These branches of though spread throughout the entire western world.

Plus the way he made people look foolish is great.

Optimus Prime.
He's everyone's hero

Cromwell burned Catholic churches with priests and parishoners inside. The way he treated Catholics and the Irish bordered on ethnic cleansing.

Hunter S. Thompson and George Orwell are my heroes.

Cincinnatus.

So who is your hero?
The American soldier.

I myself, admire Oliver Cromwell, for...presiding over a reign of broad religious toleration as not experienced previously.

thats complete bullshit

Cromwell burned Catholic churches with priests and parishoners inside. The way he treated Catholics and the Irish bordered on ethnic cleansing.

A gross legend, not supported by any contemporary sources who were there!
Yes Cromwell burned a church containing Catholics, but these were Catholics who had refused his terms to surrender after a long siege. Horrible? Yes! Cromwell perfect? Certainly not! A genocidal maniac? Nope!

thats complete bullshit

Explain... and I have studied this.

im not big on heros but

harriet beecher stowe-- the woman who caused the US civil war with the book "uncle tom's cabin"

harriet tubman who risked her life and freedom over and over again to lead slaves to freedom.

i guess im big on women named harriet.

my grandad is my hero, plan and simple.

Napolean, Julius Ceasar, Attila the Hun, Ghengis Khan, Patton, Hitler, Ivan the terrible, Rasputin, Washington, Henry the Eight, Stalin, Fredrick Barbarossa and Manfried von Rictofen(Red Baron).

Explain... and I have studied this.
no doubt it was a time of religious equality and freedom for Protestants, but the same can hardly be said for Catholics

I myself, admire Oliver Cromwell, for preventing a revolution from destroying itself and laying the foundations for the modern British constitution while presiding over a reign of broad religious toleration as not experienced previously.

Ok, maybe he was nice to Puritans and Jews. He hated Catholics with a (pun intended) burning passion. And foundation for Constitution? My ass. He dissolved Parliament and made himself dictator. I guess you could say that Hitler formed the basis for the German constitution, too.

Oh, and I guess my hero is probably TR or Laffite the Pirate :p

Rosa Luxemburg

Socrates.

Too smug for me: of the ancients it would be Diogenes and Heraclitus that make my list.

My hero would have to be Hannibal Smith. To think of the time he spent in that VC prison camp, was wounded, only to come home to a nation he didn't fit into. That's why he was out there helping you and me, ya know, the little people.

Benjamin Franklin. Both a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and a great scientist.

Benjamin Franklin. Both a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and a great scientist.


And his mind totally gone from Syphillis....of the brains.

Too smug for me: of the ancients it would be Diogenes and Heraclitus that make my list.

Bah, his smugness was awesome. He would play dumb, letting someone act all cocky and sure of himself. Then he would smugly :D smash their argument to pieces.

Although from what I’ve read of Diogenes, he was pretty cool.

I myself, admire Oliver Cromwell, for preventing a revolution from destroying itself and laying the foundations for the modern British constitution while presiding over a reign of broad religious toleration as not experienced previously.

What?! You mean the religious tolerance embodied in the hundreds of irreplacable artifacts that were destroyed by his orders? The churches and cathedrals burnt to the ground? The stained glass windows that were smashed? If I were asked to define the word 'Vandal', I would use Oliver Cromwell.

Robert A. Heinlein is perhaps my greatest hero. I have loved everything of his I have read, and his philosophy is about as close to mine as one comes without being me. In my eyes he was practically a genius, and the embodiment of what a man ought to be.

A gross legend, not supported by any contemporary sources who were there!
Yes Cromwell burned a church containing Catholics, but these were Catholics who had refused his terms to surrender after a long siege. Horrible? Yes! Cromwell perfect? Certainly not! A genocidal maniac? Nope!



Explain... and I have studied this.
Sorry mate. your wrong on that one.
"To hell or to Connacht" was a phase he coined when cleansing the area east of the Shannon- either uproot and f**k off to the West (with poor land, poor harvest etc) or we'll burn you from your homes and kill you here and now. Why? Becuase they were Roman Catholics.

As for the 'church'.... surely if you have studied this- you would know that he slaughtered the inhabitants of Dundalk for resisting his siege? Genocide and ethnic cleansing is a modern term for what he did.

Hero? I think not.

Bismarck is one candidate.
He achieved much, really just with his convictions and a lot of hard work (and good instincts).

I myself, admire Oliver Cromwell, for preventing a revolution from destroying itself and laying the foundations for the modern British constitution while presiding over a reign of broad religious toleration as not experienced previously.

Do you admire him for the slaughter of every man, woman, and child in Drogeda , Ireland? :mad:

The American soldier.

American soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines. and Coast Gurard.

Mother Theresa, hands down wins as my hero, she lived an amazing life :fluffle:

R. Buckminster Fuller.

Inventor of the geodesic dome, an aerodynamic, 3-wheeled "minivan" designed to offer superior fuel efficiency and performance to conventional cars (in 1933!), and several environmentally benign and affordable house designs (beginning in the early 1920's) that are *still* "futuristic" by present standards, author of numerous books, including an entire system of geometry/metaphysics that set out to discover "the coordinate system of Universe," and IMO, largely succeeded.

He was such an original thinker in so many areas, a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci.

"To make the world work for everyone, in the least possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense, or the disadvantage of anyone." --R. Buckminster Fuller

To learn more about RBF, see the Buckminster Fuller Institute website at www.bfi.org

hands down the worlds greatest hero keith moon

Joseph Lister

Me!!
After all no one can match my brilliance or my incredible sex appeal. :D

I do not tend to have heroes. I do like those with power.

Possible heroes are:
Joseph Stalin(killed many people but he ran his own country)
Napolean Bonaparte(led an army to conquer europe)
Nicolo Machiavelli(I love The Prince and have read it 3 times)
Otto von Bismarck(his use of politics to get stuff accomplished was cool)
probably many others...

Certain famous people I admire include Albert Einstein (I'm an engineering student and physics was my favorite subject back in high school), Thomas Edison (he was a master inventor with over 1000 patents in his career), Chiang Kai-shek (he kept the heads of communists and Taiwanese spearatists rolling) and Adolf Hitler (for his nationalism and speedy recovery of Germany, but I don't support his extreme racist views). The person who has influenced me the most would be my father; I'm following in his engineering footsteps!

EDIT: Edison.

Joseph Stalin(killed many people but he ran his own country)

Interested in a discussion related to him?

http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=431473

Adolf Hitler (for his nationalism and speedy recovery of Germany, but I don't support his extreme racist views).

I can probably agree with the Hitler thing. I have read a Hitler biography and he did turn the most messed up nation on earth into a powerful war machine.

Cool! You want to be an engineer, I also want to be an engineer(for the money of course because money can be converted into power and I love the prestige of power).

WOW, it astonishes me that in 2 1/2 pages of psts that no one has mentioned Jesus. Love him, Hate him, believe in him or not no one can deny that he has had the greatest effect on the world.

My second hero would be Woodrow Wilson.

Cool! You want to be an engineer, I also want to be an engineer(for the money of course because money can be converted into power and I love the prestige of power).

Engineering is easily one of the most rewarding careers for self, society, economy and country. A nation with a high proportion of engineers and scientists is an enlightened nation as a nation is worth what a nation produces.

1. Jesus (no explanation required)

2. William Wallace (great warrior, fought against the English, possible an ancestor of mine)

3. Captain James Cook (discovered my country)

4. Octavian aka Caesar Augustus (greatest Roman Emperor)

5. Alexander the Great (magnificent warrior, highly successful conquest, shoved down to no. 5 because he was bisexual)

Carlos N. Hatchcock III

I'm sure not many of you have ever heard of him. If your curious, ask, and I'll tell you who he was and what he did.

Engineering is easily one of the most rewarding careers for self, society, economy and country. A nation with a high proportion of engineers and scientists is an enlightened nation as a nation is worth what a nation produces.

I can agree, technological progress is a necessity in order to remain a powerful nation(the US did display this with the 1st A-bomb as the British did with the industrial revolution, but sadly the US does not realize that stem-cell research must be persued or else we will fall behind :( ).

Nations can most easily be judged by their effectiveness and efficiency, most other forms of judging are based on ideological preferences instead of the nations effectiveness at doing its job(which is of course to win).

I would say that engineering is a good fit for me. I have well above average math and science ability, I wanted to be a scientist when I was younger(now I am a pragmatist which is why I choose engineering), I have a good amount of ambition and a drive for power and glory that some think is insane.

Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, John Lennon, and Bobby Kennedy.

The person who made the biggest difference in the world I live in was my father. He was always there when you needed him and taught me alot of the world. My mother had the best thing to say about him, "He was a better mother than I was." I only hope that my children will look at me the same way as I look at him.

Certain famous people I admire include Albert Einstein (I'm an engineering student and physics was my favorite subject back in high school), Chiang Kai-shek (he kept the heads of communists and Taiwanese spearatists rolling) and Adolf Hitler (for his nationalism and speedy recovery of Germany, but I don't support his extreme racist views). The person who has influenced me the most would be my father; I'm following in his engineering footsteps!


I agree with everything except for Chiang Kai-Shek. Physics was my favorite subject in high school too, and I'll be going into engineering this fall.

My heros:
Albert Einstein
Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)
Adolf Hitler

Burt Rutan, winner of the Ansari X-Prize and pioneer of commercial space flight.

Can you take a character like Adolf Hitler though, and declare him your hero?

Don't you have to take the bad side into account as well? Or do you think that his good sides outweighed his bad sides?

I was just thinking because in Germany, you don't say that kind of thing. You really don't. Even though we may have profited from him more than anyone else.

Carlos N. Hatchcock III
Are you perchance referring to the greatest sniper of the modern era?

My hero is Leonardo Da Vinci.

Are you perchance referring to the greatest sniper of the modern era?

I most certainly am

hands down the worlds greatest hero keith moon

Yea, for 'tis only the noblest among us who wash down a bottle of amphetamines with a pint of gin

Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha)
Adolf Hitler

Why would you have the two of them on the same list? Is it because they both used the Swastika? The Buddha's views would be completely opposite Hitler's.

You're all going far back in history, mine are much more modern. My heroes are the following:

Ayrton Senna (an absolute legend on the track)
Colin McRae (has raced in three different leagues that I recall, Paris-Dakar, Le Mans and WRC)
Valentino Rossi (4 time MotoGP champion, unrivalled)
Carlos Sainz (arguably the best WRC driver ever)
Juan Manuel Fangio (probably the best F1 driver ever, if not Senna)
Terry Pratchett (phenomenal author)

Before telling everyone who my hero is, I'd like to clarify that I am not religious or spiritual. I do not go to church and I do not read scripture. That said:

Job. That guy is seriously one of the strongest personalities in history. A fraction of the stuff he went through could break most people, but he didn't give up. I'm duly impressed with him.

Alexis Carrel, a French surgeon.

My Hero is definitely Kemal Ataturk, the Founder of the Modern and Secular Republic of Turkey.
He was a military genious and a political master. He did the unthinkable: he crushed all imperialist forces out of the Dardanelles in 1915 (French, British, etc.), won the War of Independence against the Greeks, the French, the British, the Russians, the Armenians, the Kurds with less forces. He established the modern Republic of Turkey on October 29, 1923 with the conclusion of the Treaty of Lausanne which is the foundation treaty that recognizes the internationally recognized borders of Turkey. He rapidly changed society, and he created his own party, named the Republican People's Party (CHP, social-democrat, center-left) which literally modernised and revolutionised the nation. Breakthrough reforms included:

Atatürk introduced reforms which he considered of vital importance for the salvation and survival of his people between 1924-1938. These reforms were enthusiastically welcomed by the Turkish people.

Chronology of Reforms :
1922 Sultanate abolished (November 1).
1923 Treaty of Lausanne secured (July 24). Republic of Turkey with capital at Ankara proclaimed (October 29).
1924 Caliphate abolished (March 3). Traditional religious schools closed, Sheriat (Islamic Law) abolished. Constitution adopted (April 20).
1925 Dervish brotherhoods abolished. Fez outlawed by the Hat Law (November 25). Veiling of women discouraged; Western clothing for men and women encouraged. Western (Gregorian) calendar adopted.
1926 New civil, commercial, and penal codes based on European models adopted. New civil code ended Islamic polygamy and divorce by renunciation and introduced civil marriage. Millet system ended.
1927 First systematic census.
1928 New Turkish alphabet (modified Latin form) adopted. State declared secular (April 10); constitutional provision establishing Islam as official religion deleted.
1933 Islamic call to worship and public readings of the Kuran (Quran) required to be in Turkish rather than Arabic.
1934 Women given the vote and the right to hold office. Law of Surnames adopted - Mustafa Kemal given the name Kemal Atatürk (Father of the Turks) by the Grand National Assembly; Ismet Pasha took surname of Inönü.
1935 Sunday adopted as legal weekly holiday. State role in managing economy written into the constitution.

and many many others...
he passed away in 1938, that means he ruled from 1923-1938 as the President of the Republic of Turkey, and when he passed away, everyone considered him as a hero of the Nation, he is still admired worldwide fo his achievements that so many around the world emulated. His Prime Minister, Ismet Inonu became the next president in 1938 and ruled until 1950. During his reign, the CHP was still in power and continued breakthrough reforms and the most impressive policy was to stay out of WWII, and to declare war on Germany and Japan only at the end, when the United Nations was founded (this does not mean that the government did not help refugees, exiles and all people whom were persecuted by both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia).
Furthermore, one can say that thanks to Ataturk as well as Inonu, Turkey has been solidly anchored to the West, it is part of NATO (1952), the Council of Europe (1949), OECD (1950's) and is striving to further strengthen its ties with the west as well as every nation on earth.

There are so many wonderful quotes from Ataturk, but I want to use my favourite one:
"Yurtta Sulh, Cihanda Sulh" = "Peace at Home, Peace in the World"

So let it be!

Robespierre.

My Hero is definitely Kemal Ataturk, the Founder of the Modern and Secular Republic of Turkey.
He didn't treat the Kurds too well though...

Robespierre.

A guy killed by his own mobs, interesting.

Anyway, a list

1. Jesus
2. James Monroe
3.Benjamin Franklin
4 Theodore Roosevelt
5. Otto von Bismarck

No heroes here.

Jimmy Hoffa might be close. Might.

He didn't treat the Kurds too well though...


That's not even close to being true, but btw, nobody's perfect, but what he did was truly INCREDIBLE and no one can really come close to him as a statesman, he changed literally an entire NATION in about a DECADE, that is TRULY REMARKABLE!

My hero is me lol.

I myself, admire Oliver Cromwell, for preventing a revolution from destroying itself and laying the foundations for the modern British constitution while presiding over a reign of broad religious toleration as not experienced previously.
Rummania already said it, but Cromwell was a bastard. Especially to the Irish. "To hell or to Connacht." He forcibly expelled the Irish from their land and sent them to the west, which is not very fertile. I'd go a step further than Rummania. It WAS ethnic cleansing.
My hero? Hmmm... Gandhi, maybe.

The real-life Batman and Robin fighting crime in Reading, England are my heroes. :)

http://www.getreading.co.uk/story.asp?intid=9320

The real-life Batman and Robin fighting crime in Reading, England are my heroes. :)

http://www.getreading.co.uk/story.asp?intid=9320

What... The... Fuck...

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who (according to the historians) ruled over Rome with moderation and enlightenment.

Benjamin Franklin, who started the first lending library, post office, the University of Pennsylvania, and a municipal fire department in the city of Philadelphia. He was one of the earliest advocates for the abolition of slavery. Besides that, he was just a cool, funny guy. I mean, he wanted the national bird to be a turkey.

And of course, Jesus and the Apostles are my favourite political activists.

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, who (according to the historians) ruled over Rome with moderation and enlightenment.

Did you know that he was the first (and probably the last) Roman emperor to build desegregated public bath houses?

He also shut down the Coliseum, as it was far too violent and highly unnecessary.

OK, I speak as an Oxford student of historian and someone from Northern Ireland on the whole Oliver Cromwell thing.

Firstly, he didn't found the Constitution - he radically altered the one that had previously existed. He combined the forces of the monarchy with the forces of the military to make himself a dictator from 1653 until his death in 1658.
Secondly, he is hated the length and breadth of Ireland by Protestants and Catholics. By Protestants, because he overthrew the monarchy. By Catholics, because of what happened at Drogheda and his "ethnic cleansing" of the Shannon basin.
Thirdly, he didn't kill "every man, woman and child" in Drogheda and Dundalk - he killed the royalist soldiers who had ALREADY surrendered. This is a war crime, even if it's not quite as bad as legend portrays.
Fourthly, he didn't kill people in Ireland because they were Catholics he killed them because they were monarchists. It's often forgotten that in the 1600s, many Irish-Catholics supported the British monarchy because it was so much more tolerant than rampaging Protestant fundamentalists like Cromwell AND Charles I's wife, Queen Henrietta-Maria, was a Catholic princess.

As for me, I have two personal heroes - both quite controversial (not as controversial as Cromwell). The first is Marie-Antoinette, queen of France (1755 - 1793). Not only did she never utter the infamous 'Let them eat cake' line, but she was a genuinely kind individual - warm-hearted, caring and emotional. In her youth, she was flightly and extravagant but as life matured, so did she. And, by the end of her life, she proved to be a remarkably brave human being. In the words of Stefan Zweig, who wrote a biography of her in 1932, "The consciousness of a supreme duty lifted her character to a higher level than she had ever known. Just before the mortal, transient frame perished, the immortal work of art was perfected. Marie-Antoinette, once a mediocrity, achieved a greatness commensurate with her destiny."

The other is my all-time historical favourite, Queen Anne Boleyn - Henry VIII's second wife. She's had a really bad press which she doesn't deserve, since a lot of people seem to think she was a spiteful, arrogant, vindictive adulteress (not helped by the trashy novel 'The Other Boleyn Girl,' grrrr.) In truth, she was charismatic, intelligent, entertaining and impassioned. She challenged the politics and social values of her period and she was revered throughout Europe as a protector of religious reformers. Her temper was violent, but she was spirited and courageous in the face of opposition. She helped start the Reformation and she protected Protestants from the Inquisition, but she still retained some of her childhood Catholic beliefs; she believed in religious toleration, but also expression and pride in one's faith. Her death was a tribute to her great power, because only by constructing such monstrous lies about her could her enemies get rid off her.

It a tough one but I'll write a list of people who come to mind at present.

Jesus
Benito Mussolini
Jose Antonio Primo De Riviera( He was the founder of the Falange in Spain and when he was being executed he prayed to God asking him to forgive those resposible for his execution)
Socrates
Plato
Giovanni Gentile
Francisco Franco

R. Buckminster Fuller.

Inventor of the geodesic dome, an aerodynamic, 3-wheeled "minivan" designed to offer superior fuel efficiency and performance to conventional cars (in 1933!), and several environmentally benign and affordable house designs (beginning in the early 1920's) that are *still* "futuristic" by present standards, author of numerous books, including an entire system of geometry/metaphysics that set out to discover "the coordinate system of Universe," and IMO, largely succeeded.

He was such an original thinker in so many areas, a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci.

"To make the world work for everyone, in the least possible time, through spontaneous cooperation, without ecological offense, or the disadvantage of anyone." --R. Buckminster Fuller

To learn more about RBF, see the Buckminster Fuller Institute website at www.bfi.org

There's also a molecule named after him (a Buckminsterfullerene):
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/Depts/Chemistry/MOTM/buckyball/c60.gif
A C60 molecule shaped in the form of a geodesic dome.
Called a Buckyball for short. A Pentagon surrounded by 5 hexagons. Same as a Football (=Soccer ball).
I've made a origami model of one, which took frigging forever to do, and used 120 pieces of origami paper.

Here's what one looks like:
http://www.glyphic.com/img/ball.jpg

Anyway, back to the topic in hand:

I admire Charles Upham, the only enlisted soldier to ever win the VC and bar. The reason he didn't get a third is because they don't give out them (never occured to the people higher up that anyone could possibly be brave enough to merit 3). Read "Mark of the Lion" by Kenneth Sandford. What I really admire most of all was his modesty. Upon returning home he found the people of Canterbury had raised enough money for him to buy a farm. Instead he donated the lot to an educational scholarship for children of returned servicemen, telling them he didn't deserve it. This from a man widely viewed as the most outstanding Allied soldier of WWII!

I also admire lots of different scientists like Newton, Einstein, Eratosthenes, etc etc. I admire the enthusiasm they have for their work.

Lech Walensa

It a tough one but I'll write a list of people who come to mind at present.

Jesus
Benito Mussolini
Jose Antonio Primo De Riviera( He was the founder of the Falange in Spain and when he was being executed he prayed to God asking him to forgive those resposible for his execution)
Socrates
Plato
Giovanni Gentile
Francisco Franco

Franco? Really? Do you mind me asking why? it just seems a little... odd of a choice given his track record.

I can probably agree with the Hitler thing. I have read a Hitler biography and he did turn the most messed up nation on earth into a powerful war machine.

Cool! You want to be an engineer, I also want to be an engineer(for the money of course because money can be converted into power and I love the prestige of power).
Wait a minute! There is money in engineering? Wait 'til I tell the guys in the back room, they will really be pissed to have missed out on it.

Seriously, engineering isn't where the money is. I work for an engineering company and we are just commodities. If our jobs can be outsourced, they will be. And I work for a good company, the bad companies only keep the absolution minimum of engineering staff around. Then those guys are working 60 to 80 hours a week to try to be as productive as twice their number.

Study engineering, but try patent law, or managment of technology, or some other non-engineering field for your livelyhood. If you do insist on following a career in engineering, try to pick a field that isn't easily outsourced. Electronics and software are too easy to manage from a distance, so avoid those. Mechanical, Chemical, Civil, Petroleum, Mining...Those sorts of fields seem to be a lot harder to send overseas.

Good Luck to ya!

Che Guevara-revolutionary, helped tople a corrupt reigime in cuba, tried to do the same in the rest of latin america
Comandante Marcos- The Man behind the zapatistas, has kept an uprising going for a lot of years
Frank Zappa- fought tiper gore over the right to swear on records, tv shows etc. Too bad he lost and most records are kinda censored in the states
Joey Ramone-Just for being joey
Nicolo Machiaveli-Liberal political genious...hell the prince is awesome indeed
Hunter S Thompson-Hell this guy hates to advocate stuff he likes
Jack Kerouac-Sends me going

3. Captain James Cook (discovered my country) No he didn't. He was a hero in his innovative methods to combat scurvy (make the sailors eat fruit).

5. Alexander the Great (magnificent warrior, highly successful conquest, shoved down to no. 5 because he was bisexual) WTF?

I'd say that anybody who is devoted to doing their job right and working for the good of humanity, or provides a shining example for the rest of counts as a hero.

I hope nobody puts Mao down as one of their heros. :eek:

My hero is usually chicken caesar with extra feta.

I really admire guys like Kelly Johnson (Lockheed Skunkworks), Lee Iococca (Chrysler), and Jack Welch (GE). These guys are representative of American innovation and ingenuity, from engineering to managment.

Julius Caesar
Erwin Rommel
Heinz Guderian
Hans Rudel
Erich von Manstein

in no particular order

Hmm. Can't really think much right now, just a few names come to mind.

Jesus
Lee Kuan Yew
Pastor Ang (My Pastor, he's now a 70 year old man, he used to be Chief Inspector for the ISA, he fought the communists, protected the nation and caught lots of corrupted politicians :))

WTF?
Besides, pretty much everyone in the hellenic world was bisexual...

Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II Hohenstaufen:

King of Germany, Sicily, and Jerusalem. He recovered Jerusalem from the Muslims through diplomacy and minimal combat in the 1230s or 1220s AD. And then went back home to Sicily to stop Pope Gregory IX from taking all his lands.

Frederick was a man who knew precisely what he wanted. He had his own way of dealing in politics and religion and bowed to no man. In fact, he sought to reinstitute the ancient Roman practice of calling the emperor "Augustus."

He wasn't a good Christian, as he preferred to be lord over his own life. He disdained any religious, supernatural, or political authority that attempted to dictate his actions. Though a secularist, a kind of psuedo-religion surrounds him. He is seen as a Christ figure who will someday return to Germany from beneath Mt. Etna, rule over a new German empire of sorts, and reform the Church.

He died in the 1270s. His line ended after the Church proclaimed crusade against him, seeing the Hohenstaufen line as a threat to Church authority in Italy and Christendom. (Often confused with his grandfather, Frederick Barbarossa, who died at the beginning of the Third Crusade)

Don't really do heroes...just people I respect.
So:
Simon de Montfort (founded the original basis of Parliament in England, in the middle of the 13th century).
Alfred the Great (crap cook, but took the warring kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England and effectively united them).
Elizabeth I (took no shit from anyone, she knew exactly what she wanted done and made damn sure it was done. In her reign, England went from being a moderate military and trade power to one of the strongest military and trading powers around - 3 years before her death, the East India Company was founded, one of the most successful (in terms of profit and longevity) companies ever).
Margaret Thatcher (took no shit from anyone, she knew exactly what she wanted done and made damn sure it was done. Sadly, I can't repeat the rest of the above).
Sir Abraham Darby (pretty much the founder of the Industrial Revolution in England).