The Greatest Nobody

[Rival]

Tell us about people in history who were overshadowed by other people and forgotten, but who should be remembered.

I'm going to start with Narmer (or Menes), the first King of a united Egypt. This is significant since Egypt is considered by many the world's first nation state. Narmer wasn't just any king, therefore, he was the king of the first entity we'd know as a country. Instead, folks prefer King Tut or Ramesses. Here is the palette celebrating Narmer (or rather, this is the traditional scholarly understanding of the palette):

(Coloured by modern digitisation)

Narmer - Wikipedia​

Narmer Palette - Wikipedia​

 

[Polymath257]

Ulugh Beg: a Timurid (descendant of Mongols) sultan that promoted math and sciences. He produced one of the largest pre-telescopic observatories in the world.

 

[PoetPhilosopher]

Tell us about people in history who were overshadowed by other people and forgotten, but who should be remembered.

Stanislav Petrov

Guy prevented a nuclear war.

 

[Rival]

Stanislav Petrov

Guy prevented a nuclear war.

Reminded me of the miners who cleared up underground in the dark after the Chernobyl disaster. Hats seriously off to those guys.

The True Story Behind Chernobyl's Miners Is Even More Depressing Than on the HBO Series (decider.com)

 

[VoidCat]

Grunya Sukhareva. A Jewish Russian woman who studied autism far before Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner. Also revolutionized psychiatry and psychology in many areas and was way ahead of her time. Well known in Russia not so much in the US

 

[VoidCat]

Grunya Sukhareva. A Jewish Russian woman who studied autism far before Hans Asperger and Leo Kanner. Also revolutionized psychiatry and psychology in many areas and was way ahead of her time. Well known in Russia not so much in the US

Oh and Hans Asperger was a Nazi sympathizer who sent disabled children to death camps may have read her work and was likely inspired by her to study autism but likely did not cite her due to her being Jewish

Edited to reword

 

[Polymath257]

Tell us about people in history who were overshadowed by other people and forgotten, but who should be remembered.

I'm going to start with Narmer (or Menes), the first King of a united Egypt. This is significant since Egypt is considered by many the world's first nation state. Narmer wasn't just any king, therefore, he was the king of the first entity we'd know as a country. Instead, folks prefer King Tut or Ramesses. Here is the palette celebrating Narmer (or rather, this is the traditional scholarly understanding of the palette):

(Coloured by modern digitisation)

Narmer - Wikipedia​

Narmer Palette - Wikipedia​

And I thought the Narmer palette (and thereby Narmer) was famous.

 

[Rival]

And I thought the Narmer palette (and thereby Narmer) was famous.

Only among certain folks, it seems.

 

[Revoltingest]

Suzanne Massie - Wikipedia

 

[VoidCat]

Oh and Hans Asperger was a Nazi sympathizer who sent disabled children to death camps may have read her work and was likely inspired by her to study autism but likely did not cite her due to her being Jewish

Edited to reword

I mean her work on developmental disorders was translated into german and was widely available in Austria during Asperger's time. But due to her being jewish and I suspect due to her being Russian her work was not translated in a lot of languages. It wasn't translated into English until 2010 I think. That's why Hans is well known in the US and not her

 

[ChristineM]

Rosalind Franklin.

She made the greatest contribution to the discovery and understanding of the double helix structure of dna while James Watson and Francis Crick took the credit.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Tell us about people in history who were overshadowed by other people and forgotten, but who should be remembered.

Norman Borlaug. Saved at least a billion lives.

Norman Borlaug - Wikipedia

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

This is, in some ways, a counter-example: Sybil Ludington - Hero of the American Revolution.
Urban myth is pernicious. (And, no, I'm not trying to raise the specter of the historical Jesus.)

 

[ChristineM]

Norman Borlaug. Saved at least a billion lives.

Norman Borlaug - Wikipedia

Beat me, i was just going to do a post on him. I know @Dan From Smithville considers him well.

 

[Heyo]

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Possibly all of us, the internet commenters. It is possible that we are laying out a digital-archaeological foundation of some importance, to people far into the future

 

[Quagmire]

Hedy Lamarr

Hailed as one of the greatest actresses of all time and sometimes referred to as the most beautiful woman of her century, any film buff would be surprised to find her name on a list of "nobody's".

But I'm sure most people would also be surprised to learn that there's a good chance we wouldn't be talking to each other right now if it hadn't been for her work as a scientist.

During world war II Hedy Lamar, working with the allies, helped pioneer the technology that would lay the foundation for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Hedy Lamarr - Wikipedia

Edit: oh yeah, GPS too.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Nice idea for a thread, @Rival !!

I'm not claiming he's 'the greatest' in any literal sense, but a man responsible for perhaps saving more Jews than any other during WW2 was a Swiss Methodist who was more paper-pusher than freedom fighter...

Carl Lutz - Wikipedia

I always found his story informative. His own government didn't even applaud his actions until well after WW2, and he must have thought if he survived the war, he wouldn't get positive recognition for his work.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I would say those responsible for great events, like the Special Olympics and Make a Wish Foundations and of course the participants themselves.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver


Eunice Kennedy Shriver's Story


Frank Shankwitz

Frank Shankwitz, a Founder of Make-a-Wish, Is Dead at 77 (Published 2021)


Bat Kid who brought a whole community together...

 

[sayak83]

Tell us about people in history who were overshadowed by other people and forgotten, but who should be remembered.

I'm going to start with Narmer (or Menes), the first King of a united Egypt. This is significant since Egypt is considered by many the world's first nation state. Narmer wasn't just any king, therefore, he was the king of the first entity we'd know as a country. Instead, folks prefer King Tut or Ramesses. Here is the palette celebrating Narmer (or rather, this is the traditional scholarly understanding of the palette):

(Coloured by modern digitisation)

Narmer - Wikipedia​

Narmer Palette - Wikipedia​

​

Emmy Noether..one of the greatest mathematicians and mathematical physicist who ever lived.
Emmy Noether - Wikipedia

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/emmy-noether-theorem-legacy-physics-math