Minor men who had major consequences
From sparking the most deadly conflict in history to saving the life of Britain's greatest prime minister, here is our list of seemingly insignificant men whose small deeds changed our world forever.
The wave of protests which have swept across North Africa and the Middle East have toppled governments, threatened dynasties and dragged a Western and Arab coalition into a conflict in Libya which is yet to be settled. And it all started with a slap.
On the morning of 17 December 2010, in the town of Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia, Bouazizi was selling fruit from a cart. The 26-year-old didn't have a licence, but neither did most of the local vendors. When a local official confiscated his expensive set of scales, Bouazizi, aware that he would have to pay a bribe to get them back, lost his temper. When he complained, the female official struck him.
Overcome with rage, he tried to claim back his scales from the local government office. When they ignored him, Bouazizi poured petrol over himself, shouted, "How do you expect me to make a living?", and set himself on fire.
It would be another 18 days until the young trader died in hospital, but protests began just hours after his self-immolation, spreading quickly to the capital city Tunis. On 14 January 2011, long-term President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia. Shortly after, Egyptian protesters took to the streets.
When Chinese students and intellectuals launched a non-violent protest calling for economic reform and liberalisation in 1989, the response by the country's hardline government was anything but peaceful. Tanks and soldiers moved in to clear Tiananmen Square of protesters, opening fire on the crowds and leaving hundreds, if not thousands dead (there is no official death toll).
Among the chaos, one man's stand against the military might of the Chinese government would become a symbol of bravery, humanity and fortitude that survives to this day.
As a column of tanks moved on the square, the so-called 'Tank Man', dressed in white shirt, black trousers and carrying a shopping bag in each hand, stood in front of the vehicles and halted their advance. When the tanks tried to go around him, the man stepped into their path. At one point, he even climbed onto the lead tank to remonstrate with the driver.
After the short impasse, the man was pulled away into a crowd. His identity - and fate - are unknown, and it's likely that 'Tank Man' - one of Time magazine's 100 most important people of the 20th century - is unaware of his iconic status as the image has been largely censored in China.
As Tsesarevich (heir to the throne) of Russia, it could be said that Nikolaevich was anything but an insignificant human being. But had the Grand Duke lived out his life normally, it is likely that he would not be remembered today as anything other than a typically overprivileged European royal.
It was not so much the young man's actions which changed history, but what was inside of him. Alexei was a haemophiliac, something which had been passed down to him from his mother Alexandra's grandmother, Britain's Queen Victoria.
In an attempt to heal Alexei, the Romanovs turned to the mystic Grigori Rasputin, who became a deeply controversial and divisive figure in Russia due to what was seen as his rapidly increasing political influence over the royal family. He was even rumoured to have been having an affair with Alexei's mother.
Rasputin so discredited the royal family that some historians argue his actions helped to bring about the end of Imperial Russia (not to mention the country's withdrawal from the Great War); the tsar abdicated in 1917 and young Alexei, along with the rest of his family, was executed by Bolsheviks in July of the following year.
A Bosnian Serb who was associated with a nationalist organisation devoted to freeing Bosnia from Austro-Hungarian rule, Princip was part of a three-man terrorist cell tasked with assassinating Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, during his visit to Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.
After a grenade thrown by one of the insurgents bounced off the royal car, missing its target but seriously injuring two people, the Archduke insisted on visiting the wounded in hospital. Franz Ferdinand's driver was meant to take an alternative route to avoid the city centre, but for some reason stuck to his original plan. Realising his mistake, the driver stopped to reverse - right outside a cafe where Princip had stopped for a sandwich.
Seizing this unexpected opportunity, Princip shot and killed the Archduke and his wife Sophie, precipitating Austro-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia. Duty bound to support its neighbour, Germany also declared war on the Serbs, who in turn were backed up by their allies Britain, France and Russia. This led to the outbreak of the first world war, a conflict which left 16 million people dead and 21 million wounded.
Winston Churchill, pictured here serving during the Boer War, is known as the man who saved Europe, but what about the man who saved Winston Churchill?
Step forward Clement Roberts, whose courage under fire saved the skin of the future wartime prime minister during the Boer War in April 1900. While covering the conflict for the newspaper the Morning Post, Churchill dismounted from his horse to cut a wire fence, at which point he was ambushed by a dozen Boers, whose gunfire caused the future politician's horse to bolt.
With no other option but to flee on foot, Churchill assumed he was a goner, saying to himself, "Here at last I take it." Suddenly, out of nowhere, Roberts rode onto the scene, riding in front of Churchill, pulling him onto his horse and galloping to safety.
Despite calls for a Victoria Cross, Roberts was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal instead. Knowing what we do now, perhaps Warrant Officer 2nd Class CR Roberts deserved a state funeral.
Recognise the name? Thought not, though he is responsible for possibly the world's most famous brand name and, if you were being really cynical, you could say his accidental creation is partly to blame for the obesity epidemic that is sweeping the developed world.
As a wounded veteran of the American Civil War, Pemberton - a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia - became addicted to the painkiller morphine and began experimenting with coca. Mixing together a blend of - still secret - ingredients, Pemberton came up with a medicinal tonic that, after a few tweaks (including the removal of cocaine as an ingredient), became known as Coca-Cola.
The 'tonic' was only ever used for medicinal purposes during Pemberton's lifetime. He died in 1888 and his creation would not be sold in bottles until 1894, a landmark step which meant it soon became a global phenomenon which dominates the soft drink market to this day.
Wars are won by generals and field marshals, aren't they? You could argue, however, that the end of the deadliest war in American history, the Civil War of 1861-1865, was hurried along significantly by Union corporal Barton W Mitchell, who just happened to open a worthless-looking envelope he found on the ground.
In 1862, Confederate leader Robert E Lee drafted Special Order 191, which gave an extremely detailed account of his army's movements during its invasion of Maryland, and gave them to his most trusted generals. One of these, Stonewall Jackson (pictured), passed the order on to one of his own men, who wrapped the papers round three cigars, put them in an envelope... and lost them.
Noticing the envelope lying in the grass at an abandoned campsite, Mitchell found the papers, decided they must be important and passed them on to his commanding officer.
The orders made their way up the chain of command, eventually reaching Major General George B McClellan, commander of the Army of the Potomac, who declared: "Here is a paper with which, if I cannot whip Bobby Lee, I will be willing to go home." McClellan was then able to halt Lee's advance at the battle of Antietam in September 1862 and the momentum of the war swung towards the Union.
Marshall, a humble farmer, carpenter and sawmill operator, made a discovery on 24 January 1848 that would make countless people rich and spark a mass migration to America's then largely uninhabited west coast.
Arriving in California three years prior, Marshall fought in the Mexican-American War before entering the timber business.
One morning, while digging drainage channels around the mill, Marshall noticed something shiny under the water. After examining several pieces of the mineral, Marshall said to one of his workers, "I have found it."
When his find was confirmed as gold of extremely high quality, word soon spread around the globe and the California gold rush had begun. Ironically, Marshall never benefited financially from his find. His mill failed when workers left to dig for gold, subsequent ventures were unsuccessful and he died almost penniless in 1885.
Faithless, treacherous and evil, England's King John, who ruled from 1199 to 1216, is regarded us England's worst ever king. During his reign, England lost most of its land in France to King Philip II and a revolt by the country's barons led to the signing of the Magna Carta, a significant step in the formation of Britain's constitution.
But he was lucky to succeed to the throne. His predecessor and brother, Richard I - or Richard the Lionheart - (whose tomb is pictured above), had a fearsome reputation as a military leader, yet he was felled by a lowly knight - who some sources say was actually just a boy - wielding a crossbow and frying pan at the minor siege of Châlus-Chabrol in western France on 25 March 1199.
An over-confident King Richard had chosen to remove his chainmail while his army besieged the poorly defended ramparts, when Pierre Basile, one of only two knights in the castle, shot his bolt at the monarch, hitting him in the shoulder.
When gangrene set in, it proved to be a mortal wound, and as one contemporary source put it: "The Lion by the Ant was slain." Though pardoned by the king before his death, Basile was later captured, flayed alive and hanged.
When Cleitus the Black, an officer in the Macedonian army, saved Alexander the Great from having his head chopped off at the Battle of Granicus (pictured) in 334 BC, he was merely doing what he was supposed to do - protecting his supreme commander. But in doing so he changed the course of history forever.
The battle took place right at the start of Alexander's reign and was the first of three major clashes between the Macedons and the Persian Empire. Had Alexander's head been removed from his shoulders by the Persian noble Spithridates (who had his arm sliced off by Cleitus just in time), he would not have gone on to become the greatest general who ever lived and the creator of one of the largest empires in ancient history, which stretched from Greece to the Himalayas and had a major influence on another not-insignificant empire - Ancient Rome. And how would Alexander reward his saviour? He killed him in a drunken quarrel in 328 BC.
