1. A Dramatic Last Minute Escape From Death Before a Firing Squad
When Mexico’s new government failed to enact promised land reforms, its rebel alliance split. Pancho Villa, appointed a brigadier general, supported the new government against his former comrades. Then he struck a superior general during a heated argument, and was sentenced to death. In dramatic fashion, he managed to escape death at literally the last minute, when a telegram from the president arrived, commuting the death sentence to imprisonment instead.
It did not take long for Villa to escape. He fled to the US, but returned to Mexico in 1913, after securing American support to fight against a new government that had seized power in a coup. He again achieved considerable success, and local military commanders appointed him governor of the state of Chihuahua. As governor, he confiscated grand haciendas, and broke them up into smaller plots which he redistributed to the widows and families of fallen revolutionaries. It was during this period that Villa gained international fame, and was depicted in the press as a romantic bandit-warrior who took from the rich and gave to the poor.
Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading
All That’s Interesting – The Seven Unbelievable Survival Stories Of Frane Selak
History Collection – Pilot Accidentally Lands in Enemy Airfield and Other Historic Mistakes
Medium – Meet the world’s luckiest man
Brown University – Dr. William Brydon and the massacre of the British force in Afghanistan in 1842
World Atlas – The Hibakusha – Survivors Of The Hiroshima And Nagasaki Atomic Bombs
