13 Real Life Forrest Gumps: People Who Became Part Of History By Coincidence
Channel: Emperors
Date: 2023-12-29

“My momma always said, ‘Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.’” 

While the chocolate box metaphor works to describe the unpredictability of any individual’s life, it is also true that some people just get more interesting boxes of chocolates than others. Gump himself traverses American history with a bumbling, stumbling gait, accidentally thrusting himself or being thrust into several of the country’s must integral turning points. The trope of “ordinary people who were accidentally a part of history” had its champion, and everyone’s favorite historical film of all time starred a character who didn’t exist.

Tom Hanks portrayals aside, there are several real-life Forrest Gumps out there that also goofed their way through some of history’s largest events. Some of the examples mirror Forrest in his simplicity, while others are considered among the greatest men to ever live, but each of them shares one uniting quality: they entered the history books through coincidence, circumstance, and sheer dumb luck.