1990: Muhammad Ali traveled to Iraq and got 15 American hostages released.

[pnwmom]

He was a hero, and most people have forgotten that.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/live/2016/jun/04/muhammad-ali-dead-age-74-live-updates

Yet another historical episode largely forgotten in the sheer scope of Ali’s life: his 1990 trip to Iraq, after the invasion of Kuwait, in which he negotiated the release of 15 American hostages held by Saddam Hussein.

ESPN produced a short documentary in its 30-for-30 series on the remarkable episode, during which Ali visited schools, prayed at a Baghdad mosque and met Hussein. “We hope and pray there is not a war,” he told Iraqi officials. “And with the little authority from the fame that I have I’ll show the real side of Iraq.”

The White House of George HW Bush disapproved of the meeting but Ali managed to bring the Americans back to the US. “God works through people,” Ali told a former hostage. “It’s not me.”

A little more than a month later the US invaded in Operation Desert Storm, in what became the first Iraq war.

_______________________

And he also helped save another man from suicide:

In an episode largely forgotten among the many other outsize moments of his life and career, Muhammad Ali once coaxed a suicidal man down from a ninth-story ledge in Los Angeles.

[uppityperson]

1. k&r for Muhammad Ali

[Jnclr89]

2. Just another reason why he's #1

[BlancheSplanchnik]

3. The greatest

In so many ways.

:heartbroken:

But he's freed from the Parkinson's prison.

[Hekate]

4. Wow. I forgot that, or never knew.

[BlueMTexpat]

5. Not just talk,

but actions! Beautiful man all-round! He is truly a global icon.