There is as yet no modern hero able to still the pace of habitat loss or prevent invasion from rival species.

BBC: Close encounters with Japan's 'living fossil'

This understanding of numbers has made him a hero to the modern "Moneyball" generation of baseball fans and executives who see baseball as one big algorithm.

WSJ: Legendary Orioles Manager Weaver Dies at 82

Mr Zhang, 61, directed some of China's most successful modern martial arts films, including Hero and House of Flying Daggers.

BBC: China director Zhang 'investigated' over one-child rule

When the Ancient Games were revived as the Modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896, local hero Spiridon Louis won the marathon -- as he should have -- to bring his country international recognition and fame.

CNN: China takes the Olympic limelight

Modern pentathlete Heather Fell has lent her support to the BBC Sports Unsung Hero 2009, becoming the award's ambassador for BBC South West.

BBC: Devon - Fell names her own unsung hero

The Canadian gallery focuses on two of the most prominent figures from the war, Sir Isaac Brock and Laura Secord, the hero and heroine of Upper Canada, the colonial name for most of modern-day Ontario.

WSJ: 1812 | Canadian War Museum | Four Ways to Look at a War | By Mark Yost

On walks all through her life she would converse in imagination with her hero, Benjamin Franklin, explaining to that great inventor the gadgets of the modern age.

ECONOMIST: Jane Jacobs

The notion of the warrior-hero who can carry battles single-handedly doesn't really jibe with modern warfare, and it's been a while since we had a military man as president.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS