12. Henry Dunant was a co-award winner of the first Nobel Peace Prize
When Henry Dunant, a successful Swiss businessman, witnessed the battlefield at Solferino during the Second Italian War of Independence he was appalled at what he saw. His experience of the sight of so many wounded soldiers (it was the largest battle on the European continent since Leipzig in 1814) led him to write A Memory of Solferino in 1862, which contained suggestions for the formation of an international society for the aid of injured in warfare and natural calamities. The book inspired the formation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva, where Dunant lived, in 1863. It also led to the First Geneva Convention, signed by 12 states, which established rules for the treatment of wounded and prisoners in warfare.