go down in history

present singular third person goes down in history · participle present going down in history · past went down in history · participle past gone down in history

1. Be sufficiently noteworthy as to be remembered by future generations.

   I think of things that I might be / I see my name go down in history

   1977, David Byrne, “Pulled Up”, in Talking Heads: 77, performed by Talking Heads

   5 more examples

   Not many of the great composers have gone down in history as having taken part as one of the principals in a duel. Among them, perhaps this honor must be awarded solely to Händel. The cause of this affair was to be found in one of the curious customs of his day.

   1896, Willey Francis Gates, Anecdotes of Great Musicians, 151.—Händel's Duel

   "Don't be a turd," Freddi says. "Don't be a Tones Turd." / "If telling the truth makes a man a turd, then a turd I shall be." / "Yeah," Freddi says. "You'll go down in history. Tones the Truth-Telling Turd. Kids will learn about you in school."

   2014, Stephen King, Mr. Mercedes: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, →ISBN, page 56

   Many of the dead were never identified simply because whole families died together and there was no one left to say who they were. One woman, named Elizabeth Stride, claimed to have been one of the survivors of the sinking, although there was no proof of this. She would later go down in history as the third victim of Jack the Ripper.

   2018 September 14, Derek Coleman, “Old superstition comes true with tragic consequences”, in AP News, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2023

   Captain Stuart Hogg and his team will now go down in history as the side who were able to slay England in their own den, emulating Jim Aitken’s heroes of ’83.

   2021 February 6, Graham Bean, “Scotland beat England at Twickenham for the first time in 38 years”, in The Scotsman

   Mr Johnson was elected Prime Minister to get Brexit done. […] His single most important task for the rest of his term in office is to hold the Union together. If he fails, he will go down in history not as the man who freed the United Kingdom, but as the man who destroyed it.

   2021 April 15, “From United Kingdom to Untied Kingdom”, in The Economist, →ISSN

   Synonyms: make history