Chris Wahl
Ever feel like you’ve seen something so unique, it might just end up in a trivia question one day? Well, you’re not alone. I stumbled upon a Reddit thread where folks shared some of the most jaw-dropping, eyebrow-raising feats that so few humans have pulled off, they make moonwalking seem like a stroll in the park.
From the guy who decided to scale Everest in flip-flops (okay, not really, but you get the vibe) to the gal who swam across the Pacific with nothing but her sheer willpower (and a very sturdy life jacket), these stories are here to remind us that the world is full of surprises. Some of these unbelievable accomplishments are so rare, that they make winning the lottery look like a daily habit. These people truly take “living on the edge” to a whole new level!
1. Joan Murray, in 1990, jumped from an altitude of 4400 km, both of her parachutes did not open. She fell on a nest of fire ants. Murray broke many bones, knocked out almost all her teeth, but remained conscious due to the fact that she received hundreds of poisonous ant bites, this contributed to a large release of adrenaline, as a result of which doctors managed to resuscitate her, after several years of treatment and physical recovery, Joan returned to normal life and continued skydiving.
2. Alex Honnold is the only person who has ever free soloed (climbing without ropes or gear) El Capitan. I doubt anyone else will ever even attempt to do this. Not only is it extremely difficult and dangerous, but there’s not a lot of glory in being the second person to do it.
3. Violet Jessup. Survived all three White Star ocean liner sinkings. The Titanic, the Olympic, and the Britannic.
4. Ran 100 meters in under 9.70 seconds (only 3 people have done this). Similarly run 100 meters in under 10.70 seconds for woman (only 7 woman have done this). Shout out to: – Usain Bolt – Tyson Gay – Yohan Blake – Florence Griffith-Joyner – Elaine Thompson-Herah – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – Carmelita Jeter – Marion Jones – Shericka Jackson – Sha’Carri Richardson.
5. Having been born in Antarctica. Eight Argentinians and three Chileans.
6. Only 12 people have walked on the moon.
7. Hit two grand slams in one inning of an MLB game. Fernando Tatis is the only one.
8. Walked between the World Trade Center towers on a tightrope. Only one person ever did that.
9. If I’m allowed to toot my own horn, I’m the only person to ever accurately forecast a tornado in Afghanistan. I had to fight tooth and nail to get that forecast approved, and by golly, it was by far the noodliest looking tornado ever. Someone down range thankfully got a picture for me.
10. Perfect autobiographical memory is a medical condition known as *hyperthymesia*. A person who has hyperthymesia could tell you from the top of their head what day of the week any date they lived through was, and what they ate that day, and what they did on that particular day. If they saw the news that day they could tell you the day’s headlines. It’s an exhausting condition to have. It’s extremely rare and diagnosis is usually disputed. Only 10 case studies of hyperthymesia have passed peer review and been recorded in the medical literature.
11. Perished in a carbon fiber submarine with a video game controller as the method of controlling the submarine.
12. Survived both the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
13. Been hit by a meteorite. Just one – Ann Hodges.
14. Read the terms and conditions before clicking ‘I agree’.
15. Survive a fall greater than 29000 feet without a parachute. Sauce: Vesna Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Весна Вуловић, pronounced [ʋêsna ʋûːloʋitɕ]; 3 January 1950 – 23 December 2016) was a Serbian flight attendant who survived the highest fall without a parachute: 10.16 kilometres (6.31 miles) or 33,330 feet.
16. Only three people have died *in space* as a consequence of decompression.
17. Survived rabies. (I think). Edit: clarifying that I was not referring to myself but just answering the original question of something I thought that less than 12 people had achieved. I was pretty sure less than 12 people have survived contracting rabies because, barring the one exception I could think of, it has 100% fatality rate.
18. Played Tetris for the NES all the way to the end screen.
19. Fixed the leak at Chernobyl, saved the water table for Western Europe. Three guys wearing taped up garbage bags.
20. Sir David Attenborough is the only person to win a BAFTA for a programme in black and white, colour, HD, 3D and 4K.
21. Only one man has orbited the moon alone and walked on it, John Young.
22. Stood trial as an ex President of the US.
