Incredible Feats

Years of studying, months of planning, and a nighttime break-in were all precursors to a 1974 stunt in New York City — but this was no heist. It was a high-wire act by Philippe Petit.

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Jesse Owens became the most decorated Olympian at the 1936 Berlin Games, despite Hitler’s best efforts to see Aryan athletes triumph. 

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Benjamin Von Wong used 168,000 recycled drinking straws to create a towering art installation. The record-breaking structure was dubbed “The Parting of the Plastic Sea.” 

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A childhood experiment helped turn Judit Polgár into a chess prodigy, but not everyone was willing to recognize her chops — until she bested her idol in a 2002 tournament. 

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A political prisoner in South Africa for 27 years, Nelson Mandela was unjustly regarded as an enemy of his country before he helped radically transform it. 

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At first, all 14-year-old William Kamkwamba wanted to do was power a lamp so he could read at night. But the young Malawian inventor’s ambitions soon grew far bigger… 

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The 1980 Winter Olympics match-up between the U.S. and Soviet Union hockey teams pit young amateurs against reigning champions. But U.S. coach Herb Brooks had a few tricks up his sleeve… 

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Kenya’s first female professor, Wangari Maathai, went up against a dictator to protect green space in Nairobi. The movement she started has gone on to plant over 51 million trees. 

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When three hikers found themselves stranded on the tenth highest mountain in the world, Daniel Aufdenblatten and Richard Lehner risked their own lives to pull off a daring rescue.

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Breast cancer survivor Nicky Spinks has run hundreds of miles through the wilderness, breaking records as she conquered steep, muddy, mountainous routes. 

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