Incredible Feats

Gary Saavedra wanted to put Panama in the record books, so he set out to do the impossible: surf the Panama Canal!

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Yankees pitcher Don Larsen achieves a feat so incredible nobody else has achieved it since. In game 5 of the 1956 World Series, he retired all 27 Brooklyn Dodgers batters he faced, throwing the first and only “perfect game” in World Series history.

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In 1931 while studying radioactive waves, Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard and his assistant Paul Kipfer flew their custom hot air balloon closer to outer space than anyone before them… only to become trapped 50,000 feet above Earth.

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There was something about running that just didn’t sit well with ultramarathoner Mike McKnight. Every time he ran a marathon he’d eat to keep his energy up… and every time he ate, he puked. So McKnight decided to cut food from his routine, and as a result, ran 100 miles without stopping.

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Mary Edwards Walker saved lives and made history as the first woman surgeon in the U.S. military. For her battlefield valor during the Civil War, she received a Medal of Honor — and when the government tried to revoke it? She defended it with a shotgun.

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In 2001, Erik Weihenmayer made climbing history as the first blind person to summit Mt. Everest.

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In an effort to set the record for a sub two-hour marathon, Eliud Kipchoge designed the perfect course with all the elements and variables he would need to succeed.

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In a field that was dominated by men, Florence Nightingale “cleaned up” the nursing profession and showed the industry a new way to save lives. 

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Known as one of the best athletes in Cuba’s history, Javier Sotomayor overcame a terrifying fear to set the world record in the high jump. 

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Jonas Salk was tasked with making a vaccine for polio, but it wouldn’t be easy. A normal vaccine could risk paralyzing the very kids he was trying to protect — he would have to pioneer something entirely new. 

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