

Neerja Bhanot, the braveheart flight attendant was never run away from a crisis
Neerja Bhanot, a Rajesh Khanna fan, found herself daydreaming about scenarios in which she played a role. In one such hypothetical situation, she asked her mother to recommend a plan of action in the event of a hijacking.
Her mother told her, “Agar aisa kuch hua toh bhaag jaana (If something like this ever happens, escape).”
To which a confident Neerja replied, “Mummy, tumhari jaisi maa hongi toh desh ka kya hoga? Mar jayungi lekin bhagungi nahin” (If all mothers think like you, then what will happen to the country? I’d rather die than run away).”

On September 5, 1986, Bhanot died while protecting passengers on Pan Am Flight 73, which had been hijacked during a stopover in Karachi.
But the ‘Heroine of the Hijack’ had already been through a lot.
She was the darling of her family, which included two brothers, and was born on September 7, 1963, in Chandigarh to Harish and Rama Bhanot. She studied in Chandigarh before moving to Mumbai, where she became a model, endorsing brands such as Binaca toothpaste, Forhans, and Godrej.
Bhanot married a marine engineer at the age of 19 and moved to Sharjah, UAE. After two months of abuse, including starvation, verbal taunts, and threats, she left her husband, returned to Mumbai, and decided to become a flight attendant.
On that fateful September day, Bhanot was named senior flight purser on Pan Am Flight 73, which was flying from Mumbai to the United States.
During a stopover in Karachi, four armed Palestinian men from the Abu Nidal Organization hijacked the plane, which was carrying 380 passengers and 13 crew members. Bhanot quickly alerted the cockpit crew by using hijack code, allowing American pilots to escape and, as a result, ground the plane.
The enraged hijackers demanded that she collect the passports of the passengers. Bhanot and her crew hid the passports under the seats and in the trash chute after determining that the hijacker’s primary targets were Americans.

Her calming presence is also said to have kept the passengers’ and crew members’ anxieties under control for 17 hours as she served sandwiches and beverages and tried to boost morale, even as terrorists killed a passenger and threw him out of the plane.
When the hijackers decided enough was enough and opened fire, Bhanot worked quickly to evacuate as many passengers as she could through the emergency exit. She was killed while protecting three American children from terrorists.
Because of Bhanot’s foresight, 42 of the 44 Americans on board were saved. The survivors of the attack gave her the title of “Heroine of the Hijack.”
Bhanot’s legacy
Bhanot’s calm courage and quick instincts earned him a slew of posthumous awards, including India’s highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashoka Chakra. She was the award’s first female and youngest recipient. According to her citation, “her loyalties to the passengers of the aircraft in distress will forever be a lasting tribute to the finest qualities of the human spirit.”

Her story continues to inspire young women, and Bhanot’s family used Pan Am funds to establish the Neerja Bhanot Pan Am Trust in her honor. The trust honors Indian women who have overcome social injustice and airline crew members who go above and beyond in a crisis.
Among other honors, Pakistan bestowed the Tamgha-e-Insaniyat award on Bhanot, and the Indian Postal Service issued a stamp in her honor in 2004.
Ram Madhvani directed a biopic starring Sonam Kapoor as Neerja in 2016. The biopic is a stylized thriller with a few touching glimpses into Bhanot’s personal life, particularly her relationship with her mother (Shabana Azmi). The film also received a number of honors, including the National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi.

World's largest iceberg breaks off Antarctica
In 1986, the iceberg known as A23a broke away from the Antarctic coast. However, it quickly grounded in the Weddell Sea, effectively turning into an ice island.

Smart guy brings life-sized cutout of his late mother to his graduation
Even though that his mother passed away in 2016, a young man had a clever idea to make a life-size cutout of her and bring it to the event so that she could attend his graduation ceremony.

Kipekee, the world's only spotless giraffe, was born at Brights Zoo
The world's only spotless giraffe was born at a zoo in the United States. The giraffe born without spots on July 31 is the only one of her kind on Earth.

Longest burning light bulb, The centennial light bulb in livermore, California
The world's longest lasting light bulb holds the Guinness World Record, and has been illuminating local fire stations in Livermore, California since 1901, the year Queen Victoria died.

chand baori stepwell in Rajasthan India, Ancient cooling technique
This Chand Baori stepwell in Rajasthan, India is over 1200 years old. It’s called Chand Baori. The air at the bottom of the well is 5-6 degrees cooler than at the surface, so in addition to being a water source, it was used as a community gathering place where locals could escape the heat.

Frank Lentini, The Three-Legged Sideshow Performer
Francesco Lentini was a man with three legs, four feet, sixteen toes, and two sets of functional male genitals. He worked for the circus and lived to be 78 years old.

The Man Who Survived Falling Through a Thunderstorm, William Rankin
William Rankin was a fighter pilot who survived an ejection into a thunderstorm. He suffered frostbite, violent wind and lightning, severe decompression, and nearly drowned from breathing in rain water. He was in the cloud for over 40 minutes in total.

Australian man dies, comes back to life, and wins the lottery twice
Bill Morgan, an Australian, is a man who has beat the odds. He escaped death by surviving a horrific automobile accident and heart attack before collapsing into a coma and going on to win the lotto twice. He went from losing virtually everything to winning far more than he could have imagined.

Self-taught William Kamkwamba built a windmill for his town
A Malawian teenager who taught himself how to build a windmill out of junk and bring power to his village. He then went on to build a second, larger windmill to power irrigation pumps. He did this all from books he read in the library.

LEGO Braille Bricks: Revolutionizing Braille Learning Through Play and Inclusion
go Braille Bricks were launched in 2020 to help visually impaired children learn Braille through play. Each brick features the Braille alphabet and is fully compatible with standard Lego sets, allowing sighted peers to join in, fostering inclusivity and collaboration in learning environments.

Woman survives skydiving accident, discovers she's pregnant
2005, a woman performing her first solo skydive jump survived a parachute malfunction which caused her to slam face first into a parking lot at 50 MPH. During surgery doctors discovered she was pregnant. She made a full recovery and the baby was fine.

24-year-old burglar beaten by retired boxer victim
A 24-year-old knife-wielding burglar attempted to get into the home of a 72-year-old senior in Oxford, England, in 2009, but was left battered, bruised, and pinned to the ground. Frank Corti, the elderly, turned out to be a former boxing champion.

The incredible story of a plane that lost its roof in mid-flight and the light signal that saved 94 lives.
On April 28, 1988, Aloha Airlines flight 243 was on the way to Honolulu from Hilo when a huge portion of the upper part of the fuselage blew off the airplane.

Missing Masterpiece Discovered in the Background of ‘Stuart Little’
In 2009, Gergely Barki, an art historian, was watching the film Stuart Little (1999) when he spotted an original long-lost painting used as a prop. Called Sleeping Lady with Black Vase, this painting was the work of Hungarian avant-garde painter Róbert Berény. The painting had been considered lost after World War II.

The Crystal Maiden of the Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave
Located in Belize, there is a cave where the remnants of ancient Maya human sacrifices can be witnessed. However, reaching the back of the cave system requires swimming, wading through a cave river, and crawling through narrow, uneven rocky passages in darkness. Once there, visitors can walk among the numerous corpses of sacrifice victims, including The Crystal Maiden, an 18-year-old whose skeleton has become calcified to the point of sparkling.

Morgan’s Wonderland, the world’s first ultra-accessible amusement park
Gordon Hartman was heartbroken when his special needs daughter, Morgan, was rejected by a group of children playing by the hotel poolside. He then set out to build a place where all children can play together. This led to the development of the world’s first ultra-accessible amusement park, Morgan’s Wonderland

'Super obedient' lookout parrot trained by Brazilian drug dealers is seized by police
In 2019, police in Brazil seized a 'super obedient' lookout parrot trained by drug dealers. According to reports, the bird had been taught to alert criminals to police operations by shouting: "Mum, the police!" As soon as the police got close, he started shouting.

Megamouth Shark And Her Babies Found Dead In The Philippines
Filipino zoologists have recorded a pregnant megamouth shark for the first time ever since the rare aquatic specie was discovered in 1974.

Restaurant owner offers burglar a job rather than filing charges
On April 13, 2021, Diablo’s Southwest Grill was robbed, but instead of pressing charges, owner Carl Wallace decided to offer the burglar a job in his business and said “There are better opportunities out there than this path you’ve chosen,”.

Baby Lynlee 'born twice' after life-saving tumour surgery
Baby Lynlee was "born twice." First, surgeons brought her out of the womb to remove a spinal tumor. After the successful surgery, she was placed back and born again as a healthy baby girl.

Before Hollywood, Christopher Walken Was a Teenage Lion Tamer with a Lioness Named Sheba
Before acting, Christopher Walken worked as a lion tamer in a circus at age 16. He performed with a lioness named Sheba and described the job as surprisingly calm—just another day before Hollywood stardom.

This whale tail sculpture saved a train that went off the rails
A train in the Netherlands failed to stop in time and broke through the emergency barrier. It's being held up by the statue of a whale's tail.

People are freaked out because they keep finding 'help me' messages under the cap of Sobe bottles
With their bottle caps that said, "Help me, I'm trapped in SoBe factory," SoBe Beverage discovered the hard way that forced labor is serious business. This is an example of when humor can be overdone.

Lafayette pizza delivery driver who saved 5 from burning house
Nicholas Bostic a 25-year-old pizza delivery man from Lafayette, Indiana, ran into a burning house to rescue four children, who told him there is one more inside. He ran back inside, he found the six-year-old girl, jumped out of a window, carried her to a cop who captured the moment on his bodycam.

How 'Brad's Drink' Became Pepsi-Cola
Pepsi was first introduced as “Brad’s Drink” in New Bern, North Carolina, United States, in 1893 by Caleb Bradham, who made it at his drugstore where the drink was sold. It was renamed Pepsi Cola in 1898, named after the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts used in the recipe.