

Terry Fox, a 21-year-old one-legged cancer patient who ran 143 days before dying
An 18-year-old was traumatized in a car accident in 1976. He was rear-ended by a truck, completely totaling his own vehicle. Surprisingly, the young man was unharmed after the collision.
Only his knee hurt, which he attributed to the collision. But the discomfort persisted. He played basketball frequently in school and believed that the pain was brought on by too much stress.
But the pain persisted after the basketball season was over, so he made the decision to see a doctor. He was identified as having osteogenic sarcoma, a bone cancer that frequently begins in the knee and spreads rapidly, four months after his accident. The doctors knew right away that amputating his leg and then starting chemotherapy would give him the best chance of survival.
Five days after his diagnosis, on March 9, 1977, medical professionals amputated his right leg 15 cm above the knee.
Running 143 Consecutive Marathons
Terry Fox was a young man, and like any other 18-year-old, he was completely shocked to learn that he had cancer.

It is challenging to comprehend what a diagnosis like this means when your entire life is in front of you. No matter how emotionally intelligent you are, you will never be able to feel what Terry Fox felt during those moments.
But he didn’t stay on his situation. He didn’t turn bitter. In fact, Terry Fox was already playing golf with his father on an artificial leg just a few weeks after his leg was amputated. But the cancer did not go away. He underwent chemotherapy for almost one and a half years following the operation.
He witnessed the suffering of other cancer patients during that time, which had an impact on Fox. He made the decision to run across Canada to raise awareness for cancer after being inspired by Dick Traum, an amputee who had completed the New York City Marathon.
The “Marathon of Hope” was founded in this manner. On April 12, 1980, on Canada’s east coast, Terry Fox started his nearly impossible feat after more than a year of training.
He ran a marathon every day for 143 days. Recall that Terry Fox was a cancer patient who could only use one leg. He ran despite the pain, wind, rain, and storm.
He did something that no one had ever done, despite the fact that he never finished his marathon. Cancer spread to his lungs after 5,372 km (3,338 miles), forcing him to stop on September 1st, 1980. Terry passed away ten months later, 30 days before turning 23.
Confronting Pain
What motivated this man? Terry Fox stayed strong despite experiencing the biggest setback of his life—terminal illness. In fact, he increased his suffering. He aggravated his pain instead of treating it.

When I consider my own life, I search for relief from pain at the first sign of it. We frequently look for something to relieve our suffering, whether it be mental or physical. We look for a way out.
Terry instead searched for it. He stated:
“I got satisfaction out of doing things that were difficult. It was an incredible feeling. The pain was there, but the pain didn’t matter.”
That is a completely different mentality. Most people associate difficulty with being difficult. When things get challenging, they give up. But what if you adopted a different outlook?
You seek out adversity rather than fleeing it. I’ve been working on teaching my brain to enjoy challenges more. And let me tell you: it’s not simple.
When you face challenges head-on, you truly understand why humanity avoids them. Comfort is simple. There is no effort needed. Anyone with average intelligence can comprehend that. But we don’t consider that when we’re in the middle of a difficult task. We search for the simplest solution.
It’s challenging to establish a career, launch a business, work on a relationship, maintain good health, learn a new language, relocate, travel the world, and develop new skills.
But you shouldn’t let that stop you. There is only one thing you can do if you want to live a life without regrets: Go all in.

Franz Ferdinand’s Assassination that sparked World War I
Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie are shot to death by a Bosnian Serb nationalist during an official visit to the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The killings sparked a chain of events that led to the eruption of World War I by early August.

Medieval Medicine: A 1,000-year-old onion and garlic salve kills modern bacterial superbugs
Scientists recreated an Anglo-Saxon manuscript-based 9th century onion and garlic eye remedy and discovered that it killed 90% of antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria (MRSA).

The Baltic Way: the longest unbroken human chain in history
On August 23, 1989, about 2 million people from Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania formed a human chain that united all 3 countries to show the world their desire to escape the Soviet Union and the communism that brought only suffering and poverty. This power stretched 600 km.

Why This Belgian Bar Makes You Trade Your Shoe for a Beer
To prevent tourists from stealing their beer glasses, some bars in Belgium require people to hand over one of their shoes as a deposit which is then put in a basket and hung from the ceiling. These shoe baskets have also become an attraction.

The Bizarre (And Magical) Duel Between Chung Ling Soo And Ching Ling Foo
Ching Ling Foo and Chung Ling Soo were two magicians from the early 20th century who were bitter rivals. While Ching Ling Foo was genuinely Chinese, Chung Ling Soo was actually a New Yorker named William Robinson.

Blanche Monnier: Imprisoned For 25 Years For Falling in Love
Blanche Monnier, she was a French woman noted for her beauty, she wished to marry an old lawyer that her mother disapproved of, so she locked her in a small dark room in her attic for 25 years.

George Dantzig solved two famous “unsolved” problems in statistics mistakenly as assignment
In 1939, George Dantzig arrived late to his statistics class. On the board were two famous “unsolved” problems in statistics written as an example by his professor. Dantzig mistook the examples for homework assignments. He solved the “unsolved” problems and submitted the homework to his professor a few days later. His solutions earned him a doctorate.

How 18th Century Women’s Rights Movements Shaped Modern Equality
The 18th century marked a turning point in the quest for women’s rights, as passionate voices challenged centuries of gender inequality and laid the groundwork for modern feminism. From pioneers like Mary Wollstonecraft to revolutionary declarations and early advocacy, this era sparked debates on education, political participation, and social justice that continue to resonate today. Journey through the origins of women’s rights movements and discover how their bold ideas shaped the fight for equality.

The day Iceland's women went on strike
Icelandic women went on strike for equal rights on October 24, 1975. 90% of women walked out of their jobs and homes, effectively shutting down the entire country. The men were struggling to keep up. The following year, Parliament passed a law requiring equal pay. Iceland elected the world's first female President five years later. Iceland now has the highest gender equality rate in the world.

Remembering the 1945 Empire State Building Disaster: When a Plane Met Skyscraper
An airplane crashed into the Empire State Building in 1945. Among other damage, plane parts severed the cables of an elevator and the woman inside fell over 70 stories. She lived and holds the world record for the longest survived elevator fall.

Nordlingen, The Town Inside A Meteorite Crater With Millions Of Meteorite Diamonds
The German town of Nördlingen is embedded with 72,000 tons of microscopic diamonds. About 15 million years ago, a meteorite hit this region, and the impact created a massive depression and formed rocks containing diamonds, glass, and crystals. The town was built in the impact crater sometime around 898 CE.

The Arabia Steamboat: Unearthing a 19th Century Time Capsule from the Missouri River
The Arabia was a steamboat that sank in the Missouri River in 1856. Over time, the river shifted 800 meters to the east, eventually turning the site of the sinking into a field. The steamboat remained under 45 feet of slit and topsoil until 1988, when it was excavated. The mud, as it turned out, was such a great preserver that most of the artifacts on board were found to be intact. They even found jars of preserved apples that were still edible!

Juliane Koepcke: The Teenager Who Fell 10,000 Feet And Trekked The Jungle to survive
In 1971, a high school student was sucked out of an airplane after it was struck by lightning. She fell 10,000 feet to the ground while still strapped to her chair and survived. Only to endure a 9-day trek to the nearest civilization.

Susanna Salter: The Trailblazing Story of America’s First Female Mayor
In 1887, Susanna Salter became the first female mayor in the United States, elected in Argonia, Kansas. Her nomination was initially a prank by men opposing women in politics. However, she won by a landslide and served effectively, inspiring the women’s suffrage movement and breaking barriers for women in leadership.

Inside The Mysterious Death Of The Famed Gothic Writer Edgar Allan Poe
Hours before his death Edgar Allen Poe was found on the streets of Baltimore. He was incoherent, wearing another man’s clothes, and unable to explain how he got there. The cause of his death is an unsolved mystery.

Marion Stokes recorded 30 years of television
Marion Stokes, a Philadelphia woman began taping whatever was on television in 1979 and didn’t stop until her death in 2012. The 71,000 VHS and Betamax tapes she made are the most complete collection preserving this era of TV. They are being digitized by the Internet Archive.

Roller Coasters were First Invented to Distract People from sin
Roller coasters were invented to distract Americans from sin. In the 1880s, hosiery businessman LaMarcus Thompson didn’t like that Americans were going to places like saloons and brothels and created the first roller coaster on Coney Island to persuade them to go there instead.

story of the youngest mother in the world at age of five - Lina Medina
Lina Medina, a five-year-old Peruvian girl, became the youngest mother in history in 1939 when she gave birth to a boy.

The History Behind the “No One Dies Alone” Program
In 1986, while doing a night shift at the hospital, Sandra Clarke, a registered nurse, was asked by an elderly patient to stay. She promised to be back after checking on her other patients, but by the time she returned, the gentleman had passed away. Clarke became one of the key figures in launching No One Dies Alone, a program that allows volunteers to sit with terminal patients who have no one else.

The Littlest Skyscraper: How J.D. McMahon’s 480-Inch Con Fooled Investors in 1919
In 1919, J.D. McMahon convinced investors to fund a 480-foot skyscraper, but he labeled the plans as 480 inches, building a 40-foot structure instead. After taking $200,000, he won in court since the plans matched what he built.

The history of Flour sack clothing fashion
After Kansas mill owners found women reused flour sack materials into apparel in the 1920s and 1930s, they started applying patterned designs to give families with more fashionable patterns and material.

During the 1996 Olympic bombing, Richard Jewell falsely accused of committing the crime after saving dozens of people
Richard Jewell, an American security guard, discovered a bomb during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and assisted in the evacuation, but was later wrongfully accused and faced public scrutiny. He was cleared, but it had a lasting impact on him until his death in 2007 at the age of 44.

Man's Blood Helped Save Millions of Babies
Australian blood donor James Harrison has been one of our most impressive and valued donors, having donated for 60 years. Know his story, how he was a pioneer of our Anti-D program, and why this matters.

The true story Of The Radium Girls that change US labor laws
Hundreds of young women worked in clock factories during World War I, painting watch dials with luminous radium paint. The company lied about the risk of radiation, claiming there was no danger, which resulted in the death of the young women.

Max Headroom Incident: America’s Creepiest TV Hack
In 1987 a man hijacked a television station during an episode of Dr. Who and wore a Max Headroom mask and uttered nonsense, and he still hasn’t been caught