1Emma Bazzard
A 3-year-old girl named Emma Bazzard from Bristol was awarded for bravery after successfully calling and informing emergency services that her pregnant mother had an accident and was unconscious. Remaining calm through the whole affair she gave them the address, checked if she was breathing and where she got hurt.
2. In 1998, an 8-year-old boy named Robbie Middleton was tied to a tree and set on fire. Thanks to a deposition he gave on his deathbed, his family was awarded $150 billion in damages.
3. After Speedo released the LZR Racer in 2008, 93 world records have been broken by swimmers wearing an LZR Racer and 33 of the first 36 2008 Olympic medals have been won wearing it as of 24 August 2009. Its “technological” advantage led it to be banned from further high-end competitive use.
4. The term "Regulatory Capture" was a form of government failure in which a regulatory agency, created to serve the public interest, instead advances the interests of the industry it is meant to regulate, resulting in a net loss for society.
5. Haru Urara is a Japanese racehorse who became a famous role model because she never gave up, despite losing over 100 races in a row. For her 106th race, Japan’s premier jockey was brought in to ride her and try to deliver that long sought-after victory. She came 10th out of 11.
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Scaly-Foot Gastropod
The deep-sea snail known as the Scaly-Foot Gastropod, which was only recently discovered in 2001, has a shell so well constructed that the U.S. military is researching its design, hoping to incorporate its defensive layers to improve military armor.
7. A 'mirror box' can be used to alleviate phantom limb pain. The patient places both their good limb and residual limb into the box and the mirror shows the reflection of the good limb. This allows them to 'move' the phantom limb from painful positions.
8. Human babies are helpless because we walk upright. Walking upright requires a narrow pelvis, in which our large head/brain would get stuck during birth, so babies are born with a smaller head/brain that develops more after birth, compared to other mammals.
9. The Johnston Turkey is a Turkey located in Rhode Island who has evaded capture for months, terrorized and disrupted locals, and even got votes in the local mayoral election.
10. Before the Mayflower, Squanto was kidnapped, sold into slavery in Spain, and escaped back to North America, only to find his entire tribe wiped out from a disease. The site he later helped the Pilgrims settle at was the summer village of his tribe, Plymouth Rock.
11Hermann Göring
When it was revealed to German military leader Hermann Göring that his prized Vermeer painting was a forgery, it was said "[Göring] looked as if for the first time he had discovered there was evil in the world."
12. The East India Company controlled its own army, which by 1800 comprised some 200,000 soldiers, more than twice the membership of the British Army at that time. The army was used to carry out officially sanctioned looting within the Indian States, along with forced over-taxation.
13. The first Rain Checks were given to baseball fans in the 1870s as they left games that had been stopped due to rain. They were slips that allowed the fans to come back and see another game for free.
14. Approximately 1.6 million people of Japanese descent live in Brazil, making it the largest Japanese population outside of Japan.
15. All 66 characters with speaking roles in the 1984 cartoon series ThunderCats were voiced by only 8 actors, with each actor voicing an average of 8.25 characters.
16Afeni Shakur
In 1971, Afeni Shakur was a pregnant member of the Black Panther Party who was accused with 20 others of conspiracy to carry out a bombing in New York. Facing a 300-year sentence, she decided to represent herself in court and after a lengthy trial was acquitted. A month later her son Tupac Shakur was born.
17. Steven Spielberg wanted to make the (1999) Medal of Honor game to teach kids about World War 2, who couldn't see Saving Private Ryan because of its R-rating.
18. The notoriously austere and disciplined Spartan King Agesilaus was once caught by a friend riding a stick horse while playing with his kids. The King begged his friend not to tell anyone, saying he'd understand once he had kids of his own.
19. Eduard Bloch, Hitler’s childhood doctor was a Jew. When Hitler’s mother couldn't afford cancer treatment, Bloch reduced his prices. Teenage Adolf declared undying gratitude, and when Austria was annexed, Hitler kept his word and granted the doctor special protection by the Gestapo.
20. Utsuro-Bune was a Japanese legend about an unknown object washing ashore in Hitachi in 1803. Inside there was a young woman who spoke an unknown language and who was carrying a small box which she didn't let anyone touch.
21Wildlife tunnels
Bridges and tunnels for animals reduced wildlife-related car crashes by 90% in Colorado.
22. In 1962, a Cuban boxer named Benny Paret made fun of his opponent named Emile Griffith, for being homosexual. Paret died 10 days after the fight from a 29-punch combo by Griffith.
23. While Stan Lee was in the army, he never missed a deadline for Timely Comics (Marvel in the 40s). When he discovered that mail was being withheld from him, he broke into the mailroom, unhinged the mailbox with the screwdriver, and submitted the assignment, which he was nearly jailed for.
24. When South African comedian Trevor Noah was growing up in Apartheid, his parents had to always walk on separate sides of the street, and whenever either parent was confronted about him, they had to deny that he was their child.
25. Telling the truth when tempted to lie can significantly improve a person’s mental and physical health. Researchers found that participants could purposefully and dramatically reduce their everyday lies and that in turn was associated with significantly improved health.
