In a village in southern Afghanistan, a group of men crowded around a computer screen, watching a little boy trapped deep underground. Five-year-old Zainullah was sitting in a dark, damp space at the bottom of an abandoned well. Water had collected around his feet, and he had been down there for two days. The opening … Read more
Jonah Johnson was flying a plane full of skydivers over Wisconsin when he noticed another aircraft disappear behind a line of trees. Everyone watched, expecting the little white plane to climb back into view. It never did. Johnson circled around and spotted a crashed aircraft in a cornfield below. There were four people aboard, and … Read more
Benita Karo was filming the waves along a beach in Oceanside, California, when she noticed a surfer walking out of the water with his board. A huge wave was building behind him, and he had no idea it was coming. She watched it hit him and throw him straight into the rocks. The impact was … Read more
By the time Ben Busboom-Miller reached the car, most of it was already underwater. He could still make out part of the roof, but somewhere inside was a 90-year-old woman who couldn’t get out. Someone helping from shore suggested grabbing a rock. Ben found one and started pounding on a window, trying to break through … Read more
In the summer of 1940, hundreds of Jewish refugees gathered outside the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania. Many had already escaped Nazi-occupied Poland, but the war was spreading, and they were running out of places to go. Inside the consulate was a Japanese diplomat named Chiune Sugihara. The people waiting outside needed his help to … Read more
During World War II, Irena Sendler was working as a social worker in Warsaw, Poland, when Nazi Germany forced the city’s Jewish population into a sealed ghetto. Her job gave her access to places most people couldn’t enter. She used that opportunity to bring food, money and medical supplies to Jewish families struggling to survive … Read more
By 1943, Gino Bartali was one of Italy’s most famous cyclists. He had won the Tour de France in 1938 and twice claimed victory in the Giro d’Italia, earning a reputation for his extraordinary endurance on mountain roads. When German forces occupied much of Italy during World War II, Bartali found a very different use … Read more
On May 26, 2018, Mamoudou Gassama was walking through Paris when he heard people shouting. He looked up and saw a four-year-old boy hanging outside a fourth-floor balcony. A neighbor on the adjoining balcony had grabbed the child, but the wall between the apartments prevented him from lifting the boy to safety. Gassama, a 23-year-old … Read more
James Shaw Jr. had gone out for a late-night meal with a friend. A few hours later, he would be credited with saving lives, and before the day was over, he would be raising money for families he had never met. It was April 22, 2018, shortly after 3 a.m., in Antioch, Tennessee. James and … Read more