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
Alastair Cass was having a miserable afternoon watching football. His beloved Arsenal were losing 3–0 to Brighton, and he’d finally had enough. The 40-year-old switched off the television and walked outside toward one of the barns on his property in Devon, England. As he crossed the yard, he heard a strange noise coming from somewhere … 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
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
Just after midnight in Shirley, Massachusetts, a freight-train engineer spotted something on the tracks ahead. A pit bull was desperately trying to pull an unconscious woman out of the approaching train’s path. The engineer hit the brakes, but there wasn’t enough time to stop. When he got out to see what had happened, he discovered … Read more
Bob only wanted one piece of firewood. It was New Year’s Eve 2016, and he was watching football at his home in northern Michigan when he decided to step outside during a commercial break. It was around 10:30 p.m. He was wearing a shirt, long johns and slippers because he expected to be back inside … Read more
On January 18, 2024, a Michigan police officer was trying to reach a man trapped in a frozen lake. He had a rope and rescue equipment, but there was one big problem. The equipment couldn’t reach the man, and the ice was too weak for the officer to get any closer. Standing near the hole … 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
On August 4, 1998, Jo Ann Altsman was alone in a vacation trailer near Lake Erie when she suffered a heart attack. Her husband, Jack, was out fishing, and there was nobody nearby to help her. She called out, hoping someone would hear. The family dog started barking, but nobody came. As the minutes passed, … 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
Debbie Parkhurst was taking a break from making jewelry at her Maryland home in March 2007 when a piece of apple suddenly became lodged in her throat. She couldn’t breathe. The 45-year-old tried performing the Heimlich maneuver on herself, but it didn’t work. She began striking her chest, desperately trying to clear the obstruction. Her … Read more
Jan Gilar stepped onto a patch of snow high in the Swiss Alps, and the ground suddenly disappeared beneath his feet. He fell through the ice into a deep crevasse. His shoulder was injured, freezing water was dripping around him, and he couldn’t climb back to the surface. Somewhere above him, his little Chihuahua, Filip, … Read more