1Joseph Baermann Strauss
When building the Golden Gate Bridge, the lead structural engineer insisted on the installation of a safety net even though its $130,000 cost was deemed exorbitant. Over the four years of its construction, the net saved 19 men, who named themselves the “Halfway to Hell Club.”
2. In 2003, two men strolled on to a Boeing 727 and just flew off. They and the plane haven't been seen since.
3. While John and Clarence Anglin, 2 of the 3 men who ever escaped from Alcatraz, were officially reported to have drowned in the bay, their mother received flowers anonymously every Mother's Day until she died, and two very tall unknown women were reported to have attended her funeral.
4. In 1949, BB King re-entered a burning music hall to save his favorite $30 Gibson guitar. King later learned the fire was started when two men knocked over a burning barrel of kerosene while fighting over a woman named Lucille. King has named every guitar he's owned Lucille as a reminder.
5. Lionel Richie grew up in racially segregated Alabama and once unwittingly drank from a whites only fountain. White men confronted his father, who grabbed Richie and ran off. Richie asked his father why he didn’t stay and fight. His dad answered, “I had a choice: to be a man or be a father.”
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15 Most Controversial & Costly Blunders in History
6Holly Van Voast
A woman (Holly Van Voast) won $40,000 as a settlement from NYC due to police repeatedly arresting her for going topless in public. However, it's perfectly legal for men and women to be topless in NYC
7. In South Korea, men who win Olympic medals do not have to participate in the two-year long mandatory military service.
8. In 2011, two Nepali men (Babu Sunuwar and Lakpa Tsering Sherpa) climbed Mount Everest and then proceeded to paraglide off of the summit, landing 35 km away. They then hiked and kayaked to the Bay of Bengal, winning the pair National Geographic Adventurers of the Year.
9. When scientists first realized that American gay men and Africans in France were both suffering from the same disease (AIDS), French researchers sent over a sample to be tested. But a scientist with a grudge against the French Institute switched out the sample, setting research back years.
10. More than 10 years, 2 disabled men in China, one without arms and the other without sight, have been planting trees together and have so far planted more than 10,000.
