Hugh Thompson, an American Huey pilot, stopped the My Lai massacre and risked his own life to save Vietnamese villagers. Landing his Huey between fleeing villagers and approaching U.S. soldiers, he ordered his door gunners to open fire if the troops tried to stop him or opened fire on them. He was labeled a traitor by Congress and ordered not to speak about the event.

A Jack Russell used to catch the bus to his favourite pub in York, UK all by himself. Jumping on the No.10 near his house, he would visit The Black Bull where he had his own water dish and a regular supply of sausages, before getting a lift home at closing time with one of the barmaids.

Michael Jordan was fined $5000 for every game that he wore Air Jordans (as shoes violated NBA league policy). He made an estimated $90 million in 2013, more than any other active or retired athlete, largely from Nike royalties.

Tim Duncan grew up in the US Virgin Islands where he was gearing up for the 1992 Olympics as a competitive swimmer until Hurricane Hugo destroyed the island’s only Olympic-sized pool. The only alternative was to swim in the ocean, and Duncan was afraid of sharks, so he turned to basketball.

Cristiano Ronaldo funded the education of a 7 y.o. survivor of the horrific 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. The boy was found 21 days after the disaster, alone and wearing a Portuguese national football team jersey. The boy grew up to be a football player and was signed by Sporting Lisbon last year

Baseball managers sometimes yell nonsense at umpires (e.g. “I had bad wine at an Italian restaurant”) in order to invigorate their teams while preventing themselves from being ejected

A cat named Masha saved a baby’s life. The long-haired red tabby found an abandoned baby in a box in the snow and climbed in to keep the baby warm and meowed to get the attention of a passerby. The abandoned baby was rescued unharmed.

MIT students found out that by buying $600,000 worth of lottery tickets from Massachusetts’ Cash WinAll lottery they could get a 10-15% return on investment. In 5 years they managed to game $8 million out of the lottery through this method.

Steven Russell escaped from prison by using laxatives to fake the symptoms of AIDS. He then called the prison, posing as a doctor, asking for prisoners interested in an experimental treatment, and volunteered. Once out of Texas, he sent death certificates to the prison stating he had died

In 2010 a UK man had chronic hiccups for 2 1/2 years, and was told by doctors it was probably heartburn. A Japanese variety show picked up the story, and in the course of filming, discovered a brain tumor. The tumor was removed, his hiccups went away, and this possibly saved his life

In 2013 The Wall Street Journal discovered a cache of files that revealed the U.S. government lobotomized over 2000 veterans against their will after WW2. The veterans were lobotomized for reasons such as PTSD, depression, schizophrenia, and occasionally homosexuality.

On August 14 1945, more than 1,000 Japanese officers raided the Imperial palace to destroy the recording of the Emperor’s speech of surrender. Confused by the layout of the palace, the rebels never found the recording. It was later smuggled outside in basket of women’s underwear for broadcast