Amazing Facts

The record for most passengers on an airplane was set in 1991 when 1086 Ethiopian Jews were evacuated on a Boeing 747 to Jerusalem. The plane landed with 1088 passengers as two babies were born during the flight.

An Australian man was declared dead for 14 minutes and lived unscathed. To celebrate, he bought a scratch card and won a car worth $27,000. For a news report, he was asked to re-enact winning the scratch card, so he bought another card and won a $250,000 jackpot.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes, after having a heart attack and bypass operation, ran 7 marathons on 7 consecutive days in 7 continents. He has also hacked off his own frostbitten fingers with a power tool, discovered the lost city of Ubar, and, in his sixties, reached the peak of Mt. Everest.

In 2011, a penguin covered in oil and starving on a beach near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, was rescued by a pensioner. Ever since then, Dindim the penguin travels 5,000 miles every year to visit him.

There was a man named Li Ching-Yuen, a Chinese herbalist and martial artist, who allegedly lived 197 - 256 years. There's even an official document from the Chinese government congratulating him on his 150th birthday in 1827.

At 17 years old, an Indian man named Jadav Payeng started planting trees on a barren sandbar. At age 47, he lives in his own 1360 acre forest which now houses rhinos, tigers, deer, apes and elephants.

In 1975, officials in the Chinese city of Haicheng were so alarmed by odd and anxious behavior of dogs and other animals, they ordered the evacuation of 90,000 residents from the city. Only a few hours later, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake destroyed nearly 90 percent of the city’s buildings.