Have you ever done something extraordinary and thought to yourself, "I bet I'm the only person in the world who's ever done that?" It's impossible to know how true this is for any given task, but it's also a perfectly reasonable thought. After all, someone always has to be the first, and sometimes the only, person to do literally everything that can or will ever be done. As it happens, sometimes these historic feats are a little more memorable than others. Like these 10 accomplishments that have never been repeated. At least not yet...
10. Andre Geim received the Nobel and Ig Nobel Prizes.
In the world of Alfred Nobel Nobel Prize was established in honor of "those who during the previous year have brought the greatest benefit to humanity." They are awarded in a number of scientific fields, as well as in the humanities.
Ig Nobel Prizes, on the other hand, are designed to reward achievements in something bizarre or trivial that nonetheless requires extensive research and hard work. The two awards rarely intersect in real life, but they once did in the form of Andre Geim, the only person to receive one of them .
In 2010, Geim received the Nobel Prize in Physics for "« innovative »"working with graphene. His work involved isolating individual layers of graphite, which could in the future find applications in how we build nearly infinite things, given graphene's strength.
Ten years earlier, Geim also received an Ig Nobel Prize for frog levitation . Of course, his work wasn't just about flying frogs, and it focused primarily on something called diamagnetism. Magnetic fields can hold diamagnetic materials while repelling them if they're strong enough. Since water is diamagnetic, if you place a frog in water and hit it with a magnetic field, the frog will float. And that's how you win an Ig Nobel Prize.
9. Roger Sherman signed four major founding documents of the United States
When people refer to America's Founding Fathers, they usually mean men like Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. However, they should probably be talking about Roger Sherman, as he was the most fundamental of the Founding Fathers. That is, he was the only one to sign the four most important documents associated with the country's founding.
While some may have signed the Declaration of Independence or even the Constitution, Sherman signed both of them, together with the Articles of Confederation and Continental Association, also known as the Charters.
A real man in town, Sherman became a lawyer , When another lawyer told him he should just start practicing law, then becoming a judge, then a Supreme Court justice in Connecticut, and politics followed suit. He is said to have been admired by many of the other Founding Fathers, and his life was deeply dedicated to and shaped the nation.
8. John Paul Scott is the only confirmed escapee from Alcatraz.
Alcatraz will go down in history as one of the most infamous prisons. It housed some of the country's most notorious criminals, but it was even more famous for its inescapability. People tried, of course, and some were never seen again. But only one man ever climbed off the Rock and lived to tell the tale.
Several attempts were close, such as when John Giles He used a stolen uniform to board a boat. Unfortunately, instead of San Francisco, he ended up on Angel Island. The famous story "Escape from Alcatraz" recounts the Anglin brothers and Frank Morris's attempt to escape the island, but they are presumed drowned.
The only person officially recognized as having set foot in San Francisco after escaping from Alcatraz is John Paul Scott, who managed to escape in 1962. He came ashore near the Golden Gate Bridge, exhausted and nearly dead, where he was immediately captured and returned to prison. No one said he escaped for long, but he did.
7. Katie Sullivan traveled to the deepest point in the sea and into space
They say life has its ups and downs, but only Kathy Sullivan can claim to have learned this truth like no one else in history. Kathy has been higher and lower than anyone else, having been both in space as an astronaut and in the depths of the Challenger Deep, the deepest part of the ocean.
In fact, Sullivan was the first woman in history to walk in space, and that was still in 1984 . As of 2021, 72 women have traveled to space. However, in 2020, Sullivan upped the ante on exploring the outer limits when she traveled seven miles below the sea surface in Challenger Deep . She was also the first woman to complete this task.
As for why Sullivan pushes the boundaries of research, it's a matter of understanding. Sullivan said she wants to "understand the world around us as best I can.".
6. Harold Russell won two Oscars for the same role.
Few people know the work of Harold Russell these days. The actor and World War II veteran died in 2002, with only five acting credits to his credit. Remarkably, one of them was a role in the film "« The best years of our lives"» in 1946, for which Russell won not one, but two Oscars, making him the only actor to accomplish this feat.
Obviously, many other actors have won multiple acting awards in the past. Some people have won multiple awards for the same film if they also wrote or directed the film they starred in. But none of that was the case with Russell. He won two acting awards for the same role in the same film.
The first award was for Best Supporting Actor, an award that is still familiar to audiences. But with the second award, things got a little unusual. He was awarded this honorary awards for "providing assistance and comfort to disabled veterans through cinema.".
5. Peter Siebold is the only person in history to survive a spacecraft crash.
Anyone who survives a deadly disaster is lucky, most people would agree. Whether it's a tornado, a sinking ship, a fire, or something equally harrowing, escaping your life can feel like a miracle. Peter Siebold knows this better than most. He's the only person in the world who fell from space and lived to tell about it.
Siebold was a test pilot for the Virgin Galactic spacecraft that crashed catastrophically at an altitude of about 50,000 feet in the air. His seat ejected and fell approximately 30,000 feet at nearly 200 kilometers per hour before his parachute opened, giving him another 20,000 feet before he hit the ground and lived to tell the tale.
Unfortunately, Siebold's co-pilot did not survive the incident, and Siebold himself actually lost consciousness during the fall, but he had enough time to recover and even give people a thumbs-up that he was okay.
4. Marie Curie is the only person to have received the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields.
We've already seen Andre Geim's impressive achievements in both the Nobel and Ig Nobel Prizes, but he didn't say anything about Marie Curie, who remains the only person to have won a Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields.
Her first prize was received in 1903 , when both Curie and her husband were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for her work with radiation. This is perhaps what she is best known for, and it is why the curie is a unit of measurement for radiation intensity. But this was not the only focus of her scientific career.
In 1911, Curie was awarded a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry , for the discovery of the elements radium and polonium.
3. Arrichion won Olympic gold after his death
As unlikely as it may sound, a number of politicians They won elections despite their death. So it's rare, but not entirely unique. However, there are a few other rare achievements by the dead, and perhaps one of the most remarkable was the ancient Greek athlete Arrhichion, who won an Olympic competition despite dying during the match.
Arrichion was a pankratiast, meaning he played pankration, a brutal old-school MMA combat sport that blended boxing and wrestling and was known to end in death. So how did this man win and also die?
As the story goes, Arrichion had won the previous two Olympic Games. In his third championship bout, his opponent choked him, slowly but surely killing him. To fight back, Arrichion broke a man's ankle , forcing him to abandon the capture. The maneuver tipped the battle in Arrichion's favor, but the damage had already been done. He passed away from the injuries he received, despite winning the match.
2. Adam Rainer was a dwarf and a giant
Medically, dwarfism Acromegaly, also known as acromegaly, is a condition that limits a person's height to approximately 4 feet 10 inches. It can be caused by several other conditions, but the main symptom most of us associate with it is short stature. gigantism , in many ways, would be the opposite condition. Those affected can grow to extraordinary heights, even approaching eight feet. However, it tends to manifest later in life, in adolescence and even early adulthood.
Since dwarfism and gigantism are distinct conditions, you might wonder if it's possible for a person to suffer from both, and how that could even work. Well, yes. Adam Rainer had both, and it all happened in a very unusual way, likely quite painful for the young man.
Rainier was 4 feet 8 inches tall at age 19 . Despite his short stature, he was said to have unusually large hands and feet. For example, he wore size 10 shoes. Three years later, he was a size 20.
By age 21, Rainier's growth had become noticeable. Ten years later, he would reach 7 feet 1 inch. A tumor on his pituitary gland caused acromegaly, resulting in accelerated growth, as well as a curved spine, large lips, hands, feet, and forehead. He is said to have been around 7 feet 8 inches tall when he died at age 51.
It's worth noting that most stories about Rainier include photographs that are not of Rainier at all. The most frequently included images depict a man named Baptiste Hugo , who was also a giant, but was never a dwarf.
1. Gerald Ford was never elected Vice President or President.
When it comes to "official" rankings of US presidents, Gerald Ford doesn't stand out. He's not the best, and he's not the worst. In one poll, he took 28th place , which is about in the middle of the pack, as far as that's possible. But at the very least, Gerald Ford deserves recognition for his astonishing and unrivaled achievements in American politics. He is the only person ever to achieve the position vice president and then president, because he was never elected to any office by anyone.
Ford was the House Minority Leader in 1973, at the height of the Watergate scandal, when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned after being charged with tax evasion and bribery. President Nixon then nominated Ford for vice president.
Less than a year later, Nixon himself was resigning, meaning Ford had just been promoted. He served with 1974 to 1976 and is mostly known for pardoning Nixon for his crimes and doing nothing else.