At 7:20 p.m. on Friday, January 12th, 2007, 19-year-old college freshman Wade Steffey walked into Ford Dining Hall, one of five dining halls on Purdue University’s campus. Purdue, a prestigious university in Indiana, is well known for its excellence in…
Something most people don’t know is that you can’t just strap on scuba tanks, dive down to any depth, and then shoot straight back up. That would be a fatal mistake. The air in scuba tanks is compressed and typically…
In the spring of 2017, 21-year-old Antonio Navaret was on top of the world. A Florida native living in the quiet rural suburb of Wimauma, just south of Tampa, Antonio had recently found the love of his life, a young…
In the early 1980s, John Harter was the classic athletic, popular kid at his high school in Delaware, Ohio—a relatively small town just outside the state capital. But unlike the typical stereotype of high school jocks as arrogant bullies, John…
Sevnica is a gorgeous town in the heart of Slovenia, nestled right along the Sava River—one of the longest rivers in Europe. The section of the Sava that flows past Sevnica was once a beloved destination for kayakers and canoers.…
One chilly February evening in 2011, Yang—a man in his 30s—sat down for dinner in his modest home in a remote rural village in China. At the table were his five elderly aunts, with whom he lived and cared for.…
At 5:15 p.m. on June 28, 1980, a 38-year-old man named Robert Davidson rode his motorcycle along Interstate 74 in Acton, Indiana—a small community just outside Indianapolis. Sitting on the back of the motorcycle with her arms wrapped around him…
In the chilly, late winter of 1973, a seemingly ordinary evening in a small New England town turned into a turning point for horror literature. It was a night when hope, determination, and a little bit of serendipity combined to…
In the glitz and glamour of the late 1980s Hollywood scene, sometimes the most extraordinary stories begin in the most unexpected ways. This is the tale of Norman Reus—a scruffy, unassuming young man whose life took an astonishing turn during…
It was a steamy late night in the summer of 1974 when Fred Smith found himself at a crossroads. Standing inside a bustling Las Vegas casino, a 30-year-old entrepreneur felt the weight of his future in the palm of his…