In the late 1920s, Hungarian newspaper editor László Bíró (1899-1985) was frustrated about having to keep filling fountain pens. It took too much time. Together with his brother -who happened to be a chemist- he developed what is now known as a ballpoint pen.
A man, his son and a 525 meter high wave
On July 9, 1958, Howard Ulrich and his son were on a small boat in Lituya Bay, Alaska. Unlucky for them, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 caused a huge rockslide right there.
The Russian who saved the World
Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov (1926-1998) was a Soviet navy officer. It was October 1962. The Cuban Missile Crisis was likely to escalate into a full out nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Space Shuttle
In 1981, the US launched their first Space Shuttle. The fact that it was a partially reusable spacecraft, made it a very special achievement.