June 4, 1986 – NCAA Track and Field Championship – Indianapolis, Indiana: Kathy Ormsby, from North Carolina State, the heavy favorite to win the 10,000-meter race, was in 4th place with a third of the race remaining. Suddenly, she moved to the outside of the track,...
November 1978 – Wilmington, North Carolina: The basketball player universally acknowledged as the greatest of all time (GOAT) almost quit the game as a skinny 15-year-old. He thought about it; he talked to his father about it, but he didn’t. He stuck it out. He had...
Winter 1915 – Antarctica: Captain Ernest Shackleton made the gut-wrenching decision. They would eat their 70 sled dogs. With their food stores almost gone, the 28-man crew had been expecting the decision. Some were disgusted by the idea – many of the dogs had become...
October 29, 1941 – Harrow School – London, England: When Sir Winston Churchill, the great British prime minister, was in his late sixties, he was invited to address the students at the Harrow School. More than 50 years earlier, he had finally graduated from this...
1937 – Los Angeles, California: After his business went bankrupt and two marriages failed, Lionel Mayell swallowed his pride and moved back home with his mother. When he was a boy, she had often referred to him as “the little runt.” Disappointed in his looks and tiny...
February 26, 1791 – London, England: Methodist theologian John Wesley penned a letter to his good friend in the faith, William Wilberforce. In failing health at age 88, it was the last letter Wesley ever wrote. As a longtime outspoken opponent of the British slave...
