Italian banker catches 3-year-old girl falling from a fifth-floor balcony

Leaning Italian tower could fall after nine centuries

Italian officials have secured the area around one of two 12th Century towers in Bologna, fearing its leaning could lead to collapse. Could it fall? Read up on the city's efforts to secure it here.

Tombaroli steal precious items from ancient people's tombs in central Italy

The tombaroli, or tomb-robbers, raid ancient Etruscan tombs in the dark hours of the night to recover vases, statuettes, mirrors, ornaments, jewellery, and other objects in gold, bronze, and terracotta. Read a firsthand account of a tombarolo who made a living handing stolen items to middlemen who sold them to wealthy buyers abroad. The lives and practices of tombaroli are also explored in the 2023 film "La Chimera."

How a rural Indiana tragedy became true crime

In February 2017, two teens were dropped off at a local hangout spot near the northern edge of Delphi, Indiana, a city of less than 3,000 people. One of the girls was filming and briefly caught footage of a man coming toward them before they were apparently cornered and "marched to their deaths." The suspect remains unknown despite audio and grainy video evidence, giving rise to rumor and speculation.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon.

The "Balloon Boy" event received coverage from news outlets, and a search began after his parents claimed he was trapped inside his balloon. Later that day, the boy emerged from his attic where he had been hiding the whole time. His parents were later accused of orchestrating a hoax.

The strange, unsolved story of Filippo Bernardini and the stolen book manuscripts

Over the last five years, a mysterious figure has been stealing manuscripts, often unpublished, from individuals and organizations in the publishing industry across three continents. The scammer, later identified as Filippo Bernardini, was an...

One Falls daredevil once made breakfast while tightrope walking over the gorge

In 1859, tightrope walker Jean François “The Great Blondin” stunned crowds by cooking and serving an omelet mid-walk across the Niagara Gorge.

Teen climber survives a 500-foot fall on Mount Hood

The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office said rescue teams are working to reach the teen, who sustained a leg injury in the fall. He is at an elevation of about 10,500 feet.

Six stories of survivors who fell from the sky

Rarely are there survivors when airplanes explode in air or crash due to the extreme speeds and elevation of the craft. Sometimes, though, people survive. Here are six stories of people who defied the odds and lived after falling from a plane.

Cleaning a glass bridge 4,000 feet in the air

Dangling 4,000 feet above the Grand Canyon, these cleaners risk it all to scrub a glass bridge. With a custom-built trolley and nerves of steel, they tackle one of the scariest jobs in America.

The tragic story of tennis upstart Monica Seles

At just 17, Monica Seles reached the top of the WTA, becoming the youngest player to do so at the time. She was expected to have a long career, but shortly after she turned 19, a deranged fan stabbed her in the back in the middle of a match. This Cult Tennis video explores the motivation of the fan who stabbed her, how he got away with it, and the impact on the rankings.

Hysterical strength allows someone to lift a car off their child

When the body responds to an acute crisis—say a family member trapped under a car—people can sometimes perform seemingly superhuman feats. This is more than an urban legend: In 2012, a 22 year-old-woman lifted a vehicle off her father, and seven years earlier another man lifted a vehicle off a trapped cyclist. Yet scientists are still unraveling details about why this can occur.

In 1957, the BBC conducted one of the first televised April fool pranks

The reputable broadcaster reported a story about a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a "spaghetti tree." Some viewers didn't appreciate the joke and felt angry about being misled.

Child mortality rates since ancient Rome

One of the great achievements of modern humanity has been the sea change in child mortality rates—the chance that a newborn eventually lives past puberty. For thousands of years, children had a 50% chance of not entering adulthood. About 300 years...

The story behind the little Scottish village in the Italian Alps

High in the Italian Alps is Gurro, a small village with a distinct Scottish flair that can be found in its food, clothing, language, and music. At first glance, it may seem like a curiosity, but, as one resident explains in this short video documentary, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for how an Italian town became known as a Scottish hamlet.

Teenager Lamine Yamal, Spain's star footballer, was scouted at six years old.

Buford the Pyrenees showered with gifts after rescuing 2-year-old boy lost in the desert

The young boy wandered away from his family home and ended up spending the night alone in the Arizona wilderness. A search party of more than 40 people and a helicopter participated in looking for the boy. A dog named Buford eventually found the child and led him back to a ranch, allowing him to soon be reunited with his family. Once the story broke, Buford started receiving an influx of toys and treats from strangers.

The girl who lived in a tree for years

Julia Butterfly Hill lived in a redwood tree outside Stafford, California, for two years to prevent a lumber company from cutting it down, subsisting on rainwater and other provisions hoisted up by other volunteers.

'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) has a controversial story behind it

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image taken by South African photojournalist Kevin Carter depicts a little girl suffering from starvation during a famine in Sudan in 1993. Carter faced criticism from the public for taking her picture instead of helping her. A few months later, Carter took his own life.

Angler catches nine-foot-long catfish

An Italian fishermen struggled for 43 minutes to reel in an over nine-foot catfish in the river Po, marking one of the largest such catches in history.

Toddler delivers tear-jerking speech at her mom and dad's wedding

Three-year-old Evie brought her father to tears while sharing loving words before her mother walked down the aisle.

An 87-year-old widower goes viral for hand-delivering party invitations door to door that read "4 pm until the cops arrive"

A man knocked on his neighbor's door to offer a paper invitation to a winter-themed party he was throwing. "My wife is gone now, so it gives me something to keep me busy," he later explained. "I'm going to get these people in one room, and maybe they'll get to know each other." The viral experience has since brought him fan mail and party treats.

See technicians use rappelling gear to make wind turbine repairs from 35+ stories up

Although drones are used to conduct initial reviews from the ground, mechanical engineers trained in turbine maintenance face extreme risks during close inspections more than 150 meters off the ground.

How to make an iconic Roman dish, with the help of a nonna

Searching for an eggplant parm recipe isn't hard, but finding one worth your time certainly is. Thankfully, this recipe puts you in the kitchen with an actual grandmother, who walks you through her signature dish in a short video explanation. Unlike other online recipes, there isn’t an onslaught of pop-up ads—you’ll just get what you need and the sweet instructions from a genuine nonna.

Photographer Mathieu Stern found a little girl's 120-year-old time capsule containing two glass plate negatives in his family home, and developed the photos, unveiling images of the child's pets.

Famous scammer Anna Delvey lied about having a $67M trust fund

Delvey conned New York City’s elite with her lies, saying that she was a German heiress and defrauding the city’s banks, restaurants, and more out of more than $275K in just 10 months. Her story was even turned into a Netflix series while she was in prison.

A Manhattan building doomed to collapse was saved in secret

After completing the Citicorp Center, its engineer realized that cost-cutting measures to use bolted instead of welded joints made the building vulnerable to collapse under quartering winds. For three months, crews worked in secret at night to reinforce the building under Project Serene.

A teenager survived being flung a world-record 1,307 feet by a tornado

On March 12, 2006, 19-year-old Matt Suter was lifted into a tornado while inside a mobile home in Fordland, Missouri. Despite traveling 1,307 feet, his only significant injury was a head wound caused by being hit by a lamp prior to being transported.

Colleagues carried a quadriplegic coworker down nearly 70 flights of stairs to safety on 9/11.

Good Samaritans help Florida driver experiencing medical emergency

When a driver experienced a medical episode and was drifting into an intersection, people around her sprang into action and saved everyone on the road from a potentially life-threatening crash.

The devil went down to Georgia

For years, a mysterious figure preyed on gay men in Atlanta. People on the streets called him the Handcuff Man, but the police knew his real name. It wasn't until a dogged local news reporter interviewed the underground community of male sex workers that local officials were prompted to intervene in the killer's reign of terror.

In 2013, a lone bandit stole $136M in jewels from a luxury hotel in just 30 seconds

The robbery took place in broad daylight. Without any armed security guards present, the thief quickly stuffed a duffel bag with 72 precious items. They remain at large. The heist drew particular attention for its location—the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes, which was prominently featured as a setting in Hitchcock's 1955 film "To Catch a Thief" about a reformed cat burglar.

Trudging through the dark web to expose child abuse

A computer expert who created a system to track down sources of revenge porn and an investigative journalist joined forces to investigate digital abuse. Their investigations focused on so-called clear nets, websites that make up the web most users surf. Then, they turned their investigation toward the dark web, where they found a child abuse website with more than 1 million registered users.

Watch a YouTuber solve a Rubik's Cube while in free fall

He broke a world record, completing the task in the sky in just 23.333 seconds.

A list of the world's best pizzerias

Italy may be pizza's ancestral home, but it's not the only place where you can get a top-notch slice. This guide, compiled by a team of anonymous judges, ranks the 50 best pizzerias in the world, Italy, the US, and more, offering a bucket list for pizza-loving completists.

Veteran pilot guides 21-year-old pilot through emergency landing

Soothing words from Chris Yates helped guide Taylor Hash, 21, through an emergency landing after he learned she shared the same first name as his daughter.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Six-year-old boy in wheelchair surprises his family by walking at his graduation

The young boy was diagnosed with Noonan syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that impacts mobility and development, at just 2 months old. He usually needs a wheelchair or walker to get around, but he shocked and thrilled his parents by standing up to receive his kindergarten diploma.

The Bank of America began as the Bank of Italy—one of the first US banks for the middle class—and loaned money to individuals to help rebuild after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Before Alex Honnold completed his free solo climb of Taipei 101, 'French Spider-Man' scaled the building

Alain Robert completed his climb of the massive skyscraper in 2004, 22 years before Honnold. The crucial difference, though, was that Robert used safety ropes for his ascent. Honnold, on the other hand, completed it "free solo," meaning he climbed the building without any equipment beyond some shoes and a pouch of chalk for his hands.

A nearby super volcano poses an even greater risk to Italy than Vesuvius

The Campi Flegrei supervolcano, with over half a million residents nearby, may be the region’s true threat. This BBC short shows how scientists monitor Campania’s volatile geology—and why people remain drawn to the landscape despite the danger.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic images.)

Welles Crowther, the "Man in the Red Bandana," saved up to 18 lives by repeatedly entering the south tower's burning sky lobby to guide survivors to safety before dying in its collapse.

The fabulous prison escapes of Japan's Yoshie Shiratori

Between 1936 and 1947, Japan's Harry Houdini escaped from prison four times, each more daring than the next. Even as the walls grew taller and the windows smaller, Siratori found ways to free himself from captivity.

Memes can turn regular people into unwitting celebrities

When Charles Ramsey heard loud banging from his neighbor's house, he peeked outside and saw a woman trying to escape. After helping the abducted woman get free, he gave an interview that became a viral autotuned meme. This podcast explores the unintended consequences of that relationship and its racial overtones.

A writer's reflection on 'The Falling Man' - the man who fell from the World Trade Center

In an excerpt from his ‘Press Box’ interview with Bryan Curtis, writer Tom Junod discusses his Esquire story about the image of a man who fell or jumped from the North Tower on Sept. 11, 2001.

One baker is likely responsible for several of New York's earliest pizzerias

Filippo Milone established at least six pizzerias in New York, including one that would later be called Lombardi's, widely considered to be the city's (and the country's) first pizza establishment. Milone died in 1924, leaving no children to tell his story. Researcher Peter Regas unearthed a 1903 advertisement, pictured below, from an Italian-language New York newspaper.

Eight British children have been born via mitochondrial replacement therapy

In July 2025, a decade after British lawmakers signed off on allowing three-parent IVF, scientists announced that eight healthy babies had already been born using this approach. The news was included in a pair of research articles published in a peer-reviewed journal that noted the oldest kids were already more than two years old, and that they were hitting developmental milestones as expected. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Learn more about Niagara’s death-defying daredevils

This podcast from the Niagara Falls Daredevil Museum explores 19th‑ and early 20th‑century Niagara daredevils—like tightrope walker Charles Blondin, barrel-stunter Annie Edson Taylor, and Sam Patch—detailing their feats, dangers, and public spectacle.

Illinois man finds 46-year-old Christmas present addressed to him while remodeling his parents' home

In 2025, a 53-year-old man found a gift addressed to him from around 1978 when he was about 6 years old. He located the gift, a box of Matchbox model airplanes, behind a wall, and opened it in front of his parents.

Pizza became more popular in Italy after it took off in the US

Pizza was invented in Naples, though it wasn't particularly popular outside the region. As it grew more popular elsewhere—and as more American and European tourists visiting Italy began asking for it—restaurants across Italy adopted the cuisine. It's something anthropologist Agehananda Bharati calls "the pizza effect."