“Only 12 People Have Walked On The Moon. What’s Something That Less People Have Done?” (30 Stories)
Humans are capable of incredible things. If we put our bodies and minds to the test, we can not only surpass our own expectations but also push what we consider to be the limit of our species. Just tune in to the Olympic Games this summer and count the times you will hear the phrase "It's never been done before!" Wishing to explore this topic further, Reddit user Anonburrsir asked everyone on the platform to list the feats that fewer people have done than walk on the moon (which twelve can brag about). Here are the most interesting answers from the 4.3K comments their post has received.
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Fixed the leak at Chernobyl, saved the water table for Western Europe. Three guys wearing taped up garbage bags.
Sir David Attenborough is the only person to win a BAFTA for a programme in black and white, colour, HD, 3D and 4K.
Use their turn signal when pulling out of a BMW dealership.
Violet Jessup. Survived all three White Star ocean liner sinkings. The Titanic, the Olympic, and the Britannic.
If I’m allowed to toot my own horn, I’m the only person to ever accurately forecast a tornado in Afghanistan. I had to fight tooth and nail to get that forecast approved, and by golly, it was by far the noodliest looking tornado ever. Someone down range thankfully got a picture for me.
Stood trial as an ex President of the US.
Regardless of whether you vote red or blue or whether you believe it's a "witch hunt" or not this is still true.
Perfect autobiographical memory is a medical condition known as *hyperthymesia*. A person who has hyperthymesia could tell you from the top of their head what day of the week any date they lived through was, and what they ate that day, and what they did on that particular day. If they saw the news that day they could tell you the day's headlines. It's an exhausting condition to have.
It's extremely rare and diagnosis is usually disputed. Only 10 case studies of hyperthymesia have passed peer review and been recorded in the medical literature.
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*edit*
Since people have taken an interest and some are understandably skeptical, a few reference links.
* A man who's been diagnosed with hyperthymesia, with MRI brain scan analysis to try to identify the causes of his unusual memory. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3432421
* A different medical case study of hyperthymesia. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13554790500473680
* Profile of actress Marilu Henner and her hyperthymesia. Henner costarred with Danny DeVito, Andy Kaufman, and Tony Danza on the TV show *Taxi*. https://www.brainandlife.org/articles/actress-marilu-henner-has-a-highly-superior-autobiographical-memory-a/
* In book form, *The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science--A Memoir* by Jill Price.
There were a set of Southern twins back in the 80s too, they both had it. They could tell you what they wore on any given day and what they had for dinner, 30 years earlier.
Anyone who knows me, knows I'm the person to tell their secrets to because I'll forget the entire conversation within 15 minutes.
The researchers have identified 100 people with this condition. Although the article doesn't mention how many have gone through peer review. I read another article about Marilu Henner, an actress (she was on the sitcom "Taxi" with Danny DeVito, Tony Danza, Andi Kaufman (SNL alum), Judd Hirsch, Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Conaway, Rhea Perlman [who is married to DeVito], Carol Kane & so many other now well known names.) It's actually a fascinating read. Thanks for sharing this.
Marilu Henner is the most famous of these. I saw an interview with her about this and it's incredible. Too bad you can't make a living from this ability. Seems a shame to be so unique and not be able to turn it into an income.
I do believe she was the expert consultant for Unforgettable (?) the TV show.
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There is a musician in Minnesota who can keep at least 3 full symphonies in his head at one time. He was tested by starting the 1st symphony in his head and on CD, 5 minutes later started another, different symphony - then a 3rd. He would be listening in his head and was exactly on beat with the recording. This was a RadioLab.com program if you want to hear the complete story
This may be crazy but do you think it is now possible to remember life in the womb or does this only develop after birth?
I don’t know if you could remember it consciously, but babies do remember sounds, colours and scents from their time in the womb. They know the sound of their mother‘s voice and other close people, and they even remember music they heard while being in the womb :)
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This formed the plot of an episode of the tv show Flashpoint. A guy with this condition was kidnapped and forced to memorize the specs for a super-weapon in a secure facility because the bad guys found it easier to get him in there than to bring in a camera or other device.
Both counsels, the judge, and jury would be totally mind-blown.
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So it's "Been diagnosed with hyperthymesia" not "had hyperthymesia"
Marilu Henner? Wow, I didn’t know that! She played Aurora Teagarden’s mom in the movies!
The author Denton Welch had an ability like this. He could recall word by word every conversation he ever had. I also read about an engineer who had an eidetic memory and could recall every page of books that he had read.
I couldn't even give you this info from a few days ago, let alone YEARS ago!
Thumbs up for the Skepticism appreciation! I forget for sure but think I had this once - that's why I drink so much!
Perished in a carbon fiber submarine with a video game controller as the method of controlling the submarine.
Having been born in Antarctica .
No offense, because often enough the baby's gonna come when its gonna come, but who in their right mind travels to ANTARCTICA all kinds of pregnant?!
Been hit by a meteorite. Just one - Ann Hodges.
It came through her roof as she was sleeping, bounced off her radio shattering it and fell on her belly, waking her up
Walked between the World Trade Center towers on a tightrope. Only one person ever did that.
Joan Murray, in 1990, jumped from an altitude of 4400 km, both of her parachutes did not open. She fell on a nest of fire ants. Murray broke many bones, knocked out almost all her teeth, but remained conscious due to the fact that she received hundreds of poisonous ant bites, this contributed to a large release of adrenaline, as a result of which doctors managed to resuscitate her, after several years of treatment and physical recovery, Joan returned to normal life and continued skydiving.
Oh come on, scrape Reddit and paste, BP. Low earth orbit is only between 160 and 2.000 kilometers. So Ms. Murray didn't fall 4400 kilometers(!) but 4400 meters, 14,500 feet.
Alex Honnold is the only person who has ever free soloed (climbing without ropes or gear) El Capitan.
I doubt anyone else will ever even attempt to do this. Not only is it extremely difficult and dangerous, but there's not a lot of glory in being the second person to do it.
Ran 100 meters in under 9.70 seconds (only 3 people have done this). Similarly run 100 meters in under 10.70 seconds for woman (only 7 woman have done this).
Shout out to:
- Usain Bolt
- Tyson Gay
- Yohan Blake
- Florence Griffith-Joyner
- Elaine Thompson-Herah
- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
- Carmelita Jeter
- Marion Jones
- Shericka Jackson
- Sha’Carri Richardson.
Played Tetris for the NES all the way to the end screen.
Fewer than 12 people have willingly slept with Harvey Weinstein.
Solved a Millennium Prize Problem. Only one person, Grigori Perelman, and he turned down the money.
As far as I'm aware I am the only recorded case of a of a rare type of tumor growing in my nasal cavity. The tumor normally grows on nerves in the neck and spine. Till they did a post removal biopsy did they realize it wasn't a more common type of blood clot. My initials and case number are in ENT medical text books.
Survived rabies. (I think).
Edit: clarifying that I was not referring to myself but just answering the original question of something I thought that less than 12 people had achieved. I was pretty sure less than 12 people have survived contracting rabies because, barring the one exception I could think of, it has 100% fatality rate.
From the web "As of January 2023, there have been 30 well-documented rabies survivors”, most of them from India.
More people have walked on the moon than winning on Takeshi’s Castle.
Only three people have died *in space* as a consequence of decompression.
That is actually less than on Earth. In 1983 on the oil rig Byford Dolphin, four divers were killed by explosive decompression when their decompression chamber was mistakenly opened and instantaneously depressurised from 9 atmospheres (130 psi). Dozens of divers around the world die evry year from decompression sickness.
Hit two grand slams in one inning of an MLB game. Fernando Tatis is the only one.
Thats a lucky feat only accomplished because other players also got on base before him...four players two times in a row...baseball is awesome
Underwater backflip while sword swallowing. So far I think only one person holds that record.
In honor of today being the Kentucky Derby – only 11 people have trained a Triple Crown-winning horse. There have been 13 winning horses, but two trainers trained two winners.
Survive a fall greater than 29000 feet without a parachute.
Sauce: Vesna Vulović (Serbian Cyrillic: Весна Вуловић, pronounced [ʋêsna ʋûːloʋitɕ]; 3 January 1950 – 23 December 2016) was a Serbian flight attendant who survived the highest fall without a parachute: 10.16 kilometres (6.31 miles) or 33,330 feet.
I feel that the extreme height doesn't make much difference - falling "belly-to-earth" a person teaches terminal velocity after about 450m, so surely anyone falling from above this height is just as lucky to survive as anyone else above this height. Vesna just had the longest time to contemplate that they (not he - thank you Pedantic Panda) might not survive!
Note: this post originally had 44 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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Legally, 1 person has. She was hung and legally considered dead, even though in the end it was not fatal
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I'm going to add one. There is only one Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on one blade: Surya Bonaly If you're not familiar she is an incredible athlete!
I have gotten stuck in two malfunctioning elevators. The chance of that happening is one in ten billion. (Out of every ten billion elevator rides that occur, statistically, the same person will get stuck in an elevator in two of those rides).
Was it the same elevator? I know someone who got trapped in the same elevator twice, about 9 months apart, which doesn't seem to me as rare as say two different elevators. He was diabetic and sued after the second time.
Load More Replies... Gave a thumbs up to an article about Kanye's wife showing off her nipples.
Everyone listed in Guinness book of world records qualifies for this list.
The most current Guinness book of world records or all of them in the history of Guinness books of world record?
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Not sure if it's under 12, but I'm one of very few people to have fluid leak from my knee and solidify beneath the muscle in my shin. Doctors regularly are like, "Can that happen?" when I tell it to them, at which point I have to explain that I was like the second one (when I had surgery to remove the lump) that the surgeon doing the operation had even heard of. (Which doesn't mean there aren't more - just that it's pretty rare.)
You know it's rare when you have to explain it to doctor.
Load More Replies... Adding another one: Only person ever to win Western States 100, Hardrock 100 and the UTMB, three iconic 100-mile races, in the same year. Courtney Dauwalter Another amazing athlete. She's come in second in races against men, e.g. Tahoe 200 in 2018. She also won the Moab 240 Outright, by more than ten hours, in 2017, against men and women.
Lewis Pugh (a Brit who lives in South Africa) is the only person (and was the first person) to swim in all the world's oceans.
I got my year two teacher and primary school headmistress sacked. My teacher beat my hands so much I couldn’t hold a pencil and was found out. She was beating me to make me stronger.
Per Wikipedia: Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome (MPL)...As of 2016, fewer than 10 cases of the condition have been reported. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Vel%c3%a1squez is a motivational speaker that talks about this condition affected her life.
Legally, 1 person has. She was hung and legally considered dead, even though in the end it was not fatal
Load More Replies... I'm going to add one. There is only one Olympic figure skater to land a backflip on one blade: Surya Bonaly If you're not familiar she is an incredible athlete!
I have gotten stuck in two malfunctioning elevators. The chance of that happening is one in ten billion. (Out of every ten billion elevator rides that occur, statistically, the same person will get stuck in an elevator in two of those rides).
Was it the same elevator? I know someone who got trapped in the same elevator twice, about 9 months apart, which doesn't seem to me as rare as say two different elevators. He was diabetic and sued after the second time.
Load More Replies... Gave a thumbs up to an article about Kanye's wife showing off her nipples.
Everyone listed in Guinness book of world records qualifies for this list.
The most current Guinness book of world records or all of them in the history of Guinness books of world record?
Load More Replies... Not sure if it's under 12, but I'm one of very few people to have fluid leak from my knee and solidify beneath the muscle in my shin. Doctors regularly are like, "Can that happen?" when I tell it to them, at which point I have to explain that I was like the second one (when I had surgery to remove the lump) that the surgeon doing the operation had even heard of. (Which doesn't mean there aren't more - just that it's pretty rare.)
You know it's rare when you have to explain it to doctor.
Load More Replies... Adding another one: Only person ever to win Western States 100, Hardrock 100 and the UTMB, three iconic 100-mile races, in the same year. Courtney Dauwalter Another amazing athlete. She's come in second in races against men, e.g. Tahoe 200 in 2018. She also won the Moab 240 Outright, by more than ten hours, in 2017, against men and women.
Lewis Pugh (a Brit who lives in South Africa) is the only person (and was the first person) to swim in all the world's oceans.
I got my year two teacher and primary school headmistress sacked. My teacher beat my hands so much I couldn’t hold a pencil and was found out. She was beating me to make me stronger.
Per Wikipedia: Marfanoid–progeroid–lipodystrophy syndrome (MPL)...As of 2016, fewer than 10 cases of the condition have been reported. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lizzie_Vel%c3%a1squez is a motivational speaker that talks about this condition affected her life.
