10 Unusual Stories You’ll Never Forget

My goal with this list was to compile 10 stories that were so unusual that I almost couldn’t believe them when I read them or viewed them. They were so unconventional and original that I wouldn’t have come up with them on my own if I had never discovered them. I want your experience reading this list to be surprising, enjoyable, and, most importantly, unforgettable. So I won’t go into great detail in this introduction: I’d prefer that you experience the 10 list items just as I did: one at a time.

Related: 10 Incredible Stories That Belong in the U.S. National Archives

10 The Slate: A Generic Transformable $25,000 Electric Vehicle

The revolutionary thing about the upcoming Slate electric vehicle wasn’t trying to make a cheaper vehicle: that’s not new. But as I read about the Slate, I was impressed by some of the unusual ways in which they simplified the manufacturing of the Slate to reduce costs.

The Slate is an upcoming small electric truck that will utilize a new manufacturing process designed to lower costs. For example, one of the biggest expenses in a car manufacturing process is building a paint shop. The Slate will only be available in one color from the factory: gray, and it will not be painted. Instead, it will use unpainted polypropylene composite panels embedded with a gray color. The idea of not painting a new car at all in 2025 was novel to me, and it caught me by surprise. However, when I researched the actual cost of developing an automobile painting process, it made perfect sense.

The second idea that they came up with, which I would have never thought of myself, was completely removing the radio. In 1,000 years, I would never have thought of removing the radio because it is so culturally ingrained in my thinking that cars always have a radio. This goes back to my memories from the mid-1970s when my family owned a four-door Ford Maverick sedan. Slate’s thinking is that cell phones with Bluetooth are so ubiquitous today that people can do without a preinstalled radio because they can simply buy an affordable Bluetooth speaker module for the Slate and then stream content from their phone to the Bluetooth speaker.

Modern EVs typically perform over-the-air updates using built-in cellular connectivity or by connecting to Wi-Fi within the owner’s household. The Slate reduces costs by not building cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity into the Slate. Instead, the Slate’s firmware and software are updated by connecting a USB cable to the owner’s phone. Then, the owner uses the Slate smartphone app to perform the updates. The Slate’s killer feature, besides its incredibly affordable price of about $25,000, will be its customizability. It will literally be a blank slate that the owner can heavily modify by buying relatively inexpensive modules for the vehicle. For example, the owner will be able to buy a module to convert the Slate into something more like an SUV.^[1]

9 Beavers Save Humans Over 1 Million Dollars By Building Anti-Flooding Dams

Before researching this story, I knew that beavers naturally build dams. However, I thought that beavers didn’t build dams of sufficient resilience to be used for human projects. In my mind, I thought of beaver-made dams as being made of branches, mud, and stones, while human-made dams are made of concrete and steel. I wasn’t pleasantly surprised to find out that I was wrong: a group of beavers saved Czech taxpayers the equivalent of about $ 1.2 million by building a series of at least four dams, which will help protect the Czech Republic’s Klabava ecosystem from flooding-related damage.

The beavers saved their human colleagues a lot of work. Human officials had been planning to build a dam to protect the Klabava River’s ecosystem from flooding. The acidic, sediment-filled water from flooding events would pose a great risk to the critically endangered crayfish in the river. However, the project, first drafted in 2018, was delayed due to difficulties obtaining a building permit. While the human engineers were fighting through seven years of delays, to everyone’s surprise, the beavers built a series of dams, making the human project unnecessary.

This story introduced me to a concept that I had never considered before: humanity can save both money and time by carefully evaluating which projects can be done more efficiently and more cost-effectively by utilizing natural elements that can do the hard work for us.^[2]

8 Seeing How Much Baseball Has Changed Since the 1930s

In early 2025, video footage of the 1930s New York Yankees spring training was posted to YouTube. As of June 2025, the video has over 350,000 views and almost 1,200 comments. The video is of extremely high quality: it’s in color, and the original audio has been enhanced. For me personally, watching the video was the first time I’ve ever heard Babe Ruth’s voice. The video also contains footage of Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. I read through a lot of the comments on the video, and they were overwhelmingly positive.

Two things in the video really struck me: how much older the players looked than modern baseball players (this may be due to the older style uniforms, which seem dated by modern standards) and how differently the players moved compared to modern players. It was very clear that they were playing the same game of baseball that we know and love today, but from the video, it is clear that the game has changed significantly over the last 90-plus years.

Another striking feature of the video is how different their uniforms and gloves looked compared to modern ones. The gloves appeared to be much smaller than modern baseball gloves and far less advanced. However, it was very clear that the players then had the same love for the game that modern players do.

The highlight of the video was seeing the great Babe Ruth, then near the end of his historic baseball career, talking about playing during the upcoming season at the relatively advanced age of 40. What made this video completely unforgettable for me? I’ve had a lifelong love of baseball since the 1980s, and I thought that I had seen everything in the game. But I’ll never forget how different the movements, uniforms, and equipment of baseball players were almost 100 years ago.

After watching the video several times, I discovered a very informative website that provides the history of New York Yankees spring training from 1903 to the present. According to that website, the New York Yankees held spring training in St. Petersburg, Florida, from 1925 to 1942. In 1925, the team moved into the Crescent Lake Field in St. Petersburg from their old spring training home in New Orleans, Louisiana. This means that the YouTube video was filmed during the middle section of the team’s spring training duration in St. Petersburg.

A commenter on the YouTube video stated that the video must have been filmed in at least three different years, based on comments in the video and the career timelines of some of the famous players on the team. The commenter claims the video probably contains scenes from 1933, 1934, and 1936. In 1943, the Yankees moved their spring training to New Jersey to conserve resources during World War II.^[3]

7 A Runaway Goat Attempts to Ram a Professional Cyclist Off of His Bicycle

Throughout my life, I’ve been taught that most animals generally have a fear of human beings and typically try to avoid us. This is true of even very large predators such as black and brown bears. However, over the years, I’ve heard of many unfortunate and negative encounters between bears and humans, as well as between mountain lions and humans. For the rest of my life, I’ll never forget the story of a runaway goat ramming a professional cyclist.

The goat ramming incident occurred during the third stage of the 2025 Giro d’Italia (this translates to “Tour of Italy” in English) when New Zealand cyclist Dion Smith was almost knocked off of his bicycle by a runaway goat. The 160-kilometer stage of the race took place in Vlorë, Albania.

During the stage, Smith spotted a herd of goats on the side of the road. When he moved to the other side of the road to try to avoid the herd, much to his surprise, one of the goats started to accelerate to cross the road. It entered directly into his path at a high velocity, but the goat seemed to sense the impending collision, and it jumped into the air. Instead of colliding head-on, the goat brushed Smith’s leg and the back wheel of his bicycle.

Smith was pushed off of the road onto the grass, but he managed to stay on his bike. The goat was unharmed and simply walked away after the incident. I can say with 100% confidence that I never thought I would hear the phrase “a cyclist was rammed by a goat” during my lifetime, but fortunately, life is never boring, and it’s full of very memorable surprises.^[4]

6 The Safecracker Who Was Hired to Break Into Musician Prince’s Music Vault

I’ve watched many excellent movies that had thrilling scenes of professional criminals, spies, or Secret Service agents breaking into highly advanced vaults. I still very clearly remember watching the character Ethan Hunt (played by a very young Tom Cruise) breaking into a state-of-the-art vault while tethered to a wire. The scene completely blew me away when I watched it in a movie theater during the summer of 1996.

However, I never imagined that during my lifetime, I would read about the estate of a very famous deceased musician having to pay a professional safecracker to break into the musician’s music vault due to a forgotten vault combination.

On April 21, 2016, the entire world was shocked by the death of musician Prince Rogers Nelson. His music was the soundtrack of much of the 1980s and early 1990s, and he had a reputation for being a person who ate healthy food, maintained a trim and slim physique, and had an overall healthy lifestyle. But after his death, the stories of his physical pain caused by the years of wear and tear performing at such a high level put on his body and his addiction to painkillers became much more widely known. Prince was a highly prolific music recorder, and it is estimated that the music vault in his Paisley Park estate in Chanhassen, Minnesota, contains approximately 8,000 unreleased songs.

Shortly after Prince’s death, his estate realized that there was no one alive who knew the combination to the safe. Prince himself had forgotten the combination to the safe several years before he passed away. Since his death was unexpected, the problem was not seen as an immediate priority before he died. Prince’s estate contacted Dave McOmie, a professional safecracker based in Oregon, and they asked him if they could hire him to break into Prince’s music vault.

McOmie was familiar with the model of the safe, the Mosler American Century, and he informed the estate that he would attempt to break into the safe, although no burglar had ever defeated a Mosler American Century safe, not even once. McOmie knew that this job would be a challenge: the safe was 6.5 feet (2 m) tall and weighed 6,000 pounds (2,721 kg).

He got to work: he used a common technique called “microdrilling” to drill small holes through the vault’s door at precise locations to view the combination lock from the inside using a periscope. By viewing the combination lock, he could detect the correct code to unlock the door. However, an error on his part could trigger the safe’s built-in security system, known as a “mousetrap relocker.”

If triggered, the relocker would fire a spring-loaded mechanism that would permanently lock the door, even if a person had the correct combination. McOmie was able to successfully open the safe’s door, and the people in attendance embarrassed him by clapping when he completed the seemingly impossible feat. This is an incredible story that’s almost impossible to forget.^[5]

5 Chinese Scientists Refuel a Nuclear Reactor While It’s Operating

This story is fascinating and memorable on many levels. First, the Chinese nuclear science community built nuclear reactors using abandoned United States research: nuclear reactors powered by thorium instead of uranium. Second, the Chinese scientists successfully refueled one of the thorium-powered nuclear reactors while it was running: a world first.

Most nuclear reactors in operation today produce power by splitting atoms of uranium in a process called fission. The split uranium-235 atoms produce heat, which is then used to boil water, which is in turn used to spin turbines to generate electricity. Thorium-powered nuclear reactors use a different fuel: thorium-232 instead of uranium-235. The thorium process is a little bit more complicated: instead of heating water, the fuel typically heats molten salts. The thorium-232 is dissolved directly into a molten salt mixture. The hot molten salt is then pumped through a heat exchanger to boil water, which is then used to generate electricity by spinning a turbine.

The thorium-powered nuclear reactors have several advantages over uranium-powered ones. The molten salts are at a very high temperature but at low pressure, making the thorium-powered nuclear reactor much more thermally efficient. Since thorium-powered reactors operate at much lower pressures than uranium-powered ones, there is a much lower risk of piping ruptures and explosive failures.

If the thorium-powered reactor starts to overheat, it automatically begins to power down without any operator action. The thorium-powered reactor design can also feature a freeze plug at the bottom of the reactor that is actively cooled. If electrical power is lost, the freeze plug melts, and all the reactor’s fuel drains into a subcritical holding tank, completely shutting down all nuclear reactions. Finally, thorium is about 4 times as common in the Earth’s crust as uranium, making it a significantly cheaper nuclear fuel source.

Thorium-powered nuclear reactors were first developed in the United States during the 1950s. However, though the United States made its thorium-powered nuclear reactor research public, it effectively abandoned the technology in favor of uranium-powered nuclear reactors by the 1970s. Perhaps the most unforgettable part of this story is that the Chinese scientific community was able to develop a technology that the United States had left behind almost 50 years ago. They were able to refuel it while it was still operational.^[6]

4 Coca-Cola’s Reverse Vending Machine

As I was compiling this list, I found myself over and over again saying phrases that I’d never said before and that I never thought I would say. The concept of a “reverse vending machine” is one I had never considered until I read the article that served as the primary reference for this list. The idea of inserting a used item into a vending machine was simply fascinating to me. I know that “fascinating” is an overused word (I’m a Trekkie), but to me, it’s the best word to describe how hearing this concept made me feel.

The reverse vending machine is a pretty simple idea, but to me, it’s brilliant. Coca-Cola’s idea is to make a reverse vending machine a tool to recycle used plastic bottles. How it works: You finish your beverage, and you place the empty plastic bottle in the reverse vending machine. The device then compacts and stores the used bottle, and then the drinker is credited with reward points in a mobile app for recycling the bottle. The reverse vending machine can fit about 800 used bottles, which are then collected and turned into new useful items like bags, clothes, and packaging.

I’ve personally noticed a rise in these kinds of apps that promote good behavior. For example, I’ve used the Fetch mobile app to earn reward points every time I make a purchase at my favorite stores. I’ve found that the rewards give me a slightly stronger incentive to go out and spend my money because I can eventually use the accumulated reward points for things like Amazon gift cards.

I’ve gone to the grocery store and personally recycled plastic bottles using the machines typically located near the store’s entrance. However, the machines tend to be less clean. Then, you have to go through the slight inconvenience of taking a printed receipt into the store, which can only be redeemed while you’re checking out.

If you leave the store and you lose the paper receipt, it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever be able to redeem your reward. However, Coca-Cola’s idea of storing your accumulated rewards in a mobile app makes your points much less likely to be lost. Hopefully, this idea will gain traction and encourage people to recycle their used plastic bottles more than they do now.^[7]

3 Robotic Dog with Legs and Wheels for Feet

I remember being very impressed a few months ago when I watched a YouTube video of robotic dogs that the United States Army is testing for combat operations. These canine-like devices resembled something straight out of 1980s and 1990s predictions of the technology we would see in 2025. The robotic dogs were fast, lean, maneuverable, and could walk over tough terrain. The video I watched was posted by the “The Daily Aviation” YouTube channel and currently has over 1.5 million views.

But one perpetual law of advanced technology is this. No matter how novel a particular piece of technology is, it’s inevitable that you’ll eventually see something even more impressive because technology continually evolves and progresses. A few months after watching a video featuring the U.S. Army’s robotic dogs, I came across another YouTube video that took the technology to the next level.

These new robodogs had legs with wheels attached where their feet would be. The video is short, lasting just over a minute, and it doesn’t provide many technical details about the dog. But at first glance, it seemed that the wheels would make the dogs able to move faster, especially over difficult terrain. The robotic dogs are called the “Lynx M20”, and after watching the video, I did some more research to learn more details about them.

The first thing I learned is that the technical term for these robotic dogs is “robodog.” The Lynx M20 is developed by a Chinese company called Deep Robotics. The robodogs are designed to handle extreme terrain with ease, including snow, deserts, wetlands, and mountain trails. The Lynx robodogs are equipped with LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which provides each robodog with 360-degree situational awareness. The Lynx robodogs feature built-in lighting for night operations and are equipped with IP66 weather protection. This practically means that the robodogs are sealed against dust and water (such as from a hose or from heavy rain).

What will I remember for the rest of my life from this story? My first time seeing the video footage of a robotic dog with wheels for feet. Real life is now actually in many ways cooler than the Jetsons cartoons that I watched as a child.^[8]

2 A Newscaster Is Taken Hostage at Gunpoint During a Live TV Broadcast

The last two items on this list are the ones that blew my mind the most. In 1987, television journalist and consumer advocate David Horowitz was conducting a live television broadcast from a studio desk alongside two other journalists: a man wearing a tan suit and a woman wearing a red top. Seemingly out of nowhere, a mild-mannered-looking gunman with glasses pointed a gun at Horowitz’s back and forced him to read a pre-written message.

Several things about the video stunned me as I watched. First, you could visibly see how uncomfortable the woman on the right side of the anchor’s desk (from the TV viewer’s perspective) was, and rightfully so. She looked down at her desk and around the studio as though she couldn’t believe what was going on. Second, I couldn’t believe how calm and professional Horowitz remained with a gun pointed squarely at his back as he read the message. Third, the third anchor, the man in the middle, kept his legs casually crossed, but his eyes were focused on the gun and the gunman for the entire time. I have no idea what he was thinking, but I’d imagine that he was looking to see if the gun was real and if there was any possibility of overpowering the gunman and taking the gun from him if his attention lapsed for a moment.

After Horowitz finished reading the statement, the disturbed gunman placed the gun on the desk, and he was quickly apprehended. The YouTube video’s description section provided additional details about what happened. The gunman was Gary Stollman, the son of then-KNBC medical reporter Max Stollman. Though the gun looked real, it was later found to be an empty toy BB gun. Following the incident, Horowitz started a successful nationwide campaign to ban realistic-looking toy guns.

The video was posted in early 2025 and has already garnered over 500,000 views and nearly 2,000 comments. For very obvious reasons, I’ll never forget this story: I’ve never seen a story like this before, and with the heightened levels of security in today’s professional television broadcasting studios, it’s unlikely that anything like this will happen again anytime soon.^[9]

1 An Astounding Theory: The Entire Universe Spins Once Every 500 Billion Years

We’ve reached Item 10 on this list, and I frankly don’t know where to begin with this one. There are so many unusual concepts in this new theory, but I’ll do my best.

The Big Bang Theory posits that the Universe started to expand rapidly about 13.8 billion years ago. There are many unanswered questions related to this theory. What was present before the Big Bang? We don’t know. What caused the Big Bang? We don’t know. The theory states that about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe had sufficiently cooled for atoms to start to form.

Around 100 to 200 million years after the Big Bang, the first stars began to form. However, there are some unresolved problems with the Big Bang theory. Two methods of measuring the rate of expansion of the Universe, which has been occurring since the Big Bang, yield completely different numbers for the Universe’s rate of expansion. This means that either our current model of the Universe is wrong or some of our assumptions are wrong.

A group of scientists from the University of Hawai’i trying to resolve this discrepancy have come up with a theory that I found astounding: that the entire Universe is spinning. They’ve even estimated how fast it’s spinning: about one revolution every 500 billion years. This would mean that if the Universe is truly 13.8 billion years old, it hasn’t come anywhere close to completing a single revolution.

I love science, and I love science fiction. I love to sit around and think about scientific concepts, especially when it comes to the nature of the Universe. I’ve come up with some pretty crazy ideas during my daydreaming sessions. Still, the idea that the entire Universe could be spinning simply never occurred to me.

However, when I read the scientists’ theory, it made sense to me. It seems that almost everything in the Universe that we can observe spins: planets, stars, and galaxies. So, when I thought about it, it made sense to me that the entire Universe might spin as well. The argument that I found most compelling from the scientists to support the idea of a spinning Universe is that some scientists argue that galaxies appear to slightly prefer one direction of rotation over the other.

The theory of a rotating universe is still only a theory; it hasn’t been proven as fact. But the idea that the entire Universe is spinning is one that it will be absolutely impossible for me to forget. I sincerely hope that you enjoyed reading this list as much as I enjoyed compiling it!^[10]