At 40, a mother of two secretly prepared for her first bodybuilding competition because she was afraid of failing. Four years later, Danielle Cooper has won two British titles.
A robot has been given the job of keeping a 74-year-old woman company at home. It reminds her to take her medication, asks how she is, and offers to chat.
TIL that in 1978 a Finnish man hijacked a domestic flight after asking to visit the cockpit. He collected over $200k in ransom during the 17 hour, 4500 km journey via Helsinki and Amsterdam. His final demands were four bottles of whisky, a chauffeured limousine and 24 hours alone with his wife.
29 September 1988. Space Shuttle Discovery launches on the first NASA shuttle mission since the Challenger disaster, 32 months after the deaths of all seven Challenger astronauts.
28 September 1994. The ferry Estonia sinks in the Baltic Sea, killing 852 of the 989 people aboard. The first Mayday call came at 1:22am; 28 minutes later, the ship had disappeared from radar.
16 September 1920. A horse-drawn wagon exploded outside J.P. Morgan's Wall Street offices, killing 38 people and injuring about 300. The bomber was never identified, and Wall Street was back in business the following morning.
15 September 1896. Two locomotives were deliberately crashed into each other at 45 mph in Texas as a publicity stunt. More than 40,000 people came to watch. Both boilers exploded, killing three and seriously injuring six, including the photographer who lost an eye.
For almost 100 years, 42 acres of Sheffield woodland have been left undisturbed as a haven for wildlife. Small acts of conservation can have big results.