Buzz
While many face superstitions like black cats and broken mirrors, a select few appear to be blessed with extraordinary luck. These 10 individuals have experienced such incredible fortune that it challenges the very notion of chance.
10. Bill Morgan
After a horrific car crash involving a truck, Australian Bill Morgan was presumed dead by everyone, including medical professionals. Pronounced legally dead for over 14 minutes, he miraculously revived and recovered after just 12 days in a coma, even after his family had decided to withdraw life support.
His streak of luck continued. To mark his survival, he purchased a “Scratch It” card and won a car valued at AUS$17,000 (approximately AUS$25,000 today). His story caught the attention of a local news station, which featured him in a segment. During the live broadcast, he was asked to scratch another card, and to everyone’s astonishment, he won an additional $250,000. It’s almost as if fate itself was apologizing to him.
9. Edwin E. Robinson
The chance of being struck by lightning is 1 in 12,000, but for 62-year-old Edwin E. Robinson, who was both blind and deaf, that probability became a certainty.
While searching for his chicken in a field near his home, Robinson used his aluminum cane to navigate. When rain began, he took cover under a solitary tree, which proved irresistible to a lightning bolt. The strike knocked him unconscious for 20 minutes. Upon waking, he managed to return home and fell into a deep sleep. Later that evening, he awoke to find his sight and hearing miraculously restored. His doctor confirmed the recovery, attributing his survival to the rubber-soled shoes he wore during the incident.
8. Joan R. Ginther
Winning the lottery is statistically less likely than being hit by an asteroid, but Joan Ginther defied those odds. She won the lottery four times in her lifetime, each time securing multi-million-dollar prizes, leaving experts and statisticians utterly perplexed.
Her incredible streak began with a $5.4 million win, followed by another $2 million a decade later. Just two years after that, she secured $3 million, and in 2008, she hit the jackpot again with a massive $10 million prize.
7. Tsutomu Yamaguchi
During World War II, Tsutomu Yamaguchi worked for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, a job that required extensive travel. In 1945, while on a business trip to Hiroshima, he survived the first atomic bomb explosion, despite sustaining injuries. He returned to his home in Nagasaki, only to experience the second nuclear attack on the day he resumed work. While some might consider him the unluckiest person, surviving both blasts is nothing short of miraculous.
Yamaguchi spent the rest of his life advocating against nuclear weapons. In one interview, he expressed, “The atomic bomb strips away the dignity of human beings, and that’s why I despise it.” In another conversation, he questioned, “Why can’t the world grasp the suffering caused by nuclear bombs? How can they continue to develop such weapons?”
In 2009, Japan officially acknowledged Yamaguchi as the sole survivor of both atomic bombings, a unique distinction in the world. He lived a full life, passing away at the age of 93 on January 4, 2010, in his home in Nagasaki.
6. Maarten De Jonge
Some individuals survive perilous situations purely by chance, often without deliberate action. They attribute their survival to circumstances like illness, prior commitments, or even an inexplicable gut feeling that steered them away from danger.
Dutch cyclist Maarten de Jonge narrowly escaped death twice within four months, both times involving flights. Initially booked on MH17, he switched to a cheaper flight, avoiding the tragic crash. Later, he was scheduled to board MH370, the flight that vanished in 2014, but changed his plans at the last minute, evading another disaster.
5. Nichiren
In the 12th century, Nichiren, a renowned Japanese monk, played a pivotal role in shaping Japan's interpretation of Buddhism. His life, however, was marked by controversy and conflict. Authorities deemed his writings dangerous and subversive, fearing they would erode their authority, leading to his sentencing to death by beheading.
In a twist of fate, Nichiren's execution was interrupted when the executioner was struck and killed by lightning as he raised his sword. This bizarre event led to Nichiren's release, though he was exiled afterward. He lived to an old age, gaining a significant following and becoming a key religious figure in Japan, proving that even in the face of certain doom, fortune can intervene.
4. Terri Preece
Oysters are a prized delicacy in fine dining, cherished for their unique flavor, texture, and occasional high cost. Some even consider them an aphrodisiac. For Terri Preece, her love for oysters deepened after discovering a pearl inside one.
While purchasing a few 49-pence oysters from Tesco, Terri Preece defied million-to-one odds by finding a pearl. As she prepared to move to Spain, her colleagues at the homeless shelter where she worked transformed the pearl into a £500 ring, a lasting memento of her extraordinary luck.
3. Frane Selak
Known as “The Luckiest Unluckiest Man in the World,” Croatian Frane Selak has escaped death an astonishing seven times.
His first near-death experience occurred in 1962 aboard a train that derailed and plunged into a freezing river. Rescued by bystanders, he survived with only a broken arm and hypothermia, while 17 others drowned. A year later, during his first and only flight, the plane malfunctioned and crashed. Frane was ejected through a faulty door and landed safely on a haystack, unharmed, while 19 others perished in the crash.
Three years later, in 1966, a bus Selak was traveling in veered off the road and plunged into a river, claiming the lives of four passengers. Selak, however, swam to safety with only minor cuts and bruises. In 1968, during a bizarre incident, he accidentally shot himself in the groin while teaching his son to handle a gun. Though he survived, he lost his testicles. In 1970 and 1973, he was involved in car accidents where the vehicles caught fire, yet he escaped both incidents unscathed, save for a few singed hairs.
His encounters with death continued. In 1995, he was struck by a bus in Zagreb but sustained only minor injuries. A year later, he narrowly avoided a head-on collision with a UN truck on a mountain road by swerving into a guardrail. The impact broke the guardrail, and Selak, not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the car as it plummeted 300 feet into a ravine. Miraculously, he survived. In 2003, two days after his 73rd birthday, Selak won $1.1 million in the Croatian National Lottery, capping off his extraordinary streak of luck.
2. Lena Pahlsson
In 1995, Lena Pahlsson, a Swedish woman, removed her wedding ring to bake Christmas treats. When she went to put it back on, it was gone. After years of searching, she and her husband resigned themselves to the belief that the ring was lost forever. However, in 2012, nearly 16 years later, Lena made an astonishing discovery in her garden.
While harvesting carrots, Pahlsson was stunned to find her missing ring wrapped around one of them. The discovery was so shocking that her scream echoed into the house, startling her daughter. Though the family had gardened for years, the ring had never appeared. This was the first time they had planted carrots by scattering seeds randomly instead of in rows. The odds of a seed landing inside the ring were akin to winning a carnival game, but Lena was simply overjoyed to have her ring back.
1. Anders Helstrup
Skydiving inherently involves a degree of risk, as you leap from a plane and descend at terminal velocity. However, Norwegian Anders Helstrup faced an unprecedented danger: a meteorite streaking toward him during his dive. This extraordinary event wasn’t just a tall tale—it was captured on camera, leaving no room for doubt.
The footage, shared online, caught the interest of scientists. A geologist confirmed that a meteoroid had exploded approximately 20 kilometers above Helstrup, making the video the first-ever recording of a meteorite traveling post-flameout. Helstrup spent months searching for the meteorite but, as of 2014, had no luck. Sometimes, even the most remarkable luck has its limits.
