The Luckiest People In Human History

#1 Lena Påhlsson

After 16 years, Lena and husband Ola PÃ¥hlsson, Sweden, had given up hope of ever finding Lena's lost wedding ring, which she had designed herself. While harvesting vegetables in her garden she noticed something unusual glistening in the sunlight. A carrot grew through the ring, and the ring came up with the vegetable. The soil had been turned over several times over the years and nobody expected a ring to sprout up all these years later.

#2 Tsutomu Yamaguchi

This is unbelievable. Tsutomu Yamaguchi is the only person who survived in the two of the nuclear attacks on Japan. He was on a business trip to Hiroshima when the nuclear attack happened there, and he was only 3 kilometres away from the deadly explosion. He managed to survive unharmed but he fled the city and headed back to his hometown. When he arrived home three days later he narrowly escaped death once more as the second bomb dropped on Nagasaki.

#3 Joan Ginther

Fifteen years ago Joan Ginther purchased a new scratch-off lottery ticket and won the jackpot, $5.4 million! That's pretty amazing in itself, but Joan kept buying lottery tickets and was always winning a little each time. Ten years later she won a big prize once more, $2 million on the same type of instant ticket. She didn't give up purchasing the tickets, and just three years later she scratched her way to a win of $3 million more. Just six months later she won big again, raking in a hefty $10 million on a five dollar scratch off lottery ticket.

#4 Steve Flaig

Steve grew up without his mother but always kept searching for her. When he began working at a huge chain store he told his co-workers and boss about his efforts and how he had been trying to locate a mother he never knew. Everyone assumed her last name was the same as his and helped him search for her. After no luck in finding his mother, he casually mentioned her last name, which was different than his. His boss knew the woman right away and reunited the two. It turned out she was an employee at the same chain but in a different store nearby.

#5 Virginia Fike

Virginia always chose the same exact digit combination for her lottery tickets, and she played them every single week. Her first number stood for the number of years for which her parents have been married, and her second number was their age at the year of their wedding. In 2012, she purchased 2 tickets with the same numbers by accident, both with numbers in the opposite order than she normally played. A twist of fate and a simple mistake won her $2 million dollars, as each of the tickets brought her a million dollars.

#6 Harrison Odjegba Okene

Harrison Odjegba Okene, a Nigerian man survived for three days at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean after finding an ever-dwindling supply of oxygen in a four-foot pocket of air and sips of Coca-Cola. He worked as a cook on the ship and was in the bathroom when it began to sink and he wasn't able to evacuate in time. Fortunately, he was able to move into the engine room where an air pocket formed. Rescuers were shocked to find him three days later still alive but at the brink of death. Harrison was the only survivor among the 12 crew members.

#7 Juliane Koepcke

17-year-old Juliane Koepcke survived the Peruvian jungle air crash in 1971 that left her stranded at the base of the Amazon River. She managed to crawl from the crash scene with a twisted ankle, and various cuts, scrapes, and bruises. However, she was forced to live in the jungle and search for food among wild animals for several days before she was rescued by the locals. On her way to Frankfurt, Germany at the time to attend school, Juliane was the only survivor on that plane.

#8 Maarten de Jonge

Maarten survived two plane crashes by not being able to catch his flights. The cyclist travels extensively around the world to compete in competitions but is pressed for spending money. When he was booked on Malaysian flight MH370, which vanished over the Indian Ocean, he had switched his flight for a cheaper one on the day he was to depart. Just a few months later he was booked on Malaysian flight MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine, and escaped death because he decided to swap flights at the last minute, after discovering that travelling via Frankfurt would prove cheaper.

#9 Reshma Begum

The seamstress survived 17 days before being rescued from a collapsed garment factory building in Bangladesh. She was working on the 18th floor of the 'Rana Plaza' when the building exploded and crumbled, leaving her buried under tons of debris. She survived the explosion but was trapped and believed dead. A rescue dog alerted the searchers that there was something alive under a pile of rubble and she was one of only a few of the 400 people who managed to escape alive after the collapse.

#10 Frane Selak

Is Frane the luckiest man alive? The Croatian music teacher first escaped death when a train he was riding fell into an icy river. Seventeen passengers died, but Selak escaped with bruises, abrasions, and hypothermia. After that, he survived a car crash, fell out of the plane, and landed in a stack of hay, while 19 passengers tragically died. He then survived when another train he was riding slid off the tracks and hit a bus full of tourists, killing everyone involved except for him. Finally, Frane recently capped off his life by winning a million dollars in a lottery.

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