Dan Goodwin with the gear used to climb the Sears Tower. — Photo by AP Photo

MAY 25, 1981
Dressed in a Spiderman costume, 25-year old Dan Goodwin scales the Sears Tower, using suction cups, a camming device and sky hooks to climb up the side of the 110-story skyscraper in Chicago. Goodwin says the purpose of his climb is to draw attention to the difficulties of high-rise firefighting and rescue operations. Goodwin would also scale the Renaissance Tower, John Hancock Center, North Tower of the World Trade Center, the CN Tower and the Millennium Tower — the latter as recently as September 2010 after surviving stage-four cancer.  

1935: Jesse Owens, a 21-year-old sophomore at Ohio State University, breaks the world records in the 220-yard low hurdles, 220-yard dash and long jump. The future track and field star also ties the 100-yard dash world record, all within the space of 45 minutes, during the Big Ten Championships at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

2001: Erik Weihenmayer becomes the first and only blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. The 32-year-old Coloradoan was born with retinoschisis, which caused him to be totally blind by age 13. An avid marathoner, bike rider and skydiver,  Weihenmayer would go on to reach the top of all Seven Summits.