In July 2005, the Rev. Harry Bury, a 76-year-old professor of organizational behavior and systems management at Baldwin-Wallace College, was invited to be a “peace observer” with a group of other priests and nuns as Israeli soldiers withdrew Jewish settlers — and themselves — from Gaza. “Research shows that when international people are there, the belligerents tend not to shoot each other,” Bury explains. “I didn’t have the expectation that I was going to put myself in immense danger.” Unfortunately, he was wrong.

Melanie Murphy began her pageant career as Miss Brook Park. Crowned Miss Ohio last summer, she will go on to compete in the Miss America pageant Jan. 29.

On Aug. 20, 2006, at the 68th Annual Cornfest in Ortonville, Minn., Cleveland’s top competitive eater, Coondog O’Karma, set a new world record by eating 5 pounds of corn on the cob in 10 minutes.

After 18 days, 66 flight hours, 900 gallons of gasoline and 7,488 miles, Don Sieg and his wife and navigator, Jan, flew over one-third of the planet in their 1968 Cessna propeller airplane. They landed at Alaska’s northernmost point: Barrow, called the Top of the World. Sieg, 53, gives us his perspective from 13,000 feet.

On Aug. 12, Travis Hafner hit his sixth grand slam of the season at Jacobs Field off Kansas City Royals pitcher Luke Hudson, tying the Major League record that Don Mattingly has held since 1987. It was in the bottom of the first inning, with the Indians rallying to eventually score 11 runs in one inning.

In 1976, Chagrin Falls native Ted Batchelor set himself on fire and jumped off the falls into the Chagrin River on a bet, beginning a decade-long tradition. A stuntman, he set a Guinness World Record for longest full-body burn with no supplied oxygen in 2004. In May, he celebrated the 30th anniversary of his first jump with a stunt that raised $6,000 for the Valley Arts Center.