I think the story of the two Lauras and all of their similarities, and how the balloon flew 140 miles and landed at another girl with the same name, pets, etc, is absolutely incredible. This whole article blew my mind, but that story in particular takes the cake for me.
I really enjoyed the two athletic occurrences that you shared, and I'd like to add one more in there: Johnny Vander Meer throwing back-to-back no hitters for the Reds in 1938. He threw the first on June 11th and then four days later he matched the feat in his next start - at legendary Ebbets field in Brooklyn - in get this - the first night game ever played at the venue - what are the odds right? lol. Statistically speaking, throwing a no-hitter is one of the toughest feats to accomplish in baseball, but I can't imagine what the odds are of throwing two consecutive no-hit games! Only 5 times has a pitcher ever thrown 2 no-hitters in the same season, let alone for it to occur in back-to-back games!
For sure. No hitters are very hard to do and that also makes me think of Nolan Ryan's achievement there. The closest I've ever seen in person was one of Madison Bumgarner's one-hitters (I think he has four of those in his career) and it came in a string of games where the Giants pitchers threw four consecutive shutouts against opposing teams. Seemed like quite a feat, but I just looked that up and teams have done that 17 times in history (so it's unusual, but not impossibly rare).
Right - Nolan Ryan with his 7 career no-hitters and 2 in one season. Good point. Wow - that's quite a feat that you mention there as well - 4 consecutive shutouts, I'm a little surprised that it has happened 17 times, I'm with you, figured that would have been a bit more rare.