Superhero

September 16, 1976 - On this day an athlete named Shavarsh Karapetyan was just finishing a 12-mile run around Yerevan Lake in Armenia. Suddenly he heard the crash of a trolley that had plunged into the water. Karapetyan watched in horror as the bus packed with 90 passengers sank into the cold and murky water. Within seconds it was on the bottom of the lake, 30 feet down.

Karapetyan was an amazing swimmer. 11 times he held world records in the grueling underwater sport of finswimming. Using his exceptional skills, Karapetyan dove into the frigid water and began a superhuman rescue effort.

Unable to see anything in the muddy depths, Karapetyan felt his way to a rear window of the trolley and kicked it in. He was severely cut as he made his way into the submerged chamber, but one by one he managed to pull out 46 people. 20 would survive.

On his final dive he returned to the shore with a leather chair, then he collapsed and sank into a 45-day coma. A lung infection and the injuries he sustained during the rescue eventually put an end to his career as a pro athlete.

Karapetyan was fading into obscurity until 1982 when an article detailing his heroics was published in a Russian newspaper. Since then he has received countless awards for his valor and he even has an asteroid belt named in his honor.

In interviews Karapetyan has said that he is haunted by knowing that he could have saved one more life had he not mistakenly grabbed that leather chair.