Daniel Hajek

Models on turntables in fancy gowns have given way to professionals who are the eyes and ears of car brands.

During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, open-air pits were used to incinerate refuse including plastics and human waste. Now, U.S. veterans are claiming these burn pits caused chronic ailments.

A split-second decision can cost a team the game. On Thanksgiving Day in 1993, when the Miami Dolphins played the Dallas Cowboys, defensive tackle Leon Lett made a big mistake that still haunts him.

A reluctant party-goer, the 19-year old Ontario singer turns an anti-party hit into a celebration of her talents. "Nothing is unrealistic anymore," Cara says of her success.

Long before playing the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Patrick was a house painter in Ohio. Then a near-death boating accident made him realize he needed to pursue his dreams.

The singer's life has played out like a country song: leaving an abusive father, living in a car, barely scraping by. Her big break came, of all places, at a cafe that was going out of business.

With his handlebar mustache and deep voice, he's mastered the look. And after years playing sharp-shooters in the West — and then a stranger at the bowling alley bar — he's finally happy about it.

Before the U.S. Open, the Nike and Gatorade sponsorships and the fame, Venus and Serena Williams were taking their first swings on tennis courts in Compton, Calif. It's a source of pride in the city.

Award-winning aviator Patty Wagstaff tackles the extreme, but she was inspired by a simple takeoff gone wrong. Crawling out of the plane, she looked at her pilot and thought, "I can do a lot better."

The actor says he got his big break because of a college crush. When she went on an audition, he tagged along, inadvertently starting a career in cologne ads, soap operas — and hit TV shows.

The comedian and Late, Late Show band leader beatboxes, imitates and impersonates with amazing accuracy. It was a phone call from Conan O'Brien that put Watts' one-man show into the spotlight.

In 1984, Steve McCurry was in Pakistan covering a refugee crisis for National Geographic. Captivated by a young girl's eyes, he clicked the shutter — and took one of the magazine's most iconic photos.

The comedian once worked in advertising — until he got caught dozing on the job. So, he took his savings and stepped on stage. Still, it was years before he hit his big break: a gig on the Late Show.

Days after the comedian was diagnosed with breast cancer, she performed at the Largo nightclub in Los Angeles. Her stand-up routine, which became an album titled Live, was an instant hit.

Discovered at an Ikea in Burbank, Calif., he was a Hollywood actor by the time he was 5. But it was his performance as Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense that propelled a career that's lasted over 20 years.

On July 5, 1980, the stage was set for the greatest rivalry in tennis: Iceman Björn Borg versus hothead John McEnroe. The match lasted four hours — and was one of the best in Wimbledon history.

Tim Burton's shadowy tales have taken us from a pastel suburban paradise to the dark streets of Gotham City. But what would Burton's mysterious films be without Danny Elfman's iconic music?

When a little startup called Southwest Airlines was on the brink of failure in 1972, an executive named Bill Franklin had a simple solution that saved the company: the "10-Minute Turn."

He drove a garbage truck in LA and fibbed his way into Hollywood westerns. But Jonathan Goldsmith's big break was getting cast in Dos Equis beer commercials as "The Most Interesting Man in the World."

Don Lessem was the dinosaur adviser for the first Jurassic Park, a job he says sounds more impressive than it was. His real big-dinosaur break happened years later, thanks to a blurry photo of a bone.