There's viral—and then there's the video that recently dropped on social media platforms of Georgia high schoolers playing the prank of a lifetime on their principal.

51-year-old Bobby Davis of Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School was sitting in his office when someone rushed in saying a fight had broken out in the cafeteria.

Not on Davis' watch—the principal tore off down the hall. Arriving at the scene, his worst fears were confirmed. There was a ring of students, phones held high in the air, with two kids going at it in their midst.

He quickly pushed his way through the crowd and grabbed a student he knew very well, one who had a history of fighting.

In the phenomenally well-shot mobile video, the tumult of discord dissolved into cheers: "Happy Birthday!" the crowd shouts.

It was Davis' Birthday. The young man whom he'd grabbed had organized the surprise. It was a bittersweet moment that left Davis jumping up and down, not unlike a child.

De'Zayviun Watkins, 17, told TODAY that principal Davis had changed his life for the better. As a young man of inclinations towards high school football, Watkins was unstable and prone to fights. He struggled with anger, but Davis, who's also involved

86 years ago today, Ernest Hemingway's novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was first published. A story about a young American volunteer who joined the government of Spain as a guerrilla fighter during the Spanish Civil War, a conflict that was widely viewed as a dress rehearsal for the Second World War because the Italian Fascists and German Nazis were supporting an overthrow. READ more about this seminal work… (1940)

Based on Hemingway's own experiences during that war, where he had been a journalist, it was regarded as one of Hemingway's best works. The book sold half a million copies and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

As is so often the case with great novels, and works of art besides, For Whom the Bell Tolls received consistent criticism for various reasons, among which were Hemingway's "medievalist" language, particularly in the dialogue sequences, and in his translations from Spanish, which linguists commented was far too littoral, such as translating rare from "raro" rather than "strange," or syndicate from "sindaco" rather than the much more appropriate "trade union."

However, by 2019, BBC had placed it on a 100 Most Inspiring Novels list.

More Good News on this Date:

• 81 years ago today, Women in France were finally
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Along a series of Roman fortifications cutting across Germany just north of Frankfurt, archeological excavations have revealed extensive floorplans belonging to a temple, a military camp, and craft center.

The discovery, lying in wait just a few inches beneath the soil of the forest, provides extensive insight into what life was like along this frontier, as well as the area's use following their abandonment.

Since 2024, Hessian state archeologists and colleagues from the University of Frankfurt have been excavating Kapersburg—a Roman fort located in the foothills of the eastern Taunus Mountains.

Kapersburg is located along the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, a 342-mile fortified border stretching from the Rhine to the Danube that marked the end of Rome's military and cultural influence. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, the limes have produced dozens of important archeological discoveries.

"We have conservation layers here that are otherwise unparalleled in Hesse, because no agriculture has passed over them," Dr. Kai Mückenberger, a state archeologist with the title "Limes Coordinator" said in a translated statement.

"The forest has preserved everything over the last few centuries and largely preserved it for us in such a way that we find layers that are

Residents of Pittsburgh with outstanding debt on their water utilities can see it forgiven over a 24-month period.

Instituted by Pittsburgh's water authority, certain customers have already been enrolled as of September, and need only keep up with monthly payments to see pre-September outstanding debt gradually forgiven.

Called the Arrearage Forgiveness Program, Pittsburgh Water recently updated and improved the program, while some 4,300 city households living below 200% of the Federal Poverty Line were automatically enrolled.

If such a household had, by September 1st, outstanding debt—$1,000, for example—they can see that total entirely erased if they begin meeting payment obligations. For every month the obligation is met, one twenty-fourth ($41.60, using the example) of their outstanding debt will be forgiven.

In two years' time, the balance in arrears will thus be zeroed out.

Pittsburgh Water director of customer service Julie Mechling told the CBS News affiliate in the city that over the 24-month period, customers can miss up to 2 monthly payments and still stay on track for debt forgiveness. More than 2, however, and they are removed from the program.

"There's help out there for people who are struggling. There are multiple opportunities for you to come

Continuing GNN's coverage of youth nonprofit leaders, the Pedal Forward Foundation in Georgia has distributed hundreds of bicycles to low income families, and taught hundreds of children how to ride them.

It's founder, Jonathan Thai, was inspired to step up and serve his community after the local REI closed down a community bike-riding workshop.

At just 17 years old, the Alpharetta resident has already raised $30,000, securing 400 donated bicycles, and distributed 500 helmets, while hosting over a dozen free community bike clinics for children of all ages.

Thai says that in part, inspiration for the Pedal Forward Foundation came from his parents' upbringing in rural, post-war Vietnam.

"Something like biking might just look recreational at first glance," Thai told Points of Light, an international nonprofit which honored him with an award. "But it can have such a big impact for a family that doesn't have access to transportation – getting to school, getting groceries, getting to a job."

Thai is a high school triathlete, a body of experience he leaned on, together with his family heritage, to organize and drive the initiative forward to what it is today.

Along the way, the Pedal Forward Foundation received assistance

A sister turned her personal tragedy into a brilliant emergency safety product.

Simple yet vital, the Roth ID Tag is an adhesive designed to stick forever on the fabric of a child's car seat.

If that child needs to be rushed to the hospital, the tear-off tab sees the sticker become a hospital bracelet, with vital medical and contact information.

The Roth ID Tag was created by the sister of the deceased Julie Roth, who was killed in a 47-car pile up on the Ohio Turnpike on December 23rd, 2022. In the midst of the worst winter storm that year, Julie didn't survive, but Ayla and Rory, her two children strapped into their car seats, did.

As first responders combed through the wreckage, pulling the injured from their cars, they came across Julie's little ones. But with their mother unresponsive, and triage decisions being made at scale, it was never determined who the two surviving children were.

Instead they were rushed with other survivors to the hospital where the problem compounded. Who were those two traumatized children, what were their names, what were their blood types, did they have a latex allergy?

Hours would pass before they were finally examined and

20 years after a Washington state dam was slated for demolition, 1,100 acres of ecosystem along the Lower Elwha River is recovering, having lain muddy and dormant under the dam's engorged reservoir for more than a century.

And now, 171 years after the land left their hands, and 114 years after it was flooded, the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe is just a signature away from having it all returned to them.

Located along the Elwha between its bridges over state highway 101 and route 112, the large land parcel was drawn up in a federal bill which has passed through both houses of Congress and now awaits executive signature. National Parks Service personnel have already done fieldwork in the area in collaboration with the Lower Klallam tribe, as the parcel would touch the nearby Olympia National Park.

The transfer would in effect reverse the Point No Point Treaty which ceded most of the tribe's historically-inhabited territory in 1855 for access to education, healthcare, and a guarantee of hunting and fishing rights. The dam, which ruined their fishing livelihoods and flooded their lands, was not part of the agreement.

The flooded acreage includes sites sacred to the Klallam's memory, among which include historic villages and

A new crocodilian species has been identified from fossils recovered from a rock layer harvested by ancient Egyptians to build the Sphinx

And funnily enough, just like the iconic Egyptian landmark, this fossilized reptile is missing the tip of its snout.

In the 1920s, several fossils were recovered from the 45-million-year-old Mokattam Formation in Egypt. Those fossils, including a nearly complete skull, were described as belonging to Tomistoma, a genus of gavial crocodile, a cousin of alligators and crocodiles with long thin snouts.

But recent analytical advances in paleontology, including the use of CT scanning to look inside the skull, allowed an international team of researchers to identify several differences between the skull from the Mokattam Formation fossils, and the Tomistoma of their original classification more than 100 years ago.

According to a study published October 7th in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the original, erroneous classification was made despite the fact that T. schlegelii lives today in Indonesia and Malaysia a far cry from the Nile Delta. Later, it was classed into a new Tomistoma species named after Cairo, but this wasn't to stand either.

The CT scans showed substantial differences between the skull found in Cairo, and anything from

As autumn descends upon the Great Plains of North America, the largest private land conservation project in the country is ringing in an inspirational milestone.

The resident herd of relatively free-roaming bison now numbers 4 digits for the first time since the organization's founding more than 20 years ago.

American Prairie is a conservation nonprofit that GNN readers may be familiar with. The group is quite simply attempting to stitch together the largest contiguously-wild stretch of North American Prairie in the country for the purpose of conservation and recreation.

Stitching together grasslands, water features, ranchland, rolling hills, and woodland, the reserve has accumulated 603,657 acres, which comprises 167,070 deeded acres and 436,587 leased public acres. The goal is ultimately to protect and some cases rewild 3.2 million acres—far harder to achieve for citizens than government lawmakers.

Yet in the over 20 years that American Prairie has been working, they've expanded their reserve to such an extent that if it were declared a National Park, it would rank among the nation's 10 largest across the Lower 48.

Americans know that tens of millions of bison used to roam the prairie, and that those herds were almost wiped out long ago. What most Americans won't

In March, GNN reported that North America's largest wildlife overpass had opened in December over Interstate 25 near Larkspur, in Colorado.

Now, 10 months on from its opening, data has demonstrated that the 6-lane lifeline for bears, elk, moose, and other animals is working, with 91% fewer collisions between wildlife and vehicles.

Measuring 200 feet wide and 209 feet long, the overpass covers 41,800 square feet (3,900 sq. meters), making it the single largest bridge structure for wildlife in North America—and one of the largest in the world.

It includes not only the bridge deck, but 5 wildlife underpass tunnels for smaller or more timid animals to cross as well. Thousands of yards of fencing funnel creatures to the bridge, completing the infrastructure.

Estimates from Colorado DoT officials expected collisions to be reduced by 90%—and indeed the figures after 10 months have been 1% better.

"We are thrilled," said Bridget O'Rourke, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, to the Colorado Sun. "Wildlife overpasses and underpasses and funneling animals to have a safe path across the roads, it's been statistically proven that it's successful."

It's not just the bear or elk that are crossing safely, but smaller animals

166 years ago today, the Open Championship, also known as the British Open, was first played in Scotland, at the Prestwick Golf Club in Ayrshire. The oldest golf tournament in the world, and one of the four prestigious majors, it rotates between a select group of coastal UK golf courses. READ more about its history… (1860)

Alongside the Masters Tournament, the PGA Championship, and the US Open, it was originally called the Open, because in theory, it is 'open' to all, including qualifying amateur golfers. For its first 30 years, the tournament's 36 holes were played in a single day, and won exclusively by Scottish players.

The trophy is a Claret Jug, which has been presented to every champion since 1872, and is on permanent display at the clubhouse at the Golf Club of St Andrews. The winner must return the trophy before the next year's Open and then receives a replica to keep permanently.

English golfer Harry Vardon holds the record for most victories, winning his sixth in 1914. Often called Golf's founding father and son, Scottish golfer Tom Morris, the elder, (who still holds the record for greatest Open victory margin with 13