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N0KFQ > TODAY 24.10.15 17:30l 50 Lines 2246 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 71067_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 24
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 151024/1524Z 71067@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.64
1901
First barrel ride down Niagara Falls
On this day in 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie
Edson Taylor becomes the first person to take the plunge over
Niagara Falls in a barrel.
After her husband died in the Civil War, the New York-born Taylor
moved all over the U. S. before settling in Bay City, Michigan,
around 1898. In July 1901, while reading an article about the
Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, she learned of the growing
popularity of two enormous waterfalls located on the border of
upstate New York and Canada. Strapped for cash and seeking fame,
Taylor came up with the perfect attention-getting stunt: She
would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
Taylor was not the first person to attempt the plunge over the
famous falls. In October 1829, Sam Patch, known as the Yankee
Leaper, survived jumping down the 175-foot Horseshoe Falls of the
Niagara River, on the Canadian side of the border. More than 70
years later, Taylor chose to take the ride on her birthday,
October 24. (She claimed she was in her 40s, but genealogical
records later showed she was 63.) With the help of two
assistants, Taylor strapped herself into a leather harness inside
an old wooden pickle barrel five feet high and three feet in
diameter. With cushions lining the barrel to break her fall,
Taylor was towed by a small boat into the middle of the
fast-flowing Niagara River and cut loose.
Knocked violently from side to side by the rapids and then
propelled over the edge of Horseshoe Falls, Taylor reached the
shore alive, if a bit battered, around 20 minutes after her
journey began. After a brief flurry of photo-ops and speaking
engagements, Taylor's fame cooled, and she was unable to make the
fortune for which she had hoped. She did, however, inspire a
number of copy-cat daredevils. Between 1901 and 1995, 15 people
went over the falls; 10 of them survived. Among those who died
were Jesse Sharp, who took the plunge in a kayak in 1990, and
Robert Overcracker, who used a jet ski in 1995. No matter the
method, going over Niagara Falls is illegal, and survivors face
charges and stiff fines on either side of the border.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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