Today is the anniversary of the world's first successful parachute jump by Andre-Jacques Garnerin.
Andre-Jacques Garnerin became the first human to successfully complete a parachute jump on October 22, 1797.
The French aeronaut, Garnerin rode in a basket attached to a balloon to about 3,000 feet above Paris before cutting off the rope that connected his basket and the parachute to the balloon.
While the balloon floated along, the basket and the parachute hurtled earthwards. While the descent wasn't very smooth -- the basket swung violently while landing and scraped and bumped when it hit the ground -- Garnerin was unhurt.
The aeronaut thus became the world’s first parachutist and went on to perform several similar jumps.
Ironically, the cause of his death on August 18, 1823 was a freak construction accident that occurred while he was making a balloon in Paris.
Today's Google homepage has an interactive doodle of Garnerin's first jump.
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