Google Doodle Celebrates World's First Parachute Jump

On Oct. 22, 1797, Frenchman André-Jacque Garnerin became the world's first person to jump with a parachute.

On this day in 1797, Frenchman André-Jacque Garnerin became the world's first person to jump with a parachute.

He jumped from a hyrdrogen balloon that rose above Parc Monceau in Paris that reached a height of 3,000 feet. When the balloon had reached its apex, Garnerin began to cut the rope connecting his parachute to the balloon. The balloon continued drifting upward into the sky as Garnerin descended back to land in the balloon's basket using a silk parachute, according to The Telegraph.

Now 216 years later, Google is celebrating Garnerin's historic jump with a Google Doodle featuring a game that allows users to use their right and left arrow keys to guide the path of a falling parachutist safely towards the ground.

After Garnerin's historic jump, he was granted the title of Official Aeronaut of France and went on to become an international celebrity. He took part in other jumps from as high as 8,000 feet.

Just two years after Garnerin's historic jump, his future wife Jeanne Geneviéve Labrosse became the first female parachutist.

Garnerin died at the age of 54 on August 18, 1823 while working on a new balloon in Paris. He was struck by a falling beam at the construction site of one of his new balloons. He died instantly, according to The Independent.
 

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