First English Channel Balloon Crossing: Two Men, One Basket, No Engine
Twelve pounds of silk, a wicker basket, and pure audacity. Blanchard and Jeffries became the first humans to cross the English Channel by air, tossing everything non-essential overboard to stay aloft - including their outer clothing. And still they nearly didn't make it, dropping to just feet above the freezing water before finally crash-landing in a French forest. Their fragile hydrogen balloon drifted 25 miles across the Channel, proving that humans could conquer the sky with nothing more than fabric, gas, and remarkable nerve.
January 7, 1785
241 years ago
Key Figures & Places
France
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United States
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England
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Calais
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Jean-Pierre Blanchard
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John Jeffries
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Dover, England
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balloon
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Dover, England
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Jean-Pierre Blanchard
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John Jeffries
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Dover
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Calais
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Balloon
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English Channel
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Balloon (aeronautics)
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Gas balloon
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Hydrogen
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Paso de Calais
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