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On October 24, 1901, Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live to tell about it. The 43-year-old school teacher from Bay City, Michigan had no credentials as a daredevil. Anna could not even swim! She dreamed up the scheme merely as a money-making ploy. She rode in a 160-pound oak barrel. It was only 4-1/2 feet long and just 4 feet in diameter at its widest point. The barrel contained a 100-pound anvil that served as ballast to keep it upright in the water. A crude pump supplied Anna with air. Cushions fastened with leather straps were intended to keep Anna from getting hurt. Seven iron hoops were all that held the barrel together. The stunt was well publicized and several thousand people were on hand to view the event. They watched the barrel descend down the 167-foot waterfall. (It took three seconds.) It remained submerged at the bottom for another 10 seconds. When the barrel was hauled out of the water, Anna emerged bruised and bleeding from a slight cut behind her right ear. She was babbling incoherently for a few moments, but she had survived. Anna attempted to cash in on her achievement with public speaking engagements. However, from all accounts, she spoke in a boring, emotionless, raspy monotone that put audiences to sleep. Furthermore, she stupidly got rid of the barrel which would have added immensely to her dull lecture. For years afterwards Anna eked out a meager living selling autographs in Niagara Falls beside a facsimile barrel. She died in 1921.
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Anna
Edson
Niagara
Falls
Daredevil
Added: 21st November 2007
Views: 318
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
 
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This is another iconic image of the 50’s segregation period. Elizabeth Eckford is one of the African American students known as the Little Rock Nine. On September 4, 1957, she and eight other African American students attempted to enter Little Rock Central High School, which had previously only accepted white students. They were stopped at the door by Arkansas National Guard troops called up by Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus. They tried again without success to attend Central High on September 23, 1957. The next day, September 24, President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent U.S. Army troops to accompany the Little Rock Nine to school for protection.
The thing is… she is not the subject of the photograph. Will Counts, the photographer shot Hazel Massery, the white girl shouting in front of the man. 40 years later she apologized to Elisabeth...
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photo
Little
Rock,
Arkansas
Elizabeth
Eckford
Hazel
Massey
Will
Counts
Added: 2nd December 2007
Views: 316
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Posted By: Teresa |
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Wow, this has got to be one of his best songs, sad, but beautiful. Clapton wrote this in 1991, after the death of his four-year-old son, Conor, who fell from a 53rd-story window in his mother's New York City condominium. By all accounts, the death was simply a tragic accident, and Clapton was distraught for months afterwards.
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tears
in
heaven
eric
clapton
will
jennings
Added: 9th January 2008
Views: 879
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Posted By: Naomi |
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