“What do you call a piano built in Miami? The Florida Keys.”
James SadlerDied 26 Mar 1828 at age 75 (baptized 27 Feb 1753).British balloonist and chemist who was the first English aeronaut, whose first successful ascent was on 4 Oct 1784, in a hot-air balloon, from Christ Church Meadow, Oxford. He rose to an estimated 3600 feet and travelled six miles. He made a 20-minute hydrogen balloon flight the next month, on 12 Nov 1784. By the time he attempted a crossing of St. George's Channel from Ireland, on 1 Oct 1812, he had made about sixty ascents. Almost reaching land, success eluded him when due to a change of wind he ditched in the sea off Liverpool. After some time in the water, he was rescued by a fishing boat. His two sons, John and Wyndham also took up ballooning. Wyndham succesfully made the Irish Sea crossing from Dublin to Holyhead on 22 Jul 1817. (He fell from his balloon 29 Sep 1824, and died the next day.)«[Obituary gives death on 26 Mar, but 27 Mar is on his tombstone. Shortly before Sadler's first flight, a Scotsman, James Tytler, made a modest ascent from Edinburgh, Scotland, on 27 Aug 1784, and an Italian, Vincent Lunardi, lifted off from London, on 15 Sep 1784.] |
