First Manned Balloon Flight
November 21, 1783
Over Paris, Pilatre de Rozier and the Marquis d'Arlandes rose into the air in the Montgolfier brothers' paper balloon, tending a straw fire in its belly. They drifted five miles before landing in a vineyard. Humans had left the ground under their own contraption for the first time. Within weeks Jacques Charles flew a hydrogen balloon higher and longer, and the race between hot air and gas was on.
In context
Also in 1783 (4 other events on record)
- Treaty of Paris Recognizes American Independence · North America · Politics
- Laki Eruption in Iceland · Europe · Disaster
- Russia Annexes Crimea · Europe · Politics
- William Pitt the Younger Becomes Prime Minister · Europe · Politics
Before and after in Europe
Before and after in Science
Era
Enlightenment (1651–1800), one of 696 events from that era on Saeculum.