Daredevils Throughout History
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A crowd watches as a bicyclist "loops-the-loop" in New York. While daredevils are today often categorized as extreme sportsmen, they have been known throughout history as risk-takers in many varieties, from tightrope-walkers to bull runners, from cliff divers to motorcycle jumpers. These risk-takers put their life on the line for the thrill.
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Clem Sohn before his exhibition parachute jump in Paris. The American "Bird Man" leaped from an airplane at a height of 10,000 feet when his first parachute failed to open, crashing to the ground before his second parachute had time to open. Sohn was a pioneer in a sport that would later be called "wingsuit flying" - a modern daredevil sport that has gained in popularity in recent years.
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Col. Joe Kittinger steps off a balloon-supported gondola at an altitude of 102,800 feet. In free-fall for 4.5 minutes at speeds up to 614 mph and temperatures as low as -94 degrees Fahrenheit, he opened his parachute at 18,000 feet. Kittinger set the world record for the world's highest jump when he jumped from 19.5 miles in 1960.
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Philippe Petit, a French high wire artist, walks across a tightrope suspended between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers in New York. This walk gave him fame and he later starred in the documentary "Man on Wire."
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Police officers on scaffolding speak with Dan Goodwin as he scales the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Goodwin reached the top of the 1,350-foot building in 3.5 hours.
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German stuntman Jochen Schweizer undertakes a bungee jump on his mountain bike from the Hamburg's television tower. Schweizer performed this unique bungee jump to promote his bungee jumping center.
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Taiwanese daredevil Ke Shouliang jumps in his specially adapted sports car across the Hokou waterfall on the Yellow River.
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French stuntman Patrick De Gayardon, wearing a suit equipped with wings he invented and tested, flies over the Grand Canyon during an experience of what he called "wing fly".
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Perhaps the most well-known daredevil, motorcyclist Evel Knievel sails over 7 Mack trucks during a practice jump in the open-air Canadian national exhibition stadium in Toronto, Canada.
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Robbie Knievel flies above the Grand Canyon during a successful 228 feet world record jump. Knievel crashed following his landing and sustained injuries but talked to the crowd before being flown by helicopter to the University Medical Center in Las Vegas, NV.
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A daredevil pilot crashes his non-flying machine into Lake Geneva. Meanwhile his take-off helpers lost the plot and jump after him, during the third "Red Bull" flight spectacle meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.
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Vitali Ruhl dives from a 85-foot-high cliff in Brontallo, Ticino, Switzerland, during the training for the WHDF Cliff-Diving World Championship.
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Skydivers Michael Swearingen and Paul Mazzillo wear wingsuits to fly over the Florida Keys in Marathon, Fla.
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An Indian soldier in a daredevil group performs during an army show in Kolkata.
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Dean Potter climbs Delicate Arch inside Arches National Park in Utah. The park rushed to tighten its rules on climbing after Potter announced, with photographs and video, that he made the unassisted climb.
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A stuntman acting as Spiderman leaps from a hurtling vehicle to another during a show held at the Xinhualu Stadium in Wuhan, China.
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Photographers take pictures as revelers take off on Estafeta Street during the third run with El Ventorrillo fighting bulls at the San Fermin festival in Spain.
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A BASE jumper leaps from a height of 985 feet off Malaysia's landmark KL Tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
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A Jammu and Kashmir state police daredevil performs stunts during the Republic Day celebrations in India.
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A young Hungarian stuntman, nicknamed "Szenty," skies down on a public stairway in Budapest, Hungary.
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BASE jumpers Robert Morissey and Anthony Hood leap from the top of the 1381-foot Kuala Lumpur Tower during the International Tower Jump.
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German tightrope walkers troupe "Weisheit," perform in front of the Monte Carlo Casino Palace, before the 35th Monte-Carlo International Circus Festival in Monaco.
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Artem Silchenko of Russia dives from the 90-foot platform at the fourth stop of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series in La Rochelle, France.
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A stuntman stands on a motorbike as he performs on the inside of an attraction called the "Well of Death" during the Sonepur Mela near Patna, India.
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Felix Baumgartner prepares to jump during the first manned test flight for Red Bull Stratos over Roswell, N.M. Baumgartner is more than halfway toward his goal of setting a world record for the highest jump. Baumgartner is aiming for nearly 23 miles in the summer. The record is held by Joe Kittinger.
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Alain Robert, known as the French 'Spiderman' climbs the 706 feet up Bakrie Tower building in Jakarta.
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French stuntman Eric Barone rides his bicycle during his bid to clock a new speed record on a bicycle on snow at Les Arcs ski resort in Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France.
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Dany Torres of Spain performs during the qualifying round of the first stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
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Daredevil Nik Wallenda walks on a tightrope past masts of the USS Constellation above Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Wallenda, who holds five Guinness World Records, is a seventh-generation member of the Flying Wallenda family.
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