On October 24, 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie
Edson Taylor became the first person to successfully take the
plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

After her husband died in the Civil War, the New York-born Taylor
moved all over the U. S. before settling in Bay City, Michigan,
around 1898. In July 1901, while reading an article about the Pan-
American Exposition in Buffalo, she learned of the growing
popularity of two enormous waterfalls located on the border of
upstate New York and Canada. Strapped for cash and seeking
fame, Taylor came up with the perfect attention-getting stunt:
She would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.