Oct. 24, 1901: First barrel ride over Niagara Falls

From Yahoo! Malaysia News: Niagara Falls had been a tourist destination for decades before 1901, but it wasn’t until Oct. 24 of that year that the first person decided to ride a barrel over the falls. Former schoolteacher Annie Edson Taylor made the plunge on her 63rd birthday, hoping for fame and fortune. Taylor, whose…

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OVER THE EDGE: Freeport thrillseeker plans to barrel over Niagara Falls one last time

From The Walton Sun (Santa Rosa Beach, Florida): Steve Trotter is an intelligent, well-spoken and charismatic individual who happens to have barreled over Niagara Falls, twice. And, he’s about to do it again. When he was 22 years old, the Freeport man was the youngest person ever to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel….

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Daredevil survived falls, but not orange peel

From the Niagara Falls Review: After successfully going over the Horseshoe Falls in a barrel on Oct. 24, 1901, Annie Taylor, the first person to try such a stunt, reportedly said: “Nobody ought to ever do that again!” For 10 years nobody did. Then along came Bobby Leach. A native of Cornwall, England, he was…

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See Niagara Falls like a Canadian

From the Fairfax New Zealand Sun-Herald: You’d expect a country whose exports include comedians Jim Carrey, Mike “Austin Powers” Myers and Leslie Nielsen (of Flying High and Naked Gun fame) to have a unique take on a world-famous tourist attraction. Canada actually goes beyond the call of duty to exceed those expectations. Ever since 63-year-old…

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Barrels used by daredevils on display in Niagara Falls exhibit

From the Canadian Press (via Yahoo! Canada Travel): Twenty-five years after stuntman Karel Soucek survived his trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel, a new exhibit highlights the daredevils who have been drawn to the site. Soucek, from Hamilton, suffered only minor injuries in his plunge on July 2, 1984. He died, however, about six…

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