Annie Edson Taylor
A 63-year-old schoolteacher who became the first person to plunge over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live to tell the tale.
1838–1921 (age 83)·American schoolteacher and daredevil·Birthday: October 24
Biography
Annie Edson Taylor was a woman of modest means with a bold, desperate plan. In 1901, facing financial ruin as she approached her sixty-third birthday, she commissioned a custom oak and iron barrel, padded it with a mattress, and had herself towed into the current above Horseshoe Falls. Her seventeen-minute journey through the violent cascade made her an instant, if fleeting, celebrity. Taylor had hoped her stunt would secure her future, but imitators and poor management left her struggling. She spent her final years selling souvenirs and photographs near the very falls that made her famous, a poignant figure whose greatest feat was one of sheer survival against impossible odds.
#1 When Annie Was Born
The biggest hits of 1838
Annie's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1838Born
1843Started school
1851Became a teenager
1854Could drive
1856Could vote
1859Turned 21
1868Turned 30
President: Andrew Johnson
1878Turned 40
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1888Turned 50
President: Grover Cleveland
1898Turned 60
Spanish-American War; US emerges as a world power
President: William McKinley
1908Turned 70
Ford Model T goes into production
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1918Turned 80
World War I ends; Spanish flu pandemic kills millions
President: Woodrow Wilson
1921Died at 83
First commercial radio broadcasts
President: Warren G. Harding"My Man" — Fanny Brice
Key Achievements
- On October 24, 1901, she became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
- She designed and commissioned her own padded oak and iron barrel for the perilous descent.
- Her successful stunt, performed at age 63, sparked a century of daredevil attempts at the falls.
Did You Know?
Her traveling companion for the stunt was a pet cat named Iagara, who survived the barrel ride with her.
She later said, 'I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces, than make another trip over the Fall.'
She is buried in Niagara Falls' Oakwood Cemetery, her grave marked by a stone shaped like a barrel.
“If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat.”
