So close!
You picked Sam Patch. The answer is Annie Edson Taylor.
Who was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive?
Why the answer is Annie Edson Taylor
On October 24, 1901, her sixty-third birthday, Annie Edson Taylor, a widowed schoolteacher from Michigan, climbed into a barrel padded with a mattress and was set adrift above Horseshoe Falls. She hoped the stunt would bring her fame and financial security.
She survived with only a cut on her head. Climbing out, she reportedly told reporters that no one should ever try it again.
Sadly, a manager ran off with her barrel, and she never made much money. Bobby Leach became the second person to survive the trip, in 1911. French tightrope walker Charles Blondin had crossed the gorge on a rope in 1859.
Facts to bring to dinner
63
Annie Taylor’s age on her barrel ride.
1901
The first barrel ride over the falls.
Horseshoe
The falls Taylor went over, on the Canadian side.
Stump a friend with this one