Word: lenormand
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Louis-Sébastian Lenormand climbed to the top of an observatory tower in Montpellier, France, leaned over the edge, and jumped. An astonished crowd watched as he fell to the ground with the aid of a new contraption called the parachute and landed unhurt...
Although the sport's name is only 27 years old, the idea has been around ever since Lenormand took his first step off the building to test his parachute - a contraption resembling an oversized umbrella, which he had invented to help people escape burning buildings. On February 2, 1912, in much the same spirit, 35-year-old Frederick Law jumped off the Statue of Liberty's observation platform. He and his 100-pound parachute landed with a thud on Liberty Island's stone coping, a few yards from the water. A Russian man named Vladimir Ossovski performed a similar stunt...