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Credit for the invention of the first practical parachute frequently goes to Sebastien Lenormand who demonstrated the parachute principle in 1783.
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Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard was the first person to actually use a parachute for an emergency.
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In 1797, Andrew Garnerin became the first person recorded to jump with a parachute without a rigid frame.
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In 1837, Robert Cocking became the first person to die from a parachute accident.
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In 1887, Captain Thomas Baldwin invented the first parachute harness.
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In 1890, Paul Letteman and Kathchen Paulus invented the method of folding or packing the parachute in a knapsack to be worn on a person's back before its release.
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Both Grant Morton and Captain Albert Berry parachuted from an airplane in 1911.
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In 1914, Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick made the first freefall jump.
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Parachute jumping as a sport began in the 1960s when new "sports parachutes" were first designed.
