First hint of parachute invention in ancient China
1495
Leonardo da Vinci makes famous sketch of a parachute
Fausto Veranzio designed, built and demonstrated his parachute
Sebastien Lenormand invents first practical parachute
First manned flight by the Montgolfier brothers in a hot air balloon
Jean Pierre Blanchard invents foldable silk parachute
First emergency use of parachute by Jean Pierre Blanchard
First jump with a parachute without rigid frame by Andrew Garnerin
First parachute death accident by Robert Cocking
Cap. Thomas Baldwin invented the first parachute harness
The parachute's knapsack is invented by Paul Letteman and Kathchen Paulus
Kathchen Paulus invents the parachute breakaway
First person to manually open a parachute and briefly experience freefall by Tiny Broadwick
Germany equipped its airforce with parachutes near the end of ww1, unlike the rest of the world
The United States Army created and tested the model A parachute, which was a breakthrough. It was tested by Leslie Irvin
Lieutenant Harold R. Harris had the first long freefall in history, falling 2,000ft. before opening his parachute
The U.S. Forest Service made the first test use of parachutes to deliver firefighters
U.S.A invents nylon and replaces silk with it
Reefing parachutes are invented by Germany
Ejection seats are invented by Germany
20,000 paratroopers make the largest focused drop of parachutes in history on D-Day
Parachuting becomes a sport
cap. Kittinger jumped from the edge of space towards Earth for a test jump
Alan Shepard returns to Earth after a 15 minute suborbital flight
Ram air parachute is invented and used by smokejumpers
The 3 ring system was invented by Bill Booth designed to ditch the main parachute and open a reserve
The Tandem harness is invented by Bill Booth to have 2 people in 1 harness
NASA's Galileo achieved the highest impact speed of any man-made object when it hit the atmosphere of Jupiter, later deploying a parachute to gather information
Nasa's Pathfinder parachuted safely onto Mars
NASA's robotic and state of the art X-38 is a recue pod that's successfully tested
Felix Baumgartner jumped from the stratosphere from a hot air balloon and was the first human outside a vehicle to break the sound barrier