The First Recorded Human Flight Was From a Monk Who Glided on Homemade Wings
The Wright Brothers are credited for being the first human beings to take flight, but way back in 1005 AD, a British monk named Eilmer of Malmesbury made a pair of wings after reading the Greek myth of Daedalus. He genuinely believed that he could get the wings to work, and fly like a bird. When he jumped off of a building, he glided for about 200 meters. However, it was an incredibly windy day, and he lost control of the glider. He fell and broke both of his legs. This caused him to become lame for the rest of his life. Eilmer believed that if he had added a tail to the end of the glider wings, he may have been able to fly better. But he never got a second chance.