It was on October 24th that a 63 year old Bay City, Michigan teacher, Annie Taylor intentionally went of the falls in a barrel and lived to tell about it.

She was strapped by her assistants into a special harness inside a wooden barrel. Then towed out into the mainstream of the upper Niagara River and cut loose. The trip took 17 minutes before she plunged over the falls. When the barrel drifted close to the shore below the falls it was hooked and dragged to shore.

She was dazed but suffered no serious injuries. Annie Taylor became the first person to intentionally go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

Since 1901 there have been 15 intentional daredevil trips over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls in some type of contraption, by 15 different people (2 went over twice).Five out of the 15 have lost their lives in the attempt. The last person to go over the falls was Robert Overacker using a jet-ski. He lost his life in the October 1, 1995 attempt.

Some lists include Kirk Jones who survived a plunge over the falls wearing only a jacket and jeans on October 20, 2003. He was not being a daredevil. He admitted at the time he was attempting to kill himself. Instead he became one of the luckiest people on this planet.