Daredevils
Read the potted biographies of your favourite daredevils:
Evel Knievel | Harry Houdini | Tanya Streeter | Edmund Hilary | David Livingstone | Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards | Buster Keaton | David Blaine | Yuri Gagarin | Joe Kittinger | Annie Taylor | Alain Robert | Michael Crawford
Evel Kneivel (PA/EMPICS)
Evel Knievel
The original red, white and blue motorcycle daredevil, Robert Craig 'Evel' Knievel has jumped just about everything, from the fountains at Caesar's Palace to 44 double-decker buses at Wembley, although not always successfully.
In probably his most famous feat, he used a rocket-powered motorcycle to try and jump Idaho's Snake River Canyon. Thanks to the premature deployment of a safety parachute he never made it across the canyon.
Indeed, over the course of two decades, Knievel seemed to break more bones than world records. In fact, somewhat ironically, he even appeared in the Guinness Book of Records for having broken 35 bones in his body.
Harry Houdini (LP Pics)
Harry Houdini
In 1891 at the age of 17, former apprentice locksmith Ehrich Weiss changed his name to Harry Houdini, a name which he believed would liken him to Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin, the father or modern magic.
The Hungarian-born escapologist went on to become far more famous than his idol, not just for his escapologist and magical stunts but also for debunking so-called spiritualists and mediums.
Through a legendary career of escaping from straight-jackets, handcuffs and water tanks, Houdini was also happy to reveal the secrets of his daring escapes. Houdini's death, in 1926, is often attributed to his being punched in the stomach when he was unprepared. However we now know the punch was incidental and that acute appendicitis was the probable cause.
Tanya Streeter
In 2002, Tanya Streeter from Grand Cayman was named 'The World's Most Perfect Athlete' by Sports Illustrated. An extraordinary accolade but one wholly deserved for a stunning track record at freediving – one of the most dangerous sports in the world, involving swimming to great depths, either unaided or holding on to a weighted sled, without any kind of breathing equipment.
Besides being extremely fit, freedivers also have to have nerves of steel to withstand the extreme pressure. Streeter added a new record to her list of accomplishments by smashing the 'men's no limit' record by diving to depth of 160 metres in 2002.
Edmund Hilary and sherpa Tensing (LP Pics)
Edmund Hilary
When Sir Edmund Hillary first conquered the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, with sherpa Tensing Norgay as part of a British Army expedition in 1953, he instantly became a hero in both Britain and his native New Zealand.
More than half a century later and Everest has become a 'tourist mountain', with 2000 or so people having reached its 8848-metre peak, nearly half of whom did so since 1998. Because of this it is difficult to comprehend how difficult it would have been for Hillary and Norgay. But beside Everest, Hillary has also reached the South Pole and even led an expedition from the mouth of the River Ganges in India to its source in the Himalayas.
David Livingstone
In three trips, carried out over the course of 30 years in the mid-1800s, the Victorian Scottish missionary David Livingstone charted a large part of Africa's interior, at a time when virtually nothing was known about it.
Despite encountering extremely dangerous conditions, as well as losing his wife to dysentery and the use of one arm to a lion, Livingstone went on to discover and name Victoria Falls before becoming obsessed with finding the source of the Nile, like many explorers of that time.
In popular culture though, he is perhaps best known through the quotation 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?' uttered by Henry Morton Stanley who in 1871 was sent to Africa to find Livingstone as part of a publicity stunt organised by the New York Herald. Livingston had fallen ill and had been out of contact with the Western world for six years.
Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards
In 1988 an unknown plasterer from Cheltenham called Eddie 'The Eagle' Edwards packed his bags and headed to Calgary to become the first person to represent the UK in the Winter Olympics ski jumping event.
Quite apart from his unusual appearance (a short, unsporty physique and coke-bottle glasses that earned him the nickname of Mr Magoo by some unkind members of the press), it was the fact that he didn't know how to ski jump that set him apart.
Despite his lack of skills, it seemed the worse that Edwards did, the more popular he became. The fact that he had the courage to take part at all with so little training was enough to endear him to the watching world. However, his participation eventually led to the International Olympic Committee tightening the entrance requirements for competitors.
Buster Keaton (LP Pics)
Buster Keaton
Joseph 'Buster' Keaton quickly became one of the most popular performers of the silent-film era. His physical comedy and carefully crafted stunts earned him the reputation of a daredevil. During the shooting of a famous railroad scene in Sherlock Jr, Keaton even managed to break his neck, although he didn't discover this until 10 years later.
Keaton's skills were honed growing up on the stage. In particular, he took part in a triple act with his parents in a dangerous vaudeville act – portraying a mother and father trying to discipline their unruly, prankster child. He reputedly got his nickname when he was just six months old, when Harry Houdini witnessed Keaton falling down a flight of stairs unharmed.
David Blaine (AP/EMPICS)
David Blaine
Not content to stick to street magic, US illusionist David Blaine has in recent years tried desperately to reposition himself as a modern-day Houdini.
He has buried himself alive; been encased in ice; lived in a suspended glass box without food for 44 days; stood on a 90-foot-high pole for 35 hours; lived underwater for seven days; and held his breath for seven minutes and eight seconds, almost breaking the world record.
But the only thing he appears to have shown is that his endurance outstrips that of his public support.
Yuri Gagarin (LP Pics)
Yuri Gagarin
Arguably the greatest adventurer of all, Yuri Gagarin blasted off in a small tin can spacecraft, called Vostok-1, on 12 April 1961 to become the first man in space. The previously unknown lieutenant in the Soviet Air Force spent only 108 minutes in a single orbit before returning to Earth a living legend.
Joe Kittinger
In 1960 the US Air Force wanted to see if it was possible for future astronauts in pressure suits to survive an ejection from very high altitudes. To find out, US Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger volunteered to take part in an extreme experiment involving riding a balloon to 31,000 metres before jumping out.
Kittinger's freefall lasted four and a half minutes before he eventually opened his parachute at 5486 metres. During his freefall, Kittinger claims he broke the sound barrier. However, all recordings clocked his speed at 982 kilometres per hour, or 0.8 Mach. Even so, the experiment set new records for the highest balloon ascent and the highest parachute jump.
Annie Taylor (LP Pics)
Annie Taylor
On 24 October 1901 Annie Edison Taylor, a 63-year-old retired schoolteacher, celebrated her birthday by climbing into a barrel with her pet cat and tumbling over Niagara Falls. She was the first of many people do so. Happily, she survived the adventure, unlike several of the men who followed her in subsequent years.
The modified airtight pickle barrel contained safety straps and an anvil to provide ballast, and was pressurised using a bicycle pump. She was recovered from her barrel just 17 minutes later and suffered only minor concussion and slight cuts to the head. However, her belief that the feat would make her rich proved unfounded and she died penniless 20 years later.
Alain Robert (AP/EMPICS)
Alain Robert
A French climber from Valence who first became famous in the 1980s for unauthorised scaling of urban skyscrapers without any kind of harnesses or safety gear. His often illegal antics and his ability to scale just about any kind of building quickly earned him the nickname 'Spiderman'.
With a track record of more than 60 buildings, including the Sears Tower, Canary Wharf and the Eiffel Tower, Robert has been arrested countless times and admitted defeat only once – in Paris after the weather conditions made it too hot for him to continue leading to him having to be rescued. Robert has only ever had two accidents, both during training when harnessed.
Michael Crawford
Perhaps now more famous for his performance in Phantom of the Opera, earlier on in his career Michael Crawford was very much a modern-day Buster Keaton. It began with his performance as the hapless Frank Spencer in the hit TV series Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, where Crawford became renowned for carrying out his own stunts.
This level of commitment was then followed up when he later went on to play PT Barnum in the musical about the famous circus showman. In addition to doing his own stunts, Crawford also learned some circus skills for the performance, including being able to tightrope walk for the show's grand finale.
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