Portrait of Annie Edson Taylor

Birthday profile

Annie Edson Taylor

Annie Edson Taylor, American stuntwoman and educator (died 1921)

Born
October 24, 1838
Died
April 29, 1921
Zodiac sign
Scorpio
Birth year
1838

About Annie Edson Taylor

Annie Edson Taylor was an American schoolteacher who, on her 63rd birthday, October 24, 1901, became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Her motives were financial but she never made much money from her adventure. She died penniless and her funeral was paid for by public donations. Annie Edson Taylor (October 24, 1838 – April 29, 1921) was an American schoolteacher who, on her 63rd birthday, October 24, 1901, became the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Taylor was discovered to be alive and relatively uninjured, except for a small gash on her head. Taylor was helped out of the barrel by Carlisle Graham, her friend and the first man to run the rapids on a raft.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Annie Edson Taylor was born

Annie Edson Taylor was born in 1838. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1838

  • Best-selling bookOliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineTrail of Tears — forced removal of Cherokee
  • Technology milestoneFirst transatlantic steamship crossing (SS Great Western)
  • World population~1.18B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderMartin Van Buren
  • U.S. population16.3M

1838 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Annie Edson Taylor's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18382026
Population16.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Yale LUX, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.