On the evening of July 6, 1819, French aeronaut Sophie Blanchard ascended to the sky in a balloon, and was set to discharge some fireworks from the basket. But the fireworks ignited the gas in her balloon. Blanchard fell with a frightful crash upon the slanting roof of a house in the Rue de Provence.
The death of Sophie Blanchard signaled the beginning of the end of 'balloon-mania,' which swept continental Europe and England for almost 40 years and involved women playing crucial roles.
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