Wikipedia: first balloon boys...(in a new history of flight from Smithsonian, it begins here)

[Mark Kohut]

Today's featured picture
 A 1786 depiction of the first hot air balloon to carry humans, built by the Montgolfier brothers of Annonay, France. The flight occurred on 21 November 1783 from the grounds of the Château de la Muette in the western outskirts of Paris. Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, a physician, and François Laurent d'Arlandes, an army officer, flew aloft about 3,000 feet (910 m) above the city for a distance of 9 kilometres (5.6 mi), with a total flying time of 25 minutes.Artist: Unknown 
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