science · 30 September 1906 · 118 years ago
In 1906, the world's first international balloon race began. It was won by a coal-gas balloon, the United States. Pilot Lt. Frank P. Lahm of the U.S. Signal Corps and his co-pilot Maj. Henry B. Hersey, of the Weather Bureau, flew 402 miles (647-km) from Paris, France, to Scarborough, England, in 22-hr 15-min, to win the Gordon-Bennett Cup. The race sponsor, James Gordon-Bennett (1841-1918), publisher of the New York Herald, was known for financing Henry Stanley's expedition into Africa to find David Livingstone. The 1906 balloon race launched at the Jardin des Tuleries, with 250,000 spectators. Of 17 entrants, only seven reached England safely. The American win promoted ballooning back home, and nominated the U.S. as host for the next race, in 1907, held at St. Louis, Missouri.
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