ChronoFive
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Setting the scene
French papermakers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier experimented with heated-air bags after noticing embers lifting laundry over a fire. Their early unmanned flights outside Annonay in June 1783 astonished provincial crowds and reached King Louis XVI's court.
What happened
On September 19, 1783, a Montgolfier balloon carried a sheep, a duck, and a rooster in a cage before the royal family at Versailles; the animals landed safely. The first free flight with human passengers—Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent d'Arlandes—lifted from the Bois de Boulogne on November 21, 1783, traveling about 5.5 miles in roughly 25 minutes.
Why it still matters
Ballooning became Enlightenment spectacle, inspiring fashion, satire, and military reconnaissance experiments across Europe. Memorable detail: Pilâtre de Rozier later died in 1785 attempting a hybrid hot-air and hydrogen crossing of the English Channel, becoming one of aviation's first fatalities.
Background
Crowds watched a sheep, duck, and rooster fly days earlier.