Today in Science History
On September 16 in 1804, physicist Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, 25, makes a solo balloon ascension to 7,016 meters (23,018 feet). It is an altitude record that stands for over half a century, but more importantly Gay-Lussac took air samples and measurements that helped establish the sciences of meteorology and space biology.
[ from The Illustrated Almanac of Science, Technology, and Invention ]