French acrobat Jean- François Gravelet, better known as Charles Blondin, crossed Niagara Falls 300 times and walked more than 10,000 miles on his rope by the time he gave his final performance in 1896. He is seen here during his 1859 crossing. He died of com- plications from diabetes in 1897. In nearly 73 years on this earth, Blondin never had life insurance. No one, he’d always joked, would take the risk. (Source – Smithsonian Magazine) (Image from Wikimedia Commons, public domain)