All is True – Ingliando

On this day, the French tightrope walker and acrobat, Charles Blondin, crossed the Niagara Gorge on a 340 metre tightrope suspended 49 metres above the water, a feat that made him an instant celebrity throughout the world. He went on to repeat the performance several times, often with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, pushing a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying his manager Harry Colcord on his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelette, or standing on a chair with only one of its legs balanced on the rope. At the age of 71, he walked on a tightrope across Waterloo Lake in Roundhay Park, Leeds, several times. Blondin died at his ‘Niagara House’ in London, on 22nd February 1897, at the age of 72, and was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

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On this day, the original Globe theatre in London, where most of William Shakespeare’s plays debuted, was destroyed by fire during a performance of All is True (known to modern audiences as Henry VIII). Shakespeare had just turned 49 and was at the height of his career with no fewer than six of his works having recently been performed at court. The fire started when a theatrical cannon, set off during the performance, misfired, igniting the wooden beams and thatching. Within minutes the fire had run around the inside of the roof ‘like a train’, and the Globe was doomed. Fortunately, no one was hurt except a man whose burning breeches were put out with a bottle of ale. The theatre was rebuilt the following year, but it would seem that the shock of the fire had a lasting effect on Shakespeare’s health as he died just two years after the theatre reopened.