October 24, 1901

Posted on October 24, 2014 by Joel Byers

On This Date in TWISTED-HISTORY.com! in 1901 Anna Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a wooden barrel and live to tell the tale. She performed this daredevil of a feat on her 63rd birthday. Two days before her attempt, Mrs. Taylor’s support staff sent a domestic orange tabby named Mr. Snuckems over the falls in a barrel to see if it was possible for anything to survive the attempt. The support crew found the cat alive in the barrel at the bottom of the falls in relatively good health, albeit extremely pissed off. Two days later when Mrs. Taylor climbed into her barrel, she and her helpers found an eviscerated squirrel inside. Many of the people there thought that Mr. Snuckems had left Mrs. Taylor a farewell gift to wish her good luck. Mrs. Taylor did not see it that way as she understood cats much better than the people helping her. She knew the cat had left her a very unsettling message and a promise of a future mayhem. Mrs. Taylor still climbed into the barrel and went over the falls and survived her journey, but for the next ten years, she kept her eyes open for a certain orange tabby named Mr. Snuckems.

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About Joel Byers

Born in North Georgia and educated at some very fine public institutions. Real education started after graduating from college and then getting married and raising two boys. Has the ability to see the funny and absurd in most things and will always remark on it, even if it means getting the stink-eye from his victims.
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