On this day in 1901, Annie Edson Taylor, a widowed schoolteacher from Bay City, Michigan, made history by becoming the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel on her 63rd birthday. Desperate for work, she hoped the stunt would lead to speaking engagements, but it didn’t pan out as planned. Despite facing many challenges, including a manager who stole her barrel, she remains forever known as the "Heroine of Niagara."