October 31

Charles Leroux, born in 1856, was a trailblazer in aerial sports. He performed daring exhibition jumps from balloons, thrilling audiences across Europe and the United States. Leroux designed and refined parachute equipment, pushing the boundaries of safety and performance. His public demonstrations helped popularize ballooning and parachuting as spectacles. In 1889, during a jump in Tallinn (then Reval), his parachute failed, and he tragically drowned. Despite his untimely death, his innovations influenced future generations of aeronauts and parachutists.

Michael Collins was an American astronaut, test pilot, and U.S. Air Force major general. As command module pilot on Apollo 11, he circled the Moon alone while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made history on the lunar surface. A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, Collins flew combat missions in Vietnam and became a respected figure in aerospace. After NASA, he served as director of the National Air and Space Museum and wrote the acclaimed memoir Carrying the Fire. His insights and leadership continued to inspire space exploration until his death in 2021.