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Meyssonier Fernand (b. 1931-06-14 / d. 2008-08-08)
He was an executioner in the last years of French Algeria. He acted as an executioner from 1947 to 1961 and executed more than 200. He inherited the job of executioner from his father Maurice Meyssonnier in 1947 when he ended compulsory education. His ancestors had been executioners from ages ago. When Algeria became independent from France in 1961, the guillotine was replaced by execution by firing squad.
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56
Born 1969-04-20. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
Felix Baumgartner (German: [ˈfeːlɪks ˈbaʊ̯mˌɡaʁtnɐ]) was an Austrian skydiver, extreme sportster and BASE jumper. He was widely known for jumping to Earth from a helium balloon from the stratosphere on 14 October 2012 and landing in New Mexico, United States, as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. By doing so, he set world records for skydiving an estimated 39 km (24 mi), reaching an estimated top speed of 1,357.64 km/h (843.6 mph), or Mach 1.25. He became the first person to break the sound barrier relative to the surface without vehicular power on his descent. Baumgartner was also renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he performed during his career. He spent time in the Austrian military, where he practised parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones. He died in a paragliding accident in Porto Sant'Elpidio, Italy, aged 56.
34
Born 1932-08-15. Domain:Society. Cause of death:Accident
He was an American amateur parachute jumper who reached 123,500 feet (37,642 meters, 23.39 miles) with his Strato Jump II balloon on February 2, 1966, flying a manned balloon higher than anyone before, a record that stood until Felix Baumgartner's flight on October 14, 2012. His third attempt occurred on the morning of May 1, 1966. Piantanida donned a bright orange suit and parachute harness. Secured inside a styrofoam-insulated gondola about the size of a portable toilet, he began his ascent for a planned super-sonic free fall from over 120,000 feet. However, ground controllers listening to the communications link with the Strato Jump III were startled by the sound of a whoosh of rushing air and a sudden, cut-off call over the radio to abort. Piantanida's suit had depressurized at about the 57,000-foot mark. Ground controllers immediately jettisoned the balloon at close to 56,000 feet (17,000 m) – higher than the cruising altitude for commercial jets – and for 25 minutes Piantanida's gondola parachuted to the ground. He barely survived the descent, having suffered massive tissue damage due to ebullism. The lack of oxygen left him brain damaged and in a coma from which he never recovered. Piantanida died four months later at the Veterans Hospital in Philadelphia. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in North Arlington, New Jersey