The SmithsonianOn a summer day in 1982, Larry Walters took a lawnchair into the sky.The idea of a man flying high into the sky in a chair hoisted only by balloons is something youd expect to find in a childrens story. But for a Californian named Larry Walters, it was reality.On July 2, 1982, the then-33-year-old Walters tied massive balloons to a lawnchair and took off into the sky. Planning on a short flight, he brought some beer, a sandwich, a radio, and a pellet gun.But though Walters was supposed to ascend just a short distance, the cable meant to tether him to the ground quickly snapped. As a result, Walters shot 16,000 feet into the air before he entered a rocky descent by shooting some of his balloons. Ultimately, he landed totally unharmed.This is the wild story of Lawnchair Larry Walters, and his surprising 1982 flight over Los Angeles.How His Childhood Dreams Of Flying Became RealityBorn on April 19, 1949, in Los Angeles, California, Larry Walters long dreamed of touching the sky.According to an interview he gave with the New Yorker in 1998, this dream was born when Walters visited Disneyland around the age of eight or nine. While there, he spotted a woman holding a zillion Mickey Mouse balloons. Something clicked in Walters brain.I know thats when the idea developed, Walters told the magazine. I mean, you get enough of those and theyre going to lift you up!By the time Walters was 13, he was already experimenting with making his own hydrogen generators. And when he saw a weather balloon in an Army-Navy-surplus store, he became convinced that such large balloons could easily lift a person. Touring Club Italiano/Wikimedia CommonsTwo men with a weather balloon in the 1950s. When Larry Walters saw balloons like this, he became convinced that enough of them would be strong enough to lift a person.He originally thought he might direct his curiosity about flying into becoming a pilot, but Walters poor eyesight meant that that path was closed to him. Instead, he worked as an Army cook during the Vietnam War.But in 1972, Walters realized that if he wanted to fly, he would have to start putting his plan into action. So he did. Over the next decade, Walters collected a darn sturdy little chair, 45 large balloons, and several water jugs to help with weight distribution. He dubbed his lawnchair contraption the Inspiration I.And before long, Lawnchair Larry Walters would take to the sky.The Infamous Flight Of Lawnchair Larry WaltersOn July 2, 1982, Larry Walters got ready to take flight in his lawnchair contraption. He intended to fly above his San Pedro neighborhood for a while, enjoy the view, and then come back down. He had a parachute, a camera, a CB radio, a pellet gun to pop the balloons in order to descend, and a cooler that held a sandwich, soda, and beer.But things didnt go quite as he intended. National Air and Space MuseumLarry Walters lawnchair.Walters had used a rope to tether his chair to the ground. But as he began to ascend, the rope snapped. With nothing keeping him on the ground, Larry Walters began to climb higher and higher into the sky.From the ground, his girlfriend begged him to abort the mission. But Walters was exactly where he wanted to be. I wasnt going to hassle with her because no way in heck, you know, after all this my life, the money wed sunk into this thing and just come down. No way in heck. I was just going to have have a good time up there.And thats exactly what Walters did. He sat in his chair and soaked up the view. He had brought a camera, but, completely immersed in the experience, Walters didnt use it. As he ascended further, the sight was unreal.I could see the orange funnels of the Queen Mary. I could see that big seaplane of Howard Hughess, the Spruce Goose, with two commercial tugs alongside, Walters recalled to the New Yorker. Then, higher up, the oil tanks of the naval station, like little dots. Catalina Island in the distance I had this camera, but I didnt take any pictures. This was something personal. I wanted only the memory of it that was vivid enough.But as Lawnchair Larry Walters soon found out, it was a lot easier going up than going down. The Rocky Landing Back To EarthAs Larry Walters reached 15,000 feet, the air around him began to chill and thin.He decided it was time to come back down. Walters used the pellet gun hed brought to shoot several of his large balloons in hopes of initiating a controlled descent. But when Walters placed the pellet gun in his lap, a gust of wind came along. Walters jerked forward, and the gun fell from his grip. To this day, I can see it falling getting smaller and smaller, down toward the houses, three miles down and I thought, I hope theres no one standing down there,' Walters remembered. With no other way to pop the balloons, Walters was stuck. As he tried to decide if it was time to use the parachute hed brought with him, however, some of the helium in his remaining balloons began to leak. After reaching 16,000 feet, his lawnchair started drifting back down to earth.National Air and Space MuseumLarry Walters used water jugs to help with weight distribution.The danger wasnt completely over; without the pellet gun, Larry Walters had no way to regulate his altitude. He used his radio to connect with a dumbstruck air traffic emergency responder, who couldnt quite understand what sort of aircraft Walters was flying.The difficulty is, this is an unauthorized balloon launch, Walters told them. I know I am interfering with general airspace. Im sure my ground crew has alerted the proper authorities, but could you just call them and tell them Im O.K.?Walters continued to try to control his landing, even cutting open some of his water jugs with a pent knife. But he descended swiftly toward some power lines, and only narrowly avoided electrocution when his balloons got stuck in the wires. If Id come in a little higher, the chair would have hit the wires, and I could have been electrocuted, Larry Walters recalled. I could have been dead, and Lord knows what!Larry Walters Arrives Back On Earth And In Some TroubleYouTubeAfter his flight, Larry Walters got to appear on Late Night With David Letterman.Larry Walters had safely landed his lawnchair contraption. But he was then met by the Long Beach Police Department, who let him know hed soon be hearing from the Federal Aviation Administration.We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, a charge will be filed, F.A.A. Safety Inspector Neal Savoy stated, according to The New York Times. If he had a pilots license, wed suspend that, but he doesnt.Walters, not really knowing what to do with the chair, gave it away to a kid in the neighborhood. Then he reunited with his girlfriend and headed home.He was initially fined $4,000 ($13,000 today) for flying without establishing and maintaining two-way communications with the control tower. But Walters appealed, and the fine was later reduced to $1,500 ($5,000 today). Meanwhile, Walters strange flying contraption and his story made him something of a minor celebrity.He earned the nickname Lawnchair Larry and was invited to appear on the Tonight Show and Late Night With David Letterman. In a less complimentary acknowledgement, he was also granted the 1982 honorable mention from the Darwin Awards and the first place award from The Bonehead Club of Dallas.Lawnchair Larry tried to capitalize on his fame, and quit his job as a truck driver to become a motivational speaker. Unfortunately, he was never able to successfully get his speaking career off the ground, so to speak, and struggled in his later life to make money from the lecture circuit. Wikimedia CommonsLarry Walters inspired others to recreate his experiment, known as cluster ballooning.Sadly, Lawnchair Larry died by suicide roughly a decade later, in October 1993. But his legacy lives on. Walters legendary flight gave rise to the extreme sport of cluster ballooning, in which participants are strapped in a harness and attached to rubber helium-filled balloons.Inspired by Larry Walters, others have made similar flights, including Mike Howard and Steve Davis, the two men who now hold the Guinness World Record for the highest altitude ever reached while cluster ballooning. Another person who followed in Walters food steps is Jonathan Trappe, who attached 54 balloons to his office chair, soared to an altitude of 14,783 feet, and landed in a field 50 miles away. As for Lawnchair Larrys famous lawnchair? The neighbor kid, Jerry Fleck, had kept it all this time. He donated it to the National Air and Space Museum in 2019 where it can be seen to this day.After reading about how Larry Walters became Lawnchair Larry, look through these 33 images from the wild early days of human flight. Then check out these 24 fascinating Amelia Earhart facts.The post Lawnchair Larry Walters, The Man Who Flew To 16,000 Feet With Nothing But A Lawnchair And Weather Balloons appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Qubilah Shabazzs life was never easy. The daughter of Malcolm X, Shabazz was a victim of violence from an early age and witnessed the assassination of her father at just four years old.That moment, understandably, left an impact on Shabazz. Beyond the struggle of growing up without her father, Shabazz had difficulties fitting in. As an adult, she drifted from city to city and job to job, drank heavily, and relied on the goodwill of family and friends to help her raise her son, Malcolm.ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock PhotoQubilah Shabazz, the second daughter of Malcolm X.By the early 1990s, however, Shabazz had developed an obsessive resentment toward Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam. She believed Farrakhan was responsible for her fathers assassination, and the anger she felt towards him would lead Shabazz to plot Farrakhans own assassination.The plan ultimately failed, and Shabazz was required to undergo psychiatric counseling and substance abuse treatment to avoid prison time. However, Shabazzs hardships didnt end there.Qubilah Shabazzs Grief-Stricken Early LifeQubilah Shabazz, named after the Mongol ruler Kublai Khan, was born on December 25, 1960. She was the second of Malcolm X and his wife Betty Shabazzs six daughters.As author Russell J. Rickford wrote in the biography Betty Shabazz: A Remarkable Story of Survival and Faith Before and After Malcolm X, Qubilah would eventually become the most visibly wounded of the Shabazz daughters.Perhaps she never stood a chance in a world that would show her its darkest truths in her early years. At the age of four, Shabazz awoke in the middle of the night to her home being firebombed.American Photo Archive / Alamy Stock PhotoMalcolm Xs home after it was firebombed in February 1965.One week later, on Feb. 21, 1965, Shabazzs father Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. He was shot at least 15 times in front of an audience of people that included Qubilah Shabazz, her three sisters, and her pregnant mother. Qubilah was the only Shabazz daughter who seemed to realize that her father was not coming home, Rickford wrote. Life didnt get any easier for Shabazz from there. The family eventually attempted to settle in Mount Vernon when the NAACP was demanding integrated schools and better housing on the South Side. Unfortunately, many Black professionals at the time were also trying to distance themselves from Malcolm Xs legacy and that included Betty Shabazz and her children.Ilyasah Shabazz/FacebookMalcolm X and Qubilah Shabazz the day before his assassination.The first people who reached out to me in Mount Vernon were white, Betty would later recall.Her children, meanwhile, struggled with being outcasts at school and dealing with the trauma of their fathers death. Qubilah Shabazz began to develop an intense rage within her.According to a 1998 article in The Baltimore Sun, at the age of eight, Shabazz wrote an essay titled Malcolm X, A Black Leader that read:Malcolm X was a brave leader, he fought for rights for all black people. His black preachings were in everybodys heart. In 1964 he was at the autobaum preaching. And everyone was listening instead of falling asleep. Listening to his black word. Then for not long he was shot. He dyed, but his black beautiful soul is in every black persons heart.Qubilah Shabazzs discontent would continue to grow and she would carry it into adulthood.A Descent Into Substance Abuse And Violent RageQubilah Shabazz was a bright child with a promising future. Her intelligence and hard work eventually led to her acceptance at Princeton University, but she once again struggled to fit in.She felt that the white students shunned her, and she found little common ground with the other Black students who were active in trying to convince the university to disinvest in South Africa in the wake of apartheid.Shabazz seemingly had no interest in joining their efforts.Ilyasah Shabazz/InstagramMalcolm X holding two of his daughters, Attallah (right) and Qubilah (left).After just two semesters, Shabazz left Princeton and moved to Paris, France. She worked there for some time as a translator and eventually met an Algerian man named L. A. Bouasba. While their relationship didnt last, they one child together: a son named Malcolm.A few months after Malcolm was born, Shabazz returned to the United States and settled in Los Angeles. Not long after, she moved back to New York City, but she struggled to find a solid foothold anywhere.As Shabazz bounced between jobs, she often left Malcolm in the care of her mother and sisters. Meanwhile, she began to drink heavily, often crashing with friends when she couldnt afford housing. At the same time, Betty Shabazz was becoming more outspoken against the Nation of Islam especially its new leader, Louis Farrakhan. She blamed him explicitly for her husbands death, saying the assassination was a badge of honor for him. Ilyasah Shabazz/FacebookBetty Shabazz (right) holding Qubilah.Qubilah Shabazz shared her mothers belief that Farrakhan had played a major part in her fathers death, but she also had a new fear. She thought Farrakhan was going to kill Betty. Seeking to take matters into her own hands, Shabazz contacted a high school friend named Michael Fitzpatrick and asked him to kill Farrakhan. He agreed, but unbeknownst to Shabazz, Fitzpatrick had recently been arrested on drug charges and was working as an FBI informant.According to a 1995 article from the Chicago Tribune, Fitzpatricks ruse ran so deep that Shabazz fell in love with him.When she was eventually arrested in relation to the alleged plot to kill Farrakhan, she claimed that she took the fall to protect Fitzpatrick and that she had only been joking when she asked Fitzpatrick to kill Farrakhan.He knew I was joking. We both laughed, Shabazz said. John Mathew Smith/Wikimedia CommonsLouis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, in 1997.Shabazz ultimately accepted a plea deal in the case that required her to undergo psychological counseling and treatment for her substance abuse disorders as well as avoid further legal troubles for two years. Shockingly, Farrakhan came to Shabazzs defense during her trial. He even appeared with Betty Shabazz on stage at the Apollo Theater during an event to raise money for Qubilah Shabazzs legal defense. Together, they raised more than $250,000. Tragically, however, this period of peace would not last long.Betty Shabazzs Tragic Death At The Hands Of Her GrandsonAs part of her court-appointed treatment, Shabazz moved to San Antonio, Texas. Her son Malcolm, who was 10 at the time, was sent to Yonkers to live with his grandmother, Betty. Two years later, Shabazz held up her end of the plea deal. She had avoided legal trouble, and her counseling and substance abuse treatment were going well. Her indictment was dismissed. John Mathew Smith/Wikimedia CommonsBetty Shabazz, the outspoken widow of Malcolm X.But two years without his mother was too much for Malcolm to bear. He was briefly reunited with Shabazz in January 1997, which should have been a joyous occasion for the two. But according to family and friends, he lashed out at his mother when she couldnt drive him to school because she had been drinking again, as The New York Times reported in 1997. Malcolm was sent back to New York to live with his grandmother once again. There, his anger seemingly took hold of him and he set her apartment on fire with gasoline. As a result, Betty Shabazz suffered severe burns over 80 percent of her body. Three weeks later, she died from her injuries. Malcolm pleaded guilty to the juvenile equivalents of arson and manslaughter charges and was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention center.Francis Specker / Alamy Stock Photo13-year-old Malcolm Shabazz at his arraignment in 1997.But his troubles didnt end there, either. In 2013, when he was 28, Malcolm Shabazz was beaten to death during a bar fight in Mexico. Qubilah Shabazz largely disappeared from the public eye after her sons death. However, it seems the fight for justice for Malcolm X is never-ending for Shabazz. In February 2023, she sued the FBI, CIA, and NYPD for the wrongful death of her father.Hopefully, one day, Malcolm Xs family can find the closure they seek.After reading about the turbulent life of Malcolm Xs daughter Qubilah Shabazz, learn more about the moment Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met for the first and only time. Then, dive into 21 profound quotes from Malcolm X.The post The Harrowing Story Of Qubilah Shabazz, The Second Daughter Of Malcolm X appeared first on All That's Interesting.

The last couple of years, weve started to see a shift in multiplayer gaming back towards co-op gameplay experiences. Thats in no small part to the success of Hazelight Studios breakout titles, It Takes Two and Split Fiction. Both games have reminded players everywhere that there are plenty of multiplayer experiences that dont involve PvP brawls or games as a service subscription.

It's imperative to mod Total War Warhammer 3 for the best experience. The strategy game is an impressive beast even if you just play vanilla, but a handful of crucial mods make things feel a lot smoother. The only problem is, installing and managing these mods is a bit of a faff, especially when you get carried away and start modding your Skaven to have lore-accurate eyes and to give the Empire access to Grand Cathay's caravans because it feels fair. Thankfully, developer Creative Assembly has tackled this problem head-on, making big changes to the game's mod manager.

They instantly elevate any meal.READ MORE...

Vintage audio gear is more popular than ever, but you need to be careful with your shopping. Here are some things to consider before buying vintage tech.

Setting up a home theater can be exciting, but how do you pick what to include? Well, these cool new tech items can level up your home theater in a hurry.

Apple is adding a new subscription option that lets app developers offer lower monthly pricing in exchange for a 12-month commitment.

[View Article at Source]Whenever President Trump speaks about Cuba, Little Havana in Miami fills with hope. After nearly seventy years, Cuban Americans wonder if change is finally coming. Many say this