In 1912 Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt dove off the Eiffel Tower in a sort of real life version of Wile E Coyote's Acme Batsuit expecting to fly or glide or something leaf-like. He did not. Instead, Franz did the thing that things which are not leafs do when they find themselves in the thin blue air. To quote the WFMU blog from which we get this link: "The film ends with men ceremoniously measuring the crater left by Reichelt." To quote commenter Tony at the WFMU blog: "How has that not found its way into a Nine Inch Nails video yet?"

Roots of Jackass: 1912 Eiffel Tower Jump [WFMU's Beware Of The Blog]