This week in history

August 25, 1978, Georgia Ann “Tiny” Thompson Broadwick died in Long Beach, California. Tiny was an American pioneer parachutist and inventor of the ripcord. She was the first female to jump from an airplane and the first person to jump from a seaplane.

Tiny was born in North Carolina in 1893. She was a small person, weighed less than 100 pounds and was less than 5 foot tall. Married at 13 years of age. Later, at 15, she joined a traveling Aeronautical Show. In 1914, due to her skill and fame, she demonstrated parachutes to the U.S. Army.

Source(s): National Air & Space Museum, Smithsonian

Compiled by Bob Valen