Question: Before any human flew, three animals rode the first hot air balloon in 1783. What were they?
Answer: A sheep, a duck, and a rooster. On Sept. 19, 1783, the Montgolfier brothers sent the three animals up from the forecourt at Versailles while Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and thousands of onlookers watched. The sheep was named Montauciel, roughly “climb to the sky.” The balloon stayed aloft about eight minutes, covered some 2 miles, and came down in a wood at Vaucresson. All three survived, and the only casualty of the whole affair was the rooster, which got stepped on by the sheep.
