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On June 21, 1913—100 years ago today-- Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick became the first woman to parachute from an airplane as she jumped over Los Angeles. She was just 15 when she joined the circus act of Charles Broadwick, who thrilled crowds by parachuting from a hot air balloon. Broadwick decided to adopt her, and she quickly became the star of the show, performing daring jumps. In 1913, when she was 20, Army pilot Glenn L. Martin asked her to test an airplane trap seat he had designed. The seat was mounted directly behind the plane’s propeller, and by pushing a lever, Tiny dropped into the plane’s slipstream and parachuted into the history books. She retired from parachute jumping in 1922, worked in an airplane factory during World War II and died in 1978.
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