Croatia

The great Croatian humanist and inventor Faust Vrancic was the first ever parachute jumper. Born in 1551 in the Adriatic town of Sibenik in Croatia, he used the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci to perform the first-ever parachute jump. The event was recorded in a book written by English bishop John Wilkins, secretary at the Royal Society in London, just 30 years later. The title of this book is „Mathematical Magic of the Wonders that may be Performed by Mechanical Geometry, part I: Concerning Mechanical Powers Motion, part II, Deadloss or Mechanical Motions', published in London in 1648.