Charles Blondin
French tightrope walker (1824–1897)
Charles Blondin (born Jean François Gravelet, 28 February 1824 – 22 February 1897) was a French tightrope walker and acrobat who achieved international fame in the mid-19th century. Known for crossing the Niagara Gorge on a tightrope, he toured the United States and beyond.
During an event in Dublin in 1860, the rope on which he was walking broke and two workers were killed, although Blondin was not injured.
He married three times and had eight children. His name became synonymous with tightrope walking.
Early life
Blondin was born on 28 February 1824 in Hesdin, Pas-de-Calais, France. His birth name was Jean-François Gravelet. He performed professionally as Blondin, although the British press frequently referred to him as "Charles Blondin", a name not used in his own publicity. He was also billed as Jean-François Blondin, Chevalier Blondin, and The Great Blondin. At the age of five, he was sent to the École de Gymnase in Lyon and, after six months of training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as "The Boy Wonder".
“Charles Blondin” enters the record as french tightrope walker (1824–1897). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Charles, Blondin and French can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q860180. VIAF identifies the subject as 6607954. The Library of Congress control number is n93065149. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1824, 1897 and 1860.
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This entry incorporates text from “Charles Blondin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.