“And then he began to enumerate the various sections and sub-sections of fools who were by degrees extinguishing themselves out of the universe. There were…the people who made parachute descents, who performed with wild beasts, who dived from bridges and the like.” William Black, 1894

It’s about as extreme as sport can get: in late 2010, Austrian BASE jumper Felix Baumgartner will don a space suit, ascend 120,000 feet under a giant helium balloon, and then jump out. Call it a “space jump”—extreme sports enthusiasts, aerospace engineers, and his sponsor Red Bull® are all excited to see if he’ll survive it.

Not that he’s the first to try. Baumgartner is following in the footsteps of American Joseph Kittinger, who did the same thing in 1960, jumping from 102,800 feet. (Kittinger’s a consultant on the project today.) And believe it or not, the first parachute jump from a balloon was in 1785.

Most extreme sports are older than they might seem. The blog post goes on to highlight four extreme sports (marathon running, skydiving, base jumping, and climbing Mount Everest), complete with their earliest attempts, first known successes, and the odds you’ll be killed attempting it.