The date was July 7, 1897. Adventurer Bacchus S. Hensley, clad in a weathered leather jacket and a well-worn fedora, climbed into a wicker gondola suspended beneath a vast, red-and-white balloon dubbed the "Coureur du Vent." He had spent months preparing for this moment, and as he stood in the gondola, the anticipation bubbled within him like the fizz in a freshly popped champagne bottle.