The Wikipedia website defines skydiving or parachuting as "an activity involving the breaking of a free-fall from a height using a parachute."
Today skydiving is performed in at least four different categories: recreational activity; competitive sport; military; and forest firefighters.
The first recorded skydiving event started in 1797 with a descent by Andr้-Jacques Garnerin from a balloon. Skydiving competitions began in the 1930s, and in 1951 became an international sport. Skydiving was used in WWI and WWII and the military since the early 1900s.
