The man who flew from the steeple of Old North Church

The folks at Old North Church remind us that today's the anniversary of a man flying, or perhaps "flying" from the church steeple in 1757:

A traveling entertainer, Childs built a makeshift zipline for his stunt. He tied a rope from the steeple to a tree about 700 feet away.

Local revolutionary history maven J.L. Bell has more, including the fact that after entertaining Boston, the town selectmen had quite enough and banned further such "flights." Also, the historical records has no apparent references to Childs aside from that one day in ye olde Boston.