Great Escapes: Unraveling the World’s Wonders

In May 1979, a hot air balloon unexpectedly landed inside the exercise yard of Fleury-Mérogis Prison near Paris. Two inmates saw their chance and clambered into the basket. The startled balloonists were forced at knife-point to operate the burners. Floating over the prison walls, the prisoners made their daring aerial escape.

In the UK, the letter G is often associated with a number of things, including:

Gleeful
Merry; gay; joyous.

Gladiate
Sword-shaped; resembling a sword in form, as the leaf of the iris, or of the gladiolus.

Govern
To direct and control, as the actions or conduct of men, either by established laws or by arbitrary will; to regulate by authority.

Galei
That division of elasmobranch fishes which includes the sharks.

Gorgerin
In some columns, that part of the capital between the termination of the shaft and the annulet of the echinus, or the space between two neck moldings; -- called also neck of the capital, and hypotrachelium. See Illust. of Column.

Granitoid
Resembling granite in granular appearance; as, granitoid gneiss; a granitoid pavement.

Galactophorous
Milk-carrying; lactiferous; -- applied to the ducts of mammary glands.

Gastrocolic
Pertaining to both the stomach and the colon; as, the gastrocolic, or great, omentum.

Grapple
To seize; to lay fast hold of; to attack at close quarters: as, to grapple an antagonist.

Galacta-gogue
An agent exciting secretion of milk.

Gridelin
A color mixed of white, and red, or a gray violet.

Gossipy
Full of, or given to, gossip.

Gapesing
Act of gazing about; sightseeing.

Glycosuria
Same as Glucosuria.

Gravy
The juice or other liquid matter that drips from flesh in cooking, made into a dressing for the food when served up.

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In 1963, three men incarcerated inside Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay hatched an elaborate, months-long escape plan. Using tools as crude as spoons and a drill fashioned from a vacuum cleaner, they slowly tunneled through their cell walls which led to unlocked utility corridors. Though assumed drowned, their bodies were never recovered.

The Libby Prison Escape in Richmond in 1864 remains the largest break-out from a Confederate prison during the American Civil War. Over 100 Union prisoners managed to tunnel out of the prison’s basement to freedom, assisted by a Union sympathizer. 59 soldiers succeeded in crossing back over into Union territory.

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In December 2011 in the Netherlands, a thief made his getaway in an unlikely vessel – a harness strapped beneath hundreds of helium party balloons. Airport authorities spotted him floating unsteadily in the balloon contraption but could not intercept this bizarre escape before the man parachuted safely back to earth and disappeared.

In 1970s East Germany, daredevils attempted to flee from behind the Iron Curtain by leaping border fences and sprinting into the forest hoping to evade armed guards. One man modified his car into a makeshift submarine to cross under the Baltic sea to Denmark though the primitive vessel nearly sank mid-journey.

In 1646 Lady Anne Vane disguised herself as a man to break her captured husband out of the Tower of London. Remarkably, the pair bluffed their way past the guards even insisting on stopping to have a drink on their way out! Though recaptured days later, their brief freedom remains legendary.

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In 1973 three men escaped Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison using a hijacked helicopter that audaciously landed inside the prison yard. Though initially reported as a bold success, later revelations showed it was an embarrassing, bungled effort. Still, brazen helicopter escapes occasionally reappear, though rarely with happy endings.

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During WWII’s Great Escape, 76 Allied pilots tunneled out of a German POW camp in a famous, mass break-out attempt. While 73 were swiftly recaptured, 3 pilots successfully crossed the border to safety. 50 recaptured men were executed as punishment which became a war crime after the Axis defeat. Though tragic, the bravery and ingenuity still amazes us.