On April 15, 1875, pilot Theodore Sivel, engineer Joseph Croce-Spinelli, and civilian Gaston Tissandier, took off in their balloon 'Zenith', and were able to reach a record-breaking altitude of 28,000 feet. Although the men carried bags of oxygen-air mixture aboard the Zenith, Sivel and Croce-Spinelli both died of asphyxiation (hypoxia), when the balloon reached extremely high altitudes. Tissandier survived, but became deaf as a result of the flight. He subsequently founded and edited the scientific magazine La Nature and wrote several books. This image has been color-enhanced.