On July 15, 1961, Nathan Boya, a 30-year-old African American man from the Bronx in New York went over the Horseshoe Falls in a custom made steel and rubber contraption. Covering the steel frame was a layer of rubber followed by sheet metal and another layer of rubber.
A week before Boya made his journey, he met with Jean Lussier who had made his own trip over the falls on July 4, 1928. Lussier advised Boya to take sufficient oxygen with him.
Boya installed an oxygen system capable of providing air for 30 hours and a re-breather, a device which converts carbon dioxide into oxygen.
He launched from an undisclosed location upstream of the falls along the American shoreline. The sphere was dragged into Canadian waters, else the sphere would have gone over the American Falls instead of the Horseshoe Falls.
Boya was arrested by a police officer for undertaking the journey without the permission of the Niagara Parks Commission. He was subsequently fined $100 plus $13 court costs in Niagara Falls Ontario Provincial Court.
He was the first person to be charged and convicted under the Niagra Parks Act.