People have attempted and on many occasion succeeded in crossing the English Channel in numerous ways.
Below is a list of people who have failed and succeeded in crossing the Channel either by swimming, air, on the water or other ways, in order of year:
On 7th January 1785, the first crossing by air balloon was made from Dover to Calais. This was achieved by two people - Jean-Pierre Blanchard from France and John Jeffries from the United States.
On the 15th June 1785, the first air crash occurred in a combination hydrogen/hot-air balloon by Pilâtre de Rozier and Pierre Romain both from France. It was an attempted crossing similar to Blanchard/Jeffries.
On the 25th August 1875, the first person to swim the channel from Dover to Calais was Matthew Webb of the UK. He swam it in 21 hours 45 minutes. A further attempted crossing on 12th August the same year was forced to be abandoned due to strong winds and rough sea conditions.
On 27th March 1899, the first radio transmission across the Channel, from Wimereux to South Foreland Lighthouse was transmitted by Guglielmo Marconi of Italy.
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On 25th July 1909, the first person to cross the channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft called the Blériot XI was made from Calais to Dover in 37 minutes by Louis Blériot of France. This crossing was encouraged by £1000 prize being offered by the Daily Mail for first successful flight across the channel.
On 23rd August 1910, the first aircraft flight with passengers was made by John Bevins Moisant of the US. The passengers were mechanic Albert Fileux and Moisant's cat.
On 12th August 1923, Enrico Tiraboschi made the first crossing of the English Channel from France to England.
On 6th August 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the Channel. She did it in 14 hours and 31 minutes, breaking the men's record of the time by two hours.
On 24th November 1927, Mercedes Gleitze, the first British women, swims across wearing a Rolex Oyster.
On 25th July 1959, the first hovercraft (SR-N1) crossing was made from Calais to Dover in 2 hours 3 minutes. Sir Christopher Cockerell was on board.
In July 1972, Lynne Cox became the youngest person to swim the English Channel at age fifteen, breaking both the men's and women's records. She swam the channel again in 1973, setting a new record time of nine hours and thirty-six minutes.
On 22nd August 1972, The first solo hovercraft crossing took the same route as SR-N1 where it took 2 hours 20 minutes to cross by Nigel Beale of the UK.
On 12th June 1979, the first human-powered aircraft flew over the channel. It was a 70-pound (32-kg) Gossamer Albatross by Bryan Allen of the US. He Won a £100,000 Kremer Prize. Allen pedaled for three hours.
The oldest male swimmer to cross under the rules of the Channel Swimming Association is Australian Clifford Batt, who was aged 67 years and 240 days when he crossed on 19th August 1987, taking 18 hours 37 minutes.
The fastest swim of the channel made under Channel Swimming Association rules is by Chad Hundeby of the USA on 27th September 1994. He crossed the channel in 7 hours 17 minutes.
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The year 1997 saw the first vessel to complete a solar-powered crossing using photovoltaic cells. This was achieved by S B Collinda.
On 14th June 2004, a new record time was achieved for crossing in an amphibious vehicle called the 'Gibbs Aquada'. It was a two-seater, open-top sports car. Richard Branson of the UK Completed the crossing in 100 minutes and 6 seconds. He broke the record by about six hours.
The oldest verified male swimmer to cross is American George Brunstad, who was aged 70 years and 4 days when he crossed on 27th August and 28th August 2004, taking 15 hours 59 min.
The fastest ever verified swim of the channel was by Christof Wandratsch in 2005. He crossed the channel in 7 hours 3 minutes and 52 seconds.
The fastest verified female channel swimmer is Yvetta Hlaváčová in 2006. She crossed the channel in 7 hours 25 minutes and 15 seconds.
On 4th July 2006, David Walliams successfully swam the English Channel to raise money for Sport Relief. On 6 November 2006 he won The Mirror's Pride of Britain Award for the Most Influential Public Figure as he raised more than £1 million swimming the channel for Sport Relief.
On 26th July 2006, a new record time for crossing in a hydrofoil car called the 'Rinspeed Splash' crossed the channel. It was a two-seater, open-top sports car, Frank M. Rinderknecht (SUI) Completed crossing in 194 minutes.
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The youngest recorded sailors to cross the channel by boat are Hugo Sunnucks and Guy Harrison aged 15 (formular 18 catamaran). They completed in 4 hours 15 minutes in August 2006.
The undisputed "Queen of the Channel" is Alison Streeter MBE with 43 crossings including one 3-way and three 2-way swims.
The "King of the Channel" title is held by Kevin Murphy with 34 crossings, including three doubles.
Today travelers have the choice of how they cross the channel, many cross beneath the English Channel using the Channel Tunnel (also known as the "Chunnel"). The channel tunnel was first proposed in the early 19th century and finally realised in 1994. It connects the UK and France by rail under the channel. It is now routine to travel between Paris, Brussels and London on the Eurostar train. Short trips across the channel for leisure purposes are often referred to as 'Channel Hopping'. If the tunnel does not appeal to you, there is always still the ferries and the hovercrafts which cross the channel regularly.
