On August 6, 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel — and the fastest person, male or female, to have crossed it. She returned to New York City on July 27, 1926, before her swim, having made the attempt the previous year. This entry marks the day she set sail for her second, successful attempt, which she completed in 14 hours and 31 minutes, beating the previous men's record by nearly two hours.

Ederle had been a competitive swimmer since childhood, winning an Olympic gold medal and two bronze medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Her 1925 Channel attempt had been aborted by her coach, who pulled her from the water when she slowed. She later said she had not asked to be removed and was capable of finishing. She went back with a different coach.

She crossed wearing a red two-piece suit, her body greased with petroleum jelly and lanolin. The captain of the accompanying boat urged her repeatedly to stop in rough seas. She kept going. She reached the French shore to a crowd of strangers who offered her fish and chips.

New York gave her a ticker-tape parade larger by some measures than the one given to Charles Lindbergh the following year. She was celebrated extensively and then largely forgotten as her hearing worsened — she had been partially deaf since childhood — and she retreated from public life.

She died in 2003 at 98.