My first story was one I wrote for a creative writing class when I was...I dunno, 13? It was about the invention of the parachute.
There was a poor peasant who fancied the kingdom's princess. every time she visited his small village, he would ask her to marry him. She eventually tired of his advances and offered him a deal. "Jump off a cliff."
For months he planned and plotted and tested ways in which he could do that, and still live to marry the one he loved. He invented the parachute, jumped off a cliff, and landed squarely in the town center at the feet of the princess. Impressed with his ingenuity and persistance, she proposed.
He declined. He had a new love, and it was skydiving. The end.
(Base jumping would be the proper term, I think.)
I'm still thinking of rewriting it. xD