Hugo Zacchini

Infobox Person
name = Hugo Zacchini


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birth_date = October 20, 1898
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death_date = October 20, 1975
death_place = San Bernardino, California
occupation = Daredevil and painter
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education = University of Florida
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children = Hugo Zacchini (20 October 1898 – 20 October 1975, San Bernardino, California) was the first human cannonball. His father Ildebrando Zacchini invented the compressed-air cannon used to propel humans in circus acts.

He was known for being a daredevil, painter, and for being litigious. He was involved with a law suit that made it before the U.S. Supreme Court, which he ultimately won. Zacchini sued Scripps-Howard, the owner of an Ohio television station, when it filmed, and then broadcast on the evening news, Zacchini's entire act of being shot out of a cannon at a county fair. The United States Supreme Court sided with Hugo, ruling 5 to 4 that the Publicity Rights overrode the First Amendment Rights in this case where the entire act was shown on television. [cite web |url=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/conlaw/commonlaw.htm |title=First Amendment Limitations on Civil Law Liability |accessdate=2008-08-04 |quote= |publisher=University of Missouri, Kansas City ]

Aside from his circus talents, Zacchini also held two engineering degrees from the University of Florida. He died on October 20, 1975. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Hugo Zacchini, 77, Dies; First Human Cannonball |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E17F83C5B157493C3AB178BD95F418785F9 |quote=Hugo Zacchini, a circus performer who originated the human cannonball act in which he was catapulted from a cannon 200 feet into a net, died yesterday of a stroke in San Bernardino, Calif. He was 77 years old. |work=New York Times |date=October 21, 1975 |accessdate=2008-08-04 ]

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