By Tim Lambert
The following is some information about history, all of it completely useless!
On 24 December 1914, a German plane dropped a bomb on Dover. It was the first time the Germans bombed Britain. Nobody was killed.
In 1979 Sweden became the first country to ban corporal punishment.
In 1919 in Britain the Sex Disqualification Act allowed women to become civil servants, vets, lawyers, and chartered accountants. They were also allowed to be magistrates and members of juries.
In 1945 Percy Spencer patented the microwave oven.
In 1947 Chuck Yeager became the first man to fly faster than sound.
In 1797 a Frenchman named Garnerin made the first parachute jump (from a balloon).
In 1901 Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive.
The first railway timetable was published on 25 October 1839.
In 1925 William Taynton became the first person to appear on TV, during an experiment.
In 1897 a taxi driver named George Smith became the first person in Britain arrested for drunk driving after he drove into a building.
In 1959 Luna 2 reached the Moon (it intentionally crashed into the surface). It was the first human-made object to reach a Heavenly body.
In 1983 Vanessa Williams became the first African American Miss America.
In 1960 the first Paralympic Games were held in Rome.
In 1565, the Spanish founded St Augustine, Florida. It was the first permanent European settlement in what is now the USA.
The first free library in Britain opened in Manchester in 1852.
In 1808, two men fought a duel from hot air balloons over Paris. One of them blew a hole in his enemy’s balloon and it crashed to the ground. The dueller in the basket was killed. So was his second, who was also in the basket.
In the USA in 1987, for the first time, an advert for bras on TV showed a live woman wearing a bra instead of a mannequin wearing one. Once it was not acceptable for ads to show women wearing bras.
Alfred E. Neuman first appeared on the cover of Mad Magazine on 8 May 1956.
In 1949, the first launderette in Britain opened in London.
In 1911 Harriet Quimby became the first woman in the USA to gain a pilot’s licence.
In 1931 two men, Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer became the first people to enter the stratosphere. In an aluminium capsule attached to a hydrogen balloon, they rose to 51,770 feet (15,781 metres).
In 1887 Jules-Albert de Dion won a car race in Paris. Sadly he also came last as he was the only entrant.
In 1960 Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the prime minister of Sri Lanka. She was the first elected woman leader in the world.
The first Miss World Beauty Contest was held in London on 19 April 1951. It was won by a Swedish woman called Kiki Haakonson.
India launched its first satellite in 1975. It was called Aryabhata.
The guillotine was last used in France in 1977.
John B. Porter invented a portable ironing board in 1875.
In 1921 the first police motorcyclists took to the streets of London.
In 1930 a telephone link was established from Britain to Australia.
Britain’s first naturist beach opened in Brighton in 1980.
In 1493 Christopher Columbus reported seeing three mermaids. He complained they were ‘not half as beautiful as they are painted’. It’s thought he actually saw manatees.
The Oxford and Cambridge boat race is a traditional race between Oxford and Cambridge universities. But in 1912 things didn’t go according to plan. Both boats sank.
In 845 the Vikings attacked Paris. Their leader was Ragnar Lodbrok. He was known as hairy breeches because he wore animal skin trousers.
The first professional striptease was performed in Paris in 1894. It was called Yvette’s bedtime. (She slowly strips to get ready for bed).
Driving tests were introduced in Britain in 1935. Before if you could afford a car and wanted one you just had to pay a small amount of money for a driving licence.
Toothbrushes came from China. They were first mentioned in 1498.
In 1956 Peter Twiss became the first man to fly faster than 1,000 miles an hour
Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone in 1846.
Bananas were first recorded in England in 1633.
The first chocolate bar was made in 1847.
Women senators were forbidden to wear pants in the US Senate until 1993.
Edible panties went on sale in 1975.
In 1910 Raymonde de Laroche became the first woman to gain a pilot’s licence.
In 1929 Noel Wien and Calvin Cipe became the first men to fly across the Bering Strait.
In 1981 Michael Anderson Sloan was found guilty of murder and sentenced to the electric chair. But in 1983 the sentence was changed to life imprisonment. In 1989 while he was sitting on a metal toilet in a cell mending an earphone cable he was electrocuted.
A ballet called The Loves of Mars and Venus was performed in London in 1717. It was the first recorded ballet in England.
John Spilsbury made the first jigsaw puzzle in 1767. He planned to teach geography by cutting maps into pieces but soon people began making jigsaws for entertainment.
In 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park in the USA
In 1933 Frances Perkins was appointed Secretary of Labor. She was the first woman member of a US cabinet.
In 1878, the world’s first telephone directory was published, in New Haven Connecticut.
In 1866 Lucy B. Hobbs became the first woman in the USA to qualify as a dentist
In 1985 it became legal to sell contraceptives in Ireland.
Sidney Poitier was the first African American actor to win an Oscar, in 1964.
On 19 February 1914, a 5-year-old girl named Charlotte May Pierstorff was mailed by her parents to her grandparent’s house 73 miles away. It was legal to send children by mail if you attached a stamp.
In 1930, Nellie Jay became the first flying cow. She flew in a plane from Bismarck, Missouri to St Louis.
The first superhero appeared in a newspaper comic strip in 1936. He was a character called The Phantom.
In 1883 Mr Ashwell patented the vacant/engaged sign for toilet doors.
The first 911 call was made in the USA in 1968
St Valentine’s was not associated with romantic love until the late Middle Ages. In the 14th century, people believed birds chose their mates on 14 February.
On 13 February 1247, London was struck by an earthquake that destroyed many houses.
The first modern public lavatory opened in Britain on 2 February 1852 in London. It was for men. Women had to hang on until 11 February.
Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in 1895.
In Britain, soap rationing began in 1942. It lasted until 1950.
Cans of beer first went on sale in 1935.
Today we have garden gnomes but in the 18th century, rich people sometimes paid human beings to pose in their gardens. They were called ornamental hermits and usually lived in a hut on the grounds of a large house. Often they were paid to wear strange clothes (sometimes they were dressed as druids). Sometimes they were supposed to stand or sit in the garden without speaking to anyone. Garden gnomes were introduced in the 19th century.
The first recorded snowman was in 1380.
In the 18th century, many men took Monday off work. They called it the feast of St Monday.
Lemon is traditionally eaten with fish because people believed lemon juice would dissolve fish bones if you accidentally swallowed one.
The pram was invented by William Kent in 1733.
In 1474, the city-state of Venice passed a law allowing inventors to patent their inventions. It was the first patent law in the world.
P T Selbit was the first magician to saw a woman in half in 1921.
The first department store in Britain opened in London in 1863. It was called Whiteleys.
The first photo of Jupiter was taken in 1879 by Irish astronomer Agnes Mary Clerke.
The first nail clippers were patented by Valentine Fogerty in 1875.
In 1974 Jill Viner became the first woman licensed to drive a London Transport bus.
Thomas Hancock invented elastic in 1820.
In 1891 it became possible to telephone Paris from London for the first time.
In 1655 Massachusetts Bay Colony in North America decreed ‘No man shall strike his wife nor any woman her husband’ The punishment was a heavy fine or corporal punishment.
The first rabbit in space was called Marfusha. She was launched in a rocket by the Soviet Union in July 1959. She returned to Earth safely.
Maltesers were first made in 1936 the same year that Quality Street and Dairy Box went on sale.
In 1929 Margaret Bondfield became the first woman cabinet minister in Britain. (She was minister of labour).
Toilet paper went on sale in the USA in 1857. (In Britain toilet paper first went on sale in 1880). At first toilet paper was sold in individual sheets. In the USA it was first sold in rolls in 1891. (In Britain we had to wait until 1928).
On 2 November 1898, Johnny Campbell became the first cheerleader. (There were no female cheerleaders till 1923).
On 8 October 1978, Ken Warby became the first man to travel at more than 300 mph on water.
On 23 October 1906, a Brazilian named Alberto Santos-Dumont made the first airplane flight in Europe.
On 11 December 1910, Georges Claude publicly demonstrated his new invention – the neon lamp for the first time.
The Hulk first appeared in a comic released on 10 May 1962.
On 21 October 1945, French women voted in an election for the first time.
Flash Gordon first appeared in a newspaper comic strip published 7 January 1934.
The first known leopard in the USA was exhibited in Boston in 1802.
The first Labor Day Parade was held in New York on 5 September 1882.
In 1785, John Jeffries and Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first flight across the English Channel, in a balloon.
In 1909 old-age pensions were paid in Britain for the first time. You had to be 70 to qualify.
In the 19th century, toothpaste was sold in jars until 1892 when Washington Sheffield invented the collapsible toothpaste tube.
Willis Carrier patented air conditioning in 1906.
In 1839 Louis Daguerre took the first photo of the Moon.
In 1888 Marvin Stone patented the paper drinking straw.
In 1947 the US House of Representatives was televised for the first time.
1936, the first hit parade of songs was published in the US magazine Billboard.
In 2015 a pair of Queen Victoria’s knickers were sold at an auction for £12,090.
The first recorded zebra in England was in 1762.
The first recorded theft of a car was in 1896 when Baron de Zuylen had his car stolen by his mechanic.
In 1908 Henri Farman became the first recorded passenger in a plane.
Women’s boxing was included in the Olympic Games in 2012.
In 1915 Maurice Levy invented lipstick push-up sticks in tubes.
On 19 January 1977 snow fell on Miami, Florida the first time snow was recorded in the city.
Christmas cards were invented in 1843. John Horsley designed the first one.
In 1804 Alicia Meynell became the first recorded woman jockey.
On 5 January 1925, Nellie Tayloe Ross took office as governor of Wyoming. She was the first woman governor of a US state.
On 16 January 1793, the first free settlers arrived in Australia, five years after the first convicts arrived.
The first cat in space was called Félicette. The French sent her up in a rocket in 1963. She returned to Earth safely.
In 1857 toilet paper went on sale in the USA In 1880 it went on sale in Britain.
The first recorded orangutan in Britain was in 1816. In 1837 one was brought to the London Zoo. She was called Jenny.
Rayon was the first artificial fibre. It was first manufactured in 1910.
In 1695 a tax on windows was imposed in Britain. Some people bricked up some of their windows to avoid paying the tax.
King Richard II of England was born on 6 January 1367. He was the first English king to have his portrait painted.
The first English novel about a vampire was The Vampyre by John Polidori, published in 1819. It was about an aristocratic vampire.
In 1927 the first underground railway in Asia opened, in Tokyo Japan.
Electric Christmas tree lights were invented in 1882 by Edward H. Johnson.
The last woman in England to be beheaded was Alice Lisle, in 1685.
The first film about a werewolf was made in 1913. It was just called ‘The Werewolf’.
A woman wrote the first story about a mummy returning to life. In 1827 Jane Webb wrote a book called The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century.
In 1793 Jean Pierre Blanchard became the first man to fly in a hot air balloon in the USA.
In the 16th century pieces of Egyptian mummy were used as medicine. You were given a piece to swallow.
The first film about an Egyptian mummy coming back to life was made in France in 1899. It was called Robbing Cleopatra’s Tomb.
The first women’s golf tournament was played in Scotland in 1811.
In 1946 the US Army Signal Corps bounced radar signals off the Moon.
The oldest American museum opened in Charleston, South Carolina in 1773.
On 15 January 1880, the first British telephone directory was published, in London. It listed all 248 telephones in London.
In 1911, Eugene Ely became the first man to land a plane on the deck of a ship. He landed on the battleship USS Pennsylvania, which was docked in San Francisco Bay.
In 1486 Henry VII married his wife Elizabeth. Fireworks were used to celebrate the wedding, it was the first time fireworks were recorded in England.
In 1785, Richard Crosbie became the first man in Ireland to fly in a balloon. (He flew for a short distance across Dublin).
In 1882 a drapers shop in Newcastle, England became the first shop in the world to be lit by electricity.
Basketball was first played in 1892 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In 1807 Pall Mall in London became the first street in the world lit by gas.
In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the USA to qualify as a doctor.
In 1986 women in Lichtenstein, a tiny state between Switzerland and Austria, voted in an election for the first time.
In 1887 Paris and Brussels became the first 2 cities linked by an international telephone line.
In 1883 Mr Ashwell patented the vacant/engaged sign for toilet doors.
Mary Phelps Jacob patented the modern bra on 3 November 1914. She invented the idea in 1913 when she sewed some handkerchiefs and ribbons together.
In the 18th century, some women wore false eyebrows made of mouse fur. They were glued to the face.
In 1898, Henry Lindfield became the first British car driver to die in a car crash.
Electric Christmas tree lights were invented in 1882 by Edward H. Johnson.
In 1803 George Foster was hanged for murder. Galvani had recently made a dead frog’s legs move by touching them with a wire carrying an electric current. Surgeons experimented with the body of Foster. When his arms and legs were touched with electrified wires they moved. When his head was touched an eye opened.
In 1877 Rossa Matilda Richter became the first human cannonball when she was fired from a cannon.
In 1942 Polish soldiers found a Syrian brown bear cub, while on duty in Iran. They called the bear Wojtek. He was made a private in the Polish army and eventually became a corporal.
In the 16th century, people thought narwhals were sea unicorns, the marine equivalent of land animals. In 1577 the explorer Martin Frobisher saw a dead narwhal. He cut off its horn and gave it to Queen Elizabeth I. She was delighted to have a ‘unicorn horn’.
In 1849 Walter Hunt patented the safety pin.
Some of the most fearsome pirates were women. Zheng Yi Sao was a Chinese pirate. She commanded a fleet of ships. The authorities were unable to defeat her so they offered her an amnesty. In 1810, she surrendered with her fleet of ships. She died peacefully in 1844 aged 69.
In 1855 the first post boxes in England were installed in London. Originally they were painted green.
The first modern atlas was published in 1570.
On 22 May 1942, Mexico declared war on Germany and Japan.
The first Eurovision Song Contest was held on 24 May 1956. Switzerland won.
The first recorded hippopotamus in Britain was in 1850.
In 1718, a hangman named John Price was hanged for the murder of a woman named Elizabeth White—a case of the biter being bitten.
The first wedding on a plane was held on 31 May 1919. The plane flew over Texas.
On 1 June 1935, a driving test became compulsory for new drivers in Britain. The first person to pass was Mr. Beene.
On 1 June 1880, the world’s first public telephone came into use in the USA.
Henry Seeley patented the electric iron in 1882.
In 1928, Charles Kingsford-Smith and Charles Ulm became the first men to fly across the Pacific. They took off from California and landed in Brisbane.
The gas mask was patented in 1849 by Lewis Haslett.
In 1921 Bessie Coleman became the first black woman to obtain a pilot’s licence.
The Danish flag is one of the oldest in the world. According to legend, it fell out of the sky during a battle in 1219.
The first barcode was used on a packet of chewing gum in 1974.
In 1722 a newspaper, The London Journal reported a boxing match between women. It was the first recorded women’s boxing match in England.
The first women’s magazine, The Ladies Mercury was published in 1693.
The first British credit card, Barclaycard was introduced in 1966.
In 1979 Sweden became the first country in the world to make it illegal to hit children.
The World’s coldest temperature was recorded in Antarctica on 20 July 1983, -89.2 degrees centigrade.
The first Wife Carrying Championship was held in Finland in 1992.
In 1948 Esther Blake became the first woman to enlist in the US Air Force.
In 1925 Oonagh Keogh became a member of the Dublin stock exchange. She was the first woman in the world to be a stock exchange member.
In 1958, an earthquake in Alaska caused a tsunami 1,270 feet tall in Lituya Bay. It was the tallest tsunami ever recorded.
In 1933 Wiley Post became the first man to fly around the world alone.
In 1745 the first recorded women’s cricket match was held on Gosden Common near Guildford.
In 2016 Luke Aikins jumped from a plane at 25,000 feet without a parachute. He landed on a giant net.
In 1980 Vigdis Finnbogadóttir became president of Iceland. She was the first elected female president in the world.
The first roller skating rink in Britain opened in London in 1875
In 1841 three women gained bachelor’s degrees from Oberlin College. They were the first American women to earn degrees.
In 1914 the world’s first electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio.
In Britain flogging was abolished in the army and navy in 1881.
In 1890 William Kemmler became the first man to be executed in the electric chair. The first woman executed in the electric chair was Martha Place in 1899.
In 1913 Pyotr Nesterov became the first man to fly a plane in a loop.
In 1901 Hubert Booth patented the vacuum cleaner.
1869, an Irish woman named Mary Ward became the first person to be killed by a road motor vehicle. She was travelling in a steam-powered vehicle but she fell off and went under a steel wheel.
In 1888 the first modern beauty contest was held, in Belgium.
National Geographic magazine was first published in 1888.
In 1852 Henri Giffard made the first powered flight, in an airship powered by a 3 horsepower steam engine.
In 1897 Bradford became the first city in Britain to have motor buses.
In 1825, the first passenger train ran between Stockton and Darlington in England. The carriages were pulled by a train called Locomotion No 1.
The world’s first electric tram opened in Blackpool, England on 29 September 1885.
In 1877 China opened its first embassy in London.
In 1958 the first passenger jet service across the Atlantic began.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus was first broadcast on 5 October 1969.
On 24 November 1740, William Duell was hanged for murder. He was taken to the surgeons and laid out to be dissected but he regained consciousness (in those days hanging killed by strangulation rather than by breaking the neck). Duell had his sentence commuted to transportation.
In 1889 the first jukebox in the world began operating in San Francisco.
In 1893 women in New Zealand voted in an election. It was the first country in the world to allow women to vote in national elections.
In 1869 women in Wyoming gained the right to vote.
The first table tennis tournament was held in London in 1901.
In 1929, a Swiss, Walter Mittelholzer became the first man to fly over Mount Kilimanjaro.
The Daleks first appeared on Dr Who on 21 December 1963.
In 1895 Wilhelm Rontgen took the first-ever X-ray photo (of his wife’s hand).
In Britain, corporal punishment was banned in state schools in 1987. It was made illegal in private schools in 1999.
The bulldozer was invented by Earl McLeod in 1923.
A Frenchman named Alexandre-Ferdinand Godefrey invented the hairdryer in 1890.
The first teasmade (automatic tea maker) was invented by Charles Walker in 1891.
Only one dog is named by Shakespeare, Crab in The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Fish fingers went on sale in Britain in 1955.
In 1872 the Challenger Expedition sailed from Portsmouth to study the oceans and marine life. The expedition greatly increased our knowledge of oceanography and marine biology.
The website localhistories.org was switched on 11 December 2001.
