By Tim Lambert
The following is some information about history, all of it completely useless!
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.
The hula-hoop went on sale in 1958
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. Well done Ken.
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.
On 7 January 1785, John Jeffries and Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first flight across the English Channel, in a balloon.
On 1 January 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Birkenhead Park opened in 1847. It was the first publicly funded park in Britain.
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 so pleased to have a unicorn horn she kept it with the crown jewels.
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.
