Television censorship

The first occurrence of television censorship occurred on NBC in 1944. Controversial singer Eddie Cantor was edited by NBC while he and Nora Martin performed a duet of "We're Having a Baby, My Baby and Me." NBC wanted Cantor to perform another song but Cantor refused. In order to fix the problem engineers cut the sound feed and taped Cantor from the waste up only.
More Famous Firsts

HBO

Home Box Office first aired in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in 1972. HBO was established as a pay TV option with a sports focus, and served about 350 paying customers in its first year. The "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in 1975 televised by HBO was a marquee event that established the success of the world-renowned broadcast franchise.
More Famous Firsts

Pay-per-view television

The first pay-per-view television system was introduced in Chicago in 1950. The Phonevision system allowed a limited number of viewers to watch feature programming and first run movies. Each paying subscriber was equipped with a set top converter and a dedicated telephone line to receive the daily programming. The initial results of the new service were considered disappointing.
More Famous Firsts

The Red Flag Act

The world's first speed limit law was enacted in England in July 1865. The Red Flag Act introduced a speed limit of two mph in towns and villages and four mph elsewhere. A year later, the first speeding ticket was issued, followed later that year by the first road-related death.
More Famous Firsts

Motown Records

Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records in the late 1950s. He named his company after "Motown," the sound sensation centered around Detroit area bands, singers and songwriters. The record company would introduce the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, and Marvin Gaye during the 1960s. Its first million-selling song was "Shop Around" recorded by the Miracles in 1961.
More Famous Firsts

Earthquakes

In early 1783, a series of six earthquakes occurred over a two-month period centered around Calabria, Italy. The disastrous earthquakes caused massive destruction in the region killing an estimated 50,000 people. This earthquake was also historically significant in that the first formal, scientific post-earthquake investigation that included systematic documentation of the landslides was undertaken.
More Famous Firsts

In vitro

On July 25, 1978, the world's first in vitro baby was born in Manchester, England. In vitro fertilization is a medical procedure that involves retrieving the eggs from the mother and mixing them in a lab with sperm from the father. Louise Brown was delivered as the first "test-tube" baby by caesarean section shortly before midnight, weighing 5lb 12oz.
More Famous Firsts

The first modern ballet

The first modern ballet was given by Italian dance master Bergonzio di Botta at Tortona, Italy to celebrate the marriage of Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan, to Isabel Aragon in 1489. Each course of the celebratory wedding meal was heralded with a dance called an "entree". The word ballet comes from the Italian word balletti, meaning to dance.
More Famous Firsts

Midnight Cowboy

The 1969 film "Midnight Cowboy" starring Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight won three Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The provocative film made history for being the first and only X-rated film to receive the Best Picture Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
More Famous Firsts

TV

The first commercially available television sets went on sale in the United States in 1928. The Daven Corporation of Newark, New Jersey advertised its television kit in the July 1928 issue of "Television" magazine. Daven's Scanning Disk Television kit had a 1.5 inch picture and was priced at $75.
More Famous Firsts

Robot-related fatality

The first documented case of a robot-related fatality in the U.S. occurred on July 21, 1984. An automotive worker in Michigan was found pinned between an automated die-casting industrial robot and a 4-inch-diameter steel safety pole used to restrict undesired arm movement by the robot. The worker suffered cardiopulmonary arrest after the robot stalled and applied sustained pressure to his chest.
More Famous Firsts

Tiger Woods

Two-year old Eldrick T. Woods, later knick-named "Tiger" Woods, made his first public television appearance in 1978 on the Mike Douglass variety television show. The pre-school golf phenom was a guest on the show and putted along with Douglass and comedian Bob Hope.
More Famous Firsts

The first U.S. patent

The first official U.S. patent was awarded to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont in July 1790. The patent was for an improvement "in the making of Pot ash and Pearl ash by a new Apparatus and Process." Potash was used in soap and fertilizer. Pearlash was used in baking. The process produced carbon dioxide gas in dough, used in the first "quick breads."
More Famous Firsts

The first potato chips

The first potato chips were served up in the summer of 1853 in Saratoga Springs, New York. The Moon Lake Lodge's chef, George Crum, served up a thin and salty variation of traditional French fries to a finicky customer. The customer was very pleased. In the 1920s, Herman Lay introduced potato chips to the masses.
More Famous Firsts

First nuclear explosion

The first nuclear explosion in history took place at 5:29 AM on July 16, 1945 at the Alamogordo Test Range on the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico. The test was the culmination of three years' planning and development within the top secret Manhattan Project.
More Famous Firsts

Apollo 11

The Apollo 11 rocket ship blasted off from the United States on July 16, 1969. Four days later, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the Moon. The crew did experiments and planted a U.S. flag on the Moon. On July 24, the Apollo 11 crew came back to Earth safely. This amazing mission capped a 1961 national challenge by President John F. Kennedy to put a man on the Moon.
More Famous Firsts

Nineteenth Amendment

The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted woman the civil right to vote in elections. This marked the first time that all citizens in the United States were eligible to vote in government elections. The Fifteenth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1870, prohibited the restriction of voting rights based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
More Famous Firsts

Victoria Woodhull

Victoria Woodhull became the first women to run for president years before woman could even vote. Woodhull was nominated with running mate Frederick Douglass by the Equal Rights Party for the U.S. Presidential election of 1872. Woodhull's campaign advocated ideas taken for granted today, such as the eight-hour work day, graduated income tax, and social welfare programs.
More Famous Firsts

Dr. Sally Ride

Five years after responding to NASA's call for astronauts in a Stanford University newspaper, Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space on the shuttle Challenger's third mission in 1983. The once aspiring tennis pro and astrophysics doctorate began her training with NASA in 1977, assisting in the initial Challenger missions as a communications officer and design specialist.
More Famous Firsts

The Rolling Stones

The Rolling Stones gave their first performance at the Marquee Club in London on July 12, 1962. At the time, the group consisted of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, Mick Avory, and Dick Taylor. The group performed eighteen songs that night, including "Kansas City", "I Ain't Got You", and "Back in the USA".
More Famous Firsts

ATM

Docutel Vice President Don Wetzel conceptualized the idea for the automated teller machine (ATM) while waiting in line at a Dallas bank in the late 1960s. After a five million dollar investment, a working prototype of the ATM was delivered. The first ATM was installed in 1969 by Chemical Bank at its branch in Rockville Centre, New York.
More Famous Firsts

AIDS

Scientists have traced the first confirmed AIDS-related death to Africa in 1959. Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome was first identified in medical literature in June 1982 in an article by Dr. Michael Gottlieb and colleagues that appeared in a Centers for Disease Control publication. The AIDS epidemic is one of the most significant health-related events of the 20th century.
More Famous Firsts

First woman elected to U.S. Congress

Jeanette Rankin was the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress in 1917, three years before women were guaranteed the Constitutional right to vote. Rankin, a republican, campaigned for universal suffrage, prohibition, child welfare reform, an end to child labor, and for staying out of the First World War. Rankin lost her seat in 1918, but was elected back into the House of Representatives in 1940.
More Famous Firsts

Monopoly

The real estate board game Monopoly was invented in 1934 by Charles B. Darrow. His first version of the game was rejected by Parker Brothers due to design flaws. After Darrow sold 5,000 handmade sets of the game to a Philadelphia department store, Parker Brothers agreed to sell the game. Since then, over 200 million Monopoly games have been sold worldwide.
More Famous Firsts

First photograph

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the world's first photograph in Chalon-sur-Saône, France in 1826. Niépce's appreciation and experiments with lithography led to his first permanent photograph produced on pewter. Niépce had begun experimenting with light-sensitive materials as early as 1816, but spent the most of his time with his brothers attempting to develop a combustion engine.
More Famous Firsts

First Major League All-Star Game

The first Major League All-Star Game was played on July 6, 1933 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The exhibition game was scheduled to coincide with the celebration of Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition. Major League Baseball managers and fans selected the all stars from both leagues. The American League defeated the National League 4-2.
More Famous Firsts

The Bikini

The bikini first appeared in a fashion event at a poolside show at the Piscine Molitor in Paris on July 5, 1946. Fashion designer Jacques Heim and mechanical engineer Louis Reard both claim to be the first to launch the bikini. The word bikini comes from the Latin bi, meaning "two," and kini, meaning "square inches of Lycra."
More Famous Firsts

Born on the 4th of July

John Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States, was the first and only President to be born on the 4th of July. President Coolidge was born on July 4th, 1872 in Plymouth, Vermont. Vice President Coolidge became President on August 3, 1923 after the death of President Harding. He easily won a second term in 1924.
More Famous Firsts

First novel

The Tale of Genji is considered the world's first true novel. The book was written over 1,000 years ago in Japan by Murasaki Shikibu. The story is about the interactions between the main character Genji and the people he encounters. Themes of love, affection, friendship, loyalty, and family are explored through overlapping mini-sagas in the fifty-four chapter story.
More Famous Firsts

Gladiator games

The first recorded gladiatorial combat occurred when three pairs of gladiators fought to the death during the funeral of Junius Brutus in 264 BC. Gladiator games peaked around 80 AD with the completion of the Coliseum, built specifically for the games. A typical day at the games featured a procession of combatants, animal displays, executions of criminals, and individual gladiatorial combats.
More Famous Firsts

First Wi-Fi city

Grand Haven, Michigan is credited with being the first Wi-Fi city in the United Sates. In 2004, a wireless network was deployed to provide coverage throughout the town's six square miles as well as fifteen miles into Lake Michigan. Grand Haven's citizens, workers, and students were the first to enjoy high-speed, secure Internet access available anywhere within their town.
More Famous Firsts