The First State

Delaware was the first of the thirteen original states to ratify the Constitution of the United States. This unanimous ratification took place in a convention at Dover on December 7, 1787, whereby Delaware became "The First State" of the new Federal Union. Delaware's name was derived from colonial Virginia's Governor Lord De La Warr.
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Beer

The first evidence of beer is believed to be a 6,000-year-old Sumerian tablet depicting people drinking a brewed beverage. The Sumerians lived between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. It is believed they discovered the fermentation process by chance. A description of making a drink that made people feel "exhilarated, wonderful and blissful" was found on an ancient Sumerian engraving.
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The first guns

The Chinese developed the first guns with a metal barrel, gunpowder, and a flying projectile during the late thirteenth century. Most believe that gunpowder was invented as early as the tenth century and was developed independently in different regions of the world during various times. Guns began proliferating during the 16th century when English army switched from archer bows to guns.
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Air conditioners

Willis Carrier installed the first air conditioner to combat humidity inside a Brooklyn, New York printing company in 1902. Carrier was one-year out of college making $10 per week as a salaried employee at the Buffalo Forge Company when he developed his "apparatus for treating air." His invention was granted a patent in 1906, the first of several patents awarded to Willis Carrier.
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Heart transplant

South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard conducted the first human heart transplant at Groote Schuur Hospital, Capetown, South Africa on December 3, 1967. Fifty-three year-old Lewis Washkansky's heart was surgically replaced during the successful 9-hour operation. Sadly, Mr. Washkansky lived for only 18 after the operation succumbing to double pneumonia.
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America's first fire insurance company

Celebrated American statesman Benjamin Franklin led the effort to create America's first fire insurance company. His group established "The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire" in 1752 with a board of directors and seventy shareholders. The first insured property to burn was repaired for 154 pounds, nearly a third of the Society's assets.
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Shopping mall

Shopping center architect Victor Gruen designed the first indoor shopping mall just outside Minneapolis in 1954. Southdale had seventy-two stores and two anchor department stores. Unlike other suburban shopping centers at the time, Southdale was a fully enclosed, multi-tiered shopping complex with a garden court under skylights.
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