Mario Lemieux

In December 1988, hockey superstar Mario Lemieux became the first and only player in National Hockey League history to score one each of the five types of goals in a single game: an even-strength goal, a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot, and an empty-net goal.
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Crossword puzzles

The first crossword puzzle appeared in the New York World newspaper in December 1913. Editor Arthur Wynne developed a game for the paper that was inspired by a boyhood game called Magic Squares. Wynne called his new game "word cross." Crossword puzzles became a popular regular weekly feature in the New York World paper.
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The first Olympic games

The first Olympic games were held in Olympia, Greece in 776 BC. The first modern Olympics were held in Athens, Greece in 1896. The Games of the First Olympiad were staged with fourteen nations and about 240 all male athletes. There were forty-three events in nine sports included aquatics, athletics, cycling, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling.
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First modern sky scraper

The Home Insurance Building in Chicago, Illinois is considered to be the world's first modern sky scraper. The structure earned this distinction due to its steel frame construction versus stone material. Rising ten stories to a height of 138 feet, the building was the world's tallest from 1885 to 1905. Two additional floors were added to the building in 1890.
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Email spam

The first federal law regulating email spam was passed in the U.S. in December 2003. The passage of the law capped a process that stretched more than six years and was marked by more than a dozen competing bills, all of which took different approaches to the ever-growing problem of unsolicited commercial e-mail.
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Nobel Prizes

The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901. Alfred Nobel established in his will that interest income from his fortune was to be allotted each year in five equal parts as prizes to those who had most helped humanity. The first Nobel Prize winners were: Wilhelm C. Roentgen, physics; Jacobus H. van't Hoff, chemistry; Emil A. von Behring, medicine; Rene F. A. Sully-Prudhomme, literature; and Jean H. Dunant, peace.
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First property tax

The Massachusetts Bay Colony levied the first property tax in colonial America in 1634. Local administrators arbitrarily assessed colony property owners in order to raise revenue for local governments. The colony imposed a tax directly on estate property including buildings, livestock and other enumerated personal property items.
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