During the Baird Company’s morning programme on 8 May 1931, scenes of Long Acre, London, were transmitted from a van parked by the kerb outside the television studio. Prior to this, all programmes had been made under powerful artifical lighting.
Carl Djerassi (US) developed the modern contraceptive pill as a young researcher working for Syntex Laboratories in Mexico City, in 1951. Born in pre-war Vienna, Djerassi fled the Nazis in 1938, arriving in New York aged 16 and penniless. After graduating from Kenyon College in Ohio, he obtained his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. Currently over 80 million women world-wide take an oral contraceptive. Djerassi was also part of a team that succeeded in isolating and synthesising one of the first antihistamines. The Pill
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The first overland crossing of the Darien Gap was made by Richard E Bevir (UK) and Terence John Whitfield (Australia) in their Land Rover ‘La Cucaracha’ during the Trans Darien Expedition. The gap, which consists of dense jungle and obstacles such as numerous rivers, is famous for being the ‘missing’ portion of the pan-American highway that links North and South America. They departed from Chepo, Panama, on 3 February and reached Quibdo, Colombia, on 17 June 1960. They averaged 201 m (220 yd) per hour.
Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand crossed the Pacific in the Virgin Otsuka Pacific Flyer from the southern tip of Japan to Lac la Matre, Yukon, north-western Canada on January 15-17, 1991 in a 73,600 m 3 2.6 million ft³ balloon (the largest ever flown) to set FAI records for duration (46 hrs 15 mins) and distance (great circle 7671.9 km 4768 miles).
The earliest parallel universe in an MMORPG is EverQuest ll, which is not a sequel to EverQuest which was launched in 1999. Instead, it is a parallel universe set in the same world of Norrath, but 500 years into the future in the Age of Destiny. The original EverQuest is still running online and still releasing new expansions. The 14th expansion, Secrets of Faydwer, was due for release in November 2007.
The earliest recorded use of paper currency can be traced back to the Song dynasty (960-1279) in China when it was utilized by a group of wealthy merchants and businessmen in Sichuan, the same place where the art of printing was invented. Each banknote issued had printed on it pictures of houses, trees and people in red and black ink. The seals of the issuing banks were then applied and confidential marks were made on each bill in order to prevent counterfeiting.
The earliest known surviving peace treaty was drawn up in 1271BC and signed by the Egyptian pharaoh, Ramses II (Ramses the Great), and Hattusilis III, King of the Hittites. Two copies of the treaty were made, one in hieroglyphics, the other in the Mesopotamian language of Akkadian (or Babylonian-Assyrian). In the treaty, both parties not only agreed to end years of warring between Egypt and Hatti (in present-day Turkey), but also to a mutual alliance in the event of foreign or domestic aggression and to
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At the 1934 Academy Awards held at the Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, USA on 27 February 1935, the Best Actress and Best Actor Oscar went to co-stars Clark Gable (USA, 1901-1960) and Claudette Colbert (USA, b. Lily Claudette Chauchoin 1903-1996) for their performances in It Happened One Night (USA 1934).
French fashion designer Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel (1883-1971), whose name became synonymous with elegance and chic, launched her Chanel No. 5 perfume in 1921. Coco Chanel was ahead of her time. She was sharp, elegant and always avant-garde. The clothes she designed transformed the way women looked and how they looked at themselves. Infamous for the little black dress, she was born in Sanmur, Maine-et-Loire. She formed her company in 1909 and her first boutique was opened in Deauville, France in 1913. The house of Chanel
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A single-heel hang on a swinging bar was first performed by Angela Revelle (`Angelique’) in Australia in 1977.