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First prime-time animation show

The earliest prime-time animation show is The Flintstones created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera which was first aired on the ABC Television network (USA) in September 1960 The animation which was a contemporary take on suburban life in the Stone Age initially ran until April 1966. Re-runs of the show can be currently seen on Teletoon.

First Primates

Primates appeared in the late Cretaceous epoch about 65 million years ago. The earliest members of the sub-order Anthropoidea are known from both Africa and South America in the early Oligocene era, 30-34 million years ago. Finds from Faiyûm, Egypt represent primates from the early Oligocene period, 37 million years.

First prison sentence for file sharing

In November 2005, Chan Nai-Ming (China) was jailed for three months for uploading Hollywood movies, using BitTorrent technology on to the Internet. Although the movie industry began targeting BitTorrent sites in December 2004, Chan Nai-Ming’s case is the first in the world to lead to a prison sentence.

First professional stage actress

Margaret Hughes (UK, 1643-1719) appeared as Desdemona in Thomas Killigrews version of Othello, The Moor of Venice on the 3 December 1660, at a converted tennis court called the Vere Street Theatre, London, UK. The audience were told during a prologue that she would appear and during an epilogue was asked: And how do you like her? The applause that followed guaranteed the place of actresses on the English stage.

First professional film stuntwoman

The first professional stuntwoman was Helen Gibson, who doubled for Helen Holmes in the first 26 episodes of Kalem’s serial The Hazard’s of Helen (US14). Trained as a trick rider, she proved herself adept at other hair-raising exploits, including jumping a speeding motorcycle on to a fast moving locomotive. Generally during this period, actresses were doubled in dangerous scenes by men in drag. Since the introduction of the Sex Equality Act in the USA, it is illegal for stuntmen to double for actresses unless no Continue reading →

First protein named after a video games character

In July 2008, biologists from the Osaka Bioscience Institute in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, identified a protein that is necessary to efficiently transmit visual information to the brain. Having determined that the protein is used in kinetic vision (being able to detect fast-moving objects), they named it pikachurin after Pikachu, who is also apparently very fast.

First programmable electronic computer

The 1500-valve Colossus formulated by Prof. Max H. A. Newman (1897–1985) and built by T. H. Flowers, was run in December 1943 at Bletchley Park, Bucks to break code made by the Lorenz-Schlussel-zusat 40 machine, or Tunny as the British called it. It arose from a concept published in 1936 by Dr Alan Mathison Turing (1912–54) in his paper On Computable Numbers with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. Colossus was not declassified until 25 Oct 1975. The credit for being the worlds first electronic computer Continue reading →

First public screening of a `talkie’

The earliest public presentation of sound-on-film was The Arsonist (Germany/USA 1922) a short drama made in the Tri-Ergon process, shown at the Alhambra cinema, Berlin, Germany on 17 September 1922. It starred Erwin Baron (USA), who played seven of the nine parts.