Author Archives: admin

First public electric railway

4 October 2014 by admin
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The first electric railway was made by Thomas Davenport, a blacksmith in Vermont, USA, in 1835. It was a small railway powered by a miniature electric motor. The first serious attempt at electric power on a railway was made by Robert Davidson in 1842 when he tried out a battery locomotive weighing five tons on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway, Scotland, where it ran at 6.5km/h (4mph). The first practical electric railway was built by the German Engineer Werner von Siemens (1816-92) for the Berlin Continue reading →

First published atlas

4 October 2014 by admin
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The first world atlas to be published was the Theatrum orbis terrarum (Theatre of the world) in 1570. The Flemish cartographer, Abraham Ortelius’ orignal collection was in Latin and contained 70 maps on 53 pages. Between 1570-1612, numerous updated editions were published including those in six other languages: German, Dutch, French, Spanish, English and Italian. Although the word ‘atlas’ here is retrospective (i.e it did not exist as a term in Ortelius’ time), the collection was the first time maps had been presented in this Continue reading →

First publication of a human genome

4 October 2014 by admin
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The first publication of a human genome was by scientist and entrepeneur Dr. Craig Venter (USA), who published his own genome (genetic code) in its entirety it September 2007. This complete record of his genetic make-up contained some 6 billion letters and was retrieved at an estimated cost of $35 (£17.5) million.

First public TV service

4 October 2014 by admin
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The earliest daily TV service began on 30 September 1929 when programmes by John Logie Baird (UK) were transmitted by the BBC from the Long Acre Studio, UK The first TV sets or Baird Televisors, were sold for 26guineas (œ27.30) in May 1930.

First purpose-built church

4 October 2014 by admin
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The oldest known purpose-built Christian church in the world is in Aqaba, Jordan. Built between 293 and 303, the building pre-dates the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, Israel, and the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, West Bank, both of which were constructed in the late 320s. The church is the first purpose-built Christian church discovered from the period before Christianity found favour with the Roman imperial government. It even pre-dates the greatest of all the Roman anti-Christian persecutions, that of Diocletian in 303-313. The Continue reading →

First puzzle video game inspired by a beat-’em-up

4 October 2014 by admin
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Game: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo Publisher: Capcom The first puzzle game to be inspired by a beat-’em-up is Capcom’s Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, which, in spite of its title, isn’t actually a sequel. Instead, it’s a two-player, columns-style puzzle game, released in 1996, that pays homage to the publisher’s beat-’em-up heritage: the title is inspired by Super Street Fighter II Turbo and the super-deformed characters are drawn from the Street Fighter and Dark stalkers series. A year later, Capcom released what is the Continue reading →

First quarterback to throw 500 touchdown passes, NFL career

4 October 2014 by admin
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Brett Favre (USA) is the first National Football League (NFL) quarterback to throw 500 or more touchdown passes. Favre threw a record 508 touchdown passes during his career with the Atlanta Falcons, Green Bay Packers, New York Jets, and Minnesota Vikings (all USA) from 1991 to 2010. Favre is also the first NFL quarterback to throw for over 70,000 yards passing, with a career record 71,838. He holds many other career passing records, including most completions (6,300), most attempts (10,169), and most interceptions (336). Favre Continue reading →

First rap awards

4 October 2014 by admin
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In 1998, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince (the latter aka Will Smith; both USA) ­winners of the first Grammy award for Best Rap Performance with ‘Parents Just Don’t Understand’ ­ boycotted the show when they learned that their award presentation would not be shown on TV.