Isabelle Dinoire (France) underwent the first partial face transplant at Amiens University Hospital, Amiens, France, on 27 November 2005. Ms Dinoire was left with severe facial disfigurement after her cross-labrador pet dog ripped off her nose, lips and chin trying to wake her after she accidentally overdosed on pills in May 2005. Surgeons worked through the night to remove the skin, fat and some blood vessels from the braindead donor and then placed them over the Ms Dinoire’s skull and muscle before re-connecting the blood
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Joseph Murray (USA, 1 April 1919 – 26 November 2012) performed the first successful kidney transplant on 23 December 1954 at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, USA. The donor and recipient were Ronald and Richard Herrick who, because they were identical twins with identical genetic make-ups, did not face the issue of rejection by the recipient’s immune system. Joseph Murray received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for his work in human organ transplantation.
The Death and Return of Superman, released for the SNES and Mega Drive/Genesis in August 1994, was the first superhero video game that tied in with a comic-book storyline that was being published at the same time. As Superman, the player was defeated by Doomsday. Gameplay then followed with a series of replacement superheroes. The game was released just a few months before the Spider-Man & Venom: Maximum Carnage storyline got its own spin-off game in 1994. Guinness World Records Gamers’ Edition 2009.
The summer Olympics in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1968 were the first summer Games to be televised live in colour. These were the first Games to feature extensive colour broadcasts of the sporting competitions themselves, although the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, had featured live colour television footage of the opening and closing ceremonies and a selection of the events: wrestling, volleyball, judo and gymnastics. These were mainly for the national Japanese TV audience, however, and were not broadcast to an international audience.
The former Soviet Tupolev Tu-144 first flew on 31 December 1968, thereby becoming the first supersonic airliner to fly. It initially entered service in 1975 carrying mail and cargo, and carried its first commercial passengers in 1977, but was taken out of service in 1978 after a second fatal crash. A single TU-144 was put into service for two years until 1998 by NASA as a ‘flying laboratory’ to study the dynamics of supersonic flight.
The first sustained jet airline service was provided by the Russian airline Aeroflot on an internal route system – Moscow – Omsk – Irkutsk, which began on 15 September 1956 cutting the journey time from 18 to 7 hours. The aircraft used was the Tupolev Tu-104 “Camel”. It was the second jet-powered airliner to enter service after the de Havilland Comet. It had a maximum take-off weight of 167,550lbs (76,000kg), a cruising speed of 513 knots (950km/hr) and a range of 1,430 nautical miles (2,650
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The earliest surviving personal name is seemingly that of a predynastic king of Upper Egypt ante 3050 BC, who is indicated by the hieroglyphic sign for a scorpion. It has been suggested that the name should be read as Sekhen. Information from Archives (e.g.1994). Submitted for use in Scholastic’s Modern Marvels.
The earliest surviving film (sensitized 53.9mm (21/8in) wide paper roll) is from the camera of Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince (UK), who filmed in early October 1888 the garden of his father-in-law, Joseph Whitley in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK at 10 to 12 frames per second. The camera used was later patented in Britain on 16 November 1888.
The first team to row the Pacific Ocean West to East are Mick Dawson and Chris Martin (UK) who rowed from Choshi, Japan to the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California,USA, aboard Bojangles in 189 days 10 hr 39 min from 8 May 2009 to 13 November 2009.