The first and only circumnavigation by an amphibious vehicle was by Ben Carlin (Australia) in a modified Ford GPA amphibious jeep called Half-Safe. He completed the last leg of the Atlantic crossing (the English Channel) on 24 August 1951. He arrived back in Montreal, Canada on 8 May 1958, having completed a circumnavigation of 62,765 km (39,000 miles) over land and 15,450 km (9,600 miles) by sea and river. He was accompanied on the transatlantic stage by his ex-wife Elinore (USA) and on the long Continue reading →

The first person reputed to have walked round the world is George Matthew Schilling (USA) from 1897 to 1904. The first verified achievement was by David Kunst (USA) from 20 June 1970 to 5 October 1974, who walked 23,250 km (14,450 miles) through four continents.

Dating back to around 3200 BC, the world’s first city was Uruk, located in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq). Home to some 50,000 inhabitants, it was the largest settlement of its time, covering 450 hectares (1,112 acres) and encircled by a 9.5-km (5.9-mi) city wall. Thriving as a result of trade and agriculture, Uruk also became a great artistic centre, featuring many elaborate mosaics and monuments.

In Darfur, Sudan, the dramatic reduction in rainfall over the last fifty years and the southward advance of the Sahara desert have forced the Sudanese province’s northern Muslims and its southern Christian/Animists to arm themselves and begin competing for reduced land and water resources, in what is widely regarded as the world’s first climate change war. According to the United Nations, 300,000 people have died, and fighting in the region has displaced nearly three million people.

The earliest dated coin is a Samian silver tetradrachm struck in Zankle (now Messina), Sicily, dated year 1, viz 494 BC – shown as the letter ‘A’ on one side. The earliest Christian Era dated coin is: MCCXXXIIII (1234) Bishop of Roskilde coins, Denmark (six known).

The first cloned dog to survive birth is Snuppy, an Afghan hound puppy, created by Hwang Woo-Suk (South Korea) and his team of scientists at Seoul National University (SNU) in South Korea, after which the dog was named. Snuppy’s growth was stimulated when a donor egg cell fused with DNA from the ear of Tie (three-year-old male Afghan hound), before being transferred to a surrogate golden labrador female for 60 full days of pregnancy, before being born by caesarean on 25 April 2005. Snuppy celebrated Continue reading →

In 2009, Alaskan human rights lawyer Robin Bronen coined the term “climigration” to describe forced migration of people resulting from climate-induced ecological changes in a community’s environment that severely impact infrastructure, such as health clinics and schools, as well as the livelihoods and wellbeing of the people residing in the community. Bronen used the term in a report on Alaskan indigenous communities who were having to relocate due to climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that there will be 150 Continue reading →

Supplied with the PlayStation 3 version of Time Crisis 4, the GunCon 3 is a hand-gun peripheral that features a unique twohanded control scheme. Mounted under the barrel is an extension that carries an analogue stick and two shoulder buttons for use by the player’s left hand. This enables the first-person shooter sections of the game, which require the player to move a character around the levels. Unlike the GunCon and GunCon 2 before it, the third version supports today’s almost obligatory LCD and plasma Continue reading →

The Red Head Comedies (USA 1923), each a lampoon of an historical event by the Lee-Bradford Corporation.

The world’s earliest transmission of colour television occurred on 3 July 1928 when John Logie Baird (UK) showed red and blue scarves, a UK policeman’s helmet, a man poking his tongue out, the glowing end of a cigarette and a bunch of roses during a demonstration at his studios in Long Acre, London, UK. Nature magazine reported: `Delphiniums and carnations appeared in their natural colours and a basket of strawberries showed the red fruit very clearly.’ The low definition system was based on a Nipkow Continue reading →