Many archaeologists are of the opinion that the decorated Upper Palaeolithic caves of Europe (c. 30,000-10,000BC) were used as places of worship or religious ritual. Please see Caves of Lascaux, France.

The earliest player housing in a MMORPG was in Ultima Online which allowed players to own their own houses, which could be decorated and even turned into shops with goods for other players to buy. An early problem with this system was players using rows of housing to wall off sections of the world for private use. This was eventually fixed and the housing system upgraded. From February 2003, players were able to custom design their houses as part of the Age of Shadows expansion.

At the 2007 World Cup, Herschelle Gibbs (South Africa) became the first person to score six sixes in one over in an international match against the Netherlands at Basseterre, St. Kitts, on 16 March.

The Secret of Monkey Island was the first point ’n’ click video game to have a full soundtrack with different tunes tailored for specific parts of the game. Michael Land wrote the music and was the only musician to have a permanent job at LucasArts. The sequel, Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge, went further and was the first game to use LucasArts’ iMUSE sound system, which allowed music to be synchronized with the on-screen action. This heralded a new era of audio in gaming and Continue reading →

The earliest Playstation 2 game to allow online play was Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, published by Activision, released in 2001. Unlike later online titles this could be done without the need for an adaptor, by using a standard usB connector and a dial-up connection.

Rodney Harrison (USA) playing for the San Diego Chargers (1994-2002) and the New England Patriots (2003-present) became the first player in NFL history to record to record at least 20 career interceptions and 20 career quarterback sacks.

A “Ponzi” scheme is a form of fraudulent investment, where large returns are promised but, instead of being paid for by the profit on real investments, they are paid for from subsequent investors enticed by the high interest rates offered. They are reliant on an ever-increasing flow of money from new investors and will ultimately fail because the earnings are less than the payments – the most recent investors losing their money. They are called “Ponzi” schemes after Charles Ponzi, an Italian who moved to Continue reading →

On April 28 1999, at 10:30 am (GMT), the first ever phone call took place between people at the north and the south poles. It was accomplished by Mike Comberiate and Andre Fortin (both NASA, USA). It became a conference call, coordinated from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and lasted 45 minutes. Taking part in the call were: George Morrow, Tom Carlson, Joel Michalski, Mike Comberiate, Claire Parkinson, Vince Hurley and Ron Ruhlman. The participants in the call have the following affiliations: G Morrow (NASA’s Continue reading →

Marine propulsion by steam engine was first achieved in 1783 when the Marquis Jouffroy d’Abbans (1751-1832) ascended a reach of the river Saône near Lyon, France, in the 180-tonne (397,000 lb) paddle steamer Pyroscaphe. The first successful power-driven vessel was the tug Charlotte Dundas, a stern paddle-wheel steamer built for the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1801-2 by William Symington (1763-1831), using a double-acting condensing engine constructed by James Watt (1736-1819).

The earliest crossing of the Atlantic by a power vessel, as opposed to an auxiliary-engined sailing ship, was a 22-day voyage begun in April 1827, from Rotterdam, Netherlands, to the West Indies, by the Curaçao. She was a 38.7 m (127 ft) wooden paddle boat of 445 tonnes (981,000 lb), built as the Calpe in Dover, Kent in 1826 and purchased by the Dutch Government for a West Indian mail service.