The first men to row across the Atlantic were George Harbo and Frank Samuelson (both Norway) who crossed the Atlantic West to East from USA land to land, from New York, USA to the Isles of Scilly, UK . They departed on 6 June 1896 in an 5.48-m (18-ft) long boat without sails and arrived on 1 August, after rowing 5,262 km (3,270 miles) in 55 days. They rowed for a futher five days into Le Havre, France.

The first row across the Indian Ocean by a male team of four was completed by team Row 4 Charity: Phil McCorry, Matt Hellier, Ian Allen and Nick McCorry (All UK) who completed the journey aboard the Bexhill Trust Challenger between 19 April and 26 June 2009. The journey began in Geraldton, Western Australia and ended in Port Louis, Mauritius.

The first row across the Indian Ocean by a female team of four was completed by the Ocean Angels: Sarah Duff, Fiona Waller, Joanna Jackson and Elin Haf Davis (all UK) who completed the journey between 19 April and 6 July 2009 aboard the Pura Vida. The Ocean Angels also hold the record for the fastest row across the Indian Ocean.

The first console game to present the player with a single, unbroken 3D world was Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy. Thanks to developer Naughty Dog’s advanced ‘streaming’ technology, the game world could be explored without any loading times between areas. Even Grand Theft Auto III, released two months before Jak and Daxter , featured loading times between Liberty City’s islands.

The cosmetician Madame C. J. Walker (née Sarah Breedlove) (1857–1919) of Delta, Louisiana, USA is reputed to have become the first self-made millionairess. She was an uneducated African-American orphan whose fortune was founded on a hair straightener.

The first title in an established first-person shooter series to completely abandon the single-player element and focus solely on multiplayer battles was Quake III Arena. The game was ported to both PlayStation 2 and Dreamcast consoles, and was followed by the Team Arena cooperative expansion pack in 2000. A remake of Quake III Arena is underway for Xbox Live Arcade. Featured in Guinness World Records Gamer”s Edition 2010

The first ever side-scrolling beat-emup was Kung-Fu Master, released in Japanese arcades in 1984. Laying down the template for the genre, Kung-Fu Master featured multiple enemies, five side-scrolling floors and a clichéd storyline that revolved around saving a girlfriend. The game was ported to numerous home computers and consoles, and has been cited as the inspiration for a number of other series in the beatem- up genre, including Final Fight and Streets of Rage. Featured in Guinness World Records Gamer”s Edition 2010

Game: StarBlade Publisher: Namco The first-person arcade shooter StarBlade (1991) featured quadraphonic sound and a vibrating cockpit seat. It was also the first sit-down arcade cabinet to use a fresnel lens to reflect the image from a standard 26-in monitor onto the interior of the “pod”, giving a unique 3D wraparound “space” effect. A fresnel lens (named after its inventor, Augustin-Jean Fresnel) is a thin, lightweight lens composed of concentric rings, such as that used in lighthouses.

Col. Joe Kittinger, USAF became the first man to complete a solo transatlantic crossing by balloon. In the 2850m3 101,000ft3 helium-filled balloon Rosie O’Grady, Kittinger lifted off from Caribou, Maine, USA on 14 Sep 1984 and completed a distance of 5701km 3543miles before landing at Montenotte, near Savona, Italy 86hours later on 18 Sep 1984.

Soap operas began life on American radio in the 1930’s and the name alluded to the soap manufacturers that most often sponsored these continuing dramas that captivated many of the at-home female audience. The mother of the soap opera was Irna Phillips (USA) who created the first radio soap Painted Dreams and would later go on to create three giants in the field The Guiding Light (USA, NBC Radio from 1937-1956, CBS TV from 1952-present) As the World Turns (USA, CBS TV 1956-present) and Another Continue reading →