The first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier is the USS Enterprise, which was ordered in 1957, launched in 1960 and commissioned in 1961 by the US Navy. The ship has since taken part in numerous missions, including: the Cuba crisis of 1962, operations during the war in Vietnam (1959-1975), it was the first nuclear ship to transit the Suez Canal and has supported operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is currently due to remain in commission until 2015. USS Enterprise has a displacement of 77,655 tonnes (85,600 Continue reading →

Entroducing (1996) by DJ Shadow, a.k.a name Joshua Davis (USA) was the first album to be recorded using only sampled sounds.

Long before John Wayne graced the silver screen, “The Great Train Robbery”, made in 1903 and directed by Edwin S. Porter (USA), introduced the first american cowboy star, Gilbert M. Anderson, better known to audiences as “Broncho Billy” Anderson. He was far more versatile than the cowboy stars of subsequent generations as he played not only a bandit, but a passenger who was most unceremoniously shot in the back, and he showed his full range of talent by also playing a dancer in a scene Continue reading →

Riding a 2009 Suzuki RMZ450F, Chris Ridgway (USA) won gold in the X Games adaptive Moto X class at X Games 15 in Los Angeles, California, USA, on 31 July 2009.

The earliest film to use the stop-motion technique, to give the illusion of movement to inanimate objects, was Vitagraph’s The Humpty Dumpty Circus (USA, 1897). Albert E. Smith (USA), who conceived the idea, borrowed his daughter’s toy circus and succeeded in animating the acrobats and animals by shooting them in barely changed positions one frame at a time.

Essentially a nose with a dog attached, a trained bloodhound is the first animal whose evidence is legally admissible in some US courts. A typical bloodhound’s nose is lined with 230 million scent receptors – around 40 times more than the human nose – which are used in court to match scene-of-crime evidence to criminals. Bloodhounds have been used to trail human scent since Roman times.

In February 2011 scientists from Yale University, USA, unveiled their anti-laser, the first device capable of absorbing and cancelling out a laser beam. It uses an optical cavity made from silicon which traps the laser energy and dissipates it as heat. This prototype can absorb 99.4% of the laser light for a specific frequency.

Life on Earth uses six basic ‘building block’ elements to make up its molecular structure: carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur and phosphorus. In December 2010 NASA scientists announced their discovery of bacteria in the briny Mono Lake, California, USA, which shows the unique capability of incorporating the element arsenic into its DNA and proteins as a substitute for phosphorus.

The first musician-created internet service provider is BowieNet (USA, www.davidbowie.com) launched by David Bowie (UK) and Ultrastar Internet Services on 1 September 1998. BowieNet began as a high-speed Internet service across North America and then the world, offering each user a fully customisable home page, a davidbowie.com email address, news groups, chat rooms, online shareware, and multi-player gaming. In addition for music fans there are previously unreleased audio tracks, videos and photos available. The service also gives each user 5 MB of space with encouragement Continue reading →

The 2.19-km (1.366-mile) Darlington International Raceway, in Darlington, South Carolina, USA was the first asphalt superspeedway in the world when it opened in 1950. The first race on the track, called the Southern 500, was won by Johnny Mantz (USA) in a Plymouth at an average speed of 122.72 km/h (76.26 mph).