The first successful double back flip on a motorcycle was completed by Travis Pastrana (USA) at ESPN X Games 12 in Los Angeles, California, USA on 4 August 2006.

Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil) and Patrick Racing, whose winner’s share was US$1,001,604 (then £610,978) became the first driver and team to earn $1 million (then £610,000) in one year for winning the Indianapolis 500, in 1989. NB: Fittipaldi and his team shared the amount, so not $1 million each.

The first patent for the Drive-In Theater (United States Patent #1909537) was issued on 16 May 1933 to Richard Hollingshead who opened the first one on 6 June 1933 on a site for 400 cars in Camden, New Jersey, USA to show the film Wife Beware (USA 1933).

The first single to enter US Hot 100 chart on download singles sales alone was ‘Peacekeeper’ by Fleetwood Mac (UK/USA) in March 2003.

The first theatre in North America was located in the English colony of Williamsburg, Virginia and was constructed in 1716. It was built by William Levingston and called the “Play House.” Actors put on English plays, frequently Shakespeare, until 1745 when the theatre was demolished and its frame was used to construct a town hall. The Walnut Street Theatre (or simply The Walnut), located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and founded in 1809, is considered not only the oldest theatre in the United States, but also the Continue reading →

The first inclined moving stairway was invented and installed by Jesse W Reno (USA) in 1891 as a pleasure ride at Coney Island, New York , USA. This device had a vertical rise of 2.1 m (7 ft), an inclination of 25° and a speed of 22.8 m (75 ft) per minute. Reno later sold this machine to the Otis Elevator Company in 1899, and together they produced the first commercial escalator. Jesse Reno’s initial moving stairway invention in 1891 was more of an inclined Continue reading →

US astronauts Virgil Ivan ‘Gus’ Grissom, Edward Higgins White II and Roger Bruce Chaffee were killed inside their Apollo 1 capsule on 27 January 1967 during a launch rehearsal at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA. The fire was caused by a spark from an electrical fault which occurred in the capsule’s artificial atmosphere of pure oxygen. The internal pressure caused by the fire meant the crew could not open the hatch, which was designed to open inwards.

The first time in NBA history a father coaching one team faced his son playing for another was when New York Nets (USA) rookie Jan Van Breda Kolff (USA) produced six points and four rebounds against the Utah Jazz (USA), coached by his father, Butch Van Breda Kolff (USA), on 9 November 1976. The only other NBA father-versus-son combination is between Los Angeles Clippers (USA) coach Mike Dunleavy Sr. (USA) and Golden State Warriors (USA) forward Mike Jr. (USA) The Dunleavys have faced one another Continue reading →

The first Female Action Character to front her own show was cowgirl Annie Oakley in the western series Annie Oakley (US 1954-57) a syndicated show starring real-life trick-shot Gail Davis as the sharpshooter from the Buffalo Bill travelling show.

In the syndicated series Sheena Queen of the Jungle (US 1955-56) actress Irish McCalla played the distaff Tarzan who had first appeared in comic strips in the 1930s.