World's First Thing
Friday, Aug 14, 2020, 4:31 pm
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1.First bank
The first bank, as we would recognize it, was in Italy and was called Monte Dei Paschi di Siena. It was founded in 1472 and indeed parts of it still survive to this very day. It followed rules and regulations that we would generally recognize and it certainly helped to regulate a growing industry and turn it into what we know today.
2.First weather forecast
The first weather forecast appeared in The Times newspaper in 1861. It was created by a meteorologist that worked for the Royal Navy, but it is unknown as to what the reaction was to this very first forecast. However, it must have gone down quite well since it then took off and everybody knows how the British love to talk about the weather.
3.First boxing champion
The first heavyweight boxing champion, who followed the Queensbury Rules, was Jim Corbett who beat John Sullivan in 1892 at a club in New Orleans. There were other boxing champions before it, but they were unlicensed and also tended to be bare-knuckle fights, so they are largely forgotten about when it comes to the historical record.
4.First submarine
The idea for the first submarine actually goes as far back as 1580 and a guy in England called William Bourne. He managed to dream it up although he had no idea how to actually manage to build it and that did not happen until 1623 and a Dutchman called Cornelius Drebbel who built it on the orders of King James I.
5.First nuclear power plant
The first time that nuclear power was used to generate electricity was at Idaho on December 20th 1951. However, the first commercial nuclear power station was actually in the USSR in 1954, but then it was typical of the race between the US and the USSR to be the first to manage to achieve something.
6.First sky scraper
This is seen as being the 10 story high Chicago Home Insurance Building and that was completed in 1884. Of course now we probably do not even see 10 stories as being a sky scraper, but back then it was a major advance in building techniques and it certainly paved the way for the huge buildings that we see now.
7.First postage stamp
The first postage stamp is called the Penny Black and it was created in the UK in 1940. They are now very rare and if you have one in good condition it can command huge prices as collectors around the world are desperate to have one in their collection.
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8.First billionaire
The first billionaire is alleged to have been John Rockefellar and that is probably not going to come as a surprise. It is believed that he became a billionaire around 1916, so if he was that rich at that time can you imagine how much money he would be worth if it was translated into today?
9.First heart transplant
This operation was carried out by a South African called Christiaan Barnard and it was performed in October 1967. The patient survived the operation and it opened the door for transplants around the world.
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10.First 3D gun
This was created by a company in Texas at the start of November 2013 and it does actually work. This in itself is quite worrying because they have managed to print one out of metal and it fired over 50 rounds, so what can we expect to happen in the future with 3D printing?
11.First ATM
The first ATM was installed at Barclays Bank in London in 1967 and they had no idea that it would take off the way it has. At first people were slightly skeptical about using it and getting money out of a hole in the wall, but now it is common place and we do not give it a second thought.
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12.First cloned animal
The first fully cloned animal was called Dolly the sheep and she was made in Scotland. There was a lot of fanfare about this, as well as lot of debate as to whether or not it should have happened in the first place, but she did manage to live for several years and provide scientists with a wealth of information.
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