12th
1606 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST union flag combined St George and St Andrew
1903 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST municipal motor omnibus service in the world was begun between Eastbourne railway station and Meads in East Sussex
1911 ..... U.K ..... Pierre Prier, a Frenchman, made the FIRST non-stop flight from London to Paris. The flight took 4 hours
1913 ..... U.K ..... Leeds became the FIRST rugby league team to score 100 points when they beat Coventry 102-0
1924 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST soccer international was held at Wembley when Scotland played England. The result was 1-1
1937..... U.K ..... the British engineer, Frank Whittle, tested the FIRST jet engine. The FIRST jet flight was achieved by the German Heinkel, but it was Whittle’s engine that was used as the prototype
1949 ..... U.K ..... Helena Normanton and Rose Heilbron were the FIRST women members of the English Bar to be appointed KC's
1961 ..... SPACE ..... Yuri Gagarin became the FIRST man to go into space. At 9.07 am (Moscow time) his Vostok 1 spacecraft was launched from a field at Baykonur in Western Siberia. It completed one orbit of the earth in 89 minutes, at a maximum altitude of 303 km and a top speed of 28,969 km per hour. Vostok 1 returned to Earth at 10.55 am at a point 640 kms south east of Moscow. Cosmonaut Gagarin immediately became famous all over the world, was awarded the Order of Lenin and the titles of "Hero of the Soviet Union" and "Pilot Cosmonaut of the Soviet Union". Unfortunately his FIRST space flight was also his last although he continued to serve as an Air Force pilot and to contribute to the cosmonaut programme. In March 1968 he was killed in an air crash and his remains were installed in the wall of the Kremlin. His birthplace of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin
1981 ..... SPACE ..... the US space shuttle, Columbia, was the FIRST re-usable space craft and the FIRST spaceship to have wings and a tail. It took 10 years and thousands of millions of dollars to develop. During its 54 1/2 hr mission it completed 36 orbits of the earth before re-entering the earth’s atmosphere and gliding to a halt on a dry lake bed in the California desert
1995 ..... U.S.A ..... women fighters were featured for the FIRST time in the Golden Gloves amateur boxing finals in New York ..... and ....... U.K ..... Debbie Moore became the FIRST woman director on the floor of the Stock Exchange, London
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