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587 ..... U.S.A ..... Virginia Dare was the FIRST English child to be born in the present U.S.A in Virginia, named so by Sir Walter Raleigh1842 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST regularly constituted detective force in Britain was formed under the joint command of Inspector Pearce and Inspector John Haynes. One of the original six Detective Sergeants was Sergeant Whicker who was believed to be the model for Wilkie Collins' Sergeant Cuff in The Moonstone, the FIRST of the great detectives of English fiction. In 1878 it assumed the name Criminal Investigation Department (CID)
1872 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST voting by ballot in Great Britain took place in a by-election at Pontefract, when Hugh Childers, a Liberal MP and minister was re-elected
1914 ..... SOUTH AMERICA ..... the 42-mile-long Panama Canal, linking the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was used for the FIRST time. It was opened officially the following year on July 12th. During its 20 year construction 50,000 workers died. In 1904, facing financial ruin, architect Ferdinand de Lesseps handed the project over to the Americans who introduced modern sanitation and dramatically reduced the death toll. The construction of the canal cost the United States £80 million
1941 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST message via the new airgraph service to the Middle East was sent to General Sir Claud Auchinleck
1945 ..... JAPAN ..... Emperor Hirohito of Japan made the FIRST public speech by a Japanese Emperor and the second world war was over. This followed the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and led to the unconditional surrender of the Japanese
1947 ..... U.K ..... Britain’s FIRST atomic reactor started up at Harwell ..... and ..... INDIA ..... Jawaharlal Nehru became the FIRST Prime Minister of India
1960 ..... U.K ..... Britain’s FIRST motorway restaurant was opened on the M1 at Newport Pagnell
1969 ..... U.S.A ..... the FIRST Woodstock rock festival opened in upstate New York
1988 ..... U.K ..... Dorothy Weir, aged 21, was the FIRST person to receive the new EEC passport at Glasgow passport office, which was the FIRST to be computerised to dispense the burgundy-coloured documents which replaced the traditional blue ones. Reception to them was mixed
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