11th 

1852 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST public lavatory for women was opened at 51 Bedford St, Strand, London by the Society of Arts. The gentlemen's lavatory had been opened 9 days earlier. It seemed obvious that the toilets were designed for the benefit of the middle classes as the prices charged were 2d and another 2d for washing hands. Both sets of toilets were advertised in The Times three times per week for a month and no less than 50,000 handbills were distributed. However by the end of February only 24 ladies had used the facilities and only 58 gentlemen had used theirs. The experiment was disbanded and not revived again until 1855. ( from the Shell Book of FIRSTS) 

1858 ..... St Bernadette had her FIRST vision of the Virgin Mary 

1878 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST weekly weather report was forecast by the Meteorological Office

1936 ..... U.K ..... Dame Laura Knight became the FIRST woman to be appointed to the Royal Academy   

1975 ..... U.K ..... Margaret Thatcher became the FIRST woman ever to lead a political party in Britain when she ran against Edward Heath and received 130 votes to his 199. He resigned and a second ballot gave her the leadership

1993 ..... U.K ..... Ann Bowtell was appointed FIRST Civil Service Commissioner, so becoming the FIRST woman to help in the selection of top flight civil servants ..... and ..... Linda Haye, a former magistrate, became the FIRST black woman to serve on the Police Complaints Authority

1995 ..... SPACE ..... Eileen Collins became the FIRST woman pilot of a spacecraft when she brought the team back in the US Shuttle Discovery after an 8 day mission ( see also February 10th) 

2000 ….. U.K ..... Britain's FIRST digital cinema release, Toy Story 2, arrived at the UCI Cinemas in theTrafford Centre, Manchester. It was the FIRST major Hollywood studio feature film to be released in both digital and traditional format and the FIRST film to be entirely created, mastered and exhibited digitally. It was the biggest change in movie presentation in 100 years

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