15th 

1840 ..... AUSTRALIA ..... the FIRST white man climbed Mt. Koscious-Ko, the highest peak in the Australian Alps. He was the Polish born explorer Paul Edmund Strzelecki who reached the summit 2228m above sea level and named the mountain in honour of a Polish patriot 

1842 ..... U.S.A ..... the FIRST adhesive stamp was used in the US by the City Despatch Post 

1852 ..... U.K ..... Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London admitted its FIRST patient

1862 ..... the FIRST revolving gun turret on a sea-going ship was fitted to the Union vessel, the Monitor which FIRST sailed on this day 

1882 ..... NEW ZEALAND ..... the FIRST shipment of frozen meat left New Zealand on the SS Dunedin, an iron sailing ship, for Britain. A vast steam driven refrigerator was in the hold and it contained 5000 carcasses of frozen mutton. When the ship docked at the East India Dock 98 days later only one carcass was unfit for human consumption 

1901 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST British Parliament of the 20th century opened with a new member for Oldham - Winston Churchill

1902 ..... GERMANY ..... Berlin’s FIRST underground railway station opened  

1949 ..... U.K ..... one of the FIRST buses in Britain to be lit by fluorescent tube lights was put into service by Salford Transport Department 

1971 ..... U.K ..... decimal coinage was FIRST adopted in Great Britain although it had been FIRST suggested as early as 1682 

1998 ..... U.K ..... the St Ann’s Square branch of Barclays Bank became the FIRST bank in Manchester to open on Sunday. It was open from 11 am to 3.30 pm and a full range of services was offered

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