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1789..... U.S.A ..... Power of Sympathy by W H Brown was the FIRST American novel to be published

1793 .....  FRANCE ..... Louis XV1 was the FIRST Monarch to die on the guillotine. At the time the machine was known as a “Louisette” in honour of its inventor Dr Antoine Louis 

1807..... U.K ..... streets in London were FIRST illuminated by gaslight when Pall Mall was lit up 

1846 ..... U.K ..... the Daily News, the newspaper edited by Charles Dickens, was FIRST published 

1906 ..... U.K ..... taxi-cabs were officially recognised in London for the FIRST time 

1911 ..... FRANCE ..... the FIRST Monte Carlo Rally was held and was won by Henri Rougier in a 25hp Tourcat-Mery. The French driver was also a champion cyclist and pioneer aviator 

1937..... U.K ..... Marcel Boulestin became the FIRST television cook when he demonstrated how to cook an omelette in the opening programme of his BBC series Cook's Night Out

1950 ..... U.K ..... Breakfast With Braden was the FIRST Saturday morning comedy series and its stars were Bernard Braden, Pearl Carr, Benny Lee and Nat Temple

1951 ..... U.S.A ..... atomic bombs were tested in Nevada for the FIRST time 

1954 ..... U.S.A ..... the USS Nautilus, the world’s FIRST nuclear-powered submarine was launched by America

1976 ..... U.K & FRANCE ..... the Concorde aeroplane flew for the FIRST time when a British and French one took  to the air together to mark the inaugural passenger service flights of the £20m supersonics. The cost was £676.10 per person for the return flight and along with 78 guests there were 22 fare-paying passengers. Nearly 3 hours was knocked off the normal flying time to Bahrain by the British Concorde but the Air France Concorde arrived 38 minutes late

2007 ..... ANTARCTICA ..... the geographic centre of Antarctica was reached on foot. Henry Cookson set off on December 3rd from a Russian base 45 miles from the Antarctica coast. The only previous visit was by a team of Russians who turned up in 1958 in snow trucks and built a hut camp with a statue of Lenin beside it

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