8th
1776 ..... U.S.A ..... the famous American Liberty Bell rang out for the FIRST time in Philadelphia as the Declaration of Independence was read out. The bell had been cast in the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in England and sold to America for £150. It was 12 feet in circumference and weighed 2080 lbs and as it rang out for the First time a crack appeared and shoddy British workmanship was blamed. 59 years later in 1835 as the bell was tolling during the funeral of Chief Justice John Marshall it cracked again and was silenced. It has only been sounded since on special occasions, one of the last being D-Day 1944
1807 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST Oldham (in Manchester) Fair took place
1905 ..... U.K ..... for the FIRST time the Wimbledon Tennis Championship title was taken abroad when the 17 year old American May Sutton, won
1907 ..... U.S.A ..... the FIRST Ziegfield Follies show opened on Broadway in America
1908 ..... FRANCE ..... the FIRST woman to fly as an aeroplane passenger was Mme Therese Peltier, a French sculptress, who was taken for a short flight in a Voisin at Turin by Leon Delagrange
1918 ..... U.K ..... National Savings stamps went on sale in Britain for the FIRST time
1961 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST all-England women’s singles finals took place at Wimbledon. Christine Truman and Angela Mortimer won in 3 sets
1963 ..... U.K ..... Margaret Court, aged 20, was the FIRST Australian to win the women’s title at Wimbledon when she beat Billie Jean Moffitt 6-3 6-4
1978 ..... Reinhold Messner and Peter Habeler were the FIRST mountaineers to climb Everest without oxygen
1984 ..... U.K ..... when John McEnroe won the Men’s Singles Final at Wimbledon it was the FIRST time in the history of the tournament that all the defending champions had successfully retained their titles and all the number one seeds had won
1995 ..... SPACE ..... Europe’s FIRST spy satellite started circling the earth. An Ariane-4 rocket blasted Helios 1A into orbit from the European Space Agency base in French Guyana
1996 ..... Samantha Brewster became the FIRST woman to sail around the world the opposite way solo ..... and ..... President Mandela was the FIRST South African President to make a state visit to Britain
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