1848 ..... U.K ..... W. H. Smith opened its FIRST railway bookstall at Euston Station, London, at a rental of £1500 a year. Two weeks later the company had an exclusive contract with the Midland Railway at £350 a year and other contracts quickly followed. By 1850 they had some 30 railway bookstalls with rights over some 2000 miles of track 

1895 ..... GERMANY ..... the FIRST screening of a film before a paying audience in Europe was at the Berlin Wintergarten by Max and Emil Skladanowski. The projector used was one which they had invented ..... and ..... U.S.A ..... the American Motor League became the world's FIRST motoring association

1904 ..... NORWAY ..... the FIRST cinema in Norway was the Kinematograf - Teatret in Oslo 

1911 ..... U.K ..... Woman’s Weekly was FIRST issued ..... and ..... ITALY ..... the FIRST air raid took place when Lt Giulio Gavotti took off from Tripoli in an Etrich monoplane and dropped a 4½ lb Citelli-type bomb on the Turkish position at Ain Zara

1916 ..... William La Touche Congreve became the FIRST officer to be awarded three medals for gallantry

1921 ..... IRELAND ..... Miss Fay Kyle and Miss A.K.S Deverell were called to the Irish Bar

1922 ..... U.K ..... radio receiving licences were FIRST introduced 

1946 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST Royal Command Film Performance at a public cinema was at the Empire in Leicester Square when King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth saw A Matter of Life and Death starring David Niven and Marius Goring 

1947 ..... U.K ..... the BBC radio programme Sports Report FIRST went on air 

1956 ..... U.K ..... Premium Bonds FIRST went on sale and since then ERNIE, the electronic random number indicator equipment, has handed out millions of prizes 

1957 ….. U.K ..... Nellie McGrail became the FIRST big pools winner when she won £205,305.00 

1959 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST stretch of the M1 opened