17th
1827 ..... U.K ..... wides in cricket were FIRST scored in the Sussex v Kent game at Brighton
1894 ..... U.S.A ..... A Gaiety Girl opened at Days Theatre, New York, the FIRST British musical on Broadway
1908 ..... U.S.A ..... the FIRST man to die in an aircraft, Lt Thomas E Selfridge, aged 26, of the US Army signal corps was in an aircraft piloted by Orville Wright. He was flying one of his brother’s planes on army trials at Fort Meyer, Virginia when the plane fell from 75’ and he suffered a fractured skull. He never regained consciousness
1911 ..... U.S.A ..... the FIRST transcontinental airplane flight left New York for Pasadena
1922 ..... GERMANY ..... the FIRST sound-on-film was presented at the Alhambra Kino in Berlin before an audience of 1000 people who had been invited to watch films made by the Tri-Ergon process. It was called Der Brandstifter ( The Arsonist ) and Erwin Baron played seven of the nine parts
1929 ..... U.S.A ..... the FIRST 70mm feature film - Fox Movietone Follies of 1929 - premiered in the Grandeur process at the Gaiety Theatre, New York
1931 ..... U.S.A ..... the FIRST 33 rpm LP record was demonstrated by the RCA Victor company in New York but the players were so costly that the venture failed and was not revived until 1948
1940 ..... U.K ..... the FIRST women were employed on the London Underground as ticket collectors and porters. Their original uniform of white dust coat and grey kepi was later replaced by blue tunics and berets
1944 ..... U.K ..... for the FIRST time in five years blackout regulations were lifted to allow lights on buses, trains and at railway stations in Britain
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