Results: If You Can't Be The Best, Try Being The First

The Home Insurance Building was erected in Chicago in 1884 and has been called the "Father of the Modern Skyscraper". It was only 10 stories high, but it was the first skyscraper. It was demolished in 1931.

Yellowstone in the U.S. was the first national park on earth. President Ulysses S Grant declared it a protected area in 1872.

Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar commissioned the first known road map to be created, not surprisingly because the Romans were famous for the roads they built. It took nearly twenty years to complete the first map!

The first officially produced portable/wearable clock (or watch) was the Nuremberg Egg. It was designed by Peter Hemlein of Germany in 1509.

The first known strike in history took place in Egypt on November 14, 1152 BC. The artisans of the Royal Necropolis organized the strike which was later recorded on papyrus.

Going all the way back to 3200 BC Uruk, located in Mesopatamia (Iraq), is considered the first city. It had nearly 50,000 inhabitants, a thick wall, and was a center of trade and commerce.

Also coming out of Mesopotamia, the Epic of Gilgamesh contains what historians believe is the first declaration of war. Gilgamesh was actually the king of Uruk and the poem describes his exploits. (sadly this was not the only declaration of war)

Although the car was steam powered and experimental, in 1869, Mary Ward of the UK became the first recorded car crash victim ever -- despite the vehicle only moving several kilometers per hour.

Knew none of these

The first food ever microwaved was… exactly what you'd imagine it would be: Popcorn, way back in 1945.

The first TV sitcom, Pinwright's Progress, debuted on November 29, 1946, on the BBC and chronicled the adventures of the smallest store in the world.

Annie Edson Taylor made history on October 24, 1901, when she climbed in a barrel and sailed over the edge of the Niagara Falls. She wasn't the first person to try the barrel drop but she was the first person to survive it! It was also her 63rd birthday

On September 27, 1922, the first 3-D film (or stereoscopic film) premiered in Los Angeles. It was a 5-reel melodrama named The Power of Love.

Joseph Gayetty invented the first toilet paper in 1957, that was the precursor to the toilet paper we use today. He named it "medical paper" and claimed it was "The Greatest Necessity of the Age."

On April 23, 2005, the first video was uploaded to YouTube. "Meet me at the zoo" was a scintillating 18 seconds of a boy explaining that elephants have long tusks.

Knew none of these

Did you learn that the first African-American to play professional baseball was Jackie Robinson? -- Moses Fleetwood Walker was an African-American and played major league baseball long before Jackie Robinson. Walker was a catcher for the Toledo Blue Stockings, which was a major league team, and he did it in 1884, over 30 years before Robinson was even born.

Did you learn that Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439? -- Movable metal type -- the method his printing press used -- was 200-year-old news by 1439. That's because the Goryeo dynasty of Korea already covered that ground back in the 13th century.

Did you learn that Nicolaus Copernicus was the first to say the Earth orbited the sun? -- A Greek mathematician named Aristarchus came up with the heliocentric model 1,800 years prior to Copernicus.

Did you learn that Pythagoras discovered the Pythagorean Theorem? -- Well, ancient Indians, Egyptians and Babylonians were using "Pythagorean triplets" (common sides of a right triangle) to construct their buildings since about 2,000 B.C., whereas Pythagoras "discovered" his theorem around 550 B.C. And he didn't even document it first, since It turns out that a Chinese mathematical text called the Chou Pei Suan Ching has a geometric proof of the Pythagorean theorem that predates the Greek thinker.

None