- F11 for full size -

first to...

 

Anna Lee Fisher, 1984

first mother to travel in space

Bert Patenaude, 1930

first to score a hat-trick in the World Cup

Nellie Bly, 1888

first to travel around world in
less than 80 days

Robert Peary, 1909

first to (almost) reach the North Pole

Amelia Earhart, 1932

first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean

Taisto Mäki, 1939

first athlete to run 10 km
in less than 30 minutes

Flying Hamburger, 1933

first train to travel at high speed (160 km/h)

Chuck Yeager, 1947

first pilot to break the sound barrier

Ruby Bridges, 1960

first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in Louisiana

Kathryn Bigelow, 2009

first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director

Louie Bellson, 1946

first drummer to use a double bass

Paul Deman, 1913

first cyclist to win the Tour of Flanders

Crusader Rabbit, 1949

first animated series to air on television

Alexandra David-Néel, 1924

first western woman to travel to Lhasa, Tibet

Lou Gehrig, 1939

first MLB player to have his uniform number retired
(and one of the first to be diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease)

Deep Blue, 1997

first computer to win a chess match against a reigning world champion

Annie Taylor, 1901

first to survive a trip over
Niagara Falls in a barrel

Enrico Caruso, 1902

first singer to sell a million
copies of a record

Yevgeny Grishin, 1963

first speed skater to finish the 500 m
in less than 40 seconds

Grace Hopper, 1952

first to build a running compiler for computer programs (and mother of COBOL)

You, 2016?

first to...

Good luck and all the best in 2016!

Madelinde Bos & Dick van Mersbergen

 

text |