Who was the first person to...? Celebrating some of the most historical moments ever

Being the first person in history to do something is quite the achievement.

And it means that no one can ever take it away from you.

We’ve had a bit of a deep dive into our archive to look back on some of the record-breaking historical moments that shaped our world…

First person to reach Earth's highest and lowest points

You might think that any ‘first’ would have happened a long time ago, but it was just a few years back in 2019 that Victor Vescovo (USA) became the first person to reach Earth's highest and lowest points.

Without leaving the planet’s surface, Victor has covered more vertical distance than any other person.

To achieve this feat, Victor summited Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain and Earth’s highest point, which stands at 8,848 m (20,029 ft).

He reached the top at 8:20 a.m. local time on 24 May 2010. Then on 28 April 2019, he reached the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean – aka Earth’s lowest point.

He travelled there in deep-sea submersible Limiting Factor.

First person hit by space junk

Arguably, this isn’t a ‘first’ anyone would have wanted to achieve.

But in 1997, an American woman named Lottie Williams was struck by some orbital debris as it returned to Earth.

She was walking around a park in Tulsa, Oklahoma when she felt a blow against her shoulder. She’d been hit by a 5-in (12.7-cm) long piece of blackened fibreglass that was later confirmed to be part of the second stage of a US-made Delta II rocket.

First person to refuse an Oscar award

This is another odd one, as most would say that winning an Oscar is the highest-achievement any actor or filmmaker could want.

However, in 1936, Dudley Nichols (USA), screenwriter of The Informer famously turned one down because of a union boycott of that year’s awards.

First person to climb the Seven Summits

Patrick Morrow (Canada) became the first person in the world to climb the Seven Summits – the highest mountain on all seven continents.

He completed the last, Puncak Jaya, in Indonesia (Oceania), on 5 August 1986.

First person to win an Olympic medal and an Oscar

There’s not really much crossover in these two fields, but it turns out people can be exceptionally great at sports AND making movies. Who knew?

Basketball star Kobe Bryant (USA) won gold medals in his sport in the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, then won an Oscar in 2018 for his animated short film Dear Basketball.

It was written and narrated by the Lakers star, based on a poem of the same name he wrote in 2015 to announce his impending retirement. He shared the Best Animated Short Film prize with Disney animator Glen Keane.

First person to operate a mind-controlled robotic hand

American man Matthew Nagle was left paralysed from the neck down in a horrific knife attack in 2001, and was given a new lease of life in 2004 when he underwent a revolutionary surgery.

The New England Sinai Hospital, Massachusetts, USA, attached a BrainGate experimental brain-computer interface to the surface of his motor cortex, the area of his brain that would normally control his left arm.

The implant was attached to an external connector on his skull that was linked to a computer. After recovering from his surgery, Matthew began learning to use the BrainGate, which was able to translate his brain waves and allow him to move a cursor on a monitor as well as open and close a robotic hand.

First person to run a mile in less than four minutes

How long does it take you to run a mile?

Roger Bannister (UK) was the first ever person to be documented completing the distance in less than four minutes.

Then 25, he completed the distance in 3 min 59.4 sec in front of a crowd of 3,000 people at Oxford University’s Iffley Road track.

Before then, people had thought it was an impossible feat.

Read more stories about record-breaking athletes in our Sports and Fitness section.

First person to run 100 m in less than 10 seconds (automatic timing)

Staying with the running theme, it was during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City that American sprinter Jim Hines became the first person to run 100 m in less than 10 seconds.

He crossed the finish line in 9.95 sec, winning the gold.

First person to visit space and the deepest point on Earth

In 1984, Dr Kathryn Sullivan (USA) was one of seven astronauts aboard the Challenger Space Shuttle that launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, as part of NASA’s STS-41-G mission.

Almost 36 years later, in 2020, she also reached the deepest known point in Earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep at around 10,934 metres (35,872 feet).

She made the descent in the DSV Limiting Factor, piloted by fellow American Victor Vescovo, whose ‘first’ we also covered earlier in this article.

First person to achieve the EGOT

Thought of as the “Grand Slam of show business”, an EGOT means someone has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony.

The first ever person to win all four prestigious prizes was US composer Richard Rogers.

He won a Best Song Oscar in 1945 for “It Might As Well Be Spring” from State Fair, a Tony in 1950 for Best Score for South Pacific, a Grammy in 1960 when the original cast recording for The Sound of Music won Best Show Album, and he picked up an Emmy in 1962 for Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composed for Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years.

First person to captain a complete circumnavigation

In 1577, famous English explorer Sir Francis Drake set off from his homeland with a fleet of five small warships, with the original intention of raiding Spanish merchant vessels off the coast of South America and return home with ships full of treasure.

But it didn’t quite go as planned.

By mid-1578, he’d lost many of his crewmen to illness and sunk two of his ships.

By the end of that year, he was down to just his flagship vessel – the Golden Hind – which he sailed up the west coast of the Americas, raiding Spanish ships as he went and filling his own up with gold.

Heading home in 1579, he crossed the Pacific and the Indian Ocean before returning to Europe up the west coast of Africa.

He arrived back in England in 1580, becoming the first person to have successfully captained a circumnavigation.

Only 58 of his 164 crew members survived though, so it wasn’t exactly a roaring success all round.

The trip did, however, see him knighted by Queen Elizabeth I on board the Golden Hind in 1581.

First person to visit both poles

Dr Albert Paddock Crary (USA) was the first person to visit both the North Pole and the South Pole.

He reached the North Pole in a Dakota aircraft in 1952. And in 1961, he arrived at the South Pole by Sno-Cat on a scientific traverse party from the McMurdo Station.

Header image: Photo by Florian Schmetz on Unsplash