20th-century firsts

The first Academy Awards ceremony is held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, lasting just fifteen minutes.

Winners are announced three months in advance, so nobody is surprised — the 'envelope' tradition doesn't begin until 1941.

The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best films from August 1, 1927, to July 31, 1928, and took place on May 16, 1929, at a private dinner held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Tickets cost $5 ; 270 people attended the event, which lasted 15 minutes. It is the only Academy Awards ceremony not broadcast on either radio or television; a radio broadcast was introduced for the 2nd Academy Awards.

📷 Wikimedia Commons

Enrico Fermi's team achieves the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction beneath a Chicago football stadium.

The only safety measure if it goes wrong is a man standing by with a bucket of cadmium-salt solution to pour over the pile.

Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1) was the first artificial nuclear reactor. On 2 December 1942, the first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1 during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi. The secret development of the reactor was the first major technical achievement for the Manhattan Project, the Allied effort to create nuclear weapons during World War II. Developed by the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago, CP-1 was built under the west viewing stands of the original Stagg Field. Although the project's civilian and military leaders had misgivings about the possibility of a disastrous runaway reaction, they trusted Fermi's safety calculations and decided they could carry out the experiment in a densely populated area. Fermi described the reactor as "a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers".

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American pharmaceutical companies begin mass-producing penicillin for Allied forces in World War II.

To obtain enough penicillin mould, scientists scour Peoria, Illinois market stalls and find the best strain on a mouldy cantaloupe.

Mass production of penicillin saves tens of thousands of soldiers' lives and launches the age of antibiotics.

CBS airs the first commercial colour television broadcast in the United States.

Virtually no one can watch it in colour — fewer than 30 colour TV sets exist in the entire country at the time.

The first commercial colour television broadcast signals the beginning of colour's takeover of American living rooms.

BOAC launches the world's first scheduled commercial jet airliner service, flying a de Havilland Comet from London to Johannesburg.

The journey takes just under 24 hours — half the time of propeller rivals — but the square windows will soon cause catastrophic pressure cracks.

The first scheduled commercial jet service shrinks the globe and transforms air travel from elite luxury to mass transit.

BOAC flies the world's first jet airliner passengers from London to Johannesburg on the de Havilland Comet.

Cruising at 490 mph and 40,000 feet, it halves the travel time of any propeller rival — yet the cabin windows are square, a flaw that will later cause catastrophic fatigue cracks.

BOAC's de Havilland Comet inaugurates the age of jet passenger travel, shrinking the world overnight.

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay become the first people confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

On the summit, Tenzing buries sweets and biscuits as a Buddhist offering, while Hillary photographs Tenzing — Tenzing doesn't photograph Hillary because he's never used a camera.

The 1953 British Mount Everest expedition was the ninth mountaineering expedition to attempt the first ascent of Mount Everest, and the first confirmed to have succeeded when Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit on 29 May 1953 at 11:30 a.m. Led by Colonel John Hunt, it was organised and financed by the Joint Himalayan Committee. News of the expedition's success reached London in time to be released on the morning of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation, on 2 June that year.

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Surgeon Joseph Murray performs the first successful kidney transplant at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.

The donor and recipient are identical twins, which is why the body doesn't reject the kidney — a trick Murray tests first by grafting skin between the brothers.

The first successful kidney transplant opens the era of organ transplantation and gives new life to thousands annually.

Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is declared safe and effective after the largest clinical trial in American history.

When asked who owns the patent, Salk replies, 'There is no patent — could you patent the sun?' — forgoing an estimated $7 billion.

The Salk polio vaccine ends a decades-long epidemic that paralysed hundreds of thousands of children each year.

Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is declared safe and effective after the largest medical trial in U.S. history.

When asked who owns the patent, Salk replies, "Well, the people, I would say" — the vaccine is deliberately never patented, costing him an estimated $7 billion.

Jonas Salk's polio vaccine is declared safe and effective, ending the annual summer terror that had paralysed hundreds of thousands of children.