Famous Firsts #1

Can you guess these people, places, and things that came first?
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 5, 2019
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First submittedJanuary 2, 2013
Times taken50,641
Average score60.0%
Rating4.39
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First...
Answer
U.S. President
George Washington
Greek letter
Alpha
Person to walk on the moon
Neil Armstrong
Book of the Bible
Genesis
Pope
St. Peter
Person to climb Mt. Everest
Edmund Hillary
Tenzing Norgay
Roman Emperor
Augustus
"Talkie" movie
The Jazz Singer
Person in the Bible
Adam
Person to orbit Earth
Yuri Gagarin
Artificial satellite to orbit Earth
Sputnik 1
Person to fly non-stop from NYC to Paris
Charles Lindbergh
Actor to portray James Bond
Sean Connery
Person to reach the South Pole
Roald Amundsen
Person to break the sound barrier
Chuck Yeager
Person to run a four-minute mile
Roger Bannister
Female Prime Minister of the UK
Margaret Thatcher
European to discover Hawaii
James Cook
Person to sail from Europe to India
Vasco da Gama
Person to see the moons of Jupiter
Galileo
Mickey Mouse cartoon to be distributed
Steamboat Willie
City of 1,000,000 inhabitants
Rome
City of 5,000,000 inhabitants
London
Person to sail from Europe to the Caribbean
Christopher Columbus
+5
Level 20
Jan 1, 2013
Think you should allow Tenzing
+2
Level 61
Jan 1, 2013
And Margaret and Charles and Edmund and Roald and...
+19
Level 74
Mar 6, 2014
Except that those people come from cultures where people are identified by their family names, not by their given names. 'Tenzing Norgay' wasn't his birth name, it was a name he was given later and has a specific meaning (which I can't remember off the top of my head), so neither 'Tenzing' nor 'Norgay' are his given or family names. He was often referred to as 'Sherpa Tenzing', so I reckon Tenzing should be accepted as well :o)
+2
Level ∞
Jan 2, 2013
Tenzing will work now.
+3
Level 82
Feb 24, 2015
Please add Tensing as an alternative spelling. This his how the media in the UK have always spelt his name... :)
+1
Level 28
Nov 2, 2017
Glad it's not just me that tried "Tensing"
+1
Level 68
Sep 4, 2018
Thanks. As a New Zealander I know him as Sherpa Tenzing.
+1
Level 60
Nov 23, 2020
Also, Kathmandu airport is called Tenzing-Hillary, so I think it would be fair to think that people who know Hillary could think of Tenzing and not Norgay.
+2
Level 33
Jan 1, 2013
Top marks! Esp for the cosmonaut question.
+2
Level 25
Jan 1, 2013
Add some alternate spellings for "Lindbergh" please.
+2
Level 51
Sep 10, 2019
Why?
+1
Level 27
Jan 3, 2013
I think Washington is in some ways not the first president... I do not know much about this matter, but isn't he the first president since a change in the constitution?
+10
Level 82
Jan 9, 2013
No. He was definitely the first president of the United States. In all ways. But at least you admit that you don't know much about the matter.
+1
Level 82
Jan 1, 2015
but... not presidents of the United States. And not a chief executive. Though the name of the title is similar the two offices don't have much else in common. The president of the Continental Congress had almost no power at all.
+1
Level 38
Dec 27, 2016
Um actually wasn't it actually Ben Franklin that was the famous general who lead America to victory over the English?

I love that one of the most established historical figures still can get questioned...There are no facts after all, only discourse

+12
Level 73
Sep 4, 2018
Why make a relevant comment that people might gain something from reading when you could passive aggressively snipe at someone you have a silly gripe with?
+2
Level 82
Sep 5, 2018
^ .. you are *still* doing this? Seriously? It has been *months* that you are copy/pasting this quote, which when originally written made perfect sense, but every time you have pasted it has made none. Is it really so important for you that everyone know that you are too thick to discern the difference between relevant comment and passive aggressive sniping? I have no gripe with "What." I'm not following him around posting nasty things directed at him. I'm responding to his comment with relevant information. Can we please get that block feature up and running QM? Pretty please?
+2
Level 82
Jan 1, 2022
someone else above had commented that there were other presidents.. of... things.. the Continental Congress, I think, and perhaps other things. But these presidents never held the title of President of the United States of America.
+1
Level 82
Sep 4, 2018
And, significantly, there have been no radical changes to the US Constitution since its ratification in 1788, only amendments, making it the oldest living still-in-use constitution in the world by a comfortable margin. The American Revolution ended in 1783. George Washington was elected first American president in 1789. Between 1781 and 1789 the 13 colonies/states were largely independent from one another, though they did send representatives to Congress. Though there were "presidents" of Congress before the adoption of the US Constitution, they were not chief executives of a unified country the way that Washington was. If interested, read about it here. Pretty cut and dry.
+1
Level 83
Mar 6, 2014
Surely if it's famous firsts then it shouldn't have the second person time climb Everest. That should go in the famous seconds quiz!
+14
Level 48
Apr 18, 2014
They were climbing together.
+12
Level 84
Oct 2, 2014
They were always deliberately obscure as to who might have ascended first. They've always been thought of together.
+4
Level 71
Dec 5, 2014
Realistically the Everest ascent was made possible by a great team of climbers and a couple of hundred sherpas....... the two to the top were just the pair chosen to do the last little hop!
+1
Level 89
Oct 23, 2019
I kind of doubt Hilary was part of a lucky pair to be chosen. It was his trip. No one else of the 200 would've bothered to go on their own or all together in a group without him.
+2
Level 76
Jan 1, 2022
this question about everest really shouldn’t be in this quiz if there are two of them imo. i understand they did it together so you can’t pick one, but in that case leave out the category altogether and get another one of the many hundreds of others you could have
+1
Level 89
Jan 1, 2022
There's also some debate about whether the first two to make it to the summit were actually George Mallory and Sandy Irvine.
+1
Level 71
Jan 3, 2022
@IsleAuHaulte said:

I kind of doubt Hilary was part of a lucky pair to be chosen. It was his trip. No one else of the 200 would've bothered to go on their own or all together in a group without him.

This isn't true. It was Sir John Hunt's expedition, deputy-led by Charles Evans; and within that expedition, Hillary and Tenzing weren't even the first climbing pair to assault the summit, but the second.

Now, neither Tenzing nor Hillary were "just" lucky; they were the strongest climbers on the team.

+1
Level 55
Jan 1, 2015
Yuri Gagarin was the first person to be sent to space. John Glenn was the first person to actually orbit the earth (U.S.A! U.S.A!).
+15
Level 66
Jan 1, 2015
Uh, sorry, you're mistaken.
+1
Level 66
Jan 1, 2015
Uh, last reply refers to original comment, not the correct first reply by eric29 who must have been replying simultaneously with me.
+1
Level 63
Sep 4, 2018
uh
+14
Level 77
Jan 1, 2015
Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth but Gagarin became both the first human to travel into space, and the first to orbit the earth, beating John Glenn by over 10 months.
+13
Level 76
Sep 4, 2018
John Glenn wasn't even the second person to orbit the Earth. That was actually cosmonaut Gherman Titov on Vostok 2 on August 6, 1961. He completed 17 orbits and spent more than a full day in space (and was the first person to vomit in space, too!) John Glenn was actually third, completing three orbits on February 20, 1962.
+2
Level 72
Aug 21, 2019
Oh man, I hope he had a barf bag. wouldn't be fun to spend a whole day in a capsule with your own vomit floating around.
+9
Level 89
Oct 23, 2019
(U.S.S.R.! U.S.S.R.!)
+1
Level 19
Aug 26, 2022
Yeah, no, not really.
+1
Level 68
Jan 13, 2015
Technically, Roger Bannister was the first man to run a mile in UNDER 4 minutes. I seem to remember Chris Chataway ran a mile in exactly 4 minutes.
+2
Level ∞
May 27, 2018
Not true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mile_run_world_record_progression

+2
Level 40
Jul 22, 2015
For some reason I always remember Yuri, but can't remember his last name.
+1
Level 75
Sep 4, 2018
I knew it, but for some reason this morning I couldn't spell it. Must have tried six or seven times before finally giving up. Gugarin, Gegarin, Gregarin...
+14
Level 75
May 29, 2018
Barry Nelson portrayed James bond in 1954, well before Sean Connery - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casino_Royale_(Climax!)
+5
Level 62
Jun 1, 2018
After a little reading, I see that this obscure little fact is true. Nelson's Bond was a television character, and he was (gasp) an American spy. Adding "in film" to the clue should correct it. That is how it is shown on Connery's Wikipedia page.
+1
Level 48
Oct 13, 2018
exactly...maybe make it modern James Bond, or say in the cinematic versions
+3
Level 89
Oct 23, 2019
Modern as in 1961 not 1954....
+1
Level 84
Dec 11, 2020
I typed in Barry Nelson and was chagrined to find it was not the answer, or even an acceptable alternate answer. Nitpicking, maybe. But the question/answer needs a fix.
+1
Level 70
Jan 1, 2022
When Connery came up correct, I was pleased they weren't making me remember who had played Bond in that Casino Royale!

Incidentally, one of only two Bond films I've actually seen.

+1
Level 75
May 29, 2018
How is Yeager the least-known answer on here!?
+8
Level 75
May 31, 2018
Because fewer people knew who broke the sound barrier than any of the other answers? I had no idea about that one
+2
Level 69
Jun 10, 2018
This saddened me too. It definitely means that nowhere near enough people have watched "The Right Stuff".
+6
Level 86
Jul 4, 2018
Looking back at the other answers, I'm not surprised. Not to take anything away from Chuck, but the other things on here generally have more historical significance than breaking the sound barrier. Plus I'm guessing he's not well-known outside the U.S.
+1
Level 63
Sep 4, 2018
If it's not American, who cares?
+3
Level 68
Sep 4, 2018
meh, probably the rest of the world.
+2
Level 75
Sep 4, 2018
Without breaking the sound barrier there would have been no moon landing. It was of major historical significance and was rightly branded as so when I was growing up in the '50s and '60s, but it paved the way to so many more historical feats in more recent history that its importance is no longer recognized as it should be. As samiamco said, apparently more people should watch "The Right Stuff" for perspective. I still remember hearing the sonic booms when I was growing up. They frightened people at first, and the first time my aunt heard one she thought my cousin had fallen out of the barn loft. To say we've come a long way is an understatement, but that doesn't lessen the significance of what Yeager did, or all those pilots before him who died trying.
+2
Level 75
Oct 14, 2019
^ that can be said about any speed which once we could not travel faster than and now we can.
+2
Level 76
Feb 9, 2024
Except that the sound barrier is not about some arbitrary speed to get past, it's a point at which the physical effects of drag makes it very difficult to continue accelerating. You quite literally can't take a regular subsonic plane and just give it more and more powerful engines; it'll either not be able to push past the speed of sound, or it'll get torn apart in the attempt. The very specific technological and design improvements that allowed aircraft to safely travel faster than sound did indeed represent a very particular and important milestone in aviation.
+1
Level 84
Dec 11, 2020
@ander217 - interestingly enough, his feat was a state secret and not revealed until some later. And even though we look upon it as a great milestone, Sputnik, Glenn, and the moon landing are the milestones we remember from history. I don't know how it happened, but John Glenn even overshadows Alan Shepherd.
+1
Level 55
Dec 28, 2018
Chuck Yeager's 96th birthday is coming up in 2/19. I believe he lives in or near Grass Valley CA, north of Sacramento.
+1
Level 72
Apr 25, 2020
Because people like me know the name but not the Americanised spelling, I thought it was Jaeger.
+4
Level 63
Sep 4, 2018
Magellan (or his crew) first orbited the earth, just not in space.
+7
Level 76
Sep 4, 2018
They circumnavigated the Earth, but they didn't orbit it. An orbit specifically means a body revolving around an attracting center of mass. While Magellan and his crew were held onto the Earth by gravity, that was not the main force behind their trajectory.
+1
Level 48
Oct 13, 2018
yes, but Magellan died in the Philippines, i guess he came home in a barrel of salt or such
+1
Level 68
Sep 4, 2018
So cool to see a featured quiz with a couple of New Zealanders in there :-)
+4
Level 85
Sep 4, 2018
Too first-centric.
+1
Level 44
Sep 4, 2018
Actually the first president of the United States was John Hanson (served: 1781-1782) acting under the Articles of Confederation.
+3
Level 67
Sep 4, 2018
Hanson was the president of Congress, not president of the United States. Washington was the first president of the United States.
+1
Level 67
Sep 4, 2018
Is there some dispute about whether Lindbergh made the first transatlantic flight? I only ask because the question is so specifically worded as the first to go "from New York to Paris." I always learned he was just the first person to fly solo from mainland North America to mainland Europe (i.e., "transatlantic"). The inclusion of the cities suggests to me that the clue had to be worded that way to avoid disputes over who actually flew across the Atlantic first, but I've never heard of anyone before Lindbergh.
+2
Level 47
Sep 9, 2018
Alcock and Brown in 1919 flew from newfoundland to Ireland making the first transatlantic flight. Lindburgh was the first solo flight.
+1
Level 86
Jan 1, 2022
The challenge was to be the first to go from New York to Paris (or vice versa) specifically. There was a 25 000$ prize for that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orteig_Prize

+1
Level 80
Sep 5, 2018
This is similar to a quiz I did several years ago which has many different questions. You can find it at: "Who did it first?".
+1
Level 35
Sep 9, 2018
As Roleybob mentioned above, there was an American actor who played Bond in 1954, knew there was one but couldn't remember the name, but I do remember in the mid 50's, there was a Bond tale as a radio play, and Bond was played by a guy called Bob Holness, who later went on to present a British television youth quiz show called Blockbusters
+1
Level 84
May 11, 2019
And don't forget Bob Simmons who played Bond at the very beginning of Dr No. (and the next two films) in the gun barrel sequence where he shoots at the camera. Arguably just a stunt double, but he's fairly often included in lists of people to portray Bond where other stuntmen aren't.
+1
Level 73
Jul 8, 2019
Make is Galileo Galilee
+3
Level 67
Jan 1, 2022
Let’s include some women in these quizzes. So male heavy…
+3
Level 86
Jan 1, 2022
Yes, but Thatcher was badass enough to count for ten ^^.
+1
Level 60
Jan 10, 2023
Half of that adjective is accurate
+1
Level 65
Jan 1, 2022
Strictly speaking, I believe the Christian interpretation is that God is a person, so technically he would be the first in the Bible. Adam would be the first *human* person.
+1
Level 82
Jan 1, 2022
Every time I have to type Lindbergh I get it mixed up with Hindenburg and write Lindenberg. why is my brain like this
+1
Level 56
Jul 5, 2023
i really just wrote god for the first person in the bible. wow.
+1
Level 55
Feb 29, 2024
The first actor to portray James Bond was not Sean Connery -- it was Barry Nelson in a 1954 TV adaptation of Casino Royale.