Thomas Jefferson
1801 --- 1st US president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
Mary Kies
1809 --- 1st woman to be issued a US patent. She was granted a patent for the rights to a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread to make bonnets.
Sam Patch
1829 --- 1st first known person to survive the jump off of Niagara Falls.
Edward Smith
1831 --- 1st indicted bank robber in the US. He was sentenced to five years hard labor on the rock pile at Sing Sing Prison.
Richard Lawrence
1835 --- 1st known person to attempt to assassinate an American President. On January 30, 1835, President Andrew Jackson was attending the funeral of South Carolina congressman Warren R. Davis. Lawrence fired two pistols at point-blank range. Both misfired.
Mary Lyon
1837 --- founded 1st woman's college in US, Mt. Holyoke College.
Queen Victoria
1837 --- 1st English monarch to live in Buckingham Palace.
William Henry Harrison
1841 --- 1st US president to die in office. At 32 days, he also had the shortest term in office.
Tim Hyer
1841 --- 1st recognized boxing (fisticuffs) champion.
Antoinette de Correvont
1843 --- 1st professional woman photographer. In 1843 she opened a Daguerreotype studio in Munich.
Elizabeth Blackwell
1849 --- 1st woman to receive medical degree in US. (from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.)
Antoinette Brown Blackwell
1853 --- 1st American woman ordained a minister by a recognized denomination (Congregational.)
Jean François "Blondin" Gravelet
1859 --- 1st person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
Jules Leotard
1859 --- world's 1st flying trapeze circus act. Performed at the Cirque Napoleon in Paris, without safety nets.
William Carney
1863 --- 1st African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor (on July 18,1863 at Fort Wagner, S.C.)
Rebecca Lee Crumpler
1864 --- 1st African American woman to receive an M.D. degree in the US. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College.
Mary Walker
1865 --- 1st (and only) woman to receive the US Medal of Honor. She was a Civil War surgeon. Her medal was rescinded in 1916, however, when the Army purged its files to cut down on what they thought were "unwarranted" issues. It wasn't re-instated until 1976.
David Glasgow Farragut
1866 --- 1st Admiral in US Navy.
Frank, Simeon, and William
1866 --- Committed the first US train robbery. On October 6, 1866, the Reno brothers boarded an eastbound train in Indiana wearing masks and toting guns. After emptying one safe and tossing the other out the window, the robbers jumped off the train and made an easy getaway.
Sir John Alexander McDonald
1867 --- 1st Prime Minister of Canada.
Lucy Hobbs Taylor
1867 --- 1st woman in the US to become a certified dentist. She graduated from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery.
Ebenezer D. Bassett
1869 ---1st African American U.S. diplomat, minister-resident to Haiti.
Arabella Mansfield
1869 --- 1st woman lawyer. A year later, Ada H. Kepley, of Illinois, graduates from the Union College of Law in Chicago. She is the first woman lawyer to graduate from a law school.
Jefferson Long
1870 --- 1st African American elected to U.S. House of Representatives, Georgia.
Hiram Revels
1870 --- 1st African American US Senator. He completed the term of Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis, who had resigned to become president of the Confederacy.
Lucy Walker
1871 --- 1st woman to successfully climb the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
Victoria Woodhall
1872 --- 1st woman to run for President of the US.
Herbert Hoover
1874 --- 1st US President born west of the Mississippi.
Louis De Geer
1874 --- 1st US Prime Minister of Sweden
Matthew Webb
1875 --- 1st known person to swim across the English Channel. (He drowned in 1883 after unsuccessfully trying to swim across the whirlpools and rapids beneath Niagara Falls.)
Mary Baker Eddy
1879 --- 1st and only American woman to found a lasting American-based religion- The Church of Christ (Scientist).
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood
1879 --- 1st female lawyer to plead a case before the US Supreme Court.
Mary Mahoney
1879 --- 1st African American woman to study and work as a professionally trained nurse.
Moses Fleetwood Walker
1884 --- 1st African American baseball player in the major leagues.
Grover Cleveland
1886 --- 1st President married inside the White House.
Wilhelm Steinitz
1886 --- world's 1st chess champion.
Susanna M. Salter
1887 --- 1st woman US mayor. (Argonia, KS). She won by a two-thirds majority but didn't even know she was in the running until she went into the voting booth. Her name was submitted by the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She died at the age of 101 in 1961.
Oscar Straus
1887 --- 1st Jewish ambassador from US. (Ambassador to Turkey.)
Norman Coleman
1889 --- 1st US Secretary of Agriculture.
Louise Blanchard Bethune
1890 --- 1st woman elected to full membership in the American Institute of Architects.
William Kemmler
1890 --- 1st criminal to be executed by electrocution (in Auburn Prison, Auburn, N.Y., Aug. 6)
Louis Henry Sullivan
1891 --- architect of 10 story Wainwright Building, the 1st skyscraper.
Grover Cleveland
1892 --- 1st (and only) US President to win election to nonconsecutive terms. He defeated Benjamin Harrison.
Myra Bradwell, (nee Colby)
1892 --- 1st female lawyer in US. She qualified for Illinois bar in 1869, but was prevented, due to gender, from being admitted to practice until 1892.
Annie Moore
1892 --- 1st immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. She was 15 years old and from County Cork, Ireland.
Queen Isabella of Spain
1893 --- 1st woman to appear on a US postage stamp.
Frankie Nelson
1896 --- winner of the 1st women's bicycling marathon, which took place on January 6-11, 1896 at Madison Square Garden in New York. She traveled 418 miles.
H.H.A. Beach
blank 1897 --- her "Gaelic Symphony" is the first symphony by a woman performed in the United States, and possibly the world.
John J. McDermott
1897 --- winner of the he 1st annual Boston Marathon - the first of its type in the US.
1801 --- 1st US president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C.
Mary Kies
1809 --- 1st woman to be issued a US patent. She was granted a patent for the rights to a technique for weaving straw with silk and thread to make bonnets.
Sam Patch
1829 --- 1st first known person to survive the jump off of Niagara Falls.
Edward Smith
1831 --- 1st indicted bank robber in the US. He was sentenced to five years hard labor on the rock pile at Sing Sing Prison.
Richard Lawrence
1835 --- 1st known person to attempt to assassinate an American President. On January 30, 1835, President Andrew Jackson was attending the funeral of South Carolina congressman Warren R. Davis. Lawrence fired two pistols at point-blank range. Both misfired.
Mary Lyon
1837 --- founded 1st woman's college in US, Mt. Holyoke College.
Queen Victoria
1837 --- 1st English monarch to live in Buckingham Palace.
William Henry Harrison
1841 --- 1st US president to die in office. At 32 days, he also had the shortest term in office.
Tim Hyer
1841 --- 1st recognized boxing (fisticuffs) champion.
Antoinette de Correvont
1843 --- 1st professional woman photographer. In 1843 she opened a Daguerreotype studio in Munich.
Elizabeth Blackwell
1849 --- 1st woman to receive medical degree in US. (from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.)
Antoinette Brown Blackwell
1853 --- 1st American woman ordained a minister by a recognized denomination (Congregational.)
Jean François "Blondin" Gravelet
1859 --- 1st person to cross Niagara Falls on a tightrope.
Jules Leotard
1859 --- world's 1st flying trapeze circus act. Performed at the Cirque Napoleon in Paris, without safety nets.
William Carney
1863 --- 1st African American to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor (on July 18,1863 at Fort Wagner, S.C.)
Rebecca Lee Crumpler
1864 --- 1st African American woman to receive an M.D. degree in the US. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College.
Mary Walker
1865 --- 1st (and only) woman to receive the US Medal of Honor. She was a Civil War surgeon. Her medal was rescinded in 1916, however, when the Army purged its files to cut down on what they thought were "unwarranted" issues. It wasn't re-instated until 1976.
David Glasgow Farragut
1866 --- 1st Admiral in US Navy.
Frank, Simeon, and William
1866 --- Committed the first US train robbery. On October 6, 1866, the Reno brothers boarded an eastbound train in Indiana wearing masks and toting guns. After emptying one safe and tossing the other out the window, the robbers jumped off the train and made an easy getaway.
Sir John Alexander McDonald
1867 --- 1st Prime Minister of Canada.
Lucy Hobbs Taylor
1867 --- 1st woman in the US to become a certified dentist. She graduated from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery.
Ebenezer D. Bassett
1869 ---1st African American U.S. diplomat, minister-resident to Haiti.
Arabella Mansfield
1869 --- 1st woman lawyer. A year later, Ada H. Kepley, of Illinois, graduates from the Union College of Law in Chicago. She is the first woman lawyer to graduate from a law school.
Jefferson Long
1870 --- 1st African American elected to U.S. House of Representatives, Georgia.
Hiram Revels
1870 --- 1st African American US Senator. He completed the term of Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis, who had resigned to become president of the Confederacy.
Lucy Walker
1871 --- 1st woman to successfully climb the Matterhorn in Switzerland.
Victoria Woodhall
1872 --- 1st woman to run for President of the US.
Herbert Hoover
1874 --- 1st US President born west of the Mississippi.
Louis De Geer
1874 --- 1st US Prime Minister of Sweden
Matthew Webb
1875 --- 1st known person to swim across the English Channel. (He drowned in 1883 after unsuccessfully trying to swim across the whirlpools and rapids beneath Niagara Falls.)
Mary Baker Eddy
1879 --- 1st and only American woman to found a lasting American-based religion- The Church of Christ (Scientist).
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood
1879 --- 1st female lawyer to plead a case before the US Supreme Court.
Mary Mahoney
1879 --- 1st African American woman to study and work as a professionally trained nurse.
Moses Fleetwood Walker
1884 --- 1st African American baseball player in the major leagues.
Grover Cleveland
1886 --- 1st President married inside the White House.
Wilhelm Steinitz
1886 --- world's 1st chess champion.
Susanna M. Salter
1887 --- 1st woman US mayor. (Argonia, KS). She won by a two-thirds majority but didn't even know she was in the running until she went into the voting booth. Her name was submitted by the Women's Christian Temperance Union. She died at the age of 101 in 1961.
Oscar Straus
1887 --- 1st Jewish ambassador from US. (Ambassador to Turkey.)
Norman Coleman
1889 --- 1st US Secretary of Agriculture.
Louise Blanchard Bethune
1890 --- 1st woman elected to full membership in the American Institute of Architects.
William Kemmler
1890 --- 1st criminal to be executed by electrocution (in Auburn Prison, Auburn, N.Y., Aug. 6)
Louis Henry Sullivan
1891 --- architect of 10 story Wainwright Building, the 1st skyscraper.
Grover Cleveland
1892 --- 1st (and only) US President to win election to nonconsecutive terms. He defeated Benjamin Harrison.
Myra Bradwell, (nee Colby)
1892 --- 1st female lawyer in US. She qualified for Illinois bar in 1869, but was prevented, due to gender, from being admitted to practice until 1892.
Annie Moore
1892 --- 1st immigrant to pass through Ellis Island. She was 15 years old and from County Cork, Ireland.
Queen Isabella of Spain
1893 --- 1st woman to appear on a US postage stamp.
Frankie Nelson
1896 --- winner of the 1st women's bicycling marathon, which took place on January 6-11, 1896 at Madison Square Garden in New York. She traveled 418 miles.
H.H.A. Beach
blank 1897 --- her "Gaelic Symphony" is the first symphony by a woman performed in the United States, and possibly the world.
John J. McDermott
1897 --- winner of the he 1st annual Boston Marathon - the first of its type in the US.
