Facts on Trailblazers who done something no one else did
The Grand Canyon was not seen by a white man until the Civil War. It was first entered on may 29, 1869, by the geologist John Wesley Powell.
Of the first five men to reach the North Pole, one was black, four were asian, and one was white. The Asians were Eskimos serving as porters for their white leader, Robert Peary. The black was Matthew Henson, Peary's personal aide.
Benjamin Franklin was the first head of the United States Post Office.
The first macaroni factory in the United States was established in 1848. It was started by Antoine Zegera in Brooklyn, New York.
King George VI of England became the first British monarch to set foot on American soil when he visited the World's Fair in New York City in 1939.
The first Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare was a woman. Her name was Oveta Culp Hobby and she took office in 1953.
The first United States marine Corps officer of Chinese descent was commissioned in 1943. his name was Wilbur Sze. The first black to be commissioned in the Marines, John Rudder, received his commission in 1948.
The first telephone book ever issued contained only fifty names. It was published in New Haven, Connecticut, by the new Haven District Telephone Company in February, 1878.
Wyoming was the first state to allow women to vote.
Theodore Roosevelt was the first United States president to visit a foreign country while in office. In November, 1906, he sailed on the U.S.S Louisiana for Panama and Puerto Rico.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was the first novel ever to be written on a typewriter. It was typed on a Remington in 1875 by Mark Twain himself. Twain, however, wished to withhold the fact. He did not want to write testimonials, he said, or answer questions concerning the operation of the “newfangled thing.”
Catherine de medici was the first woman in Europe to use tobacco. She took it in a mixture of snuff.
The A & P was the first chain-store business to be established. It began in 1842.
Benjamin Franklin was America's first political cartoonist. His drawing of a snake divided into eight parts was published in Philadelphia in 1754.
Andrew Jackson was the first president to ride in a railroad train. The first to use a telephone was James Garfield. Theodore Roosevelt was the first president to ride in an automobile.