Famous Firsts and the people who did them.

Ivan IV (the Terrible)
1547 --- 1st Tsar of Russia.

Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary)
1553 --- 1st reigning queen of England.

Sofinisba Anguissola
1559 --- 1st woman artist to gain prominence as a painter.

Virginia Dare
1587 --- 1st child born in the American colonies, on August 18th, on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

Anne Bradstreet
1650 --- 1st published American woman writer. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Benjamin Franklin
1753 --- appointed 1st Postmaster General in America (10th August 1753).

Ann Franklin
1762 --- 1st woman to hold the title of newspaper editor, "The Newport Mercury" in Newport, RI.

James Cook
1773 --- 1st person to cross Antarctic Circle.

Margaret Corbin
1779 --- 1st woman to be awarded a disability pension by US Congress. She fought in the Revolutionary War.

Marquis d'Arlandes
Pilatre de Rozier
1783 --- 1st humans to fly. They were airborne in a hot-air balloon for 20 minutes, in Paris, on Nov. 21.

John Jay
1789 --- 1st US Supreme Court chief justice.

Frederick Muhlenberg
1789 --- 1st Speaker Of the US House Of Representatives.

Edmund Randolph
1789 --- 1st US attorney general.

George Washington
1789 --- 1st US President (only unanimously elected US president.)

Martha Washington
1789 --- 1st US First Lady.

Samuel Hopkins
1790 --- holder of US Patent #1. Thousands of patents were issued before his, but his was the first when the numbering started. He patented a process for making potash and pearl ashes.