When it comes to carving a name into the annals of history, being the first to do something is the ultimate shortcut. That’s why the name Yuri Gagarin rings bells worldwide, while only devoted space‑enthusiasts can name Alan Shepard. The same principle applies to countless other milestones that never made the textbooks – and that’s exactly what our “10 unexpected firsts” roundup explores.
10 Unexpected Firsts Unveiled
10 TV’s First Interracial Kiss
Many people point to Star Trek as the pioneer of TV’s interracial kiss, when Captain Kirk, under alien mind control, plants a smooch on Lieutenant Uhura. Yet British ITV’s Emergency Ward 10 managed the same feat four years earlier, without any extraterrestrial meddling.
The plot thickens: in 2015 the British Film Institute uncovered a long‑lost drama titled You in Your Small Corner. This 1962 production showcased a black man and a white woman sharing a full‑blown, steamy kiss that pre‑dated Emergency Ward 10 by two years. The scene didn’t just brush lips; it melted into a post‑coital cloud of smoke, making it clear the characters had also been intimate off‑screen.
British reviewers of the era were oddly more fascinated by class dynamics than race. The female lead, played by Elizabeth MacLennan, was a working‑class woman, while her Jamaican lover, Lloyd Reckord, was a middle‑class university student bound for Cambridge. The Daily Telegraph praised the moment for breaking “barriers of class and intellect,” yet remained silent on its racial implications.
9 The Earliest Female Voters
The post‑World War I era is often celebrated as a watershed for women’s suffrage, with the U.S. 19th Amendment and the UK’s limited franchise for women over 30. In reality, women were voting long before those headlines. In Victorian England, certain parishes permitted women to vote on local matters. A poll book from St Chad’s parish records 30 women casting votes in an 1843 election for assistant overseer of the poor. One affluent woman even exercised the franchise four separate times, thanks to a quirky loophole.
Moving from local to national influence, British women seized a 1867 Manchester law that granted all ratepayers the vote but unintentionally omitted women. Led by Lily Maxwell, a group of women used this oversight to vote in a by‑election. Interestingly, Australian women had performed a similar feat three years earlier.
Across the Atlantic, Wyoming’s 1869 grant of women’s voting rights often steals the spotlight, yet New Jersey actually enshrined the right in 1797. Vague constitutional language suggests the privilege may have existed as early as 1776, only to be revoked in 1807. These early pioneers set the stage for the later, more celebrated suffrage victories.
8 The First Black Presidential Candidate
Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 presidential run often receives credit for breaking racial barriers in U.S. politics, but she wasn’t the inaugural Black candidate. That distinction belongs to George Edwin Taylor, who launched a campaign in Iowa in 1904.
The early 1900s marked a bleak period for race relations: lynchings were rampant, public distrust surged, and the Ku Klux Klan was poised for a massive recruitment boost after the 1915 film Birth of a Nation. Taylor, the son of a former slave, ran under the banner of the National Negro Liberty Party, battling an environment steeped in hostility.
Despite the odds, Taylor’s candidacy garnered roughly 2,000 votes—a modest tally, yet a remarkable achievement for a Black man without financial backing in 1904. His effort laid groundwork for future trailblazers, even if history seldom recalls his name.
7 The First ATM
London’s iconic blue plaque commemorates June 27, 1967, when John Shepherd‑Barron’s Barclays machine became the world’s first automated teller. While the ATM’s debut revolutionized banking, it wasn’t truly the inaugural cash‑dispensing device.
Back in 1960, inventor Luther George Simjian introduced the “Bankograph” in New York City—a deposit‑only machine that printed a photograph of the inserted cash as a receipt. Though innovative, the Bankograph struggled to attract customers; Simjian famously quipped that its users were “prostitutes and gamblers.”
Even though Simjian’s gadget only accepted deposits, evidence suggests Japan may have fielded a cash‑dispensing prototype shortly before Shepherd‑Barron’s London installation. Thus, the celebrated 1967 ATM was more a public‑facing milestone than the absolute first of its kind.
6 The First Woman In Space
Yuri Gagarin’s historic 1961 flight often eclipses the story of the first woman to leave Earth’s atmosphere. Many casual fans shout “Sally Ride” when asked, yet the true pioneer was Valentina Tereshkova, who orbited the planet a decade earlier.
Tereshkova, a skilled parachutist, entered the Soviet space program despite lacking pilot experience. She quickly progressed from trainee to astronaut, launching aboard Vostok 6 on June 16, 1963. During her mission, she completed 48 Earth orbits, proving that a woman could endure the rigors of space travel.
The Cold War’s propaganda machine, combined with entrenched sexism, muted her achievement. American media focused on her appearance—hairdo and eyes—rather than her record. Even NASA officials dismissed the notion of a female astronaut as “physically ill‑inducing.” Consequently, Tereshkova’s name remains less celebrated than it deserves.
5 TV’s First Mainstream Gay Drama
Homosexuality now enjoys broad acceptance, but television in 1959 was a very different landscape. While films occasionally broached the subject, TV shied away until the broadcast of South, a one‑off drama on ITV—the same channel that later aired the first interracial kiss.
The story follows a Polish army lieutenant stranded in the American Deep South on the brink of the Civil War, who falls for a handsome fellow officer named Eric. Unlike the explicit kiss in You in Your Small Corner, South relied on subtle subtext, prompting viewers to read between the lines to discern the lieutenant’s true feelings. When the drama resurfaced in 2013, the BFI hailed it as a milestone in LGBT cultural history.
The press reaction was starkly different from that to the interracial kiss. While the latter received lukewarm or positive commentary, South sparked outrage. One scathing newspaper review dismissed the portrayal as “the agonies and ecstasies of a pervert,” insisting such content belonged hidden away. The backlash highlighted the era’s deep‑seated homophobia.
4 The First Statue Of Liberty
The Statue of Liberty stands as an iconic emblem of freedom, yet its original design was far from the familiar lady we know today. French sculptor Frédéric‑Auguste Bartholdi initially envisioned the monument as a Muslim peasant woman, intended to crown the entrance of the Suez Canal in Egypt.
Bartholdi’s 1855 concept featured a figure he called Libertas, but the statue would have been named “Egypt Carrying the Light to Asia” rather than “Liberty Enlightening the World.” The Egyptian Khedive Isma’il Pasha rejected the proposal as too costly, opting for a lighthouse instead. Undeterred, Bartholdi later repurposed his design, adapting it into the colossal copper colossus that now greets New York Harbor.
This transformation illustrates how a grand artistic vision can evolve dramatically based on political, economic, and cultural forces—turning a potential Egyptian monument into a universal symbol of liberty.
3 The First Stonehenge
Stonehenge is universally recognized as a quintessential English landmark, yet recent research suggests it may have originated elsewhere. A new theory proposes that the iconic stone circle was originally erected in Wales before being dismantled and reassembled on Salisbury Plain.
While it’s well‑known that the bluestones were quarried in Wales, scientists now believe they were carved over five centuries before their eventual placement in Wiltshire. The hypothesis posits that an earlier monument stood in Wales, only to be transported and reconstructed half a millennium later, fundamentally reshaping our understanding of this prehistoric marvel.
Although the theory remains unproven—first announced in December 2015—it opens the possibility that England’s most famous monument might technically be Welsh, challenging long‑held assumptions about national heritage.
2 The First Images Of Christ
When you picture Jesus, you likely envision a long‑haired, bearded European‑styled figure. Early Christian art, however, painted a very different portrait. In 2014, archaeologists uncovered a fourth‑century depiction on a liturgical bowl near Linares, Spain, showing Christ with close‑cropped hair, a Greek‑style toga, and a clean‑shaven face—nothing like the familiar medieval image.
Other contemporaneous depictions reinforce this diversity. An Egyptian find from the same year portrayed Christ with curly hair, while an early graffiti piece mocked believers by drawing a crucified Jesus with a donkey’s head. These varied representations underscore how early Christian communities visualized their savior differently across cultures and regions.
The evolution of Christ’s iconography reflects both geographic spread and theological development, reminding us that the familiar image is a product of centuries of artistic interpretation.
1 The First Interracial Marriages In The US
Even as late as 1967, several American states still enforced anti‑miscegenation statutes, with Alabama’s prohibition lingering until the year 2000. Many assume interracial unions between whites and Blacks only blossomed during the Civil Rights era, but the reality stretches back to colonial times.
Beyond the legendary tale of Pocahontas, the 17th‑century English colonies of Virginia and Maryland recorded a substantial number of Black‑White marriages. The first anti‑miscegenation laws appeared in 1664, directly responding to this phenomenon. These laws were not immutable; for instance, colonial Pennsylvania enacted such a law in 1720 but repealed it by 1780. During the Civil War era, several states legalized interracial marriage to distance themselves from the South, though Alabama later reinstated its ban during Reconstruction.
Not all states ever imposed restrictions. Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the District of Columbia never enacted anti‑miscegenation statutes, nor did Alaska or Hawaii (though their histories differ). Thus, interracial marriage has been part of America’s fabric for centuries, far earlier than most people realize.