The world’s first IVF baby was born in 1978. A Chorus Line opened on Broadway in 1975 and became the longest-running musical produced in the US. Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space in 1984. The Concord Jet had its first and only crash in 2000. Rock Hudson announced he had AIDS in 1985. The US conducted its first underwater atomic bomb test in 1946. Ulysses S. Grant was named the first US Army general in 1866. California became the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants in 2008. Bob Dylan’s electric guitar performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 was controversial. Wolfgang Mozart finished Symphony No. 40 in G minor in 1788. Mata Hari was sentenced to death for espionage in 1917.
The world’s first IVF baby was born. (1978) Louise Brown was born in Oldham, England. Her parents, Lesley and Peter Brown, had been trying for years to have a baby, but Lesley was suffering from blocked fallopian tubes. The doctors, a British gynecologist named Patrick Steptoe and a scientist named Robert Edwards, successfully performed the first procedure. Though controversial at the time, the procedure is now considered mainstream: Hundreds of thousands of babies have been conceived via IVF.
The Broadway musical A Chorus Line opened. (1975) A Chorus Line won 12 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It had a run of 6,137 performances, a record at the time. It still holds the record for the longest-running musical produced in the United States and is the fourth longest-running Broadway show in history.
The first woman to walk in space. (1984) Russian astronaut Svetlana Savitskaya performed a spacewalk while she was stationed on the Soviet space station Salyut 7. She was also the second woman in space – her first was Russian astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, 17 years ago.
The Concord Jet had its first crash. (2000) Air France Concorde Flight 4590 took off from DeGaulle Airport bound for New York. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff and exploded, killing all 105 people on board. It was the first and only accident in the Concord Jet’s 31-year history and was caused by a piece of metal that fell from an aircraft that had taken off earlier. Concord struck metal, crushing a tire which was thrown into one of the engines, starting a fire. The high-speed jets, which could fly more than double the speed of sound at 1,350 miles per hour (2,172 kilometers per hour), were permanently grounded in 2003.
Rock Hudson announced he has AIDS. (1985) Hudson was a famous American actor, best known for his lead role in romantic films. He was the first celebrity to publicly announce an AIDS diagnosis. Although he has never admitted it publicly, he was thought to be gay. He died on October 2 of that same year, and his death fueled awareness for the disease, which had only just begun to be reported in the early 1980s.
The United States conducted the first underwater test of the atomic bomb. (1946) Bomb was detonated at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific as part of the Operation Crossroads series of nuclear tests. The bomb, called Baker, was detonated 90 feet (27 meters) underwater. Its explosion so badly contaminated the target ships that the Navy had to cancel the only remaining nuclear test called Charlie.
He was named the first US Army general. (1866) Army Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant, later to become the 18th President of the United States, was first to hold the rank, commonly referred to as “Five Star General.”
California became the first US state to ban trans fats in restaurants. (2008) The law went into effect on January 1, 2010. Other US states have followed suit, have pending legislation, or are considering similar laws.
Bob Dylan unexpectedly plugged in his electric guitar for the first time in a public performance. (1965) Dylan’s electric performance at the Newport Folk Festival surprised his audience – and not in a good way. The crowd booed, even as he performed his classic song Like A Rolling Stone. Regardless, his artistic direction was the beginning of a new plug-in era in folk and rock music.
Wolfgang Mozart finished Symphony No. 40 in G minor. (1788) Mozart, who began composing at the age of five, composed more than 600 works during his lifetime. He is considered one of the most influential classical composers of all time.
Mata Hari was sentenced to death. (1917) Hari, an exotic dancer and courtesan, was sentenced to death for espionage in Paris, France. She was accused of spying for the Germans in World War I and was shot on October 15, 1917.
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