briace Loc: liverpool uk

LIVERPOOL FIRST in the world

The Liver Buildings is the first large scale

ferro-concrete building in the world
A selection of ‘Firsts’ involving Liverpool and its

people.
1639 Jeremiah Horrocks of Toxteth: the first observation

of the transit of Venus
1648 The first recorded cargo from America lands in

Liverpool
1679 Liverpool’s mayor founds the first charity for

sailors
1715 Steer’s Old Dock in Canning Place is the world’s

first enclosed wet dock controlled by floodgates
1758 Building of the Lyceum, the first circulating

library
1763 The first lighthouses to use parabolic mirrors are

built by Liverpool’s dock Master at Hoylake and Bidston
1770 Work begins on the Leeds-Liverpool canal, the

longest and highest in Britain, finished in 1816
1770 St. Anne’s Church on St. Anne Street. The first use

of iron columns to hold up balconies.
1776 Ether is first used as an anaesthetic
1776 The World First Lifeboat Station at Formby Point
1786 Great Howard Street houses the first purpose built

prison
1790 World’s first American consul, James Maury, is

posted to Liverpool
1791 The first school for the blind opens at Commutation

Row
1793 Liverpool becomes the first and only municipality

with the right to issue its own money
1803 Liverpool Underwriter’s Association is the world’s

first
1814 St George’s, in Everton, is the first all cast iron

framed church
1822 James Muspratt opens an alkali works in Vauxhall –

the origins of ICI
1823 First mechanics lending library
1825 World’s first school for deaf people
1830 World’s first inter-city passenger railway line

built by Liverpool & Manchester Railway Company
1830 World’s first tunnel bored under a Metropolis. The

Wapping Tunnel from Edge Hill to the south end docks.
1830 The world’s first train shed and large wooden

station roof are built at Crown Street station
1830 MP William Huskisson is the first railway fatality
1835 Lacy’s publishes the world’s first railway

timetable
1836 A tunnel bored from Edge Hill to Lime Street

station. The tunnel was made into a large open cutting

in the 1880s, however one very small section still

remains and is the oldest tunnel in use in the world

under streets.
1836 Edge Hill station was move from the head of the

Wapping Tunnel at Edge Hill to the head of the Lime

Street Tunnel. Today it is the world’s oldest used

station.
1838 The first travelling Post Office nets between

Liverpool and Birmingham
1839 Laird’s shipyard built the world’s first screw

propelled steamer, Robert F. Stockton, a 63ft tug for

use on North American waterways.
1839 The start of the world’s greatest steeple chase at

Aintree race course
1840 Cunard’s wooden paddle-steamer Britannia is the

first scheduled transatlantic passenger service
1840 Liverpool appoints Britain’s first borough engineer
1840 World’s first photograph developing and printing

service
1841 Brunswick Buildings: the first purpose-built office

block
1841 The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to

Animals (later RSPCA) is founded
1842 First public baths and wash-houses in Upper

Frederick St.
1844 Blackburne House is the first girl’s day grammar

school
1845 Liverpool is the destination of the first package

tour
1847 Dr Duncan becomes the world’s first Medical Officer
1847 The world’s first purpose designed and built public

park, Birkenhead Park. Central Park in New York Is based

on it.
1848 First British trades council.
1848 Albert Dock, the first non-combustible warehousing

system in the world
1848 Albert Dock, the world’s first warehouses to use

hydraulic hoists.
1848 St. Georges Hall has the world’s first ever

air-conditioning system.
1848 Lime Street Station has the world’s largest single

span roof.
1850 Liverpool is the first borough to start a library

committee
1851 The first provincial Children’s Hospital opens in

the city
1856 The 21 ton Horsfall Gun – the largest in the world

– is built at the Mersey Forge in Sefton Street; it

could fire a 300lb cannon ball five miles
1857 Liverpool Rugby Club is the world’s first open

club.
1857 Liverpool starts Britain’s first chess club.
1857 World’s largest water works to supply Liverpool

with water at Rivington Pike, piping water 27 miles.
1858 The world’s first steel ship, the Ma Roberts, built

for Dr. Livingstone’s African exploration by the Laird

shipyard.
1859 The first nurse paid to look after the poor.
1859 The first tramway in the UK at Liverpool Docks.
1860 First purpose built public library.
1860 The world’s first ‘street railway’ at Woodside

Birkenhead
1861 Britain’s first ecumenical conference.
1861 A Liverpool made gun fires the first shot of the

American Civil War.
1862 The first street refuges for pedestrians built.
1862 First provincial school of nursing set up in

Liverpool
1862 Laird shipyard build the American Confederate CSS

Alabama commerce raider. This ship sunk 65 ships with a

predominately Liverpool crew. A total never been

equalled by any ship since.
1862 The Jones Quiggin shipyard built the first steel

ship to cross the Atlantic, the Banshee. Built for the

Confederate states of America as a fast blockade runner.
1864 The first slum clearance scheme gives the Medical

Officer power to demolish unsafe and unfit buildings
1864 The world’s first metal framed glass curtain walled

building – Oriel Chambers, Water Street.
1865 The last act of the American Civil War was the

surrender to the Mayor of Liverpool of the Confederate

ship Shenandoah, by her captain James Waddell, at the

Town Hall.
1865 The last official lowering of the American

Confederate flag was in the River Mersey when the CSS

Shenandoah was handed over to Captain Payton of the

Royal Navy.
1867 Britain’s first steamroller is bought by Liverpool
1867 Liverpool Velocipedes is the country’s first

cycling club
1868 Liverpool is the first borough to secure an Act of

Parliament to establish a tram network
1869 St Martins Cottages are the first municipal housing
1875 The first disarmament campaign: Liverpool Peace

Society
1876 Britain’s first gorilla arrives at Liverpool Docks
1876 Landing stage at the Pier Head. The largest

floating structure in the world.
1877 The Walker Art Gallery is the first UK public art

gallery
1879 World’s first mechanically propelled submarine,

Resurgam, built at Birkenhead
1880 Liverpool hosts the first Irish Nationalist MP in

England – TP O’Connor at the Liverpool Exchange.
1880 Liverpool starts work on the largest artificial

reservoir in Europe to supply Liverpool with water, at

Vyrnwy in Wales.
1883 The Liverpool Society for the Prevention of Cruelty

to Children – forerunner of the NSPCC – is founded.
1884 Britain’s first female doctor opens a practice in

Liverpool
1886 The first major under-river tunnel is built under

the Mersey
1886 The world’s first cut into rock underground rail

station at James Street.
1886 Liverpool carried out and financed the first ever

Atlantic telegraph cable.
1886 Northern Hospital has the first purpose-built

ambulance
1887 Everton FC are one of the founding clubs of the

first football league competition
1889 Liverpool Gas Company installs the first

pre-payment gas meters
1889 Liverpool’s police force is the first to wear

rubber-soled boots for night duty
1891 John Brodie invents the goalnet, which is first

used by Everton FC
1892 Liverpool University opens the first Marine

Biological Station
1892 The world’s first purpose built football ground;

Goodison Park, Everton FC.
1893 The world’s first electric elevated urban railway,

the Liverpool Overhead Railway.
1893 The world’s first automatic signalling used on the

Overhead Railway.
1893 The world’s first all-electric colour light

signalling used on the Overhead Railway.
1894 First ever radio broadcast made by Oliver Lodge,

Liverpool University professor of physics
1895 First British school of architecture and applied

art
1896 The x-ray is used in medical diagnosis for the

first time
1897 Liverpool is the first to employ female health

visitors
1898 First city to employ a municipal bacteriologist
1898 School of Tropical Medicine is the first founded in

the UK
1899 Oliver Lodge invents the car engine ignition system
1901 Liverpool runs the first anti-tuberculosis campaign

in Britain
1901 Seaforth Sands on the Overhead Railway installs the

first escalator in a railway station
1901 The world’s first filmed crime re-enactment in

Bootle.
1901 The world’s largest brick building. Stanley Dock

Tobacco warehouse.
1902 The interconnected enclosed docks system is the

largest in the world.
1902 The School of Tropical medicine is the first

British medical institution to gain the Nobel Prize for

Medicine for connecting the mosquito with malaria.
1902 Hatton Garden fire station has the first motor fire

engine
1904 The University of Liverpool founds the first school

of veterinary science in the country.
1905 The world’s first pre-cast concrete building –

Eldon Street apartments.
1907 The Liver Buildings has the world’s largest

clock-faces.
1907 The Liver Buildings is the first large scale

ferro-concrete building in the world.
1907 The Liver Buildings is Europe’s first skyscraper.
1908 Boy Scouts: Birkenhead was the home of the first

ever scouts group
1909 Eleanor Rathbone becomes the first woman councillor
1909 Woolworths opens its first British store on Church

Street
1912 First automatic telephone exchange
1913 New York World carries the first ‘word cross’, or

crossword, compiled by Liverpudlian Arthur Wynne
1913 Liverpool-born John Archer is elected Britain’s

first black mayor, in Battersea
1917 First public commercial library in the country
1919 Liverpool’s is the first – and only – police force

to strike
1919 The first flat slab reinforced concrete building in

the UK at Garston. The Bryant & May artdeco factory.
1919 The first department of oceanography opens at the

University
1920 The world’s first all welded hulled ship, Fullagar,

built by the Laird’s shipyard.
1924 Lister Drive power station has the first hyperbolic

cooling tower
1925 Crosshall Street hosts the country’s first Juvenile

Court
1927 The Bluecoat is the first British Arts centre
1927 West Derby is the site of the first municipal

Jewish cemetery
1928 William (Dixie) Dean of Everton FC, scores a record

60 goals in a season in the leagues topflight division.
1932 The first purpose-built boxing stadium (Bixteth

Street)
1933 Dr Minnitt at Liverpool’s maternity hospital uses

gas and air in childbirth for the first time
1934 Liverpool Police are the first force to use two-way

radios
1934 Tatler, on Church Street, is first provincial news

theatre
1934 Mersey road tunnel, 2.3 mi (3.7 km) long, is the

longest subaqueous road tunnel in the world.
1935 Everton FC are the first football team to be

televised live; vs. Arsenal
1936 The Liverpool Corporation Act is the first giving

the council the right to buy, sell and develop land.
1936 Speke sees the first purpose-built municipal

industrial estate
1943 Richard Burton makes his theatrical debut at the

Royal Court
1944 Hua Chow Pao is Britain’s first Chinese newspaper
1946 Liverpool FC’s Jack Balmer becomes the first player

to score three consecutive hat-tricks
1947 World’s first radar lighthouse
1948 The Mersey Ferries were the first to have a radar

system for safe navigation in fog
1949 South Liverpool FC are the first club to

permanently install and play under floodlights.
1950 The first helicopter service flies from Liverpool

to Cardiff
1950 The world’s first purpose built angle flight deck

aircraft carrier, built at Laird’s shipyard; HMS Ark

Royal.
1952 Hospital radio starts in Liverpool
1952 First package holiday flight departs from Liverpool

airport
1952 The Albert Dock complex is listed as is the largest

collection of grade 1 listed buildings in the UK.
1953 Liverpool’s Lita Roza is the first woman to top the

pop charts
1959 National Westminster opens the first drive-in bank
1958 Everton FC are the first English football club to

install undersoil pitch heating.
1959 First mass x-ray campaign
1960 Martin’s is the first bank to use a computer
1961 St. George’s School Wallasey is the UKs first

successful 100% solar heated building. Also the most

northerly substantial solar building.
1962 The Mersey Docks and Harbour Company is the first

port authority to use a computer.
1962 The world’s first hovercraft service from Wallasey

to North Wales.
1964 Liverpool’s police force is the first to use closed

circuit TV
1967 First seminar for orchestra conductors
1967 The largest panel of stained glass in the world at

the new Metropolitan Cathedral.
1968 World’s best selling poetry book published by

Liverpool 8 Poets
1969 The Beatles are the only musicians to achieve five

Diamond albums, signifying U.S. sales of 10 million

copies or more.
1971 Knowsley Safari Park; the largest in Europe, with

the largest herd of African elephants outside Africa.
1971 Seaforth Dock opened. The largest in the UK with

the largest lock gates in the world.
1972 A small section of the original 1936 Lime Street

rail tunnel at Edge Hill station becomes the oldest used

rail tunnel in the world, after the closure of the Crown

Street Tunnel in Liverpool.
1979 Liverpool Anglican cathedral completed after 77

years of construction. Britain’s largest, with the

world’s largest Gothic arches, organ and the highest and

heaviest bells. Also the world’s longest nave and

largest tower.
1984 Liverpool FC becomes the first club to win three

major trophies in one season
1984 The first British International Garden Festival is

held in Liverpool
1991 Liverpool FC achieves a record 18 league titles.
1997 The Roy Castle Foundation for Lung Cancer Research

is the world’s first dedicated cancer research centre.
1999 Everton FC is the first English club to reach 6,000

goals in the top-flight division
2000 World’s longest mural at Alder Hey hospital.
2001 Liverpool is named World Capital of Pop Music with

53 No. 1 chart hits since 1953.
2003 Everton FC are the first English football club to

play 100 seasons in the English top-flight division.
2003 Liverpool JM university installs the world’s

largest fully robotic telescope in the Canary Islands

for research.
2004 St. Georges Hall was voted, by the European

Architectural Commission, the finest public building

constructed in Europe in the past 200 years.
2004 Oldest timepiece maker in the world – Sewills.

Established 1800.
2004 Liverpool named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO
2005 Liverpool University discovered a new layer near

the Earth’s core.
2005 Liverpool FC achieves a British record of 5

European Cup wins.
2005 Liverpool was named IT and Telecommunications

Capital of Europe by Foreign Direct Investment magazine.
2006 World’s first zoonosis research centre – animal

borne diseases such as birdflue.
2006 The Beatles so far to date have achieved a record

20 US and 17 UK No 1 singles. They also hold the record

for the most No 1 albums of all time, with 15 albums on

the US Billboard. They have sold a record, of over a

billion worldwide. And still counting.
2007 World’s first oscillating sculpture in Moorfields.

A section of a building wall rotates in three

dimensions.

Oldvolvoman Loc: Northamptonshire, England

Get a life!

briace Loc: liverpool uk

! what is that supposed to mean !

steve_icbinb Loc: nr. Rochester, UK

i think he's having a pop at your civic pride? :roll:

so i'll join in:

Liverpool 1920: first use of housebricks to support a Model T... :?

meantime, lets try and think what other places are famous for... say Northamptonshire? Load of old Cobblers???

i'll get me coat...

actually an interesting post... what about beefing it up with photos? a project or possible book there?

briace Loc: liverpool uk

:thumbup: :thumbup:

GWR100 Loc: England

I was borne in a village called Polegate and the only thing it is famous for is it had the worlds first Treacle Mine.---- SO THERE?????

Big Stopper Loc: London

85% of Liverpudlian males say they enjoy sex in the shower........ The other 15% haven't been to prison yet :lol:

gerry908 Loc: An Aussie from Scotland

And that 15% don't have to commit a crime to live, as they seem to manage on their Dole Cheque :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

viscountdriver Loc: East Kent UK

I was based in Liverpool once. Got to be honest I was glad to get out.
Best thing that came from Liverpool---the Beatles.

bigalw Loc: Essex - UK

ALL MY COMMENTS TO BE TAKEN AS A JOKE (LOL)

markeisenbeil Loc: Deer Lodge, Montana

Hi Briace, holy crap, I'm feeling dizzy after absorbing all of that. It was very interesting and thanks for posting. Liverpool is a place to be proud of.

Shutter Bugger

Polegate was also the first village to use frog feathers as
insulation, and the first successful recipient of a Foden truck fuel injector pump transplant was a young lady from Polegate.

Mercer Loc: Houston, TX, USA

WoW! What an opportunity to publish a photobook! ...and what a town! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

UP-2-IT Loc: RED STICK, LA

I'm not in Liverpool but what passed thru my liver pooled on the floor beneath my chair whilst reading this list of amazing facts. :oops:

matt thomas

One has no problem with these many historical postings on Liverpool but you might have mentioned your city's withstanding the 1940-41 blitz by the Nazi Luftwaffe.
There were many heroes to be found among the air raid wardens, fire fighters, ambulance drivers and rescue teams with more than a few of them severely burned, maimed or killed.
Is it fair for this yank to suggest that these heroes may have had more claim to an OBE than your Beatles?
The same might be said for their equals in more than a dozen other cities including, of course, London.