- From presidential arrests to tapeworm infections, there’s always a first time for everything.
No matter what it is, it once happened for the first time. But not every world first is an equally big deal.
It could be that nobody witnessing the occasion realized it was the first time. Or maybe there simply weren’t yet people around to see it.
Yet, these kinds of world firsts are often the most interesting. We’d know as we’ve written about them before multiple times.
That said, there are always more fun and weird world firsts — like these six.
World’s First Arrested U.S. President — 1872
For some reason, each of our previous lists about weird world firsts has included an entry dealing with traffic violations. To continue the unplanned tradition, here’s the story of the first U.S. President who got arrested — Ulysses S. Grant.
In 1872, President Grant was speeding down a Washington, D.C., street when a police officer named William West stopped him. Grant honestly admitted he knew he was speeding, but West let him go after he promised he wouldn’t do it again.
The next day, he did it again. This time, West told President Grant that he must arrest him and Grant went to the police station without a fuss.
He again admitted to speeding and paid his $20 bond, which he forfeited by not showing up to his trial. West finally went public with the story in 1908.
World’s First Alarm Clock — 250 BCE
As long as there have been people, they’ve had appointments to keep. To this end, there have been many innovative solutions to waking up, including knocker-uppers.
That said, alarm clocks have been around for a long time as well. The world’s first alarm clock-like device was likely built by the Greek inventor and mathematician Ctesibius sometime around 250 BCE.
Ctesibius devised a water clock that would empty one container of water into another over a set time. As the bottom jar filled, it would drop pebbles on a cymbal and force air into thin reeds to create a whistling noise.
Sounds jarring but probably quite effective. Ctesibius’ device also predates mechanical alarm clocks by some 1,600 years.
World’s First Verified Tapeworm Infection — 100 Million BCE
Tapeworms are disgusting and they’re also really, really old. The oldest confirmed creature that was infected with tapeworms was a ray or a shark that lived some 100 million years ago.
However, tapeworms are pretty squishy and rarely fossilize. Fortunately, a freak stroke of luck kept the internal parasite intact over the ensuing millions of years.
The worm’s host fish died in the water and washed ashore on a beach in what is now Myanmar. Another animal, likely a dinosaur, found the carcass and began eating it.
As the dinosaur ripped flesh out of the shark or ray, the tapeworm was sent flying through the air — and right into a blob of resin oozing from a nearby tree. The resin hardened and encased the worm in amber, preserving it to our day.
There have surely been tapeworms long before this one. But the amber worm is the oldest one we know of.
World’s First Selfie — 1839
It was October 1839 and a young man called Robert Cornelius was working outside of his family’s store in Philadelphia. He must’ve had some free time because he decided to take the world’s first photographic self-portrait — in other words, a selfie.
Cornelius, however, couldn’t simply put on a pouty expression and snap a quick picture with his iPhone. His primitive camera, consisting of a box and a lens pilfered from an opera glass, required him to sit in the same position for several minutes.
His selfie is the oldest that has been preserved, but it’s easy to believe it might be the very first overall. After all, Louis Daguerre, the creator of the first public method of photography, had announced his invention only two months before Cornelius sat down for his picture.
World’s First TV Sitcom — 1946
Nobody likes sitcoms, or at least admits to liking them. Granted, today the sitcom format is often seen as outdated, but it was once new and exciting.
And that year was 1946. That’s when Pinwright’s Progress, the first TV sitcom began airing on the BBC in the United Kingdom.
The show ran from November 1946 to May 1947 for a total of 10 episodes. It detailed the daily misfortunes of J. Pinwright, the owner of the world’s smallest store, together with his staff, friends, and rivals.
Sitcom premises really haven’t changed much since then.
World’s First (Successful) Penis Transplant — 2014
Not every world first happened millions, hundreds, or even dozens of years ago. Take, for example, the world’s first successful penis transplantation, which took place less than 10 years ago.
This groundbreaking surgical operation took place in December 2014 in South America. The recipient of the donated member was a 21-year-old man who had lost his own three years prior during a horribly botched circumcision.
Although the operation was an initial success, the doctors expected it to take at least two years for the young man to regain full use of his transplanted penis. Yet, only a year later, he announced he had conceived a child with his new equipment.
This wasn’t the overall first known penis transplantation operation, however. There was a previous one in China in 2006 — but that one resulted in “psychological trauma” for both the patient and his wife and the surgery was reversed.
We really don’t want to know what happened to cause that reaction.