Firsts on the First of February

In life, there always seems to be a beginning or starting point or a first. A most significant beginning in one's life is the birthday. Our story begins on the day we are born. There is a certain comfort to find some point in the chaos from which we view and construct our lives and place it into an orderly time line.  Humans often think in a linear fashion with a foothold in logic. They want to begin at the beginning whether it is history, religion, geography, geology or science. Firsts, like the big bang of the universe or the first sign of life on the planet Earth, begin the recorded history and create the foundation. Whatever follows will build upon that foundation. Likewise, the first person to do this or that, the first person to climb to a certain height or go below the oceans to a certain depth, these achievements get noticed and make the record. Humans also tend to be a bit competitive. It is quite intriguing, yet if some facts are disproved or not taken into consideration there will be disagreement about what constitutes the real first and true beginning. Disputes or misgivings can and will occur. One must keep an open mind.

Some Firsts (many are disputed and some answers will not be quite what you expected)

1. First person/s to ascend to the highest point, Mt. Everest, 29,035 ft (8850m):  Sir Edmund Hillary, NZ and Tenzing Norgay, NP on May 29, 1953. Mt. Everest is also known as Sagarmatha in Nepal.
2. First person/s to descend to the lowest point, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean, 7 miles (11,000m):  Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, on January 23, 1960, in the Bathyscaphe Trieste, a submersible vessel.
3. First human/s on the moon:  Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969, and later that day Buzz Aldrin of the Apollo 11 mission joined him.
4. First person/s to the North Pole:   Quite disputed - originally this achievement was credited to Robert Perry in 1908, and then Frederick Cook in 1909 after disputes arose. However, it has been argued whether either of the explorers actually made the mark and hit the North Pole. Recently, credit for being the first has been given to Roald Amundsen, Norway on May 12, 1926.
5. First person/s to the South Pole:  Roald Amundsen, Norway on December 14, 1911.
6. First person/s to circumnavigate the earth:  Ferdinand Magellan on September 6, 1522 after sailing 3 years on the ship, Victoria.
7. First person/s to discover/settle in North America:  The Asiatic nomads who came across the Bering Strait tens of thousands of years ago and evolved into the native peoples. In addition, there is evidence of a Norse expedition headed by Bjarni Herjolfsson that landed on the shores of Newfoundland in 986. This was followed up by other Norse explorations and settlements. Sorry Columbus, your expedition in 1492 did get the best press, though, and began the movement of trade between Europe and the New World.
8. First baseball game played professionally in the U.S. :  This depends on which organization you consider - under the National Association, May 4, 1871, between the Cleveland Forest Citys (0) and the Fort Wayne Kekiongas (2); under the National League, April 22, 1876, between Red Stockings (6) versus the Athletics (5).
9. First President of the U.S. : John Hanson, March 1781, under the Articles of Confederation who served for one year - with several more succeeding presidents serving one year terms. The Articles of Confederation were later improved upon and became the Constitution. George Washington was the first president to serve under The United States Constitution in 1789.
10. First woman to win a Nobel Prize:  Madame Curie in 1903 for her work in nuclear Physics (and again in 1911 for Chemistry).

A Few Local Firsts!

View of Evergreen Lake House and Lake courtesy Google Images

There have been a few firsts in our community this year with the Icelantic Winter on the Rocks  a sold-out show held on Friday, January 27, 2012 @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre. And coming up this weekend, a great community event, the 1st Annual Evergreen Winter Festival Saturday  February 4, 2012, from 10am to 10pm – so much to do in that 12 hours. There will be a "Rail Jam" for boarders and skiers, a 5K race, an ice bike race, snow sculpture contest, beer garden, ice skating, music and more. Sunset Magazine voted Evergreen Lake one of the top 10 ice skating rinks in the West. If you need to celebrate six more weeks of winter, by all means go and frolic in the fun.


References:

http://www.mnteverest.net/history.html
http://geology.com/records/bathyscaphe-trieste.shtml
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/Cook-vs-Peary.html
http://www.south-pole.com/p0000101.htm
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/first-person-on-moon.html
http://www.nasa.gov/missions/research/x43-main.html
http://www.heritage.nf.ca/exploration/norse.html
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/firsts/first1.shtml
http://www.timepage.org/spl/13colony.html
http://www.marshallhall.org/hanson.html
http://www.biography.com/people/george-washington-9524786
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15040888
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/women.html
http://www.redrocksonline.com/CalendarEventDisplay.aspx?id=158044
http://www.evergreenrecreation.com/
http://www.evergreenwinterfestival.com/
http://www.sunset.com/travel/top-10-ice-skating-rinks-00418000073977/page10.html