Queensland Firsts

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1859	Queensland separated from New South Wales Sir George Bowen appointed Governor of Queensland Big Ben commissioned in London Execution by hanging - First gallows in Queensland Brisbane declared capital of Queensland
1860	Sir Robert Herbert appointed Premier of Queensland Abraham Lincoln elected US President Fiery beginnings - First fire brigade in Queensland World's earliest known sound recording in France
1861	Connecting the people - First telegraph in Queensland Burke and Wills died on expedition American Civil War started
1863	Go-ahead for Grammar - First grammar school in Queensland London Underground opened
1864	Sweet start for sugar - First commercial sugar mill in Queensland Alice's Adventures in Wonderland published Railway makes tracks - First railway in Queensland International Red Cross founded Women-only hospital - First hospital for women in Queensland
1865	American Civil War ended
1866	Alfred Nobel invented dynamite
1867	Gold at Gympie - First gold discovery in Queensland Suez Canal opened
1869	Women got the vote in Wyoming British Parliament voted to stop transportation of convicts to Australia Mahatma Gandhi born
1870s	Traversing north - First major explorer into north Queensland Italy unified to become one country
1871	Germany unified to become one country
1872	World's first national park, Yellowstone, USA
1873	Uluru first sighted by Europeans
1874	Bridging the Brisbane River - First permanent bridge First Impressionist exhibition held in Paris
1875	Free primary education in Queensland Kwang-su became Emperor of China Matthew Webb became first person to swim the English Channel
1876	Unfurling the State flag - First official flag of Queensland Telephone patented by Alexander Graham Bell Indigenous rights to land - First land rights claim in Queensland Four-stroke internal combustion engine invented by Nikolaus Otto
1877	Emile Berliner invented the microphone
1878	Fencing out the rabbits - First rabbit-proof fence in Queensland Stawell Gift run for the first time
1879	Albert Einstein born
1880	First electric streetlight installed in Wabash, Indiana Ned Kelly hanged
1881	Pablo Picasso born
1882	Nikola Tesla invented the alternating current motor
1883	Annexing a foreign nation - Papua New Guinea Silver discovered at Broken Hill Gaudí began building the Sagrada Família in Barcelona - it is still under construction today
1884	First May Day
1885	L.A. Thompson patented the roller coaster First motor car built by Benz
1886	First advertisement for Coca-Cola
1887	Australia defeated England in the first cricket series Adolf Eugen Fick invented the contact lens
1888	British law passed to permit bicycles on the road
1889	Stately Customs landmark - First permanent Customs House in Queensland Eiffel Tower opened First jukebox played
1890	Corrugated cardboard boxes invented Vincent van Gogh died
1891	Shears stop clicking - First major industrial dispute in Queensland Swiss Army Knife developed
1892	Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1893	Brisbane under water - First major flood in Brisbane UK Labour Party had its first meeting Diesel engine patented Gold found in Kalgoorlie New Zealand women got the vote
1894	South Australian women got the vote
1895	‘Waltzing Matilda’ first sung Auguste and Louis Lumière displayed first moving picture film in Paris
1896	First X-ray photograph
1897	Indigenous rights restricted - First major legislation pertaining to Indigenous Queenslanders Dracula by Bram Stoker published Word ‘computer’, meaning an electronic calculation device, first used
1898	Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium
1899	Passing the Federation Referendum Felix Hoffmann patents aspirin Soldiers volunteer - First military contingents to serve overseas: the Boer War Paperclip patented by Norwegian Johan Vaaler Labor leads the world - World’s First Labor Government
1900	Plague breaks out - First outbreak of Bubonic Plague in Queensland
1901	Australia becomes a country, Edmund Barton first Prime Minister Queen Victoria died and Edward VII became the King
1903	Wright brothers made the first plane flight
1904	Teddy bear invented and named after US President Theodore Roosevelt
1905	Women make vote count - First votes for Queensland women Einstein put forward the Theory of Relativity
1906	Pacific Island labour limited - First deportation of Melanesians from Queensland Finnish women got the vote, the first in Europe
1908	National parks protect and preserve - First national park in Queensland Canberra chosen as site for capital of Australia Model T Ford motorcar developed
1911	Pioneering Polio treatment - First alternative treatment of Poliomyelitis Structure of the atom discover by Rutherford
1912	World-first workers’ walkout - General strike by Queensland workers Titanic sank
1914	World War I began Panama Canal opened
1915	Surfing introduced to Australia
1916	Conscription debate - First anti-conscription campaign in Queensland
1917	Art Union’s golden riches - Golden Casket in Queensland
1918	World War I ended
1920	QANTAS takes off - Australia's first airline American women get the vote nationally
1921	Vitamins E and D discovered
1922	A one-chamber parliament - Upper house abolished in Queensland James Joyce's Ulysses published Tutankhamen's tomb discovered
1923	Vegemite first produced
1924	Walt Disney’s first cartoon called ‘Alice’s Wonderland’
1925	Scotsman John Logie Baird invented the television
1927	Koala sanctuary a beacon of hope - World’s first koala sanctuary The Jazz Singer opened, the first ‘talkie’ Heisenberg proposed the uncertainty principle
1928	Bubble gum invented Bert Hinkler flew solo from England to Australia Charles Kingsford Smith flew from USA to Australia British women got the vote Fleming discovered penicillin
1929	Lady of the parliamentary house - First female parliamentarian in Queensland Stockmarket crashed ultimately leading to The Great Depression
1930	Pluto was discovered
1931	Women join the police ranks - First female police officers in Queensland
1932	Physicists split the atom Sydney Harbour Bridge opened
1933	FM radio invented
1934	Dam shores up water supply - First major dam in Queensland Hitler becomes leader of Germany
1935	An ecological pest arrives - Cane Toad introduced to Queensland
1936	First helicopter flight Last Tasmanian Tiger died
1938	Orson Welles broadcasted ‘War of the Worlds’ Biro invented
1939	World War II began ‘Gone with the Wind’ opened
1940	Prehistoric art in the Lascaux caves discovered First Bugs Bunny cartoon
1941	Hello sailor! - Arrival of the first US Troops in Queensland Japan bombed Pearl Harbour
1942	Bing Crosby released ‘White Christmas’ The Holocaust began
1943	Mussolini arrested
1944	Communism comes to parliament - First Communist MLA in Queensland Liberal Party of Australia founded DNA discovered
1945	Atomic bomb detonated World War II ended
1946	ENIAC first computer
1947	Microwave oven invented
1948	‘Big Bang’ theory proposed
1949	China became a communist republic
1950	First photocopier
1951	Rock’n’roll music started
1952	Elizabeth II became Queen of England, and Australia
1953	Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest
1954	The Queen in Queensland - First visit by a reigning monarch: Queen Elizabeth II
1955	Rosa Parks sparks the end of segregation in America Einstein and James Dean died
1956	Elvis Presley had a string of hit songs
1957	Pacemaker invented
1958	European Economic Community started
1959	Centenary celebrations - First centenary of Queensland Castro became president of Cuba
1960	First School of the Air in Queensland First laser
1961	OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) formed
1962	Marilyn Monroe died
1963	The Beatles gained first success US President John Kennedy assassinated
1964	‘Beatlemania’ - Beatles visit Queensland Nelson Mandela imprisoned
1965	Vietnam War started
1966	The President pays a visit - First U.S. Presidential visit to Queensland First episode of ‘Star Trek’
1967	First heart transplant Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared
1968	Martin Luther King Jr assassinated
1969	First humans walked on the moon
1970	Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix died The Beatles split
1971	Swiss women got the vote
1972	CD invented Whitlam Government elected
1973	Picasso died Vietnam War ended Sydney Opera House opened
1974	US President Richard Nixon resigned Cyclone Tracey hit Darwin
1975	Whitlam Government dismissed
1977	Street marches banned in Queensland Elvis Presley died
1978	First Walkman released
1979	Safeguarding the reef - First marine park in Queensland
1980	John Lennon shot dead
1984	First Apple Macintosh personal computer
1987	Andy Warhol died
1988	Queensland Expo-sed - First World Exposition in Queensland NASA declared threat of global warming
1989	Berlin Wall brought down
1990	Communism ended in Yugoslavia
1991	Dr Seuss died
1992	Mabo makes history - First successful land rights case Bill Clinton elected US President
1993	First human cells cloned
1995	Queensland won the Sheffield Shield for the first time