Firsts in the World

Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet astronaut, was the first man in space aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft in 1961.

Robert Peary is credited with being the first man to reach the North Pole in 1909.

Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were the first men to climb Mt. Everest in 1953.

Roald Amundsen was the first man to reach the South Pole in 1911.

Ferdinand Magellan led the first expedition to sail around the world, although he did not complete the voyage himself.

Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969.

Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman to go into space aboard Vostok 6 in 1963.

Junko Tabei was the first woman to climb Mt. Everest in 1975.

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, awarded in Physics in 1903.

Sputnik 1 was the first satellite in the world, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957.

Alexei Leonov was the first person to walk in space in 1965.

Reinhold Messner was the first person to climb Everest solo in 1980.

Uruguay won the first FIFA World Cup in 1930.

Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967.

Matthew Webb was the first person to swim the English Channel in 1875.

Achille Compagnoni and Lino Lacedelli were the first people to climb K2 in 1954.

Laika, a dog, was the first animal to orbit the Earth aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957.

Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh were the first people to reach the deepest point of the Mariana Trench in 1960.

Mariner 4 was the first satellite to reach Mars in 1965.

Venera 7 was the first spacecraft to land on Venus in 1970.