Ivan IV (the Terrible)
1547 --- 1st Tsar of Russia.

Queen Mary I (Bloody Mary)
1553 --- 1st reigning queen of England.

Sofinisba Anguissola
1559 --- 1st woman artist to gain prominence as a painter.

Virginia Dare
1587 --- 1st child born in the American colonies, on August 18th, on what is now Roanoke Island, North Carolina.

Anne Bradstreet
1650 --- 1st published American woman writer. The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Benjamin Franklin
1753 --- appointed 1st Postmaster General in America (10th August 1753).

Ann Franklin
1762 --- 1st woman to hold the title of newspaper editor, "The Newport Mercury" in Newport, RI.

James Cook
1773 --- 1st person to cross Antarctic Circle.

Margaret Corbin
1779 --- 1st woman to be awarded a disability pension by US Congress. She fought in the Revolutionary War.

Marquis d'Arlandes
Pilatre de Rozier
1783 --- 1st humans to fly. They were airborne in a hot-air balloon for 20 minutes, in Paris, on Nov. 21.

John Jay
1789 --- 1st US Supreme Court chief justice.

Frederick Muhlenberg
1789 --- 1st Speaker Of the US House Of Representatives.

Edmund Randolph
1789 --- 1st US attorney general.

George Washington
1789 --- 1st US President (only unanimously elected US president.)

Martha Washington
1789 --- 1st US First Lady.

Samuel Hopkins
1790 --- holder of US Patent #1. Thousands of patents were issued before his, but his was the first when the numbering started. He patented a process for making potash and pearl ashes.

Henry Laurens - Charleston, South Carolina statesman
1792 --- 1st formal cremation in US. He left instructions in his will.

William Blount
1797 --- 1st person in theUS to be impeached by the House of Representatives, the first time it even exercised this power, and was simultaneously expelled from the US Senate on July 8. He was found guilty ‘of a high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public trust and duty as a Senator,’ because he had been active in a plan to incite the Creek and Cherokee Indians to aid the British in conquering the Spanish territory of West Florida.

Andre-Jacques Garnerin
1797 --- 1st parachute jump. Dropped from about 6,500 ft. over Monceau Park in Paris in a 23-ft.-diameter parachute made of white canvas with a basket attached (Oct. 22).

Benjamin Stoddert
1798 --- 1st Secretary of the US Navy

Count de Grisley
1799 --- 1st magician to perform the trick of sawing a woman in half .