Category: Firsts and Lasts

The first feature length film was made in Melbourne in 1906. Its subject: Australia’s most famous folk hero.

The first vaccine was invented to tackle smallpox, a virus that is the single greatest killer humankind has ever faced.

The first Cannes film festival was held in 1939. It was founded to showcase world cinema, and as a rebuke to fascism.

House music is one of the defining genres of my life time. It was started by one DJ, at one night club, in Chicago’s West Loop district.

The first night aussie rules game was held at the MCG in 1879, the same year that electric lights arrived in Melbourne.

A cliffhanger is a popular plot device, to build excitement about the next episode in a series. They first appear in a thousand-year old book of folk tales.

It is hard to imagine, but at some point in history, someone sat down and invented the metre. And its origin story, is surprisingly lively.

The last Thylacine died in the Hobart zoo in 1936. Or, did it?