NJ Info
New Jersey's Firsts
Did you know that...
- The first practical incandescent electric lamp was perfected, one mile from our offices.
- Edison invented the phonograph and the first motion picture camera picture and projector.
- One-quarter of the country's destroyers were made during World War II.
- The first nearly-complete skeleton of a dinosaur was discovered. This is the discovery that scientifically proved that dinosaurs had really existed and began the science of studying dinosaur fossils - modern paleontology.
- Streptomycin was discovered in 1943 .
- In 1918 Marconi's radio station, the world's most powerful, was stationed.
- The first balloon flight in America took place in 1793.
- The first ferry service in the United States operated in 1811.
- The first organized baseball game was played on October 31, 1846.
- The first intercollegiate football team was played between Rutgers and Princeton on Nov 6, 1869.
- The first professional basketball game was played in 1896.
- The world's first belt conveyor to carry ore was built.
- The first submarine was built in 1878.
- The first boardwalk was built in 1879 in Atlantic City.
- The first airplane passenger service was inaugurated on May 3, 1919.
- The World Series live radio broadcast was carried.
- The Miss America pageant first started and is still held.
- The first drive-in movie theater was built in 1933.
- Jackie Robinson broke the organized baseball color line by playing in his first International League game.
- The first coast-to-coast direct distance dialing was inaugurated.
- The first robot used to replace a human worker was used.
- The first nuclear-power commercial ship was launched.
- The first Colt revolver was developed in Paterson in 1836.
- The first log cabin, built in Swedesboro in the 1640s.
- The first steam locomotive built in Hoboken in 1824 by Colonel John Stevens.
- The first road sheet asphalt pavement laid in Newark in 1870.
- The first town to be lighted by electricity was Roselle.
- The first cultivated blueberries in 1916.
- The first brewery in America in 1642.
- The first national historic park created in 1933 in Morristown.
- Is first in average value of farmlands and buildings per acre.
