Pittsburgh "Firsts"

Lewis & Clark, 1803
The Lewis & Clark expedition that explored the Louisiana Purchase launched near the Mon Wharf and today's Liberty Bridge. Our region's boat-building industry and location at the headwaters of the Ohio River made it the nation's first "Gateway to the West."

Wire Rope Cable, 1840
The Great Fire of 1845 destroyed much of the city, including the wooden Monongahela Bridge. Pittsburgher John Roebling, who developed wire rope cable in 1840, used it for the first cable suspension bridge, the Monongahela Bridge, in 1846.

Drake Oil Well, 1859
Edwin Drake drilled the world's first oil well in Titusville, Pa. By the turn of the century, Western Pennsylvania produced half of the world's oil.

Heinz, 1869
Marketing genius H.J. Heinz - who started his food business in 1869 - used the slogan "57 Varieties" to sell his products. Today, Heinz distributes more than 5,700 products to 140 countries.

Westinghouse, 1869, 1885
Pittsburgh innovator George Westinghouse invented the first reliable means of safely stopping trains, the air brake in 1869, when he was only 22 years old. The 1885, he developed a system for distributing alternating current, allowing electricity to be transmitted safely over long distances at varying voltages.

Professional Football, 1892
A rivalry between the Pittsburgh Athletic Club and the Allegheny Athletic Association led to the first professional football game when William "Pudge" Heffelfinger was paid $500 to play in a game between two rivals.

Ferris Wheel, 1893
Organizers of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago searched for something that would eclipse the Eiffel Tower. Pittsburgh engineer, George Ferris, designed a "wheel of steel" that would carry 1,500 passengers 350 feet in the air. The Ferris Wheel was named the "mechanical wonder of the fair."

Jeep, 1940
The American Bantam Car Company in Butler, Pa. developed the first jeep and became the only car company to meet the Army's deadline for a specialty vehicle. Bantam was considered too small to meet the Army's production needs and the contracts were later awarded to Ford and Willy's Overland.

KDKA, 1920
The first commercial radio signal was transmitted on Nov. 2, 1920 from a shack atop a Westinghouse building in East Pittsburgh. Listeners tuned in to hear the election results of the Harding-Cox presidential election hours before papers hit the streets.

Rosie the Riveter, 1943
During World War II, Pittsburgh factories produced 52 million shells and 11 million bombs. Thousands of women entered the workforce for the first time. This ironic poster featured a Westinghouse factory worker.

ALCOA, 1953
To showcase the strength and versatility of its product, the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) built a 30-story aluminum skyscraper, on Sixth Avenue, the first of its kind, in 1953.

WQED, 1954
The first community-sponsored public television station, WQED, launched in Pittsburgh in 1954. That same year, Fred McFeely Rogers of Latrobe produced and appeared in "Children's Corner," predecessor of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

Polio Vaccine, 1955
The FDA approved the Polio vaccine, developed by Jonas Salk and his team at the University of Pittsburgh. Polio cases dropped 90% in the first two years of the vaccine's use.

Civic Arena, 1961
The world's first retractable dome roof showed off Pittsburgh's rebirth by using nearly 3,000 tons of Pittsburgh steel.

Big Mac, 1967
Pittsburgh native Jim Deligatti first sold this seven ingredient, double-decker sandwich at his Uniontown store in 1967. The Big Mac went national in 1968.

All-Minority Baseball Lineup, 1971
On Sept. 1, 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates fielded Major League Baseball's first all-minority lineup, consisting of five African Americans, two Panamanians, one Puerto Rican, and one Cuban.

Mr. Yuk, 1971
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh first introduced this famous face as a standard poison marker in 1971. Today, Children's Hospital distributes several million stickers as far away as Iceland.

Children's Hospital, 1981
Transplant surgeon Thomas Starzl joined Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in 1980, helping to open the first Pediatric Transplant Center in the world. In 1984, six-year-old Stormie Jones received the first heart/liver transplant.

Emoticon, 1982
Carnegie Mellon computer whiz Scott Fahlman made e-mail more friendly when he first used the emoticon in 1982. Since then, more have followed, representing everything from a wink to "oh no."

August Wilson, 1987
Throughout his career, Hill District native and playwright August Wilson wrote ten plays, each set in a different decade, chronicling the lives of his predominantly African American neighbors. He won the Pulitzer Prize for "Fences" (1987) and "The Piano Lesson" (1990).