New Jersey Firsts

• First INCANDESCENT LAMP
  made by Thomas A. Edison at Menlo Park in 1879.
   

• First BOARDWALK IN THE WORLD
  built in 1870 at Atlantic City.
   

• First SUBMARINE
  built in 1878 by John Holland of Passaic County, now in the Public Museum at Paterson.
   

• First ROBOT
  used to increase productivity of the General Motors Company in Ewing Township in 1961.
   
• First SALTWATER TAFFY
  produced at the Jersey shore in the 1870s.

• First SOLID BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR
  invented by Les Paul of Mahwah in 1940.
   

• First NATIONAL HISTORIC PARK IN AMERICA
  established in 1933 at Morristown.
   

• First CULTIVATED BLUEBERRIES
  marketed by Elizabeth White of Whitesbog in 1916.

• First STEAM LOCOMOTIVE
  that actually pulled a train on a track, built by John Stevens of Hoboken in 1824.

• First ORGANIZED BASEBALL GAME
  played in Hoboken in 1846.

• First WORLD SERIES RADIO BROADCAST,
  the baseball game was broadcast live over Radio Station WJZ in Newark in 1921.

• First INTERCOLLEGIATE FOOTBALL GAME
  played in New Brunswick on November 6, 1869. The 25-man teams were fielded by Rutgers University and Princeton. Rutgers won, 6 to 4.

• First AIRPLANE PASSENGER SERVICE
  inaugurated at Atlantic City on May 3, 1919.

• First COPPER MINE IN AMERICA
  opened by enterprising Dutch settlers in the Kittatinny Mountains, circa 1640.

• First DIRECT DISTANCE DIALING, COAST TO COAST
  service was inaugurated at Englewood on November 10, 1951.

• First DRIVE-IN MOVIE THEATER
  built on a 10-acre plot in Camden County in 1933.

• First FERRY SERVICE IN THE U.S.
  operated between Hoboken and Manhattan in 1811.

• First SEASHORE RESORTS
  opened in Cape May and Long Branch in the early 1800s.

• First MISS AMERICA
  chosen in Atlantic City in 1921.

• First MOTION PICTURE
  developed by Thomas A. Edison in West Orange in 1889.

• First BREWERY IN AMERICA
  opened in Hoboken in 1642.

• First PHONOGRAPH
  made by Thomas A. Edison at Menlo Park in 1877.
   
• First BALLOON FLIGHT IN AMERICA
  made by Jean-Pierre Blanchard. On January 9, 1793, he landed a balloon at Deptford carrying a letter from George Washington.

• First PROFESSIONAL BASKETBALL GAME
  played in Trenton, 1896.