First

The first retail barcode scan was not on a fancy gadget, but on Wrigley's chewing gum. On June 26, 1974, at a Marsh supermarket in Troy, Ohio, a pack of gum became the first UPC purchase scanned at checkout.

Sandra Bullock was the first person to buy a movie ticket over the Internet. In 1995, Disney/MGM set up a demo site to promote her hacking thriller 〈The Net〉, and she paid $17.70 for two tickets at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre — warily noting: "no double verification."

The earliest recorded spam was a dental advertisement sent by telegram in 1864 in Britain. The furious recipient wrote to The London Times: "By what right do they send me a telegram that is plainly, purely an advertisement, to disturb me?"

The world's first sunglasses were invented about 2,000 years ago by Arctic indigenous people. They carved animal bones or ivory to fit the face with thin slits, preventing snow blindness from UV rays reflected off the snow.