Missouri may not be one of the “first” states, but we certainly have our fair share of “Firsts.” Part of the reason that so many things were done here first was due to our location west of the Mississippi River. It may sound basic, but pretty much anything that was done for the “first time west of the Mississippi River” was probably done in Missouri. That is because there wasn’t much west of the Mississippi River at that time. So, geography was certainly in our favor.
Another part of our success might lie in the people who came here first. If you traveled to Missouri in the 1800s, you were likely the kind of person who was a risk-taker or one who pushed the boundaries and took a lot of chances. And that type of personality passed down through the generations as well. So, we have heredity to thank as well.
Keep in mind that these are “firsts”, not inventions. That is a different story (and equally as impressive).
Regardless of how or why we have so many “firsts”, there is no questions that Missouri has had quite a few. This list is meant to inspire people and to realize the greatness that has come from Missouri. I know I will miss plenty, so if you have any I should add to the list, feel free to comment below.
A quick draw shootout in the town square is a common theme in western movies, and the whole thing started on the town square in downtown Springfield in 1865. The dispute between Wild Bill Hickok and Davis Tutt began over a reported gambling debt from a card game. Tutt took Hickok’s watch as collateral, but Wild Bill became upset that his adversary was showing it off. That led to a duel where both men fired their guns. Tutt missed, Wild Bill did not. Tutt died after the bullet went through his chest. In a later trial, Wild Bill Hickok was found not guilty of manslaughter.
Missouri still has the distinction of being the only state in the country that created a city to be its state capital. There were only a few dozen people living in the area of mid-Missouri when state leaders started looking for the place where the City of Jefferson would be built. The name was later changed to Jefferson City. The town was incorporated in 1825 and state operations moved there in 1826.
This may be hard to believe, but in 1868, the only place a typewriter was being used in a courtroom was in St. Louis. The first typewriters looked nothing like what you would see today, but there were revolutionary for the time. In fact, the device didn’t even have a name when the inventors came up with it. Later improvements were made by inventors Sholes, Glidden, and Soule and the typewriter soon became an office staple.
Susan Blow grew up in St. Louis but moved to Germany where she studied the theories of Friedrich Froebel, the founder of kindergarten. She saw the benefit for children and set out to bring this type of education to her hometown. She founded the first public kindergarten in 1873 called the Des Peres School. Within ten years, every public school in St. Louis had added kindergarten. By 1880, 30 states had adopted the curriculum.
Dr. Andrew Still developed a philosophy of medicine that was valid while he was alive but is one of the fastest-growing health professions around the world today. He founded Osteopathic Medicine in 1874 with a theory the relied less on drugs and more on treating the whole person—mind, body, and spirit—to promote healing. His practice in Kirksville grew rapidly, and he eventually opened a school to teach his methods called the American School of Osteopathy in 1892. It was later renamed as A. T. Still University. Even the former hospital in Jefferson City carried the name, Still Hospital.
The Olympic games date back to 776 BC, although the more modern Summer Games go back to 1896. It was a big deal when St. Louis was chosen to be thee host for the games in 1904. Chicago first got the bid, but because the World’s Fair was to be held in St. Louis that same year, the organizers of that event pushed for both events to be held at the same place at the same time. Most of the events were held at Francis Field at Washington University, although the marathon was held throughout the city. The most unusual competition of them all turned out to be the Olympic Marathon Debacle.
The first gas station that was solely devoted to selling gasoline opened in St. Louis in 1905. Until this time, the only places that the few motorists could fuel up were at stores that sold other products or on the side of the road. That is where the word “purpose-built gas station” came from, because that was its only purpose. The station opened at 420 South Theresa Avenue but shut down years later.
The first forward pass in football history was thrown by the quarterback at Saint Louis University in 1906. Bradbury Robinson entered the record books when he made the pass against Carroll College. His first attempt was incomplete, but the second was a 20-yard throw that also became the first touchdown pass in football history. It happened because of a rule change and the fact that the Billikens played a game under the new rules before other colleges took the field.
The University of Missouri School of Journalism became the first school of its type in the U.S. and only the second in the world when it opened in 1908. In the late 1800s, there was significant debate over journalism education. Walter Williams, who was once with the Boonville Advertiser and Columbia Herald, pushed the proposal with Joseph Pulitzer to get it approved by the legislature. Williams was selected to serve as the school’s first dean. The first class immediately began work on their first issue of the University Missourian, which later became the Columbia Missourian. The students also now work at the TV station, KOMU-TV.
More bragging rights for Mizzou. This topic has been a source of debate for years, but records show that the first Homecoming game in history was played between the University of Missouri and the University of Kansas in Columbia in 1911. The historic game was the idea of Missouri Athletic Director Chester Brewer, who wanted the entire university to put forth the effort to encourage alumni to come home to campus to inaugurate the location of the new football field and reinvigorate the program. It worked… and made history.
The first successful parachute jump from an airplane was made by Captain Albert Berry in south St. Louis in 1912. Berry jumped, or rather fell, from a fixed-wing aircraft while flying above Jefferson Barracks. The jump utilized a parachute stored in a cone-shaped casing under the airplane and attached to a harness on the jumper’s body.
Country Club Plaza is as beautiful as it is historic. It was based off the architecture of Seville, Spain and became the go-to spot for people in Kansas City to shop. When it opened in 1923, it became the first outdoor shopping center as well as the first “mall” designed for shoppers to arrive by car.
Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected as the Governor of Wyoming in 1924 and became the first woman to take the oath of office in U.S. history. Tayloe Ross was born in St. Joseph but moved to Wyoming when she was young. Her husband was the sitting governor running for re-election when he died. She agreed to run in his place as the Democratic candidate and won the election. However, she lost two years later when she ran for a full-term. She later became the first female director of the U.S. Mint as well.
The Hallmark Company in Kansas City is world famous for greeting cards (and cheesy Christmas movies). However, the company first became famous for mass marketed wrapping paper back in 1928. Joyce Clyde Hall founded the company and produced postcards and greeting cards and the name has become synonymous with special occasions ever since.
In 1928, Chillicothe made history. Sliced bread was sold for the first time at the Chillicothe Baking Company, although the event was lost to history until 2001. That is when a journalist looking over old newspapers saw the headline in the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune that read “Sliced Bread Is Made Here.” Further research proved it to be the first instance of sliced bread sold to the masses. The State of Missouri now honors Sliced Bread Day every July 7.
The Grand National Bank along Grand Boulevard in St. Louis becomes the first bank to open a drive-thru window in 1930. The idea came from Edmund Mays, owner of the Continental Building, which housed the bank. He came up with the idea so that a busy man “may transact his business without parking or leaving his machine.”
Springfield native Horton Smith won the inaugural Augusta National Invitational in 1934, which became known as The Masters. The 25-year-old golfer pulled out a one stroke victory in the four-day tournament. He won the event again two years later, also making him the first two-time winner of The Masters Tournament.
George Washington Carver was likely born a slave near Diamond but spent his entire life breaking barriers and making life better for everyone. It is hard to quantify the impact he had on society but being the first African-American to have a National Monument dedicated in his honor shows a fraction of his legacy. Carver is credited with creating more than 300 by-products from peanuts and 150 other products from soybeans and sweet potatoes. The monument was established in 1943.
This is one of those St. Louis stories that doesn’t seem to have a correct answer. There are so many claims to be the “first restaurant” to serve toasted ravioli that it’s hard to come up with an accurate answer. The best historians can come up with is the newspaper advertisement above in 1934. Oldani’s touted something new, something different, and something tasty. The debate will continue, but at least we know it happened in Missouri first, at some point in time! And if you want to check out the other restaurants that claim to be first, just head to “The Hill.”
The All-St. Louis World Series was one for the history books. Both the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns qualified for the Series It was one of the only times that two teams from the same city played for the Championship. But this one took it a step further. Both teams played their home games at Sportsman’s Park, so both had home field advantage. The Cardinals won the Series 4-2, with all 6 games played in the same stadium.
Although most people mistakenly believe that mobile phones came out in the 1980s, they actually made their debut about 40 years earlier. The big announcement from Bell Systems in 1946 was big news for St. Louis, which was to the first city to have this sort of communication service in a car. The early phones weighed around 80 pounds, with a massive price tag to boot. Following the debut of the service in Missouri on June 17, 1946, it was expanded to nearly 100 other cities across the country.
Red’s Giant Hamburg has become a little piece of history in southwest Missouri. It used to be a gas station along Route 66, but then Red Chaney decided to expand his business in 1947 by adding a restaurant near Chestnut and College Street in Springfield. The restaurant included a window where the wait staff could pass food to hungry drivers. It was a hit with travelers and is now a staple of fast-food restaurants around the world.
Golf history was made at the St. Louis Country Club as an event was televised for the very first time. It happened at the US Open in 1947 on KSD-TV. The match was only seen in the St. Louis area as the first nationally televised golf match was still six years away at the 1953 World Championship of Golf. The same man, Lew Worsham, was the winner of both historic televised events.
General Omar Bradley grew up in mid-Missouri and became one of the most powerful men on the planet in his era. The Moberly native climbed the ranks of the military to be appointed the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1949 by President Harry S Truman. One year following his appointment, he was promoted to the prestigious rank of General of the Army, making him the fifth and last person to this point to achieve that honor.
The Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is one of the premier medical centers in the world. They have pioneered numerous studies that have changed the way all of us live. One of the biggest breakthroughs was when researchers at Wash U were the first to publish research linking smoking to cancer. But that is just one of their numerous firsts.
In addition, the university was also the first to:
In this day and age of non-stop media, you are bombarded with images. But in the 1950s and 60s, you likely had to wait for monthly magazines to show you the top fashion images. One woman that dominated that era was Evelyn Tripp from Desloge High School. She was discovered by a fashion photographer when she was in New York City and rose to the top of the ranks. Many people likely remember her as the woman on the cover of most sewing packages in department stores. She may not have been the “first” supermodel, but she was on top as the industry was changing. And it’s also a little piece of Missouri history that most people don’t know about.
Southwest Missouri has been known as a hotbed for country music for decades. And it all started on the national level in 1955. The Ozark Jubilee was the first country music show to be broadcast nationally on TV. It was broadcast by ABC from studios in Springfield for five years. The show gave country music a wider audience and made many of the stars of that era household names.
Three states claim to be the starting place of the interstate highway system, but it’s hard to dispute Missouri’s two claims. On June 29, 1956, President Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act. Two weeks later, the first highway construction contract was awarded for a project in Laclede County on what is now Interstate 44. Even though the contract for the highway construction on Interstate 70 in St.
Charles was signed later, the project was ready sooner and work began on August 13. That makes it officially the beginning of the nationwide system of interconnected highways.
Saint Louis University won the first ever NCAA Division I Men’s Soccer Championship in 1959. The Billikens soccer team defeated the University of Bridgeport 5-2 finishing the season 11-1. Over the first 15 years of NCAA soccer, SLU won 10 national championships, including 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1972, and 1973, which is still unprecedented. More than 100 alumni have gone on to play professionally.
The movie theater experience has certainly changed over the years. One of the first big changes came in 1963 in Kansas City when Stanley Durwood expanded his one theater design into a “double feature”. It happened at the Parkway Twin theaters at the Ward Parkway Shopping Center. Durwood figured that he could increase profits with the same number of staff members, but an extra theater attached. Thus the name, American Multi-Cinema (AMC).
In 1967, the Kansas City Chiefs played in the first-ever “Super Bowl.” The Chiefs moved to Kansas City from Dallas in 1963 and found themselves in the championship game a few years later. The Chiefs won the AFL (American Football League), while the mighty Green Bay Packers won the NFL. That made Super Bowl I a showcase between the leagues’ two best teams. Even though Green Bay won the game 35-10, Kansas City was in the history books for that historic game.
Redd Foxx had one of the most storied careers of any comedian in history. His breakout role came in 1972 with Sanford and Son, in which he played lovable junk dealer Fred Sanford. The St. Louis native became one of the first and only performers ever to have the lead role in a TV show on each of the big three networks, Sanford and Son on NBC, The Royal Family on CBS, and The Redd Foxx Comedy Hour on ABC.
The origins of Monster Trucks all date back to Ferguson in 1975. The original Bigfoot was a 1974 Ford F-250 pickup that got lifted higher and higher. The modifications by Bob Chandler at Midwest Four Wheel Drive & Performance Center were so extensive that the truck went into the history books as the original Monster Truck. The shop moved to Hazelwood in 1984, which is where it started getting nationwide attention. Other trucks with the name “Bigfoot” have been introduced in the years since, but the original can still be seen at its new home in Pacific.
Bob Bernstein was a Kansas City-based advertising executive who came up with the idea for the McDonald’s Happy Meal in 1977. He says that he had seen his son staring at a cereal box, so he knew there was a captive audience for the idea. He also thought that if kids could choose foods designed especially for them, then families would come back more often. His creative team came up with the idea and the Happy Meal was born. The meals rolled out nationwide two years later.
When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opened its doors in Cleveland in 1986, the first class consisted of the musicians whom historians considered the best of the best. In that class was St. Louis native Chuck Berry. He rose to fame with “Maybelline” in 1955 and stayed in the public eye for decades. Also, in that first class were names like Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Brad Pitt will go down in history as one of the world’s most famous actors. He grew up in Springfield, Missouri and rose to stardom after dropping out of Mizzou in his senior year. He quickly became a heartthrob thanks in large part to his first major movie appearance in Thelma and Louise. From that point on, he was on the cover of every major magazine. But the piece of Missouri history that may get lost is he was the first person to be named People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive twice. Once in 1995 after “Legends of the Fall” and then again in 2000 after “Fight Club.”
In 2008, the small town of Rock Port on the wind-swept plains of northwest Missouri became the first community in America to generate 100% of its electricity from wind power. It happened with what they called the “Green Switch Celebration.” The four turbines of the Loess Hills Wind Farm generate twice as much power as the town of 1,300 residents in Atchison County requires.
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I always knew Missouri was a great state. I grew up in Lee's Summit, my dad was a football coach and a farmer. Graduated in 1970. My aunt still lives in Independence and 102 still running circles around us.