vania-janet/multiturn-rag-retrieval-data huggingface dataset:
Sound barrier
On January 12 , 1948 , a Northrop unmanned rocket sled became the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier . At a military test facility at Muroc Air Force Base ( now Edwards AFB ) , California , it reached a peak speed of 1,019 mph ( 1,640 km / h ) before jumping the rails .
Modem
The first 9,600 bit / s modem was developed in 1968 , and sold for more than $20,000 , but had high error rates .
Construction of the World Trade Center
The topping out ceremony of the North Tower ( 1 World Trade Center ) took place on December 23 , 1970 , while the South Tower ( 2 World Trade Center ) 's ceremony occurred on July 19 , 1971 . The first tenants moved into the North Tower on December 15 , 1970 , and into the South Tower in January 1972 . The buildings were dedicated on April 4 , 1973 ; Tobin , who had resigned the year before , was absent from the ceremonies .
First Transcontinental Railroad
At the end of 1865 , Peter A. Dey , Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific , resigned over a routing dispute with Thomas C. Durant , one of the chief financiers of the Union Pacific .
First Transcontinental Railroad
The route over the Sierra had been plotted out by Judah in preliminary surveys before his death in 1863 . Judah 's deputy , Samuel S. Montague was appointed as Central Pacific 's new Chief Engineer , with Lewis M. Clement as Assistant Chief Engineer and Charles Cadwalader as second assistant . To build the new railroad , detailed surveys had to be run that showed where the cuts , fills , trestles , bridges and tunnels would have to be built . Work that was identified as taking a long time was started as soon as its projected track location could be ascertained and work crews , supplies and road work equipment found to be sent ahead . Tunnels , trestles and bridges were nearly all built this way . The spread - out nature of the work resulted in the work being split into two divisions , with L.M. Clement taking the upper division from Blue Cañon to Truckee and Cadwalader taking the lower division from Truckee to the Nevada border . Other assistant engineers were assigned to specific tasks such as building a bridge , tunnel or trestle which was done by the workers under experienced supervisors . The
Automated teller machine
On September 2 , 1969 , Chemical Bank installed the first ATM in the U.S. at its branch in Rockville Centre , New York . The first ATMs were designed to dispense a fixed amount of cash when a user inserted a specially coded card . A Chemical Bank advertisement boasted `` On Sept. 2 our bank will open at 9 : 00 and never close again . '' Chemical 's ATM , initially known as a Docuteller was designed by Donald Wetzel and his company Docutel . Chemical executives were initially hesitant about the electronic banking transition given the high cost of the early machines . Additionally , executives were concerned that customers would resist having machines handling their money . In 1995 , the Smithsonian National Museum of American History recognised Docutel and Wetzel as the inventors of the networked ATM .
Electric car
Thomas Parker built the first practical production electric car in London in 1884 , using his own specially designed high - capacity rechargeable batteries . The Flocken Elektrowagen of 1888 was designed by German inventor Andreas Flocken . Electric cars were among the preferred methods for automobile propulsion in the late 19th century and early 20th century , providing a level of comfort and ease of operation that could not be achieved by the gasoline cars of the time . The electric vehicle stock peaked at approximately 30,000 vehicles at the turn of the 20th century .
The Walt Disney Company
Walt Disney World received much of the company 's attention through the 1970s and into the 1980s . In 1978 , Disney executives announced plans for the second Walt Disney World theme park , EPCOT Center , which would open in October 1982 . Inspired by Walt Disney 's dream of a futuristic model city , EPCOT Center was built as a `` permanent World 's Fair '' , complete with exhibits sponsored by major American corporations , as well as pavilions based on the cultures of other nations . In Japan , The Oriental Land Company partnered with Walt Disney Productions to build the first Disney theme park outside of the United States , Tokyo Disneyland , which opened in April 1983 . Despite the success of the Disney Channel and its new theme park creations , Walt Disney Productions was financially vulnerable . Its film library was valuable , but offered few current successes , and its leadership team was unable to keep up with other studios , particularly the works of Don Bluth , who defected from Disney in 1979 . By the early 1980s , the parks were generating 70 % of Disney 's income .
Solar cell
The first practical photovoltaic cell was publicly demonstrated on 25 April 1954 at Bell Laboratories . The inventors were Calvin Souther Fuller , Daryl Chapin and Gerald Pearson .
Economic history of Argentina
The first Argentine railway , a ten - kilometre road , had been built in 1854 . By 1885 , a total of 2,700 miles ( 4,300 km ) of railways were open for traffic . The new railways brought livestock to Buenos Aires from the vast pampas , for slaughter and processing in the ( mainly English ) meat - packing plants , and then for shipment around the world . Some contemporary analysts lamented the export bias of the network configuration , while opposing the `` monopoly '' of private British companies on nationalist grounds . Others have since argued that the initial layout of the system was mostly shaped by domestic interests , and that it was not , in fact , strictly focused on the port of Buenos Aires . Immigrants
History of the motorcycle
The very first commercial design for a self - propelled bicycle was a three - wheel design called the Butler Petrol Cycle , conceived of and built by Edward Butler in England in 1884 . He exhibited his plans for the vehicle at the Stanley Cycle Show in London in 1884 , two years earlier than Karl Benz invented his first automobile who is generally recognized as the inventor of the modern automobile . Butler 's vehicle was also the first design to be shown at the 1885 International Inventions Exhibition in London .
Technological and industrial history of the United States
Between 1820 and 1830 , many inventors and entrepreneurs began to apply emerging steamboat technology to engines that could travel on land . The earliest proposal came in 1813 from Oliver Evans ' idea of a railway to connect New York and Philadelphia with `` carriages drawn by steam engines . '' Many individuals and companies have a claim to being the first railroad in the United States , but by the mid-1830s several companies were using steam - powered locomotives to move train cars on rail tracks . Between 1840 and 1860 the total length of railroad trackage increased from 3,326 miles ( 5,353 km ) to 30,600 miles ( 49,250 km ) . The efficiency of railroad to move large , bulk items contributed enabled further drops in cost of transporting goods to market but in so doing undermined the profitability of the earlier turnpikes and canals which began to fold and fall into disrepair . However , the early railroads were poorly integrated ; there were hundreds of competing companies using different gauges for their track requiring cargo to be trans - shipped -- rather than traveling directly -- between cities .
History of rail transport in the United States
The Americans closely followed and copied British railroad technology . The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier and started passenger train service in May 1830 , initially using horses to pull train cars . The South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company was the first to use steam locomotives regularly beginning with the Best Friend of Charleston , the first American - built locomotive intended for revenue service , in December 1830 .
First Transcontinental Railroad
Central Pacific had 1,694 freight cars available by May 1869 , with more under construction in their Sacramento yard . Major repairs and maintenance on the Central Pacific rolling stock was done in their Sacramento maintenance yard . Near the end of 1869 , Central Pacific had 162 locomotives , of which 2 had two drivers ( drive wheels ) , 110 had four drivers , and 50 had six drivers . The steam locomotives had been purchased in the eastern states and shipped to California by sea . Thirty - six additional locomotives were built and coming west , and twenty - eight more were under construction . There was a shortage of passenger cars and more had to be ordered . The first Central Pacific sleeper , the `` Silver Palace Sleeping Car '' , arrived at Sacramento on June 8 , 1868 .
Taxicabs of New York City
1899 also saw a number of notable firsts for the Electric Vehicle Company . On May 20 , 1899 , Jacob German , driving an electric taxicab received the first speeding ticket in the United States . Later that year , on September 13 , Henry Bliss became the first victim of an automotive accident in the United States when he was hit by an electric taxicab as he was helping a friend from a streetcar .
Dutch colonization of the Americas
In 1624 , the first colonists , mostly Walloons and their slaves - bound servants , arrived to New Netherland by the shipload , landing at Governors Island and initially dispensed to Fort Orange , Fort Wilhelmus and Kievets Hoek . In 1626 , Director of the WIC Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape natives and started construction of Fort Amsterdam , which grew to become the main port and capital , New Amsterdam . The colony expanded to outlying areas at Pavonia , Brooklyn , Bronx , and Long Island .
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Pennsylvania Turnpike groundbreaking was held on October 27 , 1938 , near Carlisle ; Commission Chairman Walter A. Jones thrust the first shovel into the earth . Turnpike construction was on a tight schedule , since completion of the road was originally planned by May 1 , 1940 . After the groundbreaking , contracts for finishing the former South Pennsylvania Railroad tunnels , grading the turnpike 's right - of - way , constructing bridges and paving were awarded . By July 1939 , the entire length of the turnpike was under contract .
First Transcontinental Railroad
By December 1865 , the Union Pacific had only completed 40 miles ( 64 km ) of track , reaching Fremont , Nebraska , and a further 10 miles ( 16 km ) of roadbed .
Michigan
French voyageurs and coureurs des bois explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century . The first Europeans to reach what became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlé 's expedition in 1622 . The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste . Marie , Michigan as a base for Catholic missions . Missionaries in 1671 -- 75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette . Jesuit missionaries were well received by the area 's Indian populations , with relatively few difficulties or hostilities . In 1679 , Robert Cavelier , Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present - day St. Joseph . In 1691 , the French established a trading post and Fort St. Joseph along the St. Joseph River at the present day city of Niles .
Carburetor
The first carburetor was invented by Samuel Morey in 1826 . Later , Enrico Bernardi developed another carburetor at the University of Padua in 1882 , for his Motrice Pia , the first petrol combustion engine ( one cylinder , 121.6 cc ) prototyped on 5 August 1882 .
Colony of Virginia
The first printing press used in Virginia began operation in Jamestown on June 8 , 1680 , though within a few years it was shut down by the Governor and Crown of England for want of a license . It was not until 1736 that the first newspaper , the Virginia Gazette , began circulation under printer William Parks of Williamsburg .
Telephone number
In December 1930 , New York City became the first city in the United States to adopt the two - letter , five - number format ( 2L - 5N ) , which became the standard after World War II , when the Bell System administration designed the North American Numbering Plan to prepare the United States and Canada for Direct Distance Dialing ( DDD ) , and began to convert all central offices to this format . This process was complete by the early 1960s .
History of electric power transmission
The first transmission of three - phase alternating current using high voltage took place in 1891 during the international electricity exhibition in Frankfurt . A 15 kV transmission line connected Lauffen on the Neckar and Frankfurt am Main , on a 175 km long distance .
First Transcontinental Railroad
On January 8 , 1863 , Governor Leland Stanford ceremoniously broke ground in Sacramento , California , to begin construction of the Central Pacific Railroad . After great initial progress along the Sacramento Valley , construction was slowed , first by the foothills of the Sierra Nevada , then by cutting a railroad bed up the mountains themselves . As they progressed higher in the mountains , winter snowstorms and a shortage of reliable labor compounded the problems . Consequently , after a trial crew of Chinese workers was hired and found to work successfully , the Central Pacific expanded its efforts to hire more emigrant laborers -- mostly Chinese . Emigrants from poverty stricken regions of China , many of which suffered from the strife of the Taiping Rebellion , seemed to be more willing to tolerate the living and working conditions on the railroad construction , and progress on the railroad continued . The increasing necessity for tunneling as they proceeded up the mountains then began to slow progress of the line yet again . Example
First Transcontinental Railroad
Coal had been discovered in Wyoming and reported on by John C. Frémont in his 1843 expedition across Wyoming , and was already being exploited by Utah residents from towns like Coalville , Utah and later Kemmerer , Wyoming by the time the Transcontinental railroad was built . Union Pacific needed coal to fuel its steam locomotives on the almost treeless plains across Nebraska and Wyoming . Coal shipments by rail were also looked on as a potentially major source of income -- this potential is still being realized . Dale
Satellite
The first artificial satellite was Sputnik 1 , launched by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 , and initiating the Soviet Sputnik program , with Sergei Korolev as chief designer . This in turn triggered the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States .
Mail order
In 1906 Sears opened its catalog plant and the Sears Merchandise Building Tower . And by that time , the Sears catalog had become known in the industry as `` the Consumers ' Bible '' . In 1933 , Sears , Roebuck and Co. produced the first of its famous Christmas catalogs known as the `` Sears Wishbook '' , a catalog featuring toys and gifts and separate from the annual Christmas Catalog .
History of McDonald's
1999 : First McDonald 's restaurant opens in Tbilisi , Georgia . Jack Greenberg is elevated to Chairman and CEO . 1999 : leftist activist José Bové and others gain worldwide attention when they destroy a half - built McDonald 's franchise in Millau ( Aveyron ) . The incident follows a European Union ban on American meat imports , on the grounds that they use hormone treatments ; in response the U.S. had increased import duties on French Roquefort cheese and other European Union products . Bové was sentenced to three months in prison for his role in the incident .
Internal Revenue Service
The first electronic computers were put to work at the IRS in 1961 . By 1986 , limited electronic filing of tax returns was possible .
Chernobyl disaster
The canisters were to be transported to dry storage vaults , where the fuel containers would be enclosed for up to 100 years . This facility , treating 2500 fuel assemblies per year , would be the first of its kind for RBMK fuel . However , after a significant part of the storage structures had been built , technical deficiencies in the concept emerged , and the contract was terminated in 2007 . The interim spent fuel storage facility ( ISF - 2 ) will now be completed by others by mid-2013 .
Australia Day
Opening of the first Federal Parliament , 9 May The date 9 May is also sometimes suggested , the date on which the first Federal Parliament was opened in Melbourne in 1901 , the date of the opening of the Provisional Parliament House in Canberra in 1927 , and the date of the opening of the New Parliament House in 1988 . The date has , at various times , found support from former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie , Tony Beddison , and Geoffrey Blainey . However , the date has been seen by some as being too closely connected with Victoria , and its location close to the start of winter has been described as an impediment .
Computer
During World War II , the British at Bletchley Park achieved a number of successes at breaking encrypted German military communications . The German encryption machine , Enigma , was first attacked with the help of the electro - mechanical bombes . To crack the more sophisticated German Lorenz SZ 40 / 42 machine , used for high - level Army communications , Max Newman and his colleagues commissioned Flowers to build the Colossus . He spent eleven months from early February 1943 designing and building the first Colossus . After a functional test in December 1943 , Colossus was shipped to Bletchley Park , where it was delivered on 18 January 1944 and attacked its first message on 5 February .
Political campaign
In the 1790 - 1820s , the Federalist Party and the Democratic - Republican Party battled it out in the so - called `` First Party System '' . American election campaigns in the 19th century created the first mass - base political parties and invented many of the techniques of mass campaigning .
History of the telescope
Isaac Newton is credited with building the first reflector in 1668 with a design that incorporated a small flat diagonal mirror to reflect the light to an eyepiece mounted on the side of the telescope . Laurent Cassegrain in 1672 described the design of a reflector with a small convex secondary mirror to reflect light through a central hole in the main mirror .
New Mexico
Railroad surveyors arrived in New Mexico in the 1850s . The first railroads incorporated in 1869 . The first operational railroad , the Atchison , Topeka & Santa Fe Railway ( ATSF ) , entered the territory by way of the lucrative and contested Raton Pass in 1878 . It eventually reached El Paso , Texas in 1881 and with the Southern Pacific Railroad created the nation 's second transcontinental railroad with a junction at Deming . The Southern Pacific Railroad entered the territory from the Territory of Arizona in 1880 . The Denver & Rio Grande Railway , who would generally use narrow gauge equipment in New Mexico , entered the territory from Colorado and began service to Española on December 31 , 1880 . These first railroads were built as long - distance corridors , later railroad construction also targeted resource extraction . Freight
Automated teller machine
A Chubb - made ATM appeared in Sydney in 1969 . This was the first ATM installed in Australia . The machine only dispensed $25 at a time and the bank card itself would be mailed to the user after the bank had processed the withdrawal . Play
Hollywood Walk of Fame
While Joanne Woodward is often singled out as the first to receive a star on the Walk of Fame , in fact there was no `` first '' recipient ; the original stars were installed as a continuous project , with no individual ceremonies . Woodward 's name was one of eight drawn at random from the original 1,558 and inscribed on eight prototype stars that were built while litigation was still holding up permanent construction . The eight prototypes were installed temporarily on the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in August 1958 to generate publicity and to demonstrate how the Walk would eventually look . The other seven names were Olive Borden , Ronald Colman , Louise Fazenda , Preston Foster , Burt Lancaster , Edward Sedgwick , and Ernest Torrence . Official groundbreaking took place on February 8 , 1960 . On March 28 , 1960 , the first permanent star , director Stanley Kramer 's , was completed on the easternmost end of the new Walk near the intersection of Hollywood and Gower . The Joanne Woodward legend may have originated , according to one source , because she was the first to pose with her star for photographers .
First Transcontinental Railroad
The railroad opened for through traffic on May 10 , 1869 when CPRR President Leland Stanford ceremonially drove the gold `` Last Spike '' ( later often referred to as the `` Golden Spike '' ) with a silver hammer at Promontory Summit . The coast - to - coast railroad connection revolutionized the settlement and economy of the American West . It brought the western states and territories into alignment with the northern Union states and made transporting passengers and goods coast - to - coast considerably quicker and less expensive .
V-weapons
Beginning in October 1943 , launch sites for the V - 1 were constructed in Northern France , along the coast from Calais to Le Havre . Aerial bombing attacks on these sites by the Allied airforce were only partially successful and by June 1944 they were ready for action . Prompted by the Normandy Landings of June 6 , in the early morning of June 13 , 1944 , the first V - 1 flying bomb attack was carried out on London . Ten missiles were launched of which four reached England . The first of these impacted near Swanscombe , causing no casualties . At Bethnal Green , however , a bridge was destroyed and six people killed and nine injured . After the 15th the attacks became sustained at a rate of about 100 a day . With the first attack the British put their pre-planned Operation Diver ( after their codename `` Diver '' used for the V - 1 ) into action .
Gilded Age
In 1869 , the First Transcontinental Railroad -- a combination of the Union Pacific from Omaha to Utah and the Central Pacific from Utah to California -- opened up the far west mining and ranching regions . Travel from New York to San Francisco now took six days instead of six months .
USS Maine (ACR-1)
Commissioned in 1895 , this was the first United States Navy ship to be named after the state of Maine . Originally classified as an armored cruiser , she was built in response to the Riachuelo and the increase of naval forces in Latin America . Maine and her near - sister ship Texas reflected the latest European naval developments , with the layout of her main armament resembling that of the British ironclad Inflexible and comparable Italian ships . Her two gun turrets were staggered en échelon , rather than on the centerline , with the fore gun sponsoned out on the starboard side of the ship and the aft gun on the port side , with cutaways in the superstructure to allow both to fire ahead , astern or across her deck . She dispensed with full masts thanks to the increased reliability of steam engines by the time of her construction .