9 Historical Firsts That You Probably Won't Find in Your History Text Book

1. The first straw ever made was created from real gold in 3000 B.C. The straw (also the oldest one ever found) was discovered in a 5,000 year old tomb. It was pure gold and had precious blue stones encrusted on it. The owner of the straw must have liked his straw a lot because when he was buried, he had a seal placed on his tomb showing him using his straw while drinking from a jar.

2. The first recorded gay marriage occurred in 2400 B.C. between to manicurists, Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, who worked for an Egyptian pharaoh. The two were buried together as a married couple. Their tomb was covered in puns suggesting that they were more than just friends, and they were even buried facing each other as if about to kiss. Niankhkhnum had a wife, but her picture was purposely scratched away.

3. One of the first jokes (not about bodily functions) was written on papyrus around 1000 B.C. The joke said, "How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish." I don't get it.

4. The first twenty-sided die was made in Ancient Egypt around 300 B.C. This twenty-sided die was carved out of rock and had Greek symbols on it that stood for different letters and numbers. While its main purpose remains unknown, it's shocking similar to the one we have today, so many think it was used for the same reasons as the one today.

5. The first vending machine dispensed Holy Water in 100 B.C. It was invented by Hero of Alexandria (an engineer who invented several innovations during his time) and used the weight of the coin to push the platform down. This caused a valve to open and allow a little Holy Water to come through. He placed these all over the country in order to allow the people a way of getting Holy Water without having to talk to the priest.

6. The first marketing pun was found in Pompeii from 79 A.D. The pun was a brand of wine called Vesuvinum. It was a portmanteau that combined the name of a nearby mountain with the Latin word vinum (which means wine).

7. The first ever selfie was also the first ever portrait. In 1839, Robert Cornelius, an amateur chemist, set up a camera in the back of his family's store. Since he didn't have the funds to find a model or the ambition to find a subject in nature, he decided to photograph himself since he was only testing the equipment. He turned the camera on, ran into the frame, and stood still for a minute while the camera took the picture. Once done, he rushed to the other side and closed the lens. When the photograph came out, he wrote that it was "the first light picture ever" even though it would become known as the first selfie ever.

8. The first child to see a plane in 1904 was also the first one to imitate one. When the Wright Brothers tested their flying machine, a family, including a young boy, caught sight of the test. When a reporter asked the boy to describe what he had witnessed, he threw his arms out and ran around while making engine noises.

9. The first message over the internet was "LOL" by pure, prophetic chance. On October 29, 1969, a group of scientists conducted the first test of ARPANET (sometimes considered to be the first time the modern Internet went online). Charley Kine, a programming student at the time, typed the first message, "LOGIN", that would be sent to a computer 645 kilometers away. After entering "L" and "O", he ran into a problem when his computer crashed. Once he rebooted it, he retyped his message without a problem, but the first three letters ever typed on the Internet became "LOL" which would dominate it for years to come.

- Delanna