Seattle sells more sunglasses per
capita than any other major city in the nation.
The first Dick and Jane children's
book series was created by Seattle's Elizabeth Julesburg under the pseudonym Elizabeth
Montgomery.
Seattle has the
largest percentage of library card holders in the nation (80%) yet spend
double the national average on books every year.
Nancy Pearl, executive director of the Washington
Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library, started the
city-reads-a-book movement, "If All Seattle Read the Same Book," in 1996
that sparked similar programs around the world including Chicago's "One
Book, One Chicago."
From 1958 to
1981, Julius Pierpont (J. P.) Patches who lived in the city dump, wore a
black rumpled hat and a yellow patchwork coat, portrayed by Chris Wedes
(b. 1928), hosted the longest-running children's TV show in American
history.
The motor for the revolving
restaurant in the Space Needle has the highest gear ratio in the world - 360,000 to 1.
The Space Needle is fastened to
its foundation with 72 bolts, each of which is 9m (30 feet) long - must be a record!
The world's first expresso cart
was established below the Monorail terminal at Westlake Center in 1980.
Seattle was the first city in the
world to pump Muzak into stores and offices.
Seattle was the
first city in the US to play a Beattles song on the radio.
The Wave, a ubiquitous
sight at sporting events around the globe, was born by UW cheerleader
Rob Weller at a University of Washington vs. Stanford University football
game on October 31, 1981 in Seattle at U Dub's Husky Stadium - the
Huskies won 42-31 (Go Dawgs!).
In 1917 the Seattle Metropolitans
won three games of a four game series over the Montreal Canadiens to become the first U.
S. team to win hockey's coveted Stanley Cup.
The 2001 Seattle
Mariners won 116 games tying the 1906 Chicago cubs for the most games won
in major league baseball history.
The term "flying saucer"
first came into being when, on June 24, 1947, Seattle pilot Kenneth Arnold described the nine
brilliant, boomerang-shaped bogies he saw above Mount Rainier.
On the afternoon
of July 4, 1947, Frank Ryman, an off-duty U.S. Coast Guard Yeoman, snaps
the first photograph of an alleged flying saucer from the yard of his home
in Lake City, north of Seattle.
Jefferson Park
Golf Course, in Seattle's Beacon Hill neighborhood, opened in 1915
as the country's first public golf course.
The world's first gas station
opened in 1907 at Western Ave. and Holgate St. (Standard Oil Co. yard).
The Happy Face first appeared in
Seattle.
Seattleite Jim Whittaker is renowned as the
first America to reach the summit of Mount Everest (29,028 feet) on May
1, 1963.
K2, the legendary ski
maker then on Vashon Island, invented the world's first fiberglass skis in
1965.
The world's
first hydroplane racing boat was built in Seattle.
On August 7,
1955, Alvin M. "Tex" Johnston, flying at more than 400 miles per hour just
400 feet above the water, stuns the crowd at the Seafair Gold Cup
hydroplane race on Lake Washington by twice barrel (or aileron) rolling
the prototype Dash-80, the precursor to the Boeing 707.
Seattleite and Tacoman Dale
Chihuly, world renown glass sculptor, was the first person to be proclaimed a "Living National Treasure" by
president George Bush in 1992.
Seattle boasts
more glassblowing studios than any other city in the US and second only
to the island of Murano near Venice, Italy.
In 1926 Bertha Landes was elected
mayor of Seattle and became the first female mayor of a major American city.
Seattle was the first American
city to put police on bicycles.
More people in Seattle commute to work via
bicycle than any other city in the US - could be due to 30
miles of bike-pedestrian trails, 90 miles of signed bike routes and 16
miles of bike lanes on city streets.
Seattle has the nations largest
movie going population per capita.
The Seattle
International Film Festival, held annually mid-May to mid-June, is the
largest film festival in the nation.
The Seattle
Fringe Theatre Festival holds the title of longest continuously producing
festival of fringe theatre in the United States.
Seattle's
Coliseum Theatre (now a Banana Republic) was opened by vaudeville magnate Alexander Pantages
in 1915 and was the first movie palace (then silent films) built in the
US.
According to a 2006 Census Bureau
study, Seattle tops the list of America's most educated cities, with more
than half its population 25 years and older holding at least a bachelor's
degree, one of the highest
rates of home internet access and among the highest in median household
income.
In 1979, Seattle
U was the first school in the nation to offer a Master's Degree
in software engineering.
According to a
recent Peter Jennings report, there are a million millionaires in the
world today, and 10,000 of them are at Microsoft.
The
Seattle based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with assets over $24
billion, is the largest foundation in history and is dedicated to
improving people's lives by sharing advances in health and learning with
the global community.
Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer
Research Center receives more funding from the federal government than any
other cancer research facility in the nation.
The largest
wireless (Wi-Fi) network in the world is at Microsoft's corporate headquarters campus.
The color TV
tube, electric guitar, and automobile headlight lens were all invented in
Seattle.
In 1921, the
progressive Seattle Symphony had Madame Mary Davenport-Engberg, the
world’s first woman to conduct a symphony orchestra (in Bellingham,
Washington), as its conductor.
Seattle's
Pacific Northwest Ballet has the highest per capita dance attendance in
the US.
The first general strike in the
nation was in Seattle in 1919 - it lasted five days, February 6-11, as 60,000
shipyard workers walked off their jobs.
Seattle was the first major US
city to provide free bus service in its central business district.
The dog toothbrush was first used
in Seattle.
Gas Works Park, built in 1906,
became the first industrial site / park conversion in the country in 1962.
Northgate shopping mall, built in
1950, became the world's first regional covered shopping mall.
In 1983, Barney Clark, a dentist
from nearby Des Moines, was the first person in the US to receive a permanently implanted
artificial heart.
Seattle is the best major city in the US to
have a heart attack - 50% know CPR.
The Farmer's Market at Pike Place
Market, since 1907, is the longest continuously operating farmer's market in the US.
The nation's first Skid Road
(a.k.a. Skid Row) was
built the early 1850s by loggers down then Mill Street which is now Yesler Way in Pioneer
Square.
Pioneer Square has the country's
largest collection of Victorian and Romanesque architecture.
The Mercer Island Floating
Bridge (now I-90), built in 1950 was the first floating bridge in the world.
The Evergreen Point Floating
Bridge (SR-520) is the longest floating bridge in the world.
The Mount Baker tunnel (I-90) is
the longest soft earth tunnel in the world.
Harbor Island is the largest man
made island in the US.
In 1914 Smith Tower at 42 stories
became the tallest building west of the Mississippi River, then the Space Needle in 1962
at the equivalent of 60½ stories and Columbia Tower in 1985 at 76 stories.
The Seattle Aquarium is the
world's first aquarium with a salmon ladder, to have born a sea otter in captivity and to
have born a giant octopus (65 pounds) in captivity.
The Washington State Ferry System
is the largest Ferry System in the US and the state's number one tourist
attraction.
The Coleman Dock
/ Washington State Ferry Terminal - Pier 52 is the busiest ferry landing
in the US.
Seattle's
Elliott Bay is home to the world's largest tugboat races held annually in
May.
One out of every five Seattleites
owns some kind of boat causing local mariners to call Seattle the
boating Capitol of the world.
Seattle's houseboat population is
the largest east of the Orient.
The gas turbine
Victoria Clipper IV catamaran that shuttles between Seattle and
Victoria, BC is the fastest passenger vessel in the western hemisphere.
Nearby Snoqualmie Falls plunges
100 feet further than Niagara Falls.
The only NBA basketball game to be
called off due to rain was in Seattle on January 5, 1986.
Seattle was rated the #1 vacation
destination in the nation by Rand McNally - 1997.
Money magazine's "The Best
Places to Live in America 1998" ranked Seattle #1 large city in the west.
Seattle has been acclaimed "the most
honest city in America" by Reader's Digest - Oct 1996.
Seattle has been
named the fittest city in the US in the February 2005 issue of Men's Fitness
magazine.
Seattle is the
only city in the United States where a successful commercial classical
radio station, Classic KING-FM (98.1 FM), is owned by a non-profit
corporation (Beethoven).
KOMO TV (ABC in
Seattle) became the first station in the world to broadcast daily local news in DTV on May 18, 1999 and the first in the US to
broadcast daily local news in HDTV on February 16, 2000.
Safeco Field, with its retractable
roof, opened July 15, 1999 as home of the Seattle Mariners baseball team and is the first
ballpark in the major leagues to have first-of-their-kind running play-by-play scoreboards on the first and
third base sides in addition to the main scoreboard and four auxiliary
boards all featuring the speed in MPH of each
pitch.
The press box at
Safeco Field is the largest press box in the US.
At seven acres
of continuous-pore concrete, the Kingdome boasted the world's largest
self-supporting roof. Built in 1976, the Kingdome was demolished in March
26, 2000 at 8:30 AM by implosion. Seahawks Stadium for football and soccer
opened in August 2002 on the same site as the Kingdome.