Who performed the world's first human heart transplant?
- A.Christiaan Barnard
- B.Alexander Fleming
- C.Joseph Lister
- D.Robert Edwards
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, Christiaan Barnard. The South African surgeon carried out the first transplant of a human heart at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town in 1967, on the patient Louis Washkansky, who survived the operation but lived only a further eighteen days.
Option B, Alexander Fleming, discovered penicillin in 1928 and belongs to a different first altogether. Option C, Joseph Lister, introduced antiseptic surgery in the nineteenth century and is remembered as the father of modern surgery, which makes him a plausible but wrong choice here. Option D, Robert Edwards, developed the technique of in vitro fertilisation that led to the birth of Louise Brown, the first test-tube baby, in 1978, and won a Nobel Prize for it; that is the neighbouring medical first most often set with this one.
Read the full article: First in the World: Space, Exploration and Records
Practice Questions
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- A.Alexei Leonov
- B.Yuri Gagarin
- C.Neil Armstrong
- D.Rakesh Sharma
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The Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was launched aboard Vostok 1 on 12 April 1961 and completed a single orbit of the Earth, becoming the first human being in space.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first woman to travel into space?
- A.Svetlana Savitskaya
- B.Sally Ride
- C.Valentina Tereshkova
- D.Kalpana Chawla
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The Soviet cosmonaut flew alone aboard Vostok 6 in June 1963 and spent nearly three days in orbit, becoming the first woman in space, two years after Yuri Gagarin's flight.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first person to set foot on the surface of the Moon?
- A.Michael Collins
- B.Edwin Buzz Aldrin
- C.Yuri Gagarin
- D.Neil Armstrong
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The American astronaut commanded the Apollo 11 mission and stepped out of the lunar module on 20 July 1969, becoming the first human being to walk on the Moon.
Read the full explanation →Who was the first person to reach the South Pole?
- A.Roald Amundsen
- B.Robert Falcon Scott
- C.Robert Peary
- D.Ernest Shackleton
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The Norwegian explorer and his party reached the South Pole in December 1911, using dog sledges and a carefully laid line of supply depots, and returned safely.
Read the full explanation →Which was the first country in the world to grant women the right to vote?
- A.United States of America
- B.United Kingdom
- C.New Zealand
- D.Australia
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In 1893 New Zealand, then a self-governing colony, gave women the right to vote in national elections, the first country in the world to do so, after a long campaign led by Kate Sheppard.
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