Mary Robinson was the first woman elected President of Ireland. The post is largely ceremonial.
Harriet Wilson was the first black woman to publish a novel in the US, Our Nig (1859). A statue of her stands in her birthplace of Milford, New Hampshire.
“Madam C.J. Walker”, born Sarah Breedlove, was both the first woman and the first African-American to become a millionaire in the US, by selling her “Wonderful Hair Grower” shampoon and other beauty products by mail order
Five time world landspeed record holder Craig Breedlove was the first man to go 400, 500, and 600 miles per hour in a car. His 600 mph record, set in 1965, held up for five years.
President Lyndon Johnson was inaugurated for his only full term in office on Jan. 20, 1965. Although elected in a landslide in Nov. 1964, by spring 1968 - battered by the Vietnam War and urban unrest - he announced he would not seek another term, surprising most political observers.
The Luck of Barry Lyndon, a novel by William Makepeace Thackery, was adapted into the movie Barry Lyndon by Stanley Kubrick. Ryan O’Neil played Remond Barry, and later named his son by Farrah Fawcett “Redmond.”
The American actor Ryan O’Neal was born Charles Patrick Ryan O’Neal, Jr. His first big role was on the very popular primetime soap Peyton Place. His major films included Love Story, What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon, the last costarring with his daughter Tatum.
The song It’s Only a Paper Moon was originally written for a Broadway show called The Great Magoo, but was subsequently used in the 1933 film Take a Chance. It has been recorded by artists as diverse as Adam Ant, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Nilsson, and Rufus Wainwright.
Harry Nilsson’s short story “The Boy Who Who Always Said No” appeared in the March/April 1994 edition of Galaxy. Here is the cover. A member of the SDMB is listed two places above him. 
The seminal novella that was to become Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451 – titled “The Fireman” – was first published in *Galaxy Science Fiction’s *February 1951 issue.
A woman in “Fahrenheit 451” repeatedly quotes the famous words of Hugh Latimer (one of the “Oxford Martyrs” of Bloody Mary’s reign), to wit: “play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out”.
Hugh Laurie’s father Ran Laurie, won an Olympic gold medal in the coxless pairs (rowing) at the 1948 London Games, and later became a doctor. Like his father, Laurie was an oarsman in college; and, though he didn’t become a doctor, he won fame and fortune by playing one on TV.
Benjamin Spock was a member of the gold medal winning U.S. rowing team in the 1924 Olympics. Spock later became famous as a pediatrician whose book Baby and Child Care influenced a generation of parents.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry always said that he chose the name “Spock” for the half-Vulcan first officer of the USS Enterprise because he thought it sounded alien and strong, not as an homage to the noted pediatrician.
In 1850s, scientists noticed some issues with the orbit of Mercury which led them to speculate that there might be a tenth planet somewhere nearer the sun. There even appeared to be some confirmation, and Urbain LeVerrier, of the Paris Observatory, wanting to get credit for the discovery of the planet he predicted, named it “Vulcan.” Alas, other astronomers could not find it, and after Einstein’s Theory of Relativity accounted for the irregularities in Mercury’s orbit, it was forgotten.
For many years it was thought that Mercury always kept the same face towards the Sun. When it was proven otherwise in the mid-1960s, dozens of sf stories were instantly rendered obsolete.
Edsel Ford introduced the Mercury marque of automobiles in 1938 to compete directly with General Motors’ Buick and Oldsmobile lines.
British pub rock/new wave musician Graham Parker grew dissatisfied with his record company and recorded a live album to get out of his contract. He signed with Arista Records and his first single was was scathing attack on his old record company, Mercury Records, entitled, “Mercury Poisoning.”
Although Otto Graham attended Northwestern on a basketball scholarship and played one year of pro hoops with the Rochester Royals, he gained his greatest athletic fame as the quarterback of the Cleveland Browns in their first decade of existence. During his career, the Browns won all four titles in the history of the All-America Football Conference (1946-49) and three (1950, '54, '55) after they moved to the NFL.
The Rochester Royals later became, in order: the Cincinnati Royals, the Kansas City Kings, the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, the Kansas City Kings again, the Sacramento Kings, and (almost) the Anaheim Kings.