First not always best

“On Jan. 21, 1789, the first novel by an American writer to be published in America is printed in Boston. The first edition of the book, “The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth,” was a thinly veiled account of the seduction and suicide of a young woman.

“On Jan. 18, 1912, after a two-month ordeal, the expedition of British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrives at the South Pole, only to find that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded them by just over a month. The frozen bodies of Scott and his two compatriots were recovered eight months later, 11 miles from base camp.

“On Jan. 16, 1963, Los Angeles’ first disco, Whiskey-A-Go-Go, opens on Sunset Boulevard. The underground disco subculture turned into a national sensation when the film “Saturday Night Fever” was released in 1977.