From the dawn of the Dutch settlement to the Industrial Revolution to today, Bergen County has been the starting point and arena for innovators, influential figures, monumental events, and more. So much history has occurred here — some of it even the first of its kind in the state, country, or even the world. After covering Essex County in 2022, The Local Girl is continuing its series on “famous firsts” and exploring Bergen County. Whether buried in a century-old book or part of recent headlines, we have done the research to share with you what groundbreaking and pivotal things have occurred by residents of and in Bergen County, New Jersey. Read on to learn about Bergen County’s famous firsts.

Bergen County

1. Bergen County was one of NJ’s first four counties alongside Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth.
2. Demarest resident Jenn Sherman became the first American fitness instructor and the first cycling instructor hired at Peloton Interactive. Jenn grew up in Fort Lee, attending Fort Lee High School and Syracuse University. In Jersey Girl fashion, Jenn has seen Bruce Springsteen over 75 times.
3. Wally Schirra was born in Hackensack, raised in Oradell, and graduated from Dwight Morrow High School in Englewood. He was the first astronaut to go into space three times and the only astronaut to have flown into space in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs.

Read More: Blue Laws in Bergen County: What Are They?

Edgewater

1. Edgewater was the location of the Lever Brothers research center, where chemist Vincent Lamberti invented Dove soap. This was the first soap made without animal fat.

Englewood

1. In 1930, Anne Morrow became the first woman to receive a US glider pilot license. She was the wife of pioneer aviator Charles Lindbergh. Her father was Dwight Morrow, a United States Ambassador to Mexico and a Senator from New Jersey. Her mother, Elizabeth Cutter Morrow, was a poet and teacher.
2. On November 10th, 1951, Englewood Mayor M. Leslie Denning made the first customer-dialed long-distance call to Mayor Frank Osborne of Alameda, California. This call was done without operator assistance and was a historic feat for the communications world.
3. The Sugarhill Gang recorded Rapper's Delight in 1979. This was the first hip hop single to become a Top 40 hit. The group consisted of Henry "Big Bank Hank" Jackson, Michael "Wonder Mike" Wright, and Guy "Master Gee" O'Brien, all hailing from Englewood.

Fair Lawn

1. Millie Perkis starred in the first American adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank. This 1959 film was also the first film version of both the play and the original story. Millie was born in Passaic and raised in Fair Lawn.
2. Julius Wiggins was living in Fair Lawn when she published the first issue of Silent News on January 1st, 1969. This was the first newspaper for the deaf community.
3. Fairlawn is home to the 1st East Coast location of The Habit Burger Grill. This burger joint started in 1969, thousands of miles from the Garden State in Santa Barbara, California.

Glen Rock

1. Glen Rock resident Gurbir Grewal was the first Sikh-American attorney general in American history. He was also the first Sikh-American to be named a county prosecutor in the US. Born in Jersey City, Gurbir grew up in Fairfield and graduated from West Essex High School.

Hackensack

1. Alice Huyler Ramsey was the first woman to drive an automobile across the US from coast to coast. On June 9th, 1909, she embarked on this journey with two of her sisters-in-law and a friend. They wore hats and goggles to protect themselves while travelling 3,800 miles from New York City to San Francisco, California. During the two-month journey, the group stayed at hotels and ate a variety of meals from restaurant food to coffee, cornflakes, and canned tomatoes from a general store in Utah. Finally, on August 7, 1909, the feat was completed. In 1975, Alice completed her 31st cross-country drive, and in 2000 she became the first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame/

Hillsdale

1. Marion West Higgins served as the first female Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly. She was only the third woman to serve as speaker of a state House of Representatives in the United States. She was born and raised in New Rochelle, New York. In 1941, she married William F. Higgins, and they moved to Hillsdale in 1949.

North Arlington

1. In 1755, the first steam engine in North America was assembled in North Arlington. The Newcomen steam engine was imported from England by John Schuyler to pump water out of his copper mine. He hired engineer Josiah Hornblower to assemble the machinery.

Paramus

1. Paramus is home to the first suburban mall in all of New Jersey. The Garden State Plaza opened in 1957 and had 75,000 shoppers on opening day. Today, it is the second-largest mall in the state.

See More: The Stories Behind Old Hoboken Signage

Ramsey

1. Louise Eisenhardt was one of the first neuropathologists. She became the first female president of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Alice was born in Ramsey to Albert and Ella Knoll Eisenhardt. She began work in 1915 as an editorial assistant to Dr. Harvey Cushing and later attended Tufts University School of Medicine.

Wallington

1. Doris Meyer Mahalick was the mayor of Wallington. She was also the first woman to serve as the Bergen County Police Commissioner and the first woman to serve as a county police commissioner in the United States.