Welcome to MusicDayz

The world's largest online archive of date-sorted music facts, bringing day-by-day facts instantly to your fingertips.
Find out what happened on your or your friends' Birthday, Wedding Day, Anniversary or just discover fun facts in musical areas that particularly interest you.
Please take a look around.

Fact #61020

When:

Short story:

The first recorded account of a bicycle ride describes a journey from Mannheim, Germany, Europe, undertaken on this day by Baron Karl Von Drais on his recently invented Laufmaschine [running machine]. Von Drais covered 13 km (eight miles) in less than an hour. There are earlier sketches and attempts at making a functioning bicycle, but Von Drais has gone down in history as inventor of the first practical bike. The bicycle, after many improvements and adaptations, would revolutionise personal transportation and has been credited by some as one of the principal factors enabling the emancipation of women. The bicycle will also provide inspiration for many songs, including Daisy Bell [A Bicycle Built For Two] by Henry Dacre [1892], Bike by Pink Floyd [1967], My White Bicycle by Tomorrow [1967], The Pushbike Song by The Mixtures [1971] and Bicycle Race by Queen [1978]. (1817)