Tricentennial history: New Orleans’ contributions to the world

New Orleans has given the world some pretty notable inventions over the last 300 years. Check out these famous firsts:

1. Jazz originated in NOLA’s African-American communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

2. Port of New Orleans sailors played poker on Mississippi River steamboats in the early 19th century.

3. The New Orleans Pharmacy Museum was the original apothecary of America’s first licensed pharmacist, Louis J. Dufilho Jr.

4. Cocktails like the Sazerac and hurricane were first mixed in NOLA.

5. Commercial movie theaters trace their roots to Canal Street’s Vitascope Hall, opened in 1896.

– Tricentennial Staff