Louisville, Kentucky

==Firsts==

Important events occurring in the city include the [[Southern Exposition|second largest American exhibition to date]] (1883), which had the largest to-date installation of [[incandescent light bulb|light bulbs]] by their recent inventor and then-former resident [[Thomas Edison]], as well as the [[Louisville Free Public Library, Western Branch|first free public library]] in the US to be staffed by and provide services exclusively for [[African Americans]] (1905).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.lfpl.org/separateflame |title=African-American Archives – Western Branch: The First African American Public Library |publisher=[[Louisville Free Public Library]] |access-date=September 26, 2023 |archive-date=September 27, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927005936/https://www.lfpl.org/separateflame |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uky.edu/Subject/lama.html |title=African Americans in Library Professions: The Kentucky Connection |publisher=Uky.edu |date=December 7, 2004 |access-date=February 20, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121190156/http://www.uky.edu/Subject/lama.html |archive-date=January 21, 2013  }}</ref> Medical advances include the 1999 first human [[hand transplantation|hand transplant]] in the US<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/26/us/doctors-in-louisville-perform-nation-s-first-hand-transplant.html |title=Doctors in Louisville Perform Nation's First Hand Transplant |last=Altman |first=Lawrence K. |newspaper=New York Times |date=January 26, 1999 |access-date=September 8, 2007 |archive-date=June 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613235309/https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/26/us/doctors-in-louisville-perform-nation-s-first-hand-transplant.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and the first self-contained [[artificial heart]] transplant in 2001.<ref name="heart transplant" />