First voice recording

According to Official Guinness Records,

The oldest recorded human voice is a ten-second fragment of the French folk song 'Au Clair de la Lune'. It was recorded on 9 April 1860 by inventor Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville (France).
Discovered in 2008 by researchers in Paris, the clip was created on paper using a phonautograph, a device for recording sounds visually, without being able to play them back. The paper recording was analysed by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (USA), who used optical imaging as a 'virtual stylus', allowing the clip to be played back for the very first time.

For a complete list of 1860 records, please visit 1860 Guinness Records in France.

Other France records that might interest you:

• First flying return trapeze act
• First public demonstration of a steerable lighter-than-air craft
• First corp of military balloonists
• First full-scale automobile
• Shortest spy