The first drink-driving conviction may have happened in London

On September 10, 1897, London taxi driver George Smith became the first person in Britain—and possibly the world—to be convicted of drink-driving after his electric Bersey cab swerved across New Bond Street and crashed into a building. Smith, who admitted to consuming two or three glasses of beer, pleaded guilty and was fined 20 shillings (approximately a week's wages) under the Licensing Act 1872, which had originally been written to cover drunken people in charge of horse-drawn carriages.