Most people always think that Edison made the first sound recordings, with his "Mary had a little lamb" recorded on tinfoil, but in fact recordings were made 20 years earlier in France by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville.
The amazing thing is that none of Edisons first recordings still exist, because tinfoil, as we know, is not very durable and Edison played them back until the foil wore out, but the recordings made 20 years earlier will still play, because there was no way to play them back at the time, so they have survived!
More information can be found at
http://www.firstsounds.org/