In my attempt to find a picture of the "first" bikini - I've learned that really this is the anniversary of the name and not really the garment:
from wikipedia:
Quote:
Two-piece garments worn by women for athletic purposes have been observed on Greek urns and paintings, dated as early as 1400 BC. Ancient artwork from over 1700 years ago in Villa Romana del Casale have depicted women in garments resembling modern-day bikinis. [1] Other bikini-style swimwear existed for many years before the first official bikini. Films of holidaymakers in Germany in the 1930s show women wearing two-piece bathing suits. They were to be seen again a year later in Gold Diggers of 1933. Two-piece swimsuits started appearing in the US when the U.S. Government ordered a 10 percent reduction in the fabric used in woman's swimwear in 1943 as part of wartime rationing. The July 9, 1945 issue of Life shows women in Paris wearing similar items.
 
Micheline Bernardini modeling one of the first modern bikinis.
According to the official version, the modern bikini was invented by French engineer Louis Réard and fashion designer Jacques Heim in Paris in 1946 and introduced on July 5[2] at a fashion show at Piscine Molitor in Paris.[3] It was a string bikini with a g-string back. It was named after Bikini Atoll, the site of a nuclear weapon test called Operation Crossroads on July 1 in the Marshall Islands, on the reasoning that the burst of excitement it would cause would be like the nuclear device.
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Here's a pic of an early example of a Roman Bikini:
and here's Ursala Andress in a famous bikini (Bond, James Bond)
And for you star wars Geeks - Princess Leia;
