When baseballer Dusty Baker hit his 30th home run of the season on October 2, 1977, his Los Angeles Dodgers teammate Glenn Burke raised his hand in celebration.

As Baker crossed the plate, he also put up his hand and slapped Burke's.

As strange as it sounds, this was the first recorded high-five, possibly the first one in existence.

"His hand was up in the air, and he was arching way back," Baker said.

"So I reached up and hit his hand. It seemed like the thing to do."

It was a more enthusiastic variation of the "low-five", a similar but slower move that began in the African-American community in the 1920s.

It even features in the first "talkie", 1927's The Jazz Singer .

For decades, when someone said "Give me five", the hands remained at about waist level.

After Burke and Ba

See Full Page