A French inventor, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, made the world's first sound recording in 1860, a rendition of "Au clair de la lune." His phonautograph captured sound visually but couldn't play it back, leaving the recording unheard for nearly 150 years. Modern technology finally reconstructed the audio in 2008, revealing a voice recording predating Edison's phonograph by 17 years and correcting a historical oversight.