It was 66 years ago today that French engineer-turned-lingerie entrepreneur Louis Rard debuted the bikini at a Parisian public pool on July 5, 1946.

The newspaper-printed G-string number was modeled by a French stripper named Micheline Bernadini (left); Rard's invention was too risque for the mainstream fashion models of the day, so he recruited Micheline, who was used to showing off way more skin at her night job, to wear the world's first bikini.

Of course here at Mr. Skin we prefer it when those bikini tops come off, but given the choice between a string bikini and a torso-covering one-piece, we'll take those teeny little triangles of fabric any day. So Merci beaucoup, Louis!

Celebrate this SKINnovation with some of the finest bodies ever to don a bikini in Mr. Skin's Celebrity Bikini Scenes and Girls of Summer: Best Beach, Bikini and Sunbathing Celeb Nudes playlists!