Changing the first letter of every line in a file to uppercase

Question

I need to change the first letter of every line in a file to uppercase, e.g.

the bear ate the fish.
the river was too fast.

Would become:

Answer 1

Pure bash:

while read x ; do echo "${x^*}" ; done < inputfile > outputfile

---

Test/demo (remove the code after done for more complete output):

for f in a, a, á, à, ǎ, ā, b, c, d, e, e, é, è, ě, ē, f, g, h, i, i, í, ì, ǐ, ī, \
         j, k, l, m, n, o, o, ó, ò, ǒ, ō, p, q, r, s, t, \
         u, u, ú, ù, ǔ, ü, ǘ, ǜ, ǚ, ǖ, ū, v, w, x, y, and z.
do  echo "$f foo bar." ; done | 
while read x ; do echo "${x^*}" ; done | head -15 | tail -6

Output:

E, foo bar.
E, foo bar.
É, foo bar.
È, foo bar.
Ě, foo bar.
Ē, foo bar.