Events of August 31

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1742 A plague of grasshoppers destroyed crops in Pennsylvania.

1900 Sir John Bennet Lawes died. An English agronomist, he founded the artificial fertilizer industry. Together with Sir Joseph Gilbert, they conducted agricultural experiments at Rothamsted Experimental Station, the oldest agricultural research station in the world. They are considered the founding fathers of agricultural sciences.

1900 Coca-Cola goes on sale for the first time in Britain.

1921 The first successful demonstration of aerial crop dusting was performed in Ohio by Lt. John A. Macready. He was flying a Curtiss JN-6H (Jenny).

1960 The National Agricultural Center & Hall of Fame established.

1995 The summer was so hot in Missouri, that at the end of August, methane gas emitted within large bales of freshly-cut hay began to spontaneously combust.

2007 A bull escaped at the Minnesota State Fair. The bull rammed into a fire hydrant across from the all-you-can-drink Milk booth, and fell dead next to the hydrant.