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Here are today’s five thing to know about Popsicle history:

  1. In 1905 in San Francisco, 11-year-old Frank Epperson was mixing a white powdered flavoring for soda and water out on the porch
  2.  He left it there, with a stirring stick still in it.
  3. That night, temperatures reached a record low, and the next morning, the boy discovered the drink had frozen to the stick, inspiring the idea of a fruit-flavored ‘Popsicle’, a portmanteau of soda pop and icicle.
  4.  Eighteen years later in 1923, Epperson introduced frozen pop on a stick to the public at Neptune Beach, an amusement park in Belmar, New Jersey. Seeing that it was a success, in 1924 Epperson applied for a patent for his “frozen confectionery” which he called “the Epsicle ice pop”.
  5. He renamed it to Popsicle, allegedly at the insistence of his children.

Today’s Food History

  • 1784 Stephen McCormick was born. Inventor and manufacturer of cast iron plow with removable parts.
  • 1800 Felix Archimede Pouchet was born. A French naturalist, he was one of those who believed that life was created from nonliving matter in processes such as fermentation and putrification. Those flies and maggots, fungi, yeast and bacteria just appeared from nowhere. (He was wrong.)
  • 1946 George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ was published.
  • 1972 ‘Coconut’ by Nilsson reached number 8 on the charts.
  • 1978 Frankie Valli’s ‘Grease’ reached number 1 on the charts.