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1714 Queen Anne of Britain, the last of the Stuart dynasty died. She had grown so large that her coffin was almost square.
1790 The first U.S. patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont. The patent was for a process for producing potash and pearlash . Potash was used in soap and fertilizer. Pearlash was also used in baking. It produced carbon dioxide gas in dough, used in the first ‘quick breads.’ (Commercial baking powder was not available until 1857 [phosphate baking powder]).
1921 There are reports that it rained frogs in Sterling, Connecticut.
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1739 Caspar Wistar founded the first successful large scale glass factory in the U.S. in Allowaystown, New Jersey.
1838 It supposedly rained frogs in London.
1849 Jacob Perkins died. Perkins was issued the first U.S. patent for a refrigerating machine. It used sulfuric ether compression.
1963 Lisa Marie Diane Kudrow was born. American actress, her first major TV role was as the strange waitress on ‘Mad About You.’
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1880 A.P. Abourne patented a method for refining coconut oil.
1910 Large hailstones fall in Todd and Wadena counties in Minnesota, some weighing as much as 5 pounds.
1931 A swarm of grasshoppers destroyed thousands of acres of crops in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The corn fields were totally destroyed, without a stalk left standing.
1931 Auguste-Henri Forel was born. The next time you are on a picnic and become overtaken by ants, think of Forel. If you would like to know about ants, find a copy of his 5 volume ‘The Social World of the Ants.’
1940 Bugs Bunny makes his screen debut in ‘A Wild Hare.’
1962 Conrad Arnold Elvehjem died. An American biochemist, he identified nicotinic acid as one of the B vitamins, and that a deficiency caused the disease pellagra.
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1856 George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright, was born. You will find many food related quotes from his works on the Food Reference Website. Quote: “There is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
1866 Beatrix Potter was born. English author of children’s books, her first and most famous story is ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit,’ originally written as an illustrated letter to a sick child.
1922 Blake Edwards, American film director and producer. Among his films are ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s,’ ‘Days of Wine and Roses,’ and ‘The Tamarind Seed.’
1926 Roquefort cheese is the first cheese designated with an appellation d’origine controlee. Only cheese that is processed in Roquefort, France and aged in the caves there may be called ‘Roquefort Cheese.’
1989 Leslie Merry was hit with a turnip thrown from a passing vehicle in London. He was knocked down and suffered a broken rib and a ruptured spleen. He died of respiratory failure, due to the accident.
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1871 Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York was issued a patent for perforated wrapping paper.
1872 It was reported to have rained black worms in Bucharest, Rumania.
1874 Sergey Vasilyevich Lebedev was born. Lebedev was a Russian chemist who developed a method to produce synthetic rubber on a commercial scale, which used potatoes and limestone as raw materials.
1948 Bread rationing ends in Britain.
1993 Vincent Schaefer died. A U.S. research chemist, he invented ‘cloud seeding’ with dry ice to cause rain or snow.
2008 Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation that will ban trans fats in restaurants and retail food establishments. The ban goes into effect on January 1, 2010. California is the first state to ban trans fats in restaurants. There are several cities that have banned them, and California and Oregon have previously banned trans fats in school meals.
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1376 Rat Catcher’s Day. The Pied Piper got rid of all the rats in the German town of Hamelin. When the townspeople refused to pay, the Pied Piper led all the towns children away.
1461 Charles VII of France was born. His mistress, Agnes Sorel, was a celebrated cook who created several dishes, and had several culinary creations named in her honor.. (Agnes Sorel soup garnish, Agnes Sorel Timbales, etc.).
1822 Gregor (Johann) Mendel was born. Mendel was an Austrian botanist whose work was the foundation of the science of genetics. Working mainly with garden peas (some 28,000 plants over 7 years), he discovered what was to become know as the laws of heredity.
1915 Sir Sanford Fleming died. He devised the present system of time zones while working for the Canadian Pacific Railway.
1956 Curnonsky (Maurice Edmond Sailland) died. At the age of 84, he leaned too far out of his window and fell to his death. French writer, novelist, biographer, and gastronome. Curnonsky was known as the “Prince of Gastronomes,” a title he was awarded in a public referendum in 1927, and a title no one else has ever been given.
1967 The rock group Vanilla Fudge made its concert debut in New York
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1694 Georg Brandt was born. A Swedish chemist, he discovered the element cobalt in 1730. Cobalt is used in steel making, and is an essential part of vitamin B12.
1873 It rained ants in Nancy, France.
1983 A new low record temperature was recorded at Vostok Station, Antartica, -128.6 F
1988 An Indian Airlines Boeing 737 was charged by a bull while landing at Baroda Airport in western India. The bull lost.
1994 A smoking ban in restaurants and bars in Maryland began today.
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A candy named after a race horse!
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1801 Elisha Brown Jr. pressed a 1235 pound cheese ball on his farm. He presented it to president Thomas Jefferson at the White House.
1836 Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt was born. An English physician, he invented the short (6 inch) clinical thermometer. Before this a foot long meat thermometer was used that took 20 minutes to determine a patient’s temperature. Ouch!
Thanks Sir Allbutt
1851 The first cheese factory in the U.S. to make cheese from scratch was started in Rome, New York in 1851 by Jesse Williams. He had his own dairy herd and purchased more milk from other local farmers to make his cheese. By combining the milk and making large cheeses he could produce cheese with uniform taste and texture. Before then, companies would buy small batches of home made cheese curd from local farmers to make into cheese, each batch of curds producing cheese with wide differences in taste and texture from one another.
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1104 Flitch Day. A married couple who can prove to a mock court with a jury of bachelors and maidens, that they have ‘not wished themselves unwed,’ are awarded a ‘flitch’ of bacon (half a pig). The origins of this custom are in Dunmow, Essex, England, details are not certain, but references to it go back to 1104. It has been a regular civic event in Dunmow since 1855. Now held every 4 years, and frequently televised.
1863 Curtis Fletcher Marbut was born. An American geologist and one of the founders of modern soil science. He was with the U.S. Bureau of Soils for 25 years.
1947 Bernie Leadon of the music group ‘Flying Burrito Brothers’ was born
1996 Mervyn Hugh Cowie R.I.P. Cowie was a British wildlife conservationist, founder and director of Kenya’s Royal National Parks.
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1867 36 inches of rain fell in 36 hours at Sauk Center, Minnesota.
1892 Thomas Cook died. In 1841 Cook hired a special excursion train between Leicester and Loughborough in England for a temperance meeting. The beginning of Thomas Cook & Son, the worldwide travel agency.
1936 The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile is invented. It is a giant hot dog on wheels. Invented by Carl Mayer, nephew of Oscar Mayer, it was built by General Body Company at Chicago, Illinois. There are now a fleet of six.
1949 Wally Bryson of the music group ‘The Raspberries’ was born.
1968 ‘Grazing In The Grass’ by Hugh Masekela is #1 on the charts
1994 Crayola introduced scented crayons.
Tagged: caviar, crayola, crayon, excursion train, facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, hot dog, hugh masekela, life, national caviar day, oscar mayer, oscar mayer wienermobile, sauk center minnesota, the raspberries, today's food history, todays food history, wally bryson, wienermobile, worldwide travel agency
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1763 John Jacob Astor was born in Waldorf, Germany. His descendants built the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.
1845 Charles Grey, 2nd Earl R.I.P. Grey (also Baron Grey and Viscount Howick) was given the recipe for Earl Grey Tea by a Chinese mandarin with whom he was friends (and/or whose life either he or another British diplomat saved).
1867 Harvard School of Dental Medicine was founded in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the first dental school in the U.S.
1948 Mick Tucker of the music group ‘Sweet’ was born.
1955 Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California.
1959 Mary Leakey, wife of Louis Leakey, discovered the oldest human skull in Tanganyika (Tanzania). It is about 1.8 million years old.
1961 The Supremes first single recording was released, ‘Buttered Popcorn.’
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1439 In an effort to stop the spread of disease, kissing is banned in England.
1827 Josiah Spode II R.I.P. Inventor of Fine Bone China (Spode porcelain). It became the standard English bone china.
1867 Reinforced concrete was patented by F. Joseph Monier. He was a Paris gardener, and developed reinforced concrete to use in garden tubs, beams and posts.
1951 The controversial novel ‘Catcher in the Rye’ by J.D. Salinger was published.
1967 Arlo Guthrie performs a new song, the 20 minute ‘Alice’s Restaurant’, at the Newport Folk Festival.
1980 The California Supreme Court rules that Ted Giannoulas can appear in public in his San Diego Chicken suit as long as it does not have the call letters of the radio station (KGB) that first used it as a promotional gambit.
1981 Shukuni Sasaki spins 72 plates simultaneously.
2004 The City Manager of Key West, Florida fired its Official Chicken Catcher. Armando Parra was hired in January to catch and relocate some of the more than 2,000 ‘wild’ chickens that roam this small island city. They did not feel he would meet his contract quota to relocate 1,000 chickens by September.
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1850 The first demonstration of a refrigerated ice-making machine. Dr. John Gorrie received a patent for the machine on May 6, 1851. (Quite a few doctors and pharmacists invented some very practical and popular products in the 19th century).
1857 Frederick Louis Maytag was born. One of the founders of a farm implement company in Newton, Iowa. In 1907 the company began producing the Maytag washing machine to make up for the seasonal nature of the farm equipment sales. Fred Maytag II began making Maytag Blue Cheese in the 1940s.
1986 Raymond Loewy R.I.P. An American design engineer, he designed the Coca Cola bottle.
1998 Richard McDonald died. One of the brothers who founded the original McDonald’s restaurant. He also designed the golden arches logo.
Tagged: bitter oranges, blue cheese, coca cola, coke, facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, golden arches logo, ice, ice maker, john gorrie, life, maytag, maytag washing machine, mcdonald's, national grand marnier day, raymond loewy, richard mcdonald, today's food history, todays food history
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1730 Josiah Wedgwood was born. English inventor, artist, world renowned pottery designer and manufacturer. His daughter, Susannah, was the mother of Charles Darwin.
1817 Henry David Thoreau was Born. American author, philosopher, and naturalist. Author of ‘Walden; or, Life in the Woods.’
1859 William Goodale of Massachusetts patented a paper bag manufacturing machine. At one time this was a very hot field of research.
1861 or 1864 George Washington Carver was Born. African American botanist, educator, agricultural chemist and innovator. He developed hundreds of uses for peanuts, soybeans and sweet potatoes. He established the George Washington Carver Research Foundation at Tuskegee, for agricultural research.
1873 It is reported that it rained frogs in Kansas City, Missouri.
1934 Ole Evinrude R.I.P. He invented the first practical outboard motor in 1909. The idea came to him while rowing a boat to a picnic one day. He decided there must be an easier way to move a small boat on the water.
1948 Richard Simmons was born. Weight loss program, ‘Sweatin’ to the Oldies’. (A very unique person).
1962 In Pennsylvania, a garbage dump begins to burn underground, and the fire spreads to nearby coal mining tunnels. It was still burning in 1984. It may still be burning.
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1792 The first issue of the ‘Farmer’s Almanac’ was published by Robert Bailey Thomas. (Now called ‘Old Farmer’s Almanac’). [Some sources list October 13].
1826 John Fowler born. Fowler was an English engineer who helped develop the ‘steam-hauled’ plow and several other specialty use plows.
1985 Dr. Harlan Stone announced he had developed zippers to use in place of stitches after operations on patients who might require a second operation.
1987 According to the U.N., world population hit 5 billion.
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1720 Mrs. Clements invented a method of preparing mustard flour or powder, which was known for a long time as Durham Mustard. Until then, mustard was made into balls with honey and or vinegar, and then mixed with more vinegar when needed. (Some sources give the date as June 10).
1839 or 1842 Adolphus Busch was born in either 1839 or 1842 near Mainz, Germany. He founded Annheuser Busch in 1866 with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. Annheuser Busch is the world’s largest brewer.
1866 The indelible pencil was patented by Edson P. Clark of Northhampton, Massachusetts. This was the equivalent of the ball point pen of the time. It was non-erasable, and you didn’t need an ink well. Used for bills, prices, etc., you could also place a damp sheet of tissue paper over the writing to get a mirror image. It must have been time consuming to get a receipt from a restaurant.
1871 Marcel Proust was born. Marcel Proust was a French writer. On January 1, 1909, he ate a piece of tea-soaked toast whose taste caused on a series of childhood memories. In his 7 volume allegorical novel ‘Remembrance of Things Past,’ the character Swann has a similar experience when he bites into a lemon cookie (a madelaine) which evokes a similar torrent of memories. This is one of the most ubiquitous (i.e., widely-quoted) allusions in literature.
1892 The first concrete paved street is built in Bellefountaine, Ohio. This makes food shopping much easier. They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot for the supermarket. We have lots of paved parking lots (no more oyster shell parking lots), but paved sidewalks are still not very common here in Key West, nor are Street name signs at corners. For a small island, we are not very pedestrian friendly.
1913 The highest temperature every recorded in the U.S., 134 F. in Death Valley, California.
1920 Edward H. Lowe born. He invented Kitty Litter in 1947.
1941 Musician ‘Jelly Roll’ Morton died.
1947 Arlo Guthrie was born. Woody Guthrie’s son, he is most known for his ballad/story ‘Alice’s Restaurant.’
1958 The first parking meters are installed in England.
1985 Coca-Cola announced it was bringing back the old formula ‘Coke’ as Coca-Cola Classic, but would continue to sell the ‘New Coke.’
1989 Mel Blanc (Melvin Jerome Blanc) died. Blanc was a voice actor for Warner Bros. (and other) cartoon characters. Some of the characters he ‘voiced’ include Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Sylvester the Cat.
1999 Aaron ‘Bunny’ Lapin died. Lapin was the inventor of whipped cream in an aerosol can (‘Reddi-Wip’) in 1948.
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1766 Jacob Perkins was born. Perkins was issued the first U.S. patent for a refrigerating machine. It used sulfuric ether compression.
1792 S.L. Mitchell was named as the first Professor of Agriculture, at Columbia College, New York City.
1815 The first natural gas well in the U.S. was discovered by accident, near Charleston, West Virginia. They had been digging a salt brine well.
1850 U.S. president Zachary Taylor died. He supposedly developed peritonitis after eating too much of a new dessert treat, strawberry ice cream, at a 4th of July celebration.
1869 Henry Tibbe invented the corncob pipe. The pipe was made from a white kernel corn that was used to make taco and tortilla flour. (But can you roll a cigar with a taco wrapper?)
1872 John F. Blondel of Thomason (Thomaston?), Maine, patented the first doughnut cutter.
1887 John Dickenson introduced paper napkins at his company’s annual dinner.
1894 Percy Le Baron Spencer was born. Spencer developed the microwave oven in 1946, after he noticed that some chocolate in his pocket had melted after being accidentally exposed to radiation from a magnetron tube he was working on at the time.
1957 Actress Kelly McGillis was born. McGillis has a restaurant here in Key West, Florida called Kelly’s Place
1982 Diet Coke was introduced.
2004 Jeff Smith, TV’s ‘Frugal Gourmet,’ died at age 65
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1497 Vasco de Gama left Lisbon with four ships, to search for a sea route to India. He was the first European to sail there (notwithstanding Columbus’ valiant try), and he opened the area to Portuguese trade (and colonization).
(Pondering Point: Columbus sailed to America on his way to India. Wrong Way Corrigan flew to Scotland on his way to California).
1810 Gabriel Gustav Valentin was born. This German-Swiss physiologist was the first to discover the digestive activity of pancreatic juice. (Something I’ll bet you always wanted to know!).
1831 John Styth Pemberton was born. Pemberton was the pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola in 1885. (Pharmacists used to have a much more interesting life!)
1844 Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln was born. She was the author of the original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, before Fanny Farmer took it over. 1887 A riot breaks out at the saloonkeepers picnic in St. Paul, Minnesota.
1881 The Ice Cream Sundae was invented. Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, supposedly invented the Ice Cream Sundae, when he served a customer ice cream topped chocolate syrup (used to flavor ice cream sodas). It was a Sunday, and flavored soda water was not served on Sundays to respectable people.
1886 It rained snails in Cornwall, England. (Sounds like a description of a Monty Python skit). July is one of the best months for raining all sorts of living creatures.
1949 Wolfgang Puck was born. Chef, formerly of Spagos in Los Angeles.
1957 William Cadbury, chocolatier died at age 89.
1989 ‘Good Thing’ by Fine Young Cannibals is #1 on the charts
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1307 King Edward I of England died. King Edward I of England (ruled: 1272-1307). His coronation feast included 278 bacon hogs, 450 pigs, 440 oxen, 430 sheep and 22,600 hens and capons. I believe he had invited some guests to his coronation.
1550 The first chocolate arrived in Europe.
1568 William Turner died. William Turner, an English naturalist and botanist, is known as the ‘father of English Botany.’ His best known work was ‘A New Herball.’
1862 The first Land Grant Act was passed. Public lands were sold for agricultural education. This was the start of many state universities throughout the United States
1891 The Travelers Cheque was patented.
1912 The first Horn & Hardart Automat in New York City is opened. (The very first Automat Horn & Hardart opened was in Philadelphia on June 9, 1902).
1928 Otto Frederick Rohwedder spent many years working on a bread slicing machine beginning in 1912. He finally perfected it, and the first sliced bread was produced and sold at M.F. Bench’s Chillicothe Baking Company, 100 Elm Street in Chillicothe, Missouri. According to the story, Mr. Bench assisted Rohwedder in the fine tuning the new bread slicing machine. The Chillicothe, Missouri Constitution-Tribune of July 7, 1928 carried a story of the new machines first use.
1930 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle died. Creator of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes would go for days without food while working on a case.
1936 Henry F. Phillips patented the Phillips-head screw and screwdriver.
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1615 Furuta Oribe died. His original name was Furuta Shigenari. He was a Japanese master of the tea ceremony who studied under Sen Riky. His ideas influenced the tea ceremony, teahouse architecture, tea-garden landscaping and even flower arrangement.
1766 Alexander Wilson was born. Scottish naturalist, ornithologist and poet. Founder of American ornithology.
1849 Minnesota’s first brewery is opened by Anthony Yoerg in St. Paul.
1869 Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa died. Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa imported 1,400 varieties of grapevines to California in 1862 and planted the first large vineyard in California in the Sonoma Valley. After the devastating phylloxera blight decimated the European vineyards, some of these same vines, now on resistant American root stock, helped rescue the European vineyards.
1886 Horlick’s of Wisconsin offered the first malted milk for sale to the public. Horlick’s developed the process to dehydrate milk, and patented it in 1883, calling it Malted Milk. The company originally produced a food for babies and invalid’s, that could be shipped without spoiling.
1985 ‘Raspberry Beret’ by Prince & The Revolution is #1 on the charts
1990 Nathaniel Wyeth died. Wyeth, an American chemist and inventor, received a patent for PET (polyethylene terephthalate) beverage bottles. These were the first plastic bottles strong enough to hold carbonated beverages.
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1794 Sylvester Graham was born in West Suffield, Connecticut. He advocated vegetarianism, temperance and the use of coarse ground whole wheat (graham) flour. He also invented the Graham cracker in 1829.
1826 Joseph-Louis Proust Died. Proust was a French chemist. In 1799 he was the first to extract sugar from grapes, and proved it identical to sugar extracted from honey.
1841 Thomas Cook hired a special excursion train between Leicester and Loughborough in England for a temperance meeting. The beginning of Thomas Cook & Son, the worldwide travel agency.
1942 Oskar Bolza died. German mathematician noted for his work on the reduction of hyperelliptic to elliptic integrals.
1958 ‘The Purple People Eater’ by Sheb Wooley is #1 on the charts.
1966 Large hailstones fell on Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. One hailstone measured 1 foot in diameter.
1996 The record catfish caught with rod and reel weighed 111 pounds and was caught in Tennesee.
1996 Dolly, a sheep, was born at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dolly was the first animal cloned from an adult animal.
Tagged: apple, crackers, elliptic integrals, facts, five food finds, food, foodimentary, fun, graham, grapes, joseph louis proust, life, national apple turnover day, oskar bolza, state flower of michigan, sugar, today's food history, todays food history, west suffield connecticut, worldwide travel agency
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1828 The cornerstone was laid for the Tremont House in Boston, Massachusetts. It would be the first U.S. hotel to install bathrooms. It opened on October 16, 1829.
1845 Henry David Thoreau begins his 2 year experiment with simple living at Waldon Pond.
1848 Francois Auguste René Vicomte de Chateaubriand died. Chateaubriand was a French writer and politician. His chef, Montmireil, created a famous recipe consisting of a center cut from the beef tenderloin, grilled and served with béarnaise sauce and chateau potatoes. Montmireil named the dish Chateaubriand.
1906 Vincent Schaefer was born. A U.S. research chemist, he invented ‘cloud seeding’ with dry ice to cause rain or snow.
1918 Pauline Esther and Esther Pauline were born. Pauline Esther’s pen name was Abigal Van Buren and she wrote the “Dear Abby” newspaper advice column. Her twin sister Esther Pauline wrote the “Ann Landers” column advice column.
1943 Alan Wilson of the music group ‘Canned Heat’ was born.
1956 At a Fourth of July family picnic, Milton Levine came up with the idea for the Ant Farm. I wonder if he had dreams of fencing them in so they would not bother him at picnics?
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1806 Michael Keens presented the first cultivated strawberry combining flavor and appearance, at the Royal Horticultural Society. “…. I have for a considerable time employed myself in raising new varieties from seed, which has been not only a source of great amusement to me, but also very profitable in my profession.”
1844 The last pair of Great Auks was killed near Iceland. They had been hunted to extinction for food and bait. Great Auks (Garefowl) were almost 3 feet tall, with short wings, similar to penguins. They were flightless, which made them vulnerable to hunters.
1890 Idaho became the 43rd state, the Potato State.
1908 M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher) was born. Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was an American food critic and writer and the author of various articles, essays and books about food. She also translated Brillat-Savarin’s ‘The Physiology of Taste’ in 1949.
1922 ‘Fruit Garden & Home Magazine’ was founded. Two years later it was renamed ‘Better Homes & Gardens’.
1924 Clarence Birdseye, with the financial backing of W. Hodges, W. Gamage, B. Jones, I.L. Rice and J.J. Barry, founded the General Seafood Corporation. The birth of the frozen food industry.
1929 More unusual uses for kitchen appliances: Foam rubber was developed at Dunlop Laboratories. British scientist E.A. Murphy used a kitchen mixer to whip natural latex rubber.
1954 Rationing finally ended in Britain, almost nine years after the end of World War II.
1985 The honey bee was designated the official state insect of Missouri on July 3, 1985.
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1566 Michel de Notredame or Nostradamus died.Nostradamus is best known for his book of prophecies ‘Centuries Asrtologiques’ published in 1555. However, in the same year he also published ‘Excellent er Moult Utile Opuscule a tous necessaire qui desirent avoir connaissance de plusieurs exq uises recettes’ (‘An excellent and most useful little work essential to all who wish to become acquainted with some exquisite recipes’).
1843 An alligator reportedly fell from the sky during a thunderstorm in Charleston, South Carolina.
1926 Emile Coue died. A French pharmacist, he was an advocate of autosuggestion. He suggested repeating the following sentence 15 to 20 times in the morning and evening: “Every day, and in every way, I am becoming better and better.”
1931 Stephen Moulton Babcock died. Babcock developed a test to measure the fat content of milk, which helped improve the quality of commercial dairy production.
1932 Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy’s, was born.
1947 An identified or unidentified object crashes near Roswell, New Mexico.
1982 Larry Walters used 45 helium filled weather ballons tied to an aluminum lawn chair to ascend to 16,000 feet above Long Beach. Several very perplexed commercial airline pilots reported seeing Larry sitting in his lawn chair in the sky, to the Long Beach airport. The FAA fined him $4,000, but later settled for $1,500.
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1860 Charles Goodyear R.I.P. He invented the process named ‘vulcanization’ which made the commercial use of rubber possible. Vulcanized rubber didn’t become brittle in winter and turn gummy in summer as natural rubber did.
1874 The Philadelphia Zoo opened, the first zoological gardens in the U.S.
1910 Ward Baking Company of Chicago, Illinois opent the first completely automated bread plant in the U.S. Untouched by human hands.
1912 David Ross Brower was born. Brower was the founder of many environmental organizations including the ‘Friends of the Earth’ and ‘Earth Island Institute’.
1916 Coca-Cola started using their new contoured bottle to stay ahead of the competition. (Some sources list November 16, 1915).
1929 Elzie Segar created Popeye, the spinach eating cartoon character. (Also listed as January 17, and April 11 in some sources).
1936 Wally Amos, Jr. born. Creator of ‘Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookies’. He sold the name, and now makes ‘Uncle Noname’ chocolate chip cookies.
1942 Leon Daudet died. French journalist and novelist, well known gastronome of his time.
1953 Cheez Whiz was introduced nationwide by Kraft.
1963 Five digit Zip Codes are introduced for U.S. mail.
1999 Forrest Edward Mars died. Son of Frank C. Mars, he helped him develop the Milky Way candy bar. He founded his own company in Europe and developed the Mars Bar, and also created M&Ms. He merged his company with his father’s in 1964, creating the world’s largest candy manufacturer.
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1714 Queen Anne of Britain, the last of the Stuart dynasty died. She had grown so large that her coffin was almost square.
1790 The first U.S. patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont. The patent was for a process for producing potash and pearlash . Potash was used in soap and fertilizer. Pearlash was also used in baking. It produced carbon dioxide gas in dough, used in the first ‘quick breads.’ (Commercial baking powder was not available until 1857 [phosphate baking powder]).
1921 There are reports that it rained frogs in Sterling, Connecticut.
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1739 Caspar Wistar founded the first successful large scale glass factory in the U.S. in Allowaystown, New Jersey.
1838 It supposedly rained frogs in London.
1849 Jacob Perkins died. Perkins was issued the first U.S. patent for a refrigerating machine. It used sulfuric ether compression.
1963 Lisa Marie Diane Kudrow was born. American actress, her first major TV role was as the strange waitress on ‘Mad About You.’
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1880 A.P. Abourne patented a method for refining coconut oil.
1910 Large hailstones fall in Todd and Wadena counties in Minnesota, some weighing as much as 5 pounds.
1931 A swarm of grasshoppers destroyed thousands of acres of crops in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The corn fields were totally destroyed, without a stalk left standing.
1931 Auguste-Henri Forel was born. The next time you are on a picnic and become overtaken by ants, think of Forel. If you would like to know about ants, find a copy of his 5 volume ‘The Social World of the Ants.’
1940 Bugs Bunny makes his screen debut in ‘A Wild Hare.’
1962 Conrad Arnold Elvehjem died. An American biochemist, he identified nicotinic acid as one of the B vitamins, and that a deficiency caused the disease pellagra.
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