AUGUST 31 Today in Food History• National Trail Mix Day (Snack Mix Recipes) • National Eat Outside Day On this day in:1742 A plague of grasshoppers destroyed crops in Pennsylvania. (Grasshopper Trivia & Facts) 1817 A 7½ foot sturgeon was captured on the Passaic River in New Jersey. It was taken to the Passaic Hotel where it was served to the captors and their friends. (Sturgeon Trivia and Facts) 1836 African American inventor, Henry Blair of Maryland, received a patent for a cotton seed planter. (Cottonseed Trivia) 1900 Sir John Bennet Lawes died (born Dec 28, 1814). 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 in a restaurant in Spence's department store in London. (Coca-Cola Trivia & Facts) 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. 1993 Canada orders a complete ban on cod fishing after stocks dwindle. (Cod fish Trivia & Facts) 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. 1999 Virgil Foster, an 83 year old beekeeper in California, was stung more than 50 times by Africanized 'killer bees.' He died 2 weeks later on September 11, 1999. (Bee Trivia and Facts) 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. (Minnesota Food Festivals -- Minnesota Food Trivia)
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