JULY 20 - Today in Food History• National Lollipop Day: Lollipops were first made in New Haven, Connecticut in 1908 by George Smith. They were named after a race horse of the time, Lolly Pop. • Fortune Cookie Day (also Sept 13)
On this day in:1801 The Massachusetts town of Cheshire pressed a 1235 pound cheese ball and shipped it to be presented to newly elected president Thomas Jefferson at the White House. (Massachusetts Food Trivia) 1836 Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt was born. An English physician, he invented the short (6 inch) clinical thermometer. Before this a foot long thermometer was used that took 20 minutes to determine a patient's temperature. Think about that! 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. (Cheese Trivia --- Cheese Quotes) 1889 Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas was born (died May 13, 1971). When Virginia O'Hanlon was 8 years old, she wrote the famous letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking if Santa Claus really exists.
(See article: Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus) 1934 A record high temperature for Iowa was recorded in Keokuk, Iowa - 118°F.
(Iowa Food Trivia -- Iowa Food Festivals) 1969 The first men on the moon. Neil Armstrong took "one small step" followed by Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. They found no cheese. (Astronaut Food Trivia)
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