JULY 9 - Today in Food History
- National Sugar Cookie Day
- Spain: Fiesta de San Fermin - Running of the Bulls, Pamplona, Spain (July 7-14, 2013)
On this day in:
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.
1810 Napoleon annexes Holland to discourage the smuggling of goods from England.
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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