MARCH 15 - Today in Food History• The Ides of March • National Corn Dog Day (March 15, 2025) 1st Sat of the collegiate basketball tournament. • Pears Helene Day (Vanilla ice cream on a poached pear covered with chocolate sauce).
(Pear Facts & Trivia --- Pear Quotes) • [Annual Return of the Buzzards]: Capistrano has their swallows, but Hinckley, Ohio has Turkey Buzzards. They return to the town each year on (or about) this same day each year, for the summer. They winter in Dade County, Florida. • Groundwater Awareness Week (March 9-15, 2025)
[National Ground Water Association]
On this day in:44 BC Julius Caesar was assassinated by a group of Roman senators. ("beware the Ides of March"). 1820 Maine became the 23rd state in the U.S.
(Maine Food Trivia & Facts) 1858 Liberty Hyde Bailey was born. He was a world famous American botanist who studied cultivated plants. He was dean of Horticulture at Cornell University for 15 years. 1889 Melville Reuben Bissell died. Bissell invented the carpet sweeper in 1876. Almost every restaurant and hotel I have worked in that had carpet, also had Bissell or similar carpet sweepers. 1891 Sir Joseph William Bazalgette died. A British civil engineer, he designed the main sewer system for London. 1937 The first Blood Bank is established in Chicago, Illinois at Cook County Hospital. (Blood Trivia) 1956 'My Fair Lady' opens on Broadway. It will run until September 29, 1962 for 2,717 performances. 1959 Duncan Hines died (born March 26, 1880). A traveling salesman, he published a list of his favorite restaurants and dishes 'Adventures in Good Eating' in 1935. The book was a big hit and in 1938 he wrote 'Lodging for a Night' and also wrote a newspaper column and became a favorite American restaurant and lodging critic. In the 1950s he licensed the Duncan Hines name for ice cream, cake mixes and other products. 1965 Alan Stillman opened the first T.G.I. Friday's restaurant at 1st Avenue & 63rd St. in New York City. 1972 Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather' premiered. ("Leave the gun. Take the Cannolis," Clemenza). 1975 Aristotle Onassis died (born Jan 7, 1906 - Jan 20 new style). Greek shipping magnate. 1975 'Black Water' by the Doobie Brothers is number one on the music charts. 1980 McDonald's test marketed Chicken McNuggets in Knoxville, Tennessee. They are so popular that they have to look for a second supplier.
(McDonald’s Trivia & Facts) 1998 Edwin J. Showmaker died (born June 2, 1907). American engineer who invented the reclining chair and founded the La-Z-Boy furniture company. 1998 Bejnamin Spock died (born May 2, 1903). American pediatrician and author of the best selling 'Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care' (1946) 2004 Martha Stewart resigned from the board of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia 10 days after her conviction in a stock scandal. 2020 Coronavirus: Most European countries have closed borders to non-residents; Central & South American countries begin to restrict travel.
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