FOOD HISTORY TIMELINE
1890 to 1899 - Next
1890 Peanut butter was developed by a St. Louis doctor for his patients with bad teeth.
1890 Rolla N. Harger was born. A biochemist, he invented the first successful test machine for blood alcohol content, the Drunkometer, in 1931.
1890 Peter Henderson died. A Scottish-American scientist, known as the 'Father of America Horticulture,' he published 'Gardening for Profit’ and 'Gardening for Pleasure'.
1890 Idaho became the 43rd State, the Potato State.
1890 Harland Sanders was born near Henryville, Indiana. Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant chain.
1890 Blues musician 'Jelly Roll' Morton was born.
1890 Peanut Butter was developed in 1890 by a St. Louis doctor for his patients with bad teeth.
1890 Meat Inspection Act authorized inspection of salted pork, bacon, and live animals intended for export, and the quarantine of imported animals.
1890 Of gainfully employed persons, 43 percent were engaged in agriculture.
1890 It takes about 50 hours or labor to produce 100 bushels of wheat.
1890 Combination corn-shucking and fodder-shredding machine patented.
1890 The population of the U.S. is now 62,941,714. Farmers are 43% of the labor force. There are about 4,565,000 farms, averaging about 136 acres.
1891 Sir Joseph William Bazalgette died. A British civil engineer, he designed the main sewer system for London.
1891 The Travelers Cheque was patented.
1891 Many food historians consider the first cafeteria to have been in the YWCA of Kansas City, Mo. in 1891. It provided cheap, self-service meals to working women.
1891 Fig Newtons were created by Kennedy Biscuit Works in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts.
1892 Joel Cheek creates a special coffee blend for the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. It becomes known as Maxwell House Coffee.
1892 J.R.R. Tolkien was born. Author of 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy. Food and hospitality play important roles in both.
1892 Coca-Cola incorporated.
1892 William Painter received a patent for the crown-cork bottle cap with a cork seal. It was used up until the 1970s, when the cork liner was replaced with a plastic liner.
1892 George Sampson received a patent for a clothes dryer.
1892 Dr. Washington Sheffeld invented the collapsible metal toothpaste tube.
1892 The Sierra Club is formed in San Francisco for nature conservation.
1892 Macadamia nuts were first planted in Hawaii.
1892 The first concrete paved street is built in Bellefontaine, Ohio. This makes food shopping much easier. It wasn’t long before ‘they paved Paradise and put up a parking’ lot for the supermarket.
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.
1892 John Froelich made the first gasoline powered tractor.
1892 The Diamond Match Company patented book matches.
1892 Earle Dickson was born. He invented band-aids for his wife, who had frequent kitchen accidents, cutting or burning herself. He worked as a buyer for Johnson & Johnson, who soon began manufacturing band-aids.
1892 The first long distance telephone line between Chicago and New York City was put in service.
1892 The first performance of Tchaikovsky's 'The Nutcracker' in St. Petersburg.
1893 Coca-Cola trademark recorded.
1893 Emmett J. Culligan was born. He was the founder of the water treatment company that carries his name. (Hey, Culligan Man!)
1893 The original Waldorf Hotel opened. It had 450 rooms and almost 1,000 employees.
1893 Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle died. A Swiss botanist, author of 'Origin of Cultivated Plants.'
1893 The Anti-Saloon League was founded by Howard H. Russell at Oberlin, Ohio.
1893 Good & Plenty candy was introduced by the Quaker City Confectionery Company of Philadelphia.
1893 African American inventor T.W. Stewart received a patent for a mop.
1893 R.W. Rueckheim invents Cracker Jack, a popcorn, peanut and molasses confection. It was introduced at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. R.W.'s brother Louis perfected the secret formula in 1896, which prevents the molasses coated popcorn from sticking together. The prize in each box was introduced in 1912.
1893 The first Ferris Wheel opened at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Invented by George Washington Ferris, it had 36 cars and carried 60 passengers 264 feet high.
1893 'Happy Birthday to You' was first published.
1893 Henry D. Perky and William Ford patented shredded wheat. Whole wheat is boiled, dried, pressed into thin shreds and finally baked. They presented it at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893. When their patent expired in the mid 1930s, the name became generic.
1893 Cream of Wheat was developed by Nabisco Foods.
1893 Raymond Loewy was born. An American design engineer, he designed the Coca Cola bottle, the 1934 Sears Coldspot refrigerator, toothbrushes, etc.
1893 Edward A. Doisy was born. He discovered vitamin K.
1893 Juicy fruit chewing gum introduced.
1893 At the 1893 Chicago Fair, Pabst beer won a blue ribbon, and was called 'Pabst Blue Ribbon" beer from then on.
1894 Pierre Joseph van Beneden died. A Belgian parasitologist, he discovered the life cycle of tapeworms.
1894 Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax died. A musical instrument maker, he invented the saxophone.
1894 Hershey's Chocolate Company was founded as a subsidiary of Milton S. Hershey's Lancaster Caramel Company.
1894 Coca Cola was first bottled by Joseph A. Biedenham of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Before that it was only mixed to order at the soda fountain.
1894 African American inventor G. W. Murray received 2 patents for a Furrow Opener & Stalk Knocker and a Cultivator & Marker.
1894 Alfred Charles Kinsey born. Alfred Charles Kinsey is famous for the two books his Institute for Sex Research published, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behavior of the Human Female (1953). However, he was also a world authority on the taxonomy of gall wasps, and author of 'Edible Wild Plants of Eastern North America' (1943).
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 accidently exposed to radiation from a magnetron tube he was working on at the time.
1894 African American inventor S. Newson patented an "oil heater or cooker."
1894 Arthur Treacher, actor, announcer was born. He later founded Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips restaurant franchise.
1894 Oliver Wendell Holmes died. American physician, poet and humorist. Author of 'The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table,' 'The Professor of the Breakfast Table,' 'The Poet of the Breakfast Table,' and 'Over the Teacups.'
1894 The first U.S. patent for a time clock was issued to Daniel Cooper of Rochester, New York.
1894 Donald Deskey was born. An industrial designer, he designed the packaging for Tide laundry detergent and Crest toothpaste among others.
1895 Carl Peter Henrik Dam was born. Dam was a Danish biochemist who discovered vitamin K in 1939.
1895 Michael Joseph Owens of Toledo, Ohio patented an automatic glass blowing machine that could make multiple bottles at the same time. A big advance in bottle making. He founded the Owens Bottle Machine Co., and the Libbey-Owens Glass Company.
1895 Purdy and Peters were issued a patent for a "design for spoons."
1895 African American inventor Joseph Lee patented a machine for "bread crumbing." It was intended for use by restaurants to crumb large quantities of bread scraps.
1895 Jack Dempsey was born. Regarded as one of the greatest boxers, he held the world heavyweight title from 1919 to 1926. He then became a successful restaurateur in New York City.
1895 A U.S. patent was issued for an electric stove.
1895 Louis Pasteur died. A French scientist, who showed that microorganisms were responsible for disease, food spoilage and fermentation. He developed the process for killing these organisms by heat, called Pasteurization.
1895 The first shipment of canned pineapple left Hawaii.
1895 Jell-O was created. In 1845, Peter Cooper, inventor and founder of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, obtained the first American patent for the manufacture of gelatin. In 1895, cough syrup manufacturer Pearl B. Wait purchased the patent and developed a packaged gelatin dessert. Wait's wife, May David Wait named it "Jell-O."
1895 C.W. Post of Battle Creek, Michigan introduced Postum Food Coffee, a coffee substitute made from wheat, bran and molasses.
1895 Rudolph Boysen was born. He developed the boysenberry, a raspberry-blackberry hybrid in 1923.
1895 Gennaro Lombardi opened the first pizzeria in the U.S. in New York City.
1895 Cordon Bleu school of cooking was founded in Paris by Marthe Distell to teach cooking to upper class women.
1896 A Porterville farmer named Mr. Bearss brought pomegranate cuttings from Florida to California and began propagating them. This variety was sweeter and juicier than the others, so he aptly named it the Wonderful variety.
1896 Alfred Ely Beach died. American inventor and publisher of ‘Scientific American’ magazine.
1896 Fannie Farmer Cookbook is published.
1896 Leo Hirshfield introduced the Tootsie Roll at his small store in New York City. It was supposedly named after his 5 year old daughter, whose nickname was 'Tootsie.'
1896 Clement Hardy received a patent for the rotary disk plow.
1896 Opening day of the first modern Olympic games. The last Olympics were held 1,500 years ago.
1896 According to some stories, the Chinese-American dish, chop suey, was created in New York City by Cantonese chef, Li Hung-Chang
1896 Charles Glen King was born. King was a biochemist who discovered vitamin C in 1932. He extracted and isolated it from lemon juice.
1896 Charles Glen King was born. He discovered vitamin C in 1932.
1896 J.T. White was issued a patent for an improved lemon squeezer.
1896 The Northrup-King Seed Company was founded in Minnesota.
1896 May 14: The coldest May temperature ever recorded in the U.S. lower 48 states: Minus 10 F at Climax, Colorado.
1897 Tea Importation Act passed, the first U.S. law regulating food products.
1897 Alfred L. Cralle of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, patented an ice cream scooper. His basic design is still used.
1897 Dr. John Kellogg served cornflakes for the first time to his patients at his hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. They wouldn't be sold commercially until 1906.
1897 Victor Mills was born. He was a chemical engineer who worked for Proctor & Gamble. He improved Duncan Hines cake mixes, improved Jif peanut buter, and invented Pampers disposable diapers.
1897 Jell-O was introduced. (see also 1895)
1897 Carl Elsener patented the Swiss Army Knife.
1897 Juliet Corson died. Librarian, cookery teacher and writer, founder of the New York Cooking School in 1876. Her books include 'Cooking Manual' (1877), 'Twenty-five Cent Dinners for Families of Six' (1878), and 'Miss Corson's Practical American Cookery' (1886).
1897 The largest sturgeon was caught, 1,387 pounds, in the Fraser River.
1897 Edmond Rostand's romantic, dramatic play 'Cyarano de Bergerac' premiers in Paris. A unique combination of love, swordplay, comedy, pathos and proboscis.
1897 Campbell's Soup invents condensed soup.
1897 The J.M. Smucker Company was founded in 1897 when the Company's namesake and founder sold his first product — apple butter — from the back of a horse-drawn wagon. He used an old family recipe and hand-signed every package as his personal guarantee of quality. (www.smuckers.com)
1898 Post Grape Nuts are introduced by C. W. Post of Battle Creek, Michigan. (There are no grapes of nuts in Grape Nuts).
1898 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson died. Dodgson's pen name was Lewis Carroll. He was an English mathematician and creator of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice had a habit of eating and drinking unknown substances.
1898 Rudolf Karl George Friedrich Leuckart died. A German zoologist, a pioneer in the modern study of parasites. He showed that trichinosis was caused by a worm-like parasite.
1898 John Sherman of Worcester, Massachusetts received a patent for the first machine to fold and seal envelopes.
1898 Daniel Gerber of baby food fame was born.
1898 The first vending machine law was passed in Omaha, Nebraska.
1898 Atlantic City, NJ opened its Steel Pier (boardwalk). The world-famous Steel Pier had 9 miles of food, beverages, concessions, amusements, concerts, etc. Ed McMahon, of the Johnny Carson Show and Publisher's Clearing House fame, was a barker on the pier in his youth.
1898 Waldo Lonsbury Semon was born. Semon was an American Inventor who is credited with the invention of Vinyl. Vinyl is the 2nd most used plastic in the world. Semon held over 100 patents.
1898 William S. Burroughs died. An American inventor, Burroughs invented and manufactured the first adding machine with a printer.
1898 Caleb D. Bradham, a New Bern, North Carolina pharmacist created Pepsi-Cola, in imitation of Coca-Cola. (He originally called it Brad’s Drink). see also 1903.
1898 The National Biscuit Company (later to become Nabisco) introduced Uneeda Biscuits and began making Graham Crackers.
1899 Paul Hermann Muller was born. A Swiss chemist who discovered that DDT was a potent insecticide. It was the most widely used insecticide for more than 20 years, and helped to increase food production around the world. Due mainly to its accumulation in animals that eat insects, and its toxic effects on them and those further up the food chain, it has been banned in the U.S. since 1972. However its residue is still found in some foods grown in the U.S. in 2002!
1899 Aspirin was patented by Felix Hoffman of the German company, Bayer. (Aspirin was originally developed by Charles Frederic Gerhardt in 1853, but he never followed up on it and it was soon forgotten)
1899 The first dishwashing machine was introduced by Josephine Garis Cochran. It became an award winning success at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, which used her hand operated, mechanical dishwashers in its kitchens. (She patented it on December 28, 1886.) Her company eventually evolved into KitchenAid.
1899 Benjamin F. Jackson patented a gas burner.
1899 Oysters Rockefeller was created by Jules Alciatore, owner of Antoine's Restaurant.
1899 Percy L. Julian was born. An African American chemist, he worked on synthesizing various compounds from soy beans. One of his creations was a foam fire extinguisher refined from soya protein.
1899 Minnesota's all time record low temperature: 59 degrees F below zero at Leech Lake Dam.
1899 U.S. agricultural exports were about $703 million a year during the 1890s (71% of total exports).
1899 The comedy short 'Stealing a Dinner' was filmed by cameraman G.W. 'Billy' Bitzer for the American Mutoscope and Biograph Company. (Mutoscope were 'peephole' motion pictures on cards mounted on a rotating drum turned by hand.)
Library of Congress, America's Library Website
1899 George Cook patented an automatic fishing device.
1899 James Ricks patented a rubber overshoe for horses.
1899 A.T. Marshall of Brockton, Massachusetts patented a refrigerator
1899 Alfred Hitchcock was born.
1899 Carnation began producing evaporated milk.
1899 The first motorized vacuum cleaner was patented by John S. Thurman.
1899 The term 'conspicuous consumption' was coined by Thorstein Veblen in his book 'The Theory of the Leisure Class'.
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