50,000BC – 10,0000BC

50,000 BC Cave dwellers left wild date seeds along with evidence of pine nuts, walnuts, acorns, chestnuts etc. in the Shanidar Cave located in Northern Iraq.

35,000 BC Fruits, nuts, roots were being gathered for food. No cultivation.

29,000 BC Paleolithic people in Central Europe cook mammoth and other animals in cooking pits.

12,000 BC Einkorn may have been the first domesticated grain.

10,0000BC – 3,000BC

10,000 BC Crude forms of flatbread were being made.

10,000 BC Emmer emerged as the 2nd domesticated grain, in Egypt.

9,300 BC Evidence of systematic storage of wild grains discovered near the Dead Sea in Jordan. 1,000 to 2,000 years before cultivation of domesticated species.

9,000 BC Sheep were domesticated by this time.

8,000 BC Pigs were domesticated in China by this time.

7,000 BC Apples possibly cultivated in southwestern Asia.

6,700 BC Earliest evidence for domestication of corn (Found in Mexico, 2009)

6,500 BC Cattle were domesticated by this time.

6,000 BC Lima Beans were being cultivated in Peru.

6,000 BC Fava Beans were being used in the eastern Mediterranean region.

6,000 BC Chili peppers and squash were part of the Meso-American diet.

6,000 BC Citrus fruit ancestor (citron) may have been grown in India at this time.

5,900 BC Earliest evidence for millet consumption in western China.

5,000 BC Aniseed elixir is mentioned as a remedy for plague and cholera in the Book of Genesis.

5,000 BC Rice is being cultivated in China.

5,000 BC Maize (corn) was being cultivated in the Andes.

4,000 BC Grapes were probably being cultivated in the area southeast of the Black Sea (Afghanistan, etc.)

3,500 BC Horses were domesticated for milk and riding in what is now northern Kazakhstan.

3,500 BC Based on excavations of the Early Bronze Age, it is believed that the pomegranate was one of the first cultivated fruits.

3,000BC – 476AC

3,000 BC Potatoes were being cultivated in the Andes Mountains in South America.

3,000 BC The Egyptians discovered yeast leavening. They fermented flour and water mixtures using wild, air-borne yeast.

3,000 BC Flaxseed was being cultivated by the Babylonians.

3,000 BC The Chinese were eating noodles.

3,000 BC Egyptian tomb paintings picture fish ponds and fruit trees.

2,000 BC Olives, peaches and apricots cultivated in Eastern Mediterranean.

1,550 BC Egyptian papyrus scroll (Ebers Papyrus) discovered in 1884 lists hundreds of medicinals, including anise, saffron, fenugreek, mustard, fennel, cardamon, garlic, thyme and poppy seeds.

1,000 BC Peanuts were cultivated in Peru.

957 BC Pillars in Solomon's temple in Jerusalem were decorated with pomegranates.

287 BC Theophrastus died. He was an important Greek naturalist philosopher who had studied with Aristotle. He wrote many treatises on plants, only two of which survive.

100 BC Romans begin cultivating oysters in beds.

100 AD The world's oldest surviving cookbook, De Re Coquinaria ("On Cookery"), is attributed to the 1st century Roman, Apicius.

140 Faustina the Elder died near Rome in October. Antoninus was devastated at Faustina's death and took several steps to honor her memory. Antoninus and Faustina were officially held up as such exemplars of conjugal harmony that newlyweds were directed to pray at an altar of Antoninus and Faustina that they might live up to their example.

161 Antoninus Pius died in March. He was the 15th Roman emperor. Ruling as a just and gentle man, under him, Rome reached its peak of peace and prosperity. Historia Augusta describes the cause of death: "after he had eaten too freely some Alpine cheese at dinner he vomited during the night, and was taken with a fever the next day."

336 The first recorded celebration of Christmas on December 25.

476AC – 1492AC

1000 Roasted coffee beans are now being brewed to make coffee in Arabia.

1135 King Henry I of England (1068-1135) died, supposedly from indigestion caused by eating moray eel.

1213 King John of England ordered 3,000 capons, 1,000 salted eels, 400 hogs, 100 pounds of almonds and 24 casks of wine for his Christmas feasts.

1265 Covent Garden produce market was established in London.

1300 Huou, chef at the court of Kublai Khan (1215-1294) writes "The Important Things to Know About Eating and Drinking" This is a collection of recipes (mainly soups) and household advice.

1307 The legendary William Tell shot an apple from his son's head.

1315 Significant famine in Europe for several years. Planting seed supplies consumed, more than half of livestock died. Disinterred bodies reportedly eaten in Ireland.

1338 Charles V of France was born. It was Charles V who commissioned Taillevent to write what would become the first professional cookery book written in France, 'Le Viandier'.

1368 Charles VI of France was born. Charles VI gave sole rights for the aging of Roquefort cheese to the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, and all Roquefort must still be aged in the caves there today.

1374 An outbreak of Dancing Mania (sometimes known as 'St. John’s Dance') occurred in Aix-la-Chapelle, France. People would be overcome with bouts of uncontrollable, manic dance.

1375 'Le Viander' is written by Guillaume Tirel (Taillevent)

1383 Lowenbrau brewery was founded in Munich, Germany.

1390 The oldest surviving cookbook in English is 'The Forme of Cury', from about 1390.

1411 In 1411 Charles VI of France gave sole rights to the aging of Roquefort cheese to the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, and all Roquefort still must be aged in the caves there today.

1439 In an effort to stop the spread of disease, kissing is banned in England.

1444 Any merchant caught selling adulterated saffron in Bavaria was burned alive.

1449 Lorenzo de Medici of Florence was born. Lorenzo’s great granddaughter, Catherine, is known as the ‘mother of French haute cuisine’ because when she married the French king Henry II, she brought the finest Italian chefs, and her passion for fine food, with her to France.

1452 Leonardi da Vinci was born (died 1519). Italian artist, etc, etc, etc.

1492 Christopher Columbus sailed from Spain in August, arrived in the Bahamas in October, and sighted Hispaniola in December.

1492AC – 1789AC

1493 Columbus brought cattle with him to the New World on his 2nd voyage. (Caribbean Islands).

1493 Columbus returned from his first voyage to the New World.

1495 The first written mention of Scotch whiskey is in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland. A Friar John Cor was the distiller.

1500 Native Americans utilized and cultivated wild pecans

1503 Michel de Notredame or Nostradamus was born. Astrologer and cookbook author. He is best known for his book of prophecies 'Centuries Asrtologiques' published in 1555.

1512 The Duke of Northumberland was served 5 swans for Christmas dinner.

1516 Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria decreed in 1516 that beer could only be brewed from barley malt, hops and water. This Rheinheitsgebot (purity law) was probably the world's first consumer protection law.

1519 Hernando Cortez brought the first cattle to North America (Columbus brought cattle with him on his 2nd voyage to the New World, but not to North America).

1521 Spanish missionaries planted the first pomegranate trees in the New World. From Mexico, the pomegranate was transported north to missions in California and Texas.

1535 French explorer Jacques Cartier and his crew celebrate Canada's first recorded Christmas at Stadacona, an Iroquoian village near present-day Québec City.

1539 Hernando de Soto landed with America's first 13 pigs at Tampa Bay, Florida in 1539.

1550 Supposedly, the first cafe in the world opened in 1550 in Constantinople.

1550 The first chocolate arrived in Europe.

1553 Prospero Alpini was born. An Italian physician and botanist, he is said to have introduced coffee and bananas to Europe and to have been the first to artificially fertilize date palms.

1555 Nostradamus (1503-1566) published a cookbook (see 1503)

1580 The Christmas feasts of Sir William Petrie includes 17 oxen, 14 steers, 29 calves, 5 hogs, 13 bucks, 54 lambs, 129 sheep and one ton of cheese.

1582 Tour d'Argent restaurant opened in Paris, France.

1586 It is claimed that Sir Thomas Harriot introduced potatoes to England

1587 Virginia Dare was born on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, the first English child born in the New World.

1589 Catherine de Medici, wife of King Henry II of France died.

1600 The blood orange is believed to have developed by natural mutation in Sicily.

1607 A group of 104 colonists arrive from England and establish the first permanent English colony in America. They named the settlement Jamestown in honor of King James I.

1607 The Carthusian monks in the French Alps are supposedly given the secret formula for Chartreuse liqueur by the Marechal d'Estrees.

1607 Jamestown settlers ate pottage

1610 The 1610 Community Regulations of Kracow, Poland stated that bagels were to be given as a gift to women in childbirth.

1612 Koocboec oft familieren keukenboec, Magirus (in Dutch)

1615 A New booke of cookerie

1615 Furuta Oribe died. His original name was Furuta Shigenari. His ideas influenced the tea ceremony, teahouse architecture, tea-garden landscaping & even flower arrangement.

1615 The first tea is imported to the west

1616 Koge-Bog (first printed Nordic cookbook)

1616 William Shakespeare died. There are many references to food in Shakespeare's works.

1619 Thirty-eight colonists arrived from England to settle the land grant along the James River that became known as the Berkeley Hundred (Berkeley Plantation).

1620 The Pilgrims set sail and landed at Plymouth Rock on the Mayflower. The first corn (maize) was discovered by some Pilgrims led by Myles Standish. They named the spot Corn Hill.

1621 Pilgrim Thanksgiving

1621 Prince Louis II de Condé, known as the Great Condé, was born. He was a French general who loved to hunt and had a passion for rice.

1630 Louis de Bechamel (Béchameil) was born (died 1703). The white sauce known as Bechamel sauce was probablly not created by him, but rather named for him by one of the kings cooks.

1630 Massachusetts Bay colony governor John Winthrop supposedly introduced the fork to American dining.

1630 or 1631 Supposedly, Quadequina, an American Indian, introduced English colonists to popcorn. He had brought some to their first Thanksgiving dinner.

1633 Bananas were supposedly displayed in the shop window of merchant Thomas Johnson. This was the first time the banana had ever been seen in Great Britain.

1633 Galileo was forced by the Inquisition in Rome to renounce his theory that the Earth revolved around the Sun.

1637 Supposedly, Cardinal Richelieu 'created' the table knife when he had the points rounded on all knives to be used at his table. Presumably so no one could stab him.

1643 Louis XIV, King of France was born. During his reign food began to be served in courses, rather than placed on the table all at once, and forks came into widespread use.

1647 Alse Young of Windsor becomes the first person on record to be executed for witchcraft in the American colonies, when she is hanged in Hartford, Connecticut.

1647 Denis Papin is born. The French physicist who invented the pressure cooker (Papin's Digester) in 1679.

1647 Rice cultivation introduced in the Carolinas.

1648 The Massachusetts Bay Colony had poor harvests. They were saved from starvation by the huge flocks of passenger pigeons.

1650 The first European coffee house opened at Oxford University in England.

1652 'Le Cuisinier francois' by La Varenne is published.

1659 The celebration of Christmas was banned in Boston (until 1681). The pilgrims believed it to be a decadent celebration.

1660 Asser Levy from Portugal, applied for a license to sell kosher meat. He was the first kosher butcher in New Amsterdam (New York).

1666 The Great Fire of London began in the shop of the King's baker. After burning for four days, more than 13,000 buildings had been destroyed.

1669 De Verstandige Kock, in Dutch

1670 At Cologne Cathedral, the choirmaster makes sugar sticks to give to the young singers in the choir, to keep them occupied during the Living Crèche ceremony. The first candy canes.

1673 The White Horse Tavern in Rhode Island was built. It is the oldest operating tavern in the United States.

1674 Jethro Tull was born. He was an English agriculturalist and inventor whose ideas were instrumental in the development of modern English agriculture.

1676 Charles II of England revoked his previous proclamation suppressing Coffee Houses due to public response. (See Dec 23, 1675)

1676 The Compagnie de Limonadiers was formed in Paris. The vendors sold lemonade from tanks they carried on their backs. The first soft drinks.

1679 Denis Papin, a French physicist invented the pressure cooker, which he called 'Papin's Digester.’

1680 While in Jamaica, physician and naturalist Hans Sloane came up with the idea of mixing the bitter local chocolate beverage with milk to improve its taste.

1683 Bagels were created by a Vienna Baker.

1683 De Verstandige Kock, colonial Dutch recipes

1685 Accomplisht Cook, Robert May

1686 Croissants

1686 Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years and arrives back in England on June 11, 1687.

1686 Gabriel Fahrenheit was born (died Sept 16, 1736). Fahrenheit was a German physicist who invented the Fahrenheit temperature scale thermometer.

1686 Prince Louis II de Condé died. He was a French general who loved to hunt and had a passion for rice.

1688 William Cheselden was born. An English surgeon and teacher, he was one of the first to describe the role of saliva in digestion.

1691 lemon meringue pie

1693 Dom Perignon supposedly discovers the process for making champagne."Come quickly, I am tasting the stars!"

1693 Famine in northern Europe.

1699 John Evelyn's Acetaria: Discourse of Sallets

1700 There are 7 bakers in Philadelphia, population 4,500.

1700 U.S. farming: seeds are sown by hand; horse & oxen are used for power; plows are made of wood; hay & grain harvested by hand.

1701 Anders Celsius was born (died 1744). Swedish astronomer, he developed the temperature scale which bears his name (Celsius).

1703 Louis de Bechamel (Béchameil) died (born 1630). A French ginancier, gourmet and major domo to king Louis XIV.

1703 Mount Gay Estate, Barbados, began distilling rum. Mount Gay Rum is the oldest existing brand of rum in the world.

1706 Benjamin Franklin was born. American diplomat, publisher, inventor, etc. Among his inventions were the Franklin stove and biofocal eyeglasses. He also published'Poor Richard's Almanac.'

1706 Canada: The Sovereign Council of New France passes an ordinance forbidding citizens from keeping pigs in their houses.

1709 Andreas Sigismund Marggraf was born. A German chemist, in 1747 he extracted sugar from the sugar beet and determined it was identical to cane sugar.

1714 England's King George I has his first Christmas pudding, made with 5 pounds of suet and 1 pound of plums.

1714 Queen Anne of Britain, the last of the Stuart dynasty died. She had grown so large that her coffin was almost square.

1715 American Sybilla Masters was the first American to receive an English patent. A method for "Cleansing Curing and Refining of Indian Corn". (The patent was issued in her husband's name, Thomas Masters).

1718 John Montague, 4th Earl of Sandwich was born. The Earl is supposed to have invented the sandwich as a quick meal so as not to interrupt his gambling sessions.

1718 New Orleans was founded by French colonists. The city was named for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, who was Regent of France at the time.

1719 The first potato planted in the United States was planted in Londonderry Common Field, New Hampshire.

1720 Invention of meringue is attributed to a Swiss pastry chef named Gasparini.

1720 Mrs. Clements invented a method of preparing mustard flour. Until then, mustard was made into balls with honey and or vinegar, and then mixed with more vinegar when needed.

1720 Receipts of Pastry and Cookery for the Use of his Scholars, Ed. Kidder

1725 Arthur Guinnesss was born Sept 28 (died Jan 23, 1803). Irish brewer, founder of the Guinness brewery.

1727 Sir Isaac Newton died. The story is that an apple falling on his head inspired his theory of universal gravitation. The apple is thought to have been the green skinned 'Flower of Kent' variety.

1728 Captain James Cook was born. British explorer who charted and named many Pacific Islands, including the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).

1730 Josiah Wedgwood was born. English inventor, artist and world renowned pottery designer and manufacturer. His daughter, Susannah, was the mother of Charles Darwin.

1732 First issue of ‘Poor Richard's Almanac’ was published by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia

1733 Molasses Act - England passes the Molasses Act, putting high tariffs on rum and molasses imported to the colonies from anyplace other than Britain and its possessions.

1734 Thomas Henry was born. An apothecary in Manchester, England, he was the first to produce artificially carbonated water for sale.

1736 Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit died. He developed the Fahrenheit temperature scale, and invented the mercury thermometer.

1740 Jacob Schweppe was born. A German watchmaker and amateur scientist. Developed the first practical and commercially successful process for producing carbonated mineral water.

1741 Anders Celsius developed the Centigrade temperature scale.

1741 Jean Etienne Bore was born. The inventor of the sugar granulating process (1794 or 1795), founder of sugar industry in Louisiana.

1742 'The Compleat Housewife, or Accomplish'd Gentlewoman's Companion' is the first cookbook published in America (Williamsburg)

1742 Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin Stove. He purposely did not patent it, so that others could freely copy the design.

1744 Anders Celsius died (born 1701). Swedish astronomer, he developed the temperature scale which bears his name (Celsius).

1744 Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck was born. He was a French naturalist, and believed in the inheritance of acquired traits. Some of his ideas influenced Darwin.

1744 Richard Lovell Edgeworth died. An Anglo-Irish inventor, among his many inventions and innovations were a turnip cutter, various improvements in agricultural machines, and a velocipede.

1745 The secret formula for Drambuie liqueur is supposedly given to the Mackinnon family by Prince Charles Edward.

1747 'Art of Cookery', by Hanna Glasse is published.

1748 Joseph Bramah was born. An English engineer, among his many inventions was a beer engine, used to deliver beer from keg to glass without artificial carbonation being added.

1749 Nicolas Appert was born. Inventor of the canning process, preserving food by sealing it in sterilized containers.

1750 Benjamin Franklin shocked himself while trying to electrocute a holiday turkey.

1752 On September 2 1752, ‘tomorrow’ was September 14. The Gregorian Calendar went into effect in Great Britain and its colonies, to correct an accumulated 11 day discrepancy.

1753 Jean Jacques Regis de Cambaceres was born. The dinners he gave were famous, and he closely supervised the food preparation. He refused to admit late-comers, and was also said to have demanded complete silence while dining.

1754 Antoine Beauvilliers was born. He was a French chef who founded the first luxury restaurant, La Grande Taverne de Londres.

1754 Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord was born. Known simply as Talleyrand, French statesman, diplomat and grand gourmet, called the 'first fork of France.'

1754 Joseph-Louis Proust born. Proust was a French chemist. In 1799 he extracted sugar from grapes, and proved it identical to sugar extracted from honey.

1755 Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin was born. A French politician, gourmand and author of the 8 volume Physiologie du goût, ou Méditation de gastronomie transcendante.

1755 Marie Antoinette, Queen consort of Louis XVI of France, was born. She would sometimes wear potato blossoms as a hair decoration. Attributed quote: "If they have no bread, let them eat cake."

1757 Jean-Joseph Close was born. The very first pâté de foie gras (goose liver paste) is said to have been created in Strasbourg in 1765 by a Norman chef named Jean-Joseph Close. (Although the technique for producing foie gras goes back as far as the ancient Egyptians).

1758 Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière was born on Nov 20 (died Dec 25, 1837). French writer and gastronome. Notorious for his extravagant behavior, sharp wit and dark humor, he was one of the first food and restaurant critics.

1758 Benjamin Jackson advertised mustard for sale for the first time in America. The advertisement was in the Philadelphia Chronicle, and claimed Jackson was the first and only manufacturer of mustard in America.

1759 Josiah Wedgwood founded the Wedgwood Pottery that transformed the rough pottery of the time into the smooth, durable crockery we know today.

1762 Mary Randolph was born. She was a Southern U.S. cookbook author, whose 'The Virginia Housewife' (1824) is considered the first cookbook of the American South, and one of the most influential cookbooks of the 19th century. It contains hints of the influence of African cooking on the cooking of the American South. Mrs. Randolph was also one of the first to use measurements in recipes, rather than just a list of ingredients.

1762 Samuel Morey was born (died 1843). American inventor. His first patent, issued on January 26, 1793 (No. X51), was for a steam powered roasting spit, and was signed by George Washington.

1762 The first written record of the word 'sandwich'. Edward Gibbons Journal, 11/24/1762:

1764 Charles Grey, 2nd Earl, was born. Earl Grey was given the recipe for Earl Grey Tea by a Chinese mandarin with whom he was friends

1765 John Hannon, financed by James Baker, began producing one of the first North American-made chocolate products using water power. The beginnings of 'Baker's Chocolate'

1765 M. Boulanger opens the first restaurant, by that name, in Paris.

1765 The British Parliament passed the Quartering Act, which required American colonists to provide temporary quarters, food, drink, etc. to British troops stationed in their towns.

1765 The very first pâté de foie gras (goose liver paste) is said to have been created in Strasbourg in 1765 by a Norman chef named Jean-Joseph Close.

1766 Louis, Marquis de Cussy was born. French gastronome, a friend of Grimod de la Reyniere, who stated that Cussy had invented 366 different ways to prepare chicken. Cussy wrote 'Les Classiques de la table'.

1766 Sir John Leslie was born. A Scottish physicist and mathematician, he was the first to freeze water artificially (create ice artificially). He used an air pump apparatus.

1768 Francois Auguste Rene Vicomte de Chateaubriand was born. His chef, Montmireil, created the famous recipe consisting of a center cut from the beef tenderloin, grilled and served with bearnaise sauce and chateau potatoes. He named the dish Chateaubriand.

1770 Marie-Anne de Cupis de Camargo Died. Born in Belgium, this ballerina danced with the Paris Opera. Escoffier named many gourmet dishes in her honor.

1771 James Baker (Baker's Chocolate) bought what is believed to be his first order of cocoa beans.

1773 The Boston Tea Party. A group of men dressed as Indians, boarded ships at Griffin's wharf and dumped hundreds of tea chests into Boston harbor. The American Revolution began.

1774 Residents of Chestertown, Maryland react to news of the Boston Tea Party by staging a similar protest, dumping a shipment of tea into the Chester River.

1775 Pecan Day. George Washington planted pecan trees (some of which still survive) at Mount Vernon.

1776 The Great Fire of 1776 in New York City.

1777 Barbe-Nicole Clicquot was born (died July 29, 1866). The Grand Dame of Champagne.

1777 Philip Lenzi, a London confectioner, ran the first advertisement for Ice Cream in the U.S. in the New York Gazette.

1777 Wheat was first planted in the U.S. as a hobby crop.

1778 Captain Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands. He named them the Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich, who was then first Lord of the Admiralty.

1779 Clement Clarke Moore was born. Author of classic poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (now popularly known as "The Night Before Christmas").

1780 Thomas Jefferson's ice cream

1790AC – 1850AC

1792 English Art of Cookery, Richard Briggs

1796 Charlotte & Charlotte Russe

1800 Chicken Marengo was supposedly created by Napoleon's Swiss chef to commemorate the occasion of Napoleon's victory over the Austrians in the Battle of Marengo on this day.

1800 Jean Avice was an excellent pastry cook of the early 19th century. He was patissier with the famous M.Bailly in Paris, and was also appointed chef to Talleyrand.

1800 The U.S. population is 5,308,483.

1801 Gail Borden born. Inventor of process for making condensed milk, and founder of New York Condensed Milk Co. (later renamed Borden Co).

1801 John Cadbury was born. Founder of Cadbury Chocolate Company.

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.

1804 A formal ceremony was held in St. Louis transferring ownership of the territory included in the Louisiana Purchase Treaty (April 30, 1803) from France to the U.S.

1804 The Lewis and Clark Expedition departed Camp Dubois (Camp Wood) Illinois, beginning their voyage to the Pacific Coast.

1805 Charles Elme Francatelli was born (died 1876). Italian chef - cheif cook to Queen Victoria. Author of 'The Modern Cook' (1845), ‘A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes' (1852).

1805 Jesse Chisholm was born (died March 4, 1868). A frontier trader, Chisholm blazed one of the West’s most famous cattle trails (The Chisholm Trail) between Texas and Kansas.

1805 The Battle of Trafalgar. Admiral Horatio Nelson's defeat of the combined French and Spanish Navies established Britain as the dominant world naval power for a century.

1805 The Lewis and Clark Expedition sighted the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

1806 Isaac Quintard of Stanfield, Connecticut received a patent for an apple cider mill.

1806 The first definition of the term Cocktail appeared in print, in the Hudson, New York publication ‘The Balance and Columbian Repository’ in reply to a readers question.

1806 The Lewis and Clark expedition began the journey back to St. Louis from their winter encampment near the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

1807 A New System of Domestic Cookery, Mrs. Rundell

1807 London's Pall Mall became the first street to be lighted by gaslight.

1808 Elijah Craig died. A Baptist minister in Kentucky, he is an important figure in the invention of Bourbon Whiskey. He ran a paper mill and started a distillery in 1789.

1808 Lucy Emerson's New England Cookery

1808 Sir Henry Cole was born (died 1882). British civil servant and inventor. He is credited with creating the idea of sending greeting cards at Christmas time in 1843.

1809 Kit Carson, American frontiersman, was born. When he died May 23, 1868, his last words were supposedly "Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili."

1810 Peter Durand was granted the first patent for preserving food in tin cans, English patent No. 3372.

1810 Sir John Leslie, a Scottish physicist and mathematician, was the first to freeze water artificially (create ice artificially). He used an air pump apparatus

1810 The first Oktoberfest is celebrated in Munich.

1810 The population of the U.S. is 7,239,881.

1810 There are 350 gristmills in the U.S. according to the 1810 census.

1812 Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa was born. Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa imported 1,400 varieties of grapevines to California in 1862 and planted the first large vineyard in California in the Sonoma Valley.

1812 Charles Dickens was born. In many of his 15 novels and hundreds of short stories, there are vivid descriptions of food and meals.

1812 Louisiana was admitted as the 18th state in the U.S.

1813 Lorenzo Delmonico, famed restaurateur, was born at Marengo, Switzerland. In 1851 he joined his uncles in their catering and pastry shop in New York, Delmonico’s.

1814 Antoine-Joseph (Adolphe) Sax was born. A musical instrument maker, he invented the saxophone.

1814 Benjamin Thompson, Count von Rumford died. American physician who invented the percolator, a pressure cooker and a kitchen stove. He is frequently credited with creating baked Alaska.

1814 Henri Nestle was born. He invented an infant formula, farine lactee, a substitute breast milk for infants unable to breast feed. He sold the company in 1875.

1814 Joseph Bramah died. An English engineer, among his many inventions was a beer engine, used to deliver beer from keg to glass without artificial carbonation being added.

1814 The British attack Washington and burn government buildings, including the National Library and the Capitol building.

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.

1815 The world's first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.

1816 The first cranberry crop was harvested in Massachusetts.

1817 Antoine Beauvilliers Died. French chef who founded the first luxury restaurant, La Grande Taverne de Londres.

1817 Hippolyte Mege Mouries was born (died May 31, 1880). A French scientist, he invented margarine (French patent No. 86489) and also received patents for canned meat, sugar extraction and others.

1817 Joseph A. Campbell was born (died 1900). A fruit merchant, in 1869 he partnered with icebox maker Abraham Anderson to form a canning company that would become Campbell Soup Company.

1817 Mississippi became the 20th state.

1817 Pierre Athanase Larousse was born (died 1875). French educator and publisher. Published the encyclopedia of gastronomy, 'Larousse Gastronomique' edited by Prosper Montagne.

1817 Remoulade

1817 The first coffee was planted in Hawaii on the Kona coast.

1817 The New York Stock Exchange was founded.

1818 Franz Gruber composed the music for Silent Night to words written by Josef Mohr. It was sung for the first time at midnight mass in St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf, Austria.

1818 George Palmer was born. Palmer, of Huntley and Palmer biscuit manufacturers, who introduced the first biscuit tins.

1818 Thomas Adams was born. He manufactured the first commercially successful chewing gum, 'Black Jack.'

1819 American steamship SS Savannah sailed from Savannah, Georgia for Liverpool, England. The first steamship to cross the Atlantic. It arrived at Liverpool on June 20, 1819.

1819 Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

1819 The periodical, 'American Farmer' was founded by John Skinner.

1820 Abram Lyle was born. Scottish shipbuilder and sugar refiner. Noted for the pale treacle, 'Lyle's Golded Syrup' (treacle is made from the syrup that remains after sugar is refined).

1820 Daniel Boone died. American pioneer and frontiersman.

1820 Jean Etienne Bore, died. Inventor of sugar granulating process (1794 or 1795), founder of sugar industry in Louisiana.

1820 Maine became the 23rd state in the U.S.

1820 The population of the U.S. is now 9,683,453.

1822 Louis Pasteur was born. A French scientist, he showed that microorganisms were responsible for disease, food spoilage and fermentation.

1823 A Frenchman, Count Odette Phillipe, planted the first grapefruit trees in Florida around Tampa Bay. Today, Florida produces more grapefruit than the rest of the world combined.

1824 'The Virginia House-wife' cookbook by Mary Randolph was published.

1824 chicken-fried steak, oyster ice cream & gazpacho in America

1824 The city of Ciudad Bolivar in Venezuela, was founded in 1764, and was commonly known as Angostura. In 1824 a local doctor first formulated Angostura Bitters.

1825 Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City were granted the first U.S. patent for food storage in tin cans. They had been canning seafood since developing the process in 1819.

1825 La Physiologie du gout (The Physiology of Taste) published by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin.

1826 Cook and Housewife's Manual, Margaret Dods (Scotland)

1826 'Eggnog Riot' at West Point military academy. In the aftermath 6 cadets resigned, 19 were court marshaled, and many, including a young Jefferson Davis.

1827 lemon drops & carrot ale

1827 The first Mardi Gras celebration was held in New Orleans.

1828 Duck a l'Orange

1828 Dutch process cocoa (cocoa powder) is developed by C.J. Van Houten of the Netherlands.

1828 Sauce Allemande & Cabinet pudding

1828 The word 'cupcake' is first found in 'Receipts' by E. Leslie.

1829 Sylvester Graham invented the Graham cracker.

1830 Henderson William Brand starts his own business and begins manufacturing A1 Steak Sauce. He created it for England's King George IV, who had proclaimed it 'A1'

1830 The population of the U.S. is now 12,866,020. The frontier boundary is the Mississippi River.

1831 John Styth Pemberton was born. Pemberton was the pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola in 1885.

1832 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born. Dodgson's pen name was Lewis Carroll. He was an English mathematician and creator of ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’.

1832 Philip Danforth Armour was born. American industrialist and innovator; pioneer in use of refrigeration and meat canning. Armour & Co. helped make Chicago the meatpacking capital of the world.

1832 Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes and Sweetmeats, Eliza Leslie

1832 The Cook's Own Book, N.K.M. Lee

1833 After a 4 month voyage, the first shipment of imported ice arrived in Calcutta, India from Boston, Massachusetts in the insulated hold of the Clipper Tuscany.

1833 Gottlieb Sigismund Kirchhof died. Discovered glucose; developed a method for refining vegetable oil; experimented with brewing and fermentation.

1833 Jacob Ebert and George Dulty patented the first soda fountain.

1833 Marie-Antoine Careme died in Paris. Carême was known as "the cook of kings and the king of cooks".

1834 David Douglas died (born 1799). A Scottish botanist, he collected plants in Scotland, North America and Hawaii. The Douglas Fir is named for him.

1835 Cesar Ritz was born in Niederwald, Switzerland. Famous hotelier whose name became synonymous with luxury.

1835 Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) was born. American author, pen name Mark Twain, who wrote Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, etc.

1835 The first successful sugar plantation in the Hawaiian islands was established by Ladd & Co. of Hololulu when the company leased the land from King Kamehameha III for 50 years at an annual rent of $300.

1835 Victor Hensen was born. Oceanographer who coined the name 'plankton' for the tiny organisms in found water. Practically all animal life in the sea is ultimately dependent on plankton.

1837 Chicago was incorporated as a city (population 4,200).

1837 John Lea and William Perrins of Worcester, England started manufacturing Worcester Sauce (Worcestershire).

1837 Joseph McCoy was born (died 1915). American cattleman, he promoted Abilene, Kansas as a terminus for Texas cattle drives

1838 Cleveland Abbe was born. Abbe was an astronomer and meteorologist, and is considered the "father of the U.S. Weather Bureau."

1838 The Great Pastry War began. A brief conflict began between Mexico and France caused by a French pastry cook who claimed that some Mexican Army soldiers had damaged his restaurant.

1838 The Virginia Housewife, Mary Randolph

1839 cobbler

1839 George Cadbury was born. He took over his father's chocolate business and built it into a major chocolate manufacturer.

1839 Gustavus Franklin Swift was born. Founder of the meat-packing business Swift & Co., the inventor of the refrigerated railway car, and the first to ship 'dressed' beef to eastern markets instead of live animals.

1839 or 1842 Adolphus Busch was born in either 1839 or 1842 near Mainz, Germany. He founded Annheuser Busch in 1866 with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. Annheuser Busch is the world's largest brewer.

1839 The Good Housekeeper, Sarah Josepha Hale

1839 The Great Pastry War ended. See 1838.

1840 Cuisiniere Canadienne, L. Perrault, Montreal

1840 Directions for Cookery, Eliza Leslie

1840 Emile Zola was born. French writer and critic who was also known as a gourmand. His detailed descriptions of simple meals, banquets and eating in his novels are among the best to be found anywhere.

1841 Englishman Orlando Jones patented cornstarch.

1841 In Minnesota, the village of Pig's Eye was renamed St. Paul.

1841 Joseph Christoffel Hoagland was born. Co-founder of Royal Baking Powder Company in 1866 with his brother Cornelius Hoagland.

1842 Carl Paul Gottfried Linde was born. A German engineer who invented mechanical refrigeration. He developed it so beer could be brewed year round. (Brewing requires low temperatures.)

1842 Emil Chrstian Hansen was born. He was a Danish botanist who developed new methods to culture yeast. He revolutionized the beer industry, and proved that there are different species of yeast.

1842 Sir James Dewar was born. He invented the 'Dewar Flask,' the original 'thermos bottle'.

1842 The Webster-Ashburton Treaty was signed, ending the bloodless 'Pork and Beans War'

1843 Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' was published. It contains numerous and elaborate descriptions of Christmas food and dinners.

1843 Nancy M. Johnson of Philadelphia received the first U.S. patent (No. 3,254, antedated to July 29, 1843) for a hand cranked ice cream freezer.

1843 Stephen Moulton Babcock was born. He developed a test to measure the fat content of milk, which which helped improve the quality of commercial dairy production

1844 Aaron Montgomery Ward was born (died 1913). Founder of Montgomery Ward & Co. to sell general merchandise by mail order.

1844 Henry John Heinz was born. Founder of the H.J. Heinz company and creator of its slogan '57 varieties.'

1844 Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln was born. She was the author of the original Boston Cooking School Cook Book, before Fanny Farmer took it over.

1845 Henry Jones, a baker in Bristol, England received a patent for 'self-raising flour' - flour pre-mixed with baking powder and salt. He also received a U.S. patent on May 1, 1849.

1846 (Georges-) Auguste Escoffier was born. Escoffier was called "the emperor of chefs" by Emperor William II of Germany, and is widely know as 'the king of chefs and the chef of kings.'

1846 Carry Amelia Nation was born. Well known temperance movement activist, she was famous for destroying saloons with a hatchet.

1846 William ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody was born (died 1917) American frontiersman, buffalo hunter and Indian scout.

1848 Auguste-Henri Forel was born. The next time you are on a picnic and become overtaken by ants, think of Forel. 'The Social World of the Ants.'

1848 The first commercial chewing gum is introduced, State of Maine Spruce Gum

1848 The first pure food laws were enacted in the U.S.

1850 According to the 'Census of Manufacturers of 1850' there are 2,027 bakeries in the United States.

1850 Jasper Newton 'Jack' Daniel was born (died 1911). Founder of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery.

1850 Sir Thomas Johnston Lipton, grocer and tea merchant, was born.

1850 The city of San Francisco was incorporated.

1850 The U.S. population is 23,191,876. Farm population is about 11,680,000 and farmers are about 64% of the labor force.

1850 There are about 1,449,000 farms in the U.S., averaging 203 acres.

1850 There were an estimated 20 million head of buffalo sharing the western plains with 50 million open range longhorn cattle.

1850 William Prout died. An English chemist, he was the first to classify food components into 3 main divisions - carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

1850AC – 1899AC

1851 Charles E. Hires was born. Manufacturer and inventor of Hires Root Beer.

1851 Great Western Cook Book, Anna Collins

1851 Jacob Fussell, Baltimore dairyman, opens the first commercial ice-cream factory.

1851 Sylvester Graham died in Northampton, Massachusetts. He advocated vegetarianism, temperance and the use of coarse ground whole wheat flour. He developed the Graham cracker in 1829.

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.

1852 John Harvey Kellogg was born. A surgeon, vegetarian and health food pioneer, he developed the first breakfast cereals for his patients.

1853 Gail Borden applied for a patent for condensed milk.

1853 Native American Chef George Crum invented potato chips at Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Springs, New York.

1854 C. W. Post (Charles William) was born. He founded the Postum Cereal Co. in 1895 to manufacture Postum cereal beverage; 1897 Grape Nuts, 1904 Post Toasties (originally called Elijah's Mana).

1854 The territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.

1856 Gail Borden was granted a patent for a process to make condensed milk, which he developed in 1853.

1856 The first Vegetarian Community was established in Kansas.

1857 Country Captain Chicken & iced coffee

1857 Eliza Acton's English Bread Book

1857 Milton Snaveley Hershey of chocolate fame was born.

1857 Rose Markwood Knox was born on November 18. Rose and her husband Charles Knox developed the world's first pre-granulated gelatine.

1858 John L. Mason of New York was issued U.S. patent No. 22,186 for a Glass Jar (known as the Mason Jar) "Improvement in Screw-Neck Bottles"

1859 Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful commercial oil well in the U.S. near Titusville, Pennsylvania.

1859 The Curiosities of Food/Simmonds (extreme cuisine)

1860 Cakes & plum puddings, Godey's Lady's Book

1860 George A. Hormel was born on Dec 4 (died June 5, 1946). Founder of meat packing company, George A. Hormel & Co. (Hormel Foods) in Austin, Minnesota in 1891.

1860 The population of the U.S. is now 31,443,321. Farmers are 58% of the labor force. There are about 2,044,000 farms, averaging about 199 acres.

1860 Will Kieth Kellogg was born. Founded Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Co. (W.K. Kellogg Company) to manufacture cereals (cornflakes were the first) developed by his brother John Harvey Kellogg.

1861 Beef Stroganoff & popcorn balls

1861 David Wesson was born. Wesson was an American chemist and in 1900 he developed a method to make pure cotton seed oil palatable, and formed the Southern Oil Company.

1861 Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management

1861 Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins was born. He discovered what we now call 'vitamins,' essential nutrients needed to maintain health.

1861 William Wrigley, Jr. was born. William Wrigley Jr. started out as a traveling salesman at the age of 13, selling soap for his father's company.

1862 Dr. Alexander P. Anderson was born. He developed Puffed Rice in NYC in 1902, which was introduced to the world at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.

1862 First large vineyards planted in California. Agoston Haraszthy de Mokcsa brought 1,400 varieties of grapevines from Europe to California in 1862.

1862 The Cafe du Monde opened in the French Market of New Orleans.

1863 Abraham Lincoln declared that Thanksgiving Day would be an annual event celebrated on the last Thursday in November.

1863 There were 2,004 breweries in the United States producing about 2 million barrels of beer.

1865 A horse meat banquet is held at the Grand Hotel in Paris.

1865 John James McLaughlin was born (died Jan 28, 1914). Canadian chemist and pharmacist, founder of Canada Dry soft drink brand.

1865 John Macadam died (born 1827). Australian (born in Scotland) chemist and politician. The Macadamia nut was named for him.

1865 Nellie Bly was born. In 1889 Bly successfully beat the record of Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg to go 'Around the World in Eighty Days' in 72 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and 14 seconds.

1865 Prosper Montagne was born.Montagne was one of the great French chefs of all time.

1866 Alfred L. Cralle was born (died May 3, 1920). Inventor of an ice cream scoop, his design is still in use today.

1866 Eighteen year old Jack Newton Daniel established his distillery in Tennessee.

1866 J. Osterhoudt of New York City received U.S. patent #58,554 for the first tin can with a key opener.

1866 The metric system was authorized to standardize weights and measures in the U.S.

1866 The National Cookbook, Hannah Peterson

1867 At the Cafe Anglais Chef Adolphe Duglere served the famous 'Dinner of the Three Emperors,' for Tsar Alexander II of Russia

1867 Maximilian Bircher-Benner was born. He was a Swiss doctor who developed the cereal product 'Muesli,' which is similar to Granola.

1867 Sheldon Everitt of Ansonia, Connecticut received a patent for a 'Tea Kettle.'

1867 Sir William Cecil Dampier was born. British scientist, he developed a method to extract lactose (milk sugar) from whey.

1868 James Mayer de Rothschild died (born 1792). European banker and founder of the French branch of the Rothschild family. In 1868 he acquired the famous Chateau Lafite vineyards in Bordeaux, France.

1868 Jesse Chisholm died in Oklahoma (born 1805?). A frontier trader, Chisholm blazed one of the West’s most famous cattle trails (The Chisholm Trail) between Texas and Kansas.

1868 Kit Carson, American frontiersman, died. His last words were supposedly "Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili."

1868 The Dominion Home Cookbook, Toronto

1869 Beer was first sold in bottles by English brewer Francis Manning-Needham.

1869 Hippolyte Mege Mouries patented margarine. Emperor Napoleon III had offered a prize for a suitable substitute for butter, for use by the French Navy.

1869 Joseph Campbell, a fruit merchant, and Abram Anderson , an icebox maker got together to can tomatoes, vegetables, fruit preserves, etc. This was the beginning of the Campbell Soup Company.

1869 The first batch of Tabasco Sauce was shipped from Avery Island, Louisiana.

1869 Wright's book of 3000 practical receipts

1870 'Granny Smith' died (born Maria Ann Sherwood in 1799). Granny Smith discovered the apple named for her growing on a seedling tree on her farm.

1870 Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States.

1870 Edmund McIlhenny patented his improved method for making Pepper Sauce (Tabasco Sauce). U.S. patent No. 107,701.

1870 Jennie June's American Cookbook, Jane Cunningham Croly

1870 The population of the U.S. is now 38,558,371. Farmers are 53% of the labor force. There are about 2,660,000 farms, averaging about 153 acres.

1870 Neapolitan ice cream & Caramel cake

1870 American pot roast & Parker House rolls

1871 Wild Turkey & cheese straws

1871 Groom's cake & marble cake

1871 Luther Burbank developed the Russet Burbank potato.

1871 Marcel Proust was born. Marcel Proust was a French writer. On January 1, 1909, he ate a piece of tea-soaked toast whose taste caused on a series of childhood memories.

1871 Seth Wheeler of Albany, New York was issued a patent for perforated wrapping paper.

1872 Alexandre Dumas' 'Grand dictionnaire de la cuisine' was published.

1872 Henry Tate, an English sugar merchant, patented a method of cutting sugar into small cubes in 1872. He made a fortune.

1872 Jambalaya

1872 Montgomery Ward published the first mail order catalog. It consisted of one page and listed more than 150 items for sale.

1872 The C.A. Pillsbury & Co. flour milling company was founded.

1873 Adolphus Busch developed a method of pasteurizing beer so it could withstand temperature fluctuations, which enabled national distribution.

1873 John T. Dorrance was born (died Sept 21, 1930). An American chemist, he developed a method to make condensed soup, and served as president of Campbell Soup Co. from 1914 to 1930.

1874 Gail Borden died. Borden was the Inventor of a process for making condensed milk, and founder of New York Condensed Milk Co. (later to become the Borden Co).

1874 James Lewis Kraft was born. Founder of Kraft Co. a wholesale cheese distributor and producer. In 1916 he patented pasteurized process cheese, a low cost cheese that would not spoil.

1876 Popovers, ground nut cakes & Lobster Newburg

1877 Ambrosia & vinegar pie

1877 Wilcox's Buckeye Cookery & Kettner's Book of the Table

1877 Irma S. Rombauer was born. Author of 'The Joy of Cooking' - one of the most published cookbooks, she originally had to pay to have the book privately published in 1931.

1877 James Drummond Dole was born (died May 20, 1958). The 'Pineapple King' he founded Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901, renamed Dole Pineapple Co., later Dole Food Co.

1878 Milking machine invented.

1879 Funnel cakes

1879 Nestle produced its first chocolate bar.

1880 Commander's Palace Restaurant opened in New Orleans.

1880 Duncan Hines was born on March 26 (died March 15, 1959). A travelling salesman, he published a list of his favorite restaurants and dishes 'Adventures in Good Eating' in 1935.

1880 Miss Parloa's New Cookbook, Maria Parloa

1880 The population of the U.S. is now 50,189,209. Farmers are 49% of the labor force. There are about 4,009,000 farms, averaging about 134 acres.

1880 The wholesale price of Lobster was 10 cents per pound.

1880 Angel food cake & chocolate pie

1880 Baked Alaska & American meatloaf

1881 Anna Pavlova was born. Birth of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. A famous dessert of Australian or New Zealand origin was named for her. It is a meringue with whipped cream and fruit.

1881 James Harvey Logan of Santa Cruz, California developed the Loganberry, a cross between a red raspberry and a wild blackberry.

1881 The Ice Cream Sundae was invented. Edward Berner of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, supposedly invented the Ice Cream Sundae, when he served a customer ice cream topped chocolate syrup

1881 What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking, Abby Fisher

1882 Modern cream separator invented.

1882 Swiss flour manufacturer Julius Maggi begins commercial production of the first bouillon cubes. He developed them so the poor had a cheap method for making nutritious soup.

1883 At 12:53 p.m. on August 26, the volcanic island of Mount Krakatoa began a series of cataclysmic eruptions that ended with a huge eruption on August 27.

1883 Charles Gulden of New York received U.S. patent # 271,237 for a 'Cap for Mustard Bottles'

1883 Christmas pudding

1883 Oscar F. Mayer & Bros. was established.

1883 Peter Cooper died. He also obtained the first American patent for the manufacture of gelatin. May David Wait named it Jell-O.

1883 The Orient Express made its first run from Paris to Constantinople

1884 Adolphe Duglere died. A pupil of Careme, head chef of the Rothschild family, and head chef of the famous 19th century Paris restaurant, the Cafe Anglais.

1884 Ball Brothers Glass Mfg Co began producing fruit jars.

1884 Casimir Funk was born. Funk was a Polish-American biochemist who came up with the word 'vitamine' later changed to 'vitamin.'

1884 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for a patent for 'flaked cereal' (corn flakes). It was his brother Will Kieth Kellogg who became rich & famous by marketing the new cereal commercially.

1884 John Mayenberg, of St. Louis, Missouri, patented evaporated milk

1884 Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book

1884 Standard time is established in the United States.

1885 Dr Pepper was invented in Waco, Texas.

1886 Coca-Cola was invented by pharmacist John Styth Pemberton at Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta, Georgia.

1886 Pecan pie

1886 Petroleum discovered in Middle East, on Egyptian shore of the Red Sea.

1886 The first use of the Del Monte name on a food product: a premium coffee packaged for the Hotel Del Monte Hotel in Monterey, California.

1886 The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World) was officially unveiled and dedicated in New York Harbor.

1886 The Tuxedo was created. Griswold Lorillard of Tuxedo Park, N.Y. fashioned the first tuxedo for men.

1887 Asa Candler (1851-1929) a wholesale drugist, purchased the formula for Coca-Cola for $ 2,300. He sold the company in 1919 for $25 million.

1887 Canning & Preserving, Mrs. Rorer

1887 Cherries jubilee

1887 The patent was registered for Coca-Cola syrup and extract.

1887 White House Cook Book, F.L. Gillette

1888 The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California opened.

1888 The Manischewitz brand was founded in a small bakery built to make Passover matzo in by Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1889 Bundt cake

1889 Don Raffaele Esposito developed the Margherita Pizza, with tomatoes, mozzarella cheese and basil.

1889 The famous cabaret, Moulin Rouge, opened in Paris, France

1889 The U.S. opened Oklahoma to homesteaders and the Oklahoma land rush officially began at 12 noon.

1890 Harland Sanders was born near Henryville, Indiana. Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken fast food restaurant chain.

1890 Nathan Handwerker was born June 14 (died March 24, 1974). Founded 'Nathan's' hot dog emporium at Coney Island, New York in 1916.

1890 Peanut Butter was developed in 1890 by a St. Louis doctor for his patients with bad teeth.

1890 The Oklahoma Territory was organized.

1890 Chicken cacciatora & picnic ham

1891 Abram Lyle died. Noted for the pale treacle, 'Lyle's Golded Syrup' (treacle is made from the syrup that remains after sugar is refined).

1891 Fig Newtons were created by Kennedy Biscuit Works in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts.

1892 Dedication cermonies were held for the World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) on Oct 21.

1892 Joel Cheek creates a special coffee blend for the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee. It becomes known as Maxwell House Coffee.

1892 Lea & Perrins label was trademarked.

1892 Macadamia nuts were first planted in Hawaii.

1892 Science in the Kitchen, Ella Eaton Kellogg

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.

1893 Art of Living in Australia, Philip Muskett

1893 At noon the Cherokee Strip Land Run began. It was Oklahoma's 4th and largest land run, with 100,000 participants competing for 40,000 homesteads on 6 million acres of land.

1893 At the 1893 Chicago Fair, Pabst beer won a blue ribbon, and was called 'Pabst Blue Ribbon" beer from then on.

1893 Cream of Wheat was developed by wheat millers in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

1893 Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown when businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.

1893 Ice cream a la mode & fudge

1893 Juicy fruit chewing gum introduced.

1893 La Cuisine Francaise: French Cooking for Every Home...

1893 R.W. Rueckheim invents Cracker Jack, a popcorn, peanut and molasses confection. It was introduced at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

1893 Raymond Loewy was born. An American design engineer, he designed the Coca Cola bottle, the 1934 Sears Coldspot refrigerator, toothbrushes, etc.

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 The World's Columbian Exposition (Chicago World's Fair) opened in Chicago, Illinois on May 1.

1894 Arthur Treacher, actor, announcer was born. He later founded Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips restaurant franchise.

1894 Eggs Benedict

1894 Hershey's Chocolate Company was founded as a subsidiary of Milton S. Hershey's Lancaster Caramel Company.

1894 Percy Le Baron Spencer was born. Spencer developed the microwave oven in 1945, after he noticed that some chocolate in his pocket had melted after being accidentally exposed to radiation.

1894 The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.

1895 C.W. Post of Battle Creek, Michigan introduced Postum Food Coffee, a coffee substitute made from wheat, bran and molasses.

1895 Cordon Bleu school of cooking was founded in Paris by Marthe Distell to teach cooking to upper class women.

1895 Dr. John Harvey Kellogg patented his method for making peanut butter.

1895 Rudolph Boysen was born. He developed the boysenberry, a raspberry-blackberry hybrid in 1923.

1895 The first shipment of canned pineapple left Hawaii

1896 The Cook Book, Oscar Tschirky (of the Waldorf)

1896 'The Boston Cooking School Cook Book' is published, later known as the 'Fannie Farmer Cook Book.'

1896 A Porterville farmer named Mr. Bearss brought pomegranate cuttings from Florida to California and began propagating them.

1896 Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer

1896 Caesar Cardini was born in Italy. Chef and restaurateur in the U.S. and Mexico, he is credited with creating the Caesar Salad at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico in the 1920s.

1896 Henriette Davidis' Practical Cookbook, 35th German edition (in English)

1896 Leo Hirshfield introduced the Tootsie Roll at his small store in New York City, and named it after his 5 year old daughter, whose nickname was 'Tootsie.'

1896 Opening day of the first modern Olympic games in Athens, Greece. The last Olympics were held more than 1,500 years ago.

1896 Waldorf salad

1897 Alfred L. Cralle of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, patented an "Ice-Cream Mold and Disher" (ice cream scoop). His basic design is still used.

1897 Campbell's Soup invents condensed soup.

1897 Fernand Point was born (died March 5, 1955). His restaurant La Pyramide was considered by many to be the greatest in the world.

1897 Henry J. Heinz registered 'Heinz' trademark.

1897 Jell-O was introduced.

1897 Nantua sauce

1897 Steiger's Deutsch-Amerikaniches Kochbuch (in German)

1897 The J.M. Smucker Company was founded in 1897 when the Company's namesake and founder sold his first product from the back of a horse-drawn wagon.

1898 At his pharmacy in New Bern, North Carolina, Caleb D. Bradham renamed his new soft drink ‘Pepsi-Cola.’ His customers had been calling it ‘Brad's Drink'

1898 Hawaii was formally annexed to the United States

1898 Post Grape Nuts are introduced by C. W. Post of Battle Creek, Michigan.

1899 Carnation began producing evaporated milk (called Carnation Sterlized Cream).

1899 Oysters Rockefeller was created by Jules Alciatore, owner of Antoine's Restaurant.

1900AC – 1925AC

1900 Banbury tarts, The Stonington Cookbook, CT

1900 Campbell's Soup won a gold medal for their condensed soups at the Paris Exposition of 1900.

1900 Chiclets chewing gum, with a hard sugar coating, was introduced.

1900 Dos Equis (XX) Mexican Beer was first brewed in 1900 and was originally named 'Siglo XX' to signify the new millennium.

1900 First International Livestock Exposition in Chicago.

1900 Fred Waring, musician, was born. Frederick Osius worked on improving the electric blender, and went to Waring for financial backing.

1900 Hershey's Milk Chocolate Bar was created.

1900 Hotelier John Willard Marriott was born. Marriott built his business into one of the largest, fastest growing, and most profitable hotel and restaurant businesses in the U.S.

1900 Morristown Cook Book (NJ)

1900 Telephones outnumber bathtubs in the U.S.

1900 The average U.S. farm is 147 acres.

1900 The population of the U.S. is now 76,212,168. Farmers are 38% of the labor force. There are about 5,740,000 farms, averaging about 147 acres.

1900 There were 25,000 pushcarts selling food in New York City.

1900 Work projects for farm youth organized; the name '4-H' adopted in 1913.

1901 A well on Spindletop Hill in Texas struck oil, the largest 'gusher' the world had ever seen. It shot oil 150 feet high at a rate of 100,000 barrels a day.

1901 Eggs in a basket & Clams casino

1901 In Switzerland, Suchard introduces its first milk chocolate brand 'Milka'

1901 Montreal, Canada passes a by-law to make indoor toilets mandatory.

1901 Philip Danforth Armour, died. American industrialist who pioneered the use of refrigeration and meat canning.

1901 Settlement Cook Book, Mrs. Simon Kander

1901 The 'Picayune Creole Cookbook' was published in New Orleans.

1901 United States Steel was incorporated by J.P. Morgan. The first billion dollar corporation.

1901 Urbain Dubois died (born 1818). French chef, author of many cookbooks, but especially 'La cuisine classique' (1856).

1902 Baron Philippe de Rothschild was born. (Wine producer).

1902 Fannie Merrit Farmer opened Miss Farmer's School of Cookery in Boston, Massachusetts.

1902 John L. Mason died (born 1832). Mason patented the metal screw-on lid for glass jars used for canning. (patent No. 22,186, Nov 30, 1858).

1902 Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Sarah Tyson Rorer

1902 National Biscuit Company changed the name of their Animal Biscuits to 'Barnum's Animals'.

1902 The Clementine was developed in Algeria by Father Clement Rodier, a French missionary. It is a hybrid of the tangerine and the Seville orange (bitter orange).

1902 The pastel-colored candy disks called NECCO wafers first appeared, named for the New England Confectionery Company.

1902 USA Devil's food cake

1903 Cranberry bread

1903 Ford Motor Company sold its first car, a Model A.

1903 James Beard, culinary expert and cookbook author was born.

1903 Richard Hellmann, a New York deli owner created his recipe for bottled mayonnaise. He began to market it in 1912.

1903 Ruth Graves Wakefield was born. Inventor of the Toll House Cookie, the first chocolate chip cookie, at the Toll House Inn neart Whitman, Massachusetts in the 1930s.

1903 Satori Kato of Chicago, Illinois (Kato Coffee Co.) was issued the first U.S. patent for instant coffee (U.S. patent No. 735,777).

1903 The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower opened in Mumbai, India's first Luxury hotel.

1903 U.S. Senate Bean Soup & Club sandwiches

1903 Wilbur and Orville Wright make the first successful flight of a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft.

1904 Blue Grass Cook Book, Minnie Fox [Kentucky cookery]

1904 Cooking in Old Creole Days, Celestine Eustis

1904 George J. French introduced French's mustard, the same year the hot dog was introduced to America at the St. Louis World's Fair.

1904 Jehane Benoît was born (died 1987). Opened one of the first vegetarian restaurants in Canada, The Salad Bar, in 1935. Author of 30 books.

1904 Post Toasties were introduced by General Foods (originally called ‘Elijah's Manna.’)

1904 The Ice Cream cone was invented. Charles E. Minches invents the ice cream cone for his customers convenience at the St. Louis World's Fair (The Louisiana Purchase Exhibition).

1904 The tea bag was invented by Thomas Sullivan of New York City. He first used them to send samples to his customers instead of sending it in more expensive tins.

1904 The Trans Siberian Railway was completed, linking European Russia with the Russian Pacific Coast.

1905 Finnish-American Cookbook, Kaleva Michigan (with English translation)

1905 Los Angeles Times Cook Book

1905 G. Lombardi's an Italian restaurant on Spring Street in New York City, served America’s first pizza.

1905 J.J. McLaughlin Limited is incorporated in Toronto, Canada to produce a new beverage, 'Canada Dry Ginger Ale'.

1905 Lady Baltimore & Checkerboard cakes

1905 Popsicles were invented by Frank Epperson in 1905, they were originally called Epsicles!

1905 Thomas Adams Died. He manufactured the first commercially successful chewing gum, 'Black Jack.

1906 'Gulden's Mustard' trademark was registered.

1906 Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company (W.K. Kellogg Company) was founded. Founded by Will Keith Kellogg to manufacture breakfast cereals (cornflakes).

1906 Bel Paese cheese was created. Egidio Galbani created this popular Italian cow's milk cheese.

1906 Benjamin Eisenstadt was born. He invented the artificial sweetener, 'Sweet 'n Low (granulated saccharin and dextrose).

1906 Helen Corbitt was born. American chef and cookbook author. Texas Monthly declared Corbitt to be the 'Tastemaker of the Century.'

1906 One Hundred and One Mexican Dishes, May E. Southworth

1906 Onion rings, Harvard beets & Muffoletta sandwiches

1906 Refugee's Cook Book, (San Francisco earthquake)

1906 San Francisco was hit by a devastating earthquake at 5:12 a.m.

1906 The Hot Fudge Sundae was created at C.C. Browns, an ice cream parlor on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

1906 The New England Confectionery Company (NECCO) registered 'NECCO Sweets' trademark for candy.

1906 The term 'filet mignon' is first used by O. Henry in his book 'The Four Million'

1907 Divinity fudge, sauerkraut candy & aioli

1907 Earl S. Tupper was born. The inventor of Tupperware. (Tupperware makes the containers used to conduct mold and bacterial experiments in the back of refrigerator shelves).

1907 Gastronomy Practique, Ali-Bab (French)

1907 Le Guide Culinaire/Escoffer (English)

1907 Oklahoma became the 46th state.

1907 One of the ad campaigns for Kellogg's Corn Flakes (then the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company) offered a free box of cereal to every woman who would wink at her grocer.

1907 Orville Redenbacher was born. Founder of gourmet popcorn company.

1907 Ringling Brothers circus bought Barnum & Bailey Circus.

1907 Scott Paper Co. introduced the first paper towel.

1907 The Times introduced the New Years Eve Ball on their building at Times Square in New York. Descending to mark the end of the old and the beginning of the New Year ever since.

1908 Nicholas Kurti was born (died 1998). Hungarian born British physicist whose hobby was cooking. He advocated applying scientific knowledge to the kitchen and coined the term 'molecular gastronomy'

1908 Buttercream frosting

1908 Chef Auguste Escoffier made his 2nd visit to the United States. He praised the dish Maryland Chicken, and also liked soft shell crabs.

1908 G. & J. G. Smith registered the 'The Glenlivet' trademark (pure malt scotch whiskey).

1908 Iceland banned the sale of alcoholic beverages.

1908 M.F.K. Fisher (Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher) was born. Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher was an American food critic and writer and the author of various articles, essays and books about food.

1908 New York City makes it illegal for women to smoke in public.

1908 Steak Diane & Lobster fra diavolo

1908 The 'Toblerone' chocolate bar is introduced in Switzerland.

1909 800 tons of snails were consumed by Parisians during the winter months.

1909 Albert R. Broccoli was born (died June 27, 1996). Producer of the James Bond movie series.

1909 Ernest Gallo was born (died 2007). Co-founded E & J Gallo Winery with his brother Julio in 1933. It is the largest winery in the U.S. with about 25% of the U.S. wine market.

1909 Good Housekeeping Woman's Home Cookbook, Isabel Gordon Curtis

1909 Reform Cookery Book, Mrs. Mill

1909 Shrimp cocktail

1909 Tetrazzini & Kaiser pudding

1909 Washington Woman's Cook Book (Seattle)

1910 Practical West African Cookery/Leith-Ross & Ruxton

1910 Charles Fellows' Menu Maker & Horace Kephart's Camp Cookery

1910 George Claude first demonstrated his new invention, the neon light, at the Paris Motor Show.

1910 Heinz Tomato Soup went on sale in the UK for first time, at Fortnum & Mason.

1910 Home Helps: A Pure Food Cook Book

1910 Jacques-Yves Cousteau was born. Ocean explorer, marine biologist. Co-inventor of the aqualung.

1910 John Walker & Sons registered 'Johnnie Walker' trademark in U.S. for a blend of scotch whiskies.

1910 Momofuku Ando was born in Taiwan. Mr. Ando was the founder of Nissin Food Products, and invented 'Instant Ramen' noodles.

1910 Roy J. Plunkett was born. He was the inventor of Teflon (Polytetrafluoroethylene) in 1938. The first nonstick cookware using Teflon was sold in 1960.

1910 The average American ate 5 pounds of cheese per year.

1910 The Earth passed through the tail of Halley's Comet and nothing happened.

1910 The first publication of the Paul Bunyan. A mythical hero of giant proportions. His camp stove had a griddle that was greased by men with sides of bacon strapped to their feet.

1910 Ward Baking Company of Chicago, Illinois opent the first completely automated bread plant in the U.S. Untouched by human hands.

1910 Wild blueberry domesticated.

1910 Jell-O: America's most famous dessert

1911 Automatic rotary bottle filler & capper perfected.

1911 Catering for Special Occasions, Fannie Merritt Farmer

1911 Crisco is introduced by Procter & Gamble. Crisco is a hydrogenated shortening made from vegetable oil, which keeps its solid form even in warm weather.

1911 Good Things to Eat, Rufus Estes

1911 Kitchen Encyclopedia, Swift & Company

1911 Laurel Health Cookery, Elvora Bucknum Perkins (vegetarian)

1911 Nathaniel Wyeth was born. A chemist and inventor, he patented the PET (polyethylene terephthalate). It was the first plastic strong enough to use to bottle carbonated beverages.

1911 The National Coffee Association was founded, one of the oldest trade associations in the U.S.

1911 William A. Mitchell was born. American food chemist. While working for General Foods Corp. he invented Tang, Pop Rocks, Cool Whip, quick-set Jell-O, powdered egg whites, etc.

1912 Dromedary Cook Book

1912 Chicken a la King & Chop Suey cake

1912 First Lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two Cherry Trees from Japan at the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park in Washington D.C. The trees were part of a gift of 3,000 Cherry Trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC. Each year the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. commemorates the 1912 gift.

1912 Golden Rule Cook Book, Sharpe (vegetarian)

1912 Julia Child was born. American cooking authority, cookbook author, TV Cooking show host, etc. During World War II, she also worked for the OSS from 1941-1945 (The OSS is the forerunner of the CIA).

1912 Mary Frances Cook Book, Jane Eayre Fryer

1912 Morton's Table Salt was introduced.

1912 Nabisco debuts the Oreo cookie. A red letter day in the history of cookies.

1912 Richard Hellmann, a New York deli owner created his recipe for bottled mayonnaise in 1903. He began to market it in 1912.

1912 Standard Paper-bag Cookery, Emma Paddock Telford

1912 The 'Googoo Cluster' candy bar was introduced by the Standard Candy Company. Marshmallow, caramel and roasted peanuts covered with milk chocolate.

1912 The British luxury liner Titanic struck an iceberg shortly before midnight. It sank at 2:20 a.m. on April 15.

1912 The California Fruit Growers Exchange registered 'Sunkist' trademark for lemons.

1912 The first Calgary Stampede is held, billed as the The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth, and The Last and Best Great West Frontier Days Celebration.

1912 The Hawaiian Pineapple Company registered 'JDDole' trademark for canned pineapple.

1912 The U.S. prohibited the sale of Absinthe.

1912 Thousand Island dressing & tomato pie

1912 War Time Cooking, Lydia E. Pinkham

1913 Aaron Montgomery Ward died (born Feb 17, 1844). Founder of Montgomery Ward & Co. to sell general merchandise by mail order.

1913 Burt Baskin was born (died 1967). Co-founder, with Irv Robbins, of the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor chain in 1946 in Glendale, California.

1913 Candy manufacturer Clarence Crane registered 'Life Savers' trademark (he invented the mint hard candy in 1912).

1913 Chinese Cook Book, Chong Jan Co. & Japanese Fruitcake

1913 Coq au vin & clover leaf rolls

1913 Italian cream cake & clafoutis

1913 Robert Mondavi was born. A leading Napa Valley vintner.

1913 Stainless steel was cast for the first time in Sheffield, England. Harry Brearly of Thomas Firth & Sons discovered how to make 'the steel that doesn't rust' by accident.

1913 The National Biscuit Co. introduced 'Mallomars', chocolate covered marshmallow cookies.

1914 Aaron 'Bunny' Lapin Born. Lapin was the inventor of whipped cream in an aerosol can (Reddi-Wip) in 1947. It was first sold by milkmen in St. Louis in 1948.

1914 Baron Marcel Bich Born. French inventor of the Bic Pen in 1949.

1914 Chicken fried steak

1914 Chinese-Japanese Cook Book, Sara Bosse

1914 Fettuccine Alfredo

1914 George Eastman introduced color photography process.

1914 Justin Wilson, Cajun chef and humorist was born.

1914 Morton Salt Co. registered "When It Rains It Pours" trademark.

1914 Neighborhood Cook Book, Council of Jewish Women

1914 Stephen F. Whitman registered a trademark for 'Whitman's Sampler Chocolates & Confections.'

1914 The Panama Canal opened when a ship sailed from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean on August 15.

1915 Absinthe is outlawed in France and several other countries.

1915 Corn Products Refining Co. registered 'ARGO' trademark (corn starch).

1915 Hush puppies & peanut butter cookies

1915 Pan-Pacific Cookbook, Exposition fare

1915 Rosenella Cruciani 'Rose' Totino was born. The queen of frozen pizza. Co-founder with her husband Jim Totino, of Totino's Pizzeria and Totino's Finer Foods.

1915 The familiar round Quaker Oats package is introduced.

1915 Vincent Sardi Jr. was born (2007). Owner, Sardi's Restaurant, New York, N.Y.

1916 Coca-Cola started using their new contoured bottle to stay ahead of the competition.

1916 Edna Lewis was born, southern chef and author of 'The Taste of Southern Cooking' (1976).

1916 Electric refrigerators were first offered for sale, for $900.

1916 Field bread, Manual for Army Bakers

1916 Kraft & Bros. Co. received patent for "Process of Sterilizing Cheese and an Improved Product Produced by Such Process" - process cheese.

1916 Nathan Handwerker opened Nathan's in Coney Island, where he sold hot dogs for a nickel.

1916 Prohibition begins in Virginia.

1916 Roald Dahl was born. British author, one of his most popular books was 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,' the film version was titled 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.'

1916 The Cafe Voltaire opened in Zurich, Switzerland. It became a meeting place for members of the Dada movement in art and literature.

1916 The New York Times reports that John D. Rockefeller's is the world's first billionaire.

1916 William Rosenberg founder of Dunkin' Donuts was born (died 2002).

1917 Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden

1917 55 Ways to Save Eggs & Best War Time Recipes

1917 Icebox Cake & Black cow

1917 Joyce chen was born. Chinese American Chef, restaurateur, author. She is credited with popularizing northern-style Chinese cuisine in the U.S.

1917 The French government regulated the price of Gruyere cheese as a war rationing method.

1917 U.S. grade standards for potatoes issued, representing the first official grade standard for a fruit or vegetable issued by USDA.

1917 Vichyssoise & American cocktail parties

1918 Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book

1918 Ray McIntire was born. A chemical engineer who worked for Dow Chemical Company, he invented Styrofoam.

1918 Samuel Moore 'Sam' Walton was born (died 1992). Founder of Wal-Mart stores.

1918 World War I recipes from the Doughboy Cookbook

1919 Chocolate truffles

1919 Henry John Heinz died. Founder of the H.J. Heinz company and creator of its slogan '57 varieties.'

1919 International Jewish Cook Book, Florence Kreisler Greenbaum

1919 Italian Cook Book, Maria Gentile

1919 Restaurateur Milton Parker was born. Owner of the famous Carnegie Deli in New York from 1976 until his retirement in 2002.

1919 The California Fruit Growers Exchange began burning 'Sunkist' on their oranges. The first trademarked fresh fruit.

1919 The first airline meals are served by Handley Page Transport Oct 11. Passengers are offered a pre-packed lunch-box, costing 3 shillings, on their London to Paris service.

1919 The Great Molasses Flood. On January 15, 1919, a large 50 foot high storage tank in Boston burst and sent a tidal wave of over 2 million gallons of molasses traveling at over 30 miles per hour.

1919 The Hotel St. Francis Cookbook, Victor Hirtzler

1919 The National Restaurant Association was founded.

1919 William B. Ward registered 'Hostess' trademark (for breads, biscuits and cakes).

1920 Aluminum pot salesman Irwin W. Cox, inventor of pre-soaped steel-wool pad to clean pots, registered "SOS" trademark (it stands for 'Save Our Saucepans').

1920 Craig Claiborne, food writer and critic, was born.

1920 Fleischmann's recipes

1920 Fortune cookies were supposedly invented in Los Angeles.

1920 Gevalia coffee is introduced in Sweden.

1920 Harry Burt created the Good Humor Bar, Chocolate coated ice cream on a stick.

1920 Prohibition began in the U.S., which banned the sale of all alcoholic beverages.

1920 School and Home Cooking, Carlotta C. Greer

1920 The 50-50 Club opened, supposedly the first 'speakeasy.'

1920s Caesar Salad was created by Caesar Cardini in Tijuana.

1920 Egg creams & French 75 cocktail

1921 The 'I-Scream-Bar' is renamed 'Eskimo Pie' and within a year are selling one million bars a day.

1921 U.S. table-salt makers introduce iodized salt.

1921 White Castle hamburger chain was founded in Wichita, Kansas by Walter A. Anderson and E. W. Ingram.

1922 Aunt Caroline's Dixieland Recipes, Emma & William McKinney

1922 Blake Edwards, American film director and producer. Among his films are 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' 'Days of Wine and Roses,' and 'The Tamarind Seed.'

1922 Donald McLean was born. He was a Scottish potato expert who supposedly had the world's largest private collection of potatoes, with 367 varieties.

1923 Candy maker Frank C. Mars of Minnesota introduced the Milky Way candy bar in 1923.

1923 Commercial hybrid seed corn developed.

1923 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are introduced by former Pennsylvania farmer H.B. Reese.

1923 The boysenberry, a raspberry-blackberry hybrid, was developed by Rudolph Boysen.

1923 The Butterfinger candy bar was invented.

1923 Velveeta Cheese Co. registered 'Velveeta' trademark.

1924 Henry Mancini was born. Oscar winning music composer, he wrote many songs and film scores, including the score for 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'

1924 The first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was originally called a Christmas Parade.

1925 Roquefort cheese became the first cheese to receive the "Appellation d'Origine Controlee" (AOC)

1926AC – 1950AC

1926 Paul Bocuse was born at Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or, France (died Jan 20, 2018). Legendary French Chef, known as one of the founders of 'nouvelle cuisine'.

1927 Dr.Edward Anton Asselbergs was born. He developed the process for making instant mashed potato flakes, still used today.

1928 Andy Warhol was born. American painter of the pop art movement. In the 1960s he made paintings of Campbell's Soup cans, Coca-Cola cans and other American products.

1928 Sliced bread was born. Otto Frederick Rohwedder spent many years working on a bread slicing machine beginning in 1912.

1928 Walter E. Diemer died. While working for the Fleer Chewing Gum Company, he experimented with recipes for chewing gum as a hobby. He invented bubble gum in 1928.

1929 'Black Thursday' - the first day of the panic driven stock market crash that precipitated the Great Depression.

1929 7-Up was originally called Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda when it was invented in 1929.

1929 Audrey Hepburn was born (died 1993). Actress and humanitarian. One of her many films was 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' (1961). In her latter years she served as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

1929 Growing plants in water, hydroponics, invented.

1929 Harland Sanders (Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame) opened his first restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky in the front room of a small gas station.

1929 The famous Paris restaurant, La Tour d'Argent served its 100,000th signature dish, 'Caneton Tour D'Agent' (pressed duck).

1929 The Ruby Red grapefruit was a chance mutation discovered at a farm in McAllen, Texas.

1930 'Twinkies' go on sale for the first time. They originally had a banana creme filling and were sold two for a nickel.

1930 At the St. Louis International Air Exposition, a Guernsey cow named 'Elm Farm Ollie' became the first cow to fly in an airplane, and the first cow to be milked while flying.

1930 Candy maker Frank C. Mars of Minnesota introduced the Snickers bar in 1930

1930 Clarence Birdseye received a patent for a method to preparing food products by quick freezing them.

1930 Gualtiero Marchesi was born. An award winning Italian chef, he has had the most influence on the evolution and popularity of modern Italian cuisine.

1930 India: Mahatma Gandhi began a 240 mile, 24 day march to the coastal village of Dandi to produce salt without paying the salt tax, in protest of the British salt monopoly.

1930 Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail was introduced.

1930 Plant Patent Act enabled the patenting of new plant varieties, excluding sexual and tuber-propagated plants.

1930 The ‘Dagwood’ sandwich was created by Dagwood Bumstead or the comic strip Blondie by Murat Bernard ‘Chic’ young.

1930 The first Publix grocery store was opened in Winter Haven, Florida by George W. Jenkins.

1930 U.S. astronaut John Young was born. He smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard the first Gemini spacecraft flight in 1965.

1931 Auguste-Henri Forel was born. The next time you are on a picnic and become overtaken by ants, think of Forel. If you would like to know about ants, find a copy of his 5 volume 'The Social World of the Ants.'

1931 Empire State Building opens. It was built on the site of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

1931 General Mills introduced Bisquick

1931 Harry MacElhone of Harry's Bar in Paris created the Sidecar cocktail.

1933 'Cutty Sark' trademark was registered (for whiskey and other distilled liquors).

1933 Kraft Miracle Whip Salad Dressing is introduced by National Dairy Products.

1933 Michel Guerard was born. French master chef, inventor of cuisine minceur (slimming cuisine) and one of the founders of nouvelle cuisine.

1933 The first automatic soda fountain dispenser is introduced by Coca-Cola.

1933 The first great dust storm occurred on the Great Plains. The 'Black Blizzard' buried roads and vehicles from Texas to Canada under drifts as deep as 6 feet.

1934 Graham Kerr was born. British chef, cookbook author and televison cooking host. Best known for the cooking show 'The Galloping Gourmet'.

1934 Ritz Crackers were introduced by the National Biscuit Company (now Nabisco).

1934 The Dust Bowl. One of the worst dust storms ever to hit the Great Plains occurred. It lasted 2 days and the area lost massive amounts of top soil.

1934 Worst drought in U.S. history took place in the Great Plains and covered over 75 percent of the country.

1935 (Georges-) Auguste Escoffier died. "the king of chefs and the chef of kings."

1935 Ernest Brundin and Frank Lyon set up the first commercial scale hydroponic plant culture system. A patent was issued to them on December 1, 1936.

1935 Jacques Pépin was born. Well known award winning French Chef, prolific cookbook author and host of numerous TV cooking shows.

1935 The world's first parking meters are installed in the business district of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1936 Chef's salad, Chinese Chicken salad & no-bake cookies

1936 Burke's Complete Cocktails & Drinking Recipes

1936 Cunard line’s ‘Queen Mary’ set sail on her maiden voyage.

1936 Fredy Girardet was born. Swiss chef, he is considered one of the greatest chefs in the world, and his restaurant in Crissier, Switzerland one of the best in the world.

1936 The 5th Avenue candy bar was introduced.

1936 The Cobb salad was invented by Robert Cobb at his Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood, California.

1937 Alain Chapel was born (died 1990). French Master Chef and restaurateur. His restaurant, Alain Chapel, was awarded its 3rd Michelin star in 1973 and maintained it throughout his life.

1937 Candy maker Frank C. Mars introduced the Three Musketeers bar in 1937. The original 3 Musketeers bar contained 3 bars in one wrapper. Each with different flavor nougat.

1937 Charles E. Hires died on July 31. Manufacturer and creator of Hires Root Beer.

1937 Good n' Plenty candies were introduced.

1937 Green goddess dressing

1937 Kraft Macaroni & Cheese was introduced. Make a meal in 9 minutes or less for 19 cents or less.

1937 Spam was developed by George A. Hormel & Co. and first marketed in 1937.

1937 The first Krispy Kreme doughnut is sold in Salem, North Carolina.

1938 Achille Gaggia applied for a patent on the first modern expresso maker. The machine forced boiling water through the coffee grounds at high pressure.

1938 Lawry's Seasoned salt was created by Lawrence L. Frank for use in his new restaurant, Lawry's The Prime Rib in Los Angeles.

1938 Prosper Montagne's 'Larousse Gastronomique'was published.

1938 The first Superman comic book is published.

1939 Jeff Smith was born (died 2004). TV's 'Frugal Gourmet' and cookbook author.

1939 The seedless watermelon was developed.

1939 U.S. agricultural exports were about $765 million a year during the 1930s (32% of total exports).

1940 James Beard's first cookbook was published, 'Hors d'Oeuvres and Canapes: With a Key to the Cocktail Party'

1940 M&M's candy invented.

1940 Paul Prudhomme was born. Louisiana born chef and restaurateur. He owned his first restaurant at the age of 17.

1940 The caves at Lascaux in France are discovered. They contain some of the earliest know art, dating back over 15,000 years.

1940 The population of the U.S. is now 132,164,569. Farmers are 18% of the labor force. There are about 6,102,000 farms, averaging about 175 acres.

1940 There are fewer than 4,000 television sets in the U.S.

1941 Martha Stewart was born. Entertaining advisor, cookbook author, etc.

1941 Maytag Dairy Farms began producing its world famous Maytag Blue Cheese after Fred Maytag II heard about the process for making Blue Cheese developed by Iowa State Univ.

1941 Rice Krispies treats & Monte Cristo sandwiches

1941 Roy J. Plunkett received a U.S. patent for Teflon. He had discovered it by accident in 1938.

1941 The first issue of Gourmet magazine was published. (The last issue will be published in November, 2009)

1941 The original Elsie the Cow died.

1942 Corn dogs are invented by Neil Fletcher for the Texas State Fair.

1942 MFK Fisher's Tomato & War cakes

1943 'Chef Tell' (Friedman Paul Erhardt) was born (died 2007). A European trained chef, one of the earliest celebrity TV chefs.

1943 Irving Berlin won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for 'White Christmas' written for the film 'Holiday Inn'

1943 Palatable dehydrated eggs developed.

1943 Research to create fruit essences began; led to development of concentrated frozen apple and grape juices.

1944 Alice Waters was born. Executive Chef and Owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant, opened in 1971 in Berkeley, California.

1944 Synthetic quinine was made for the first time at Harvard University.

1944 Tortilla soup

1945 Japan organized school children to gather more than 1 million tons of acorns to make into flour due to dwindling stocks of rice and wheat.

1945 Monkey bread & rum balls

1945 P. L. Spencer applied for a patent for a microwave oven. (issued January 24, 1950)

1945 Wartime rationing ended in the U.S.

1945 World Food Day. The founding day of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization

1946 Brennan's Restaurant opens on Royal Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

1946 French's Instant Potato (mashed potatoes) was introduced.

1946 James Beard hosted the first regular televised cooking show in the U.S., 'I Love To Eat'

1946 The cocktail 'Moscow Mule' was created (Smirnoff vodka and ginger beer in a copper mug).

1946 The Culinary Institute of America was founded in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1972 it relocated to Hyde Park, New York.

1947 An identified or unidentified object crashes near Roswell, New Mexico.

1947 Chiffon cake

1947 Lidia Bastianich was born. American chef, restaurateur, author and award winning TV cooking show host (Lidia's Italy, Lidia's Family Table, etc.).

1947 President Harry Truman became the first U.S. president to address the nation on television. He called on farmers and distillers to cut grain consumption to help Europeans who were still recovering from WW II and suffering from famine. Truman asked the public to not eat meat on Tuesdays and forego eggs and poultry on Thursdays.

1947 The first aluminum foil, Reynolds Metals 'Reynolds Wrap' goes on sale.

1948 Time-temperature tolerance project began; ultimately developed nine principles for freezing vegetables that remain the industry standard.

1948 Ultra-high temperature pasteurization is introduced.

1948 Yutaka Ishinabe was born in Yokohama, Japan. First French chef on the Japanese cooking program ‘Iron Chef.’ Founded restaurant chain, Queen Alice.

1949 Earl Olson of Minnesota founded Jennie-O, which would become the world's largest turkey processor.

1949 Pillsbury Bake Off

1949 Wacky cake

1950 Minute Rice is introduced with the first consumer advertising ever put behind rice.

1950 Pierre Gagnaire was born. French chef, cookbook author and restaurateur. Considered one of the founders of both fusion cuisine and molecular cuisine.

1950 Pillsbury and General Mills introduce prepared cake mixes.

1950 Silly Putty was introduced to the world at the International Toy Fair in New York.

1950 Xanthan gum developed; an edible food gum fermented from glucose by a microorganism.

1951AC – 1975AC

1951 Bananas Foster

1951 Jim and Rose Totino open an Italian restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pillsbury acquired the 'Totino's' name in 1975

1951 Swanson introduces beef, chicken, turkey pot pies.

1952 Chex mix

1952 Clarence Birdseye introduces the first frozen peas.

1952 Howard Johnson's becomes the world’s largest food chain when it opens its 351st restaurant.

1952 Lipton's dry Onion Soup Mix is introduced.

1952 Mrs. Paul's introduces frozen fish sticks.

1952 The first sugar free no calorie soft drinks are introduced.

1953 Kraft Cheez Whiz is introduced. Originally created as an easy way to make Welsh rarebit, this stable cheese sauce comes in a jar with Worcestershire sauce, mustard flour and orange coloring added.

1953 Simplot introduced frozen french-fried potatoes on a commercial basis.

1953 The French Sardine Co. (since 1917) becomes Star-Kist Foods. Charlie the Tuna comes on board in 1961.

1953 White Rose Redi-tea is the world's first instant iced tea.

1954 Burger King was founded by James McLamore and David Edgerton.

1954 California onion dip & Nanaimo bars

1954 M&M's Peanut Chocolate Candies were introduced. 'The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand,' slogan is introduced.

1954 The first Wimpy's hamburger bar opened in London.

1954 TV dinners are introduced. C.A. Swanson & Sons introduced the first TV dinner: roast turkey with stuffing and gravy, sweet potatoes and peas.

1955 Campbell home economists develop the recipe for the Green Bean Bake, which continues today as one of the company's most popular recipes.

1955 Daniel Boulud was born. Award winning French chef and restaurateur.

1955 Fernand Point died on March 5 (born 1897). Well known French Chef and restaurateur. His restaurant La Pyramide was considered by many to be the greatest in the world.

1955 Instant Oatmeal is invented by the Quaker Oats Company.

1955 Roma tomato released for cultivation; still the main variety used for tomato paste.

1955 The first microwave oven for home use was introduced by the Tappan Stove Company. It cost about $1,300.

1955 Thomas Keller was born. Award winning American chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. His 'French Laundry' restaurant in California has been awarded 3 Michelin stars since 2006.

1956 Alain Ducasse was born in France. One of the world's most successful and respected chefs and restaurateurs, with 24 restaurants (three with 3 Michilin stars) and 3 hotels.

1956 Anthony Bourdain was born. American celebrity chef, author and culinary traveler. Host of 'Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations' on the Travel Channel.

1956 Caesar Cardini died. Chef and restaurateur in the U.S. and Mexico, he is credited with creating the Caesar Salad at his restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico in the 1920s.

1956 Chen Kenichi was born. Chinese chef (born in Japan) best known for his role on the TV series 'Iron Chef'. He is the only Iron Chef to have held his position throughout the life of the show.

1956 First reference in print to the drink Bloody Mary appeared in 'Punch'

1956 German chocolate cake & Chocolate beet cake

1956 Thumbprint cookies & Rolled fondant

1957 Craig Claiborne was named food editor of The New York Times.

1957 General Foods Corp. introduces TANG breakfast beverage crystals.

1957 Idaho became the largest producer of potatoes, overtaking Maine.

1957 Kentucky Fried Chicken begins selling chicken in buckets.

1957 Margarine sales exceed butter sales for the first time.

1957 The Frisbee was invented (patented in 1958). The pie tins of the Frisbee Pie Company of Connecticut were the inspiration for the creation of the Frisbee.

1957 The Space Age begins. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I into orbit - the first artificial satellite, it orbited the Earth about every 96 minutes.

1957 The styrofoam cooler was invented.

1958 Ant Farms go on sale. Milton Levine had the idea at a July 4th picnic.

1958 Frank Carney, 18 years old, reads about the pizza fad with college students. He borrows $600 from his mother and opens the first Pizza Hut in Wichita, Kansas.

1958 Rice-A-Roni goes on sale. Produced by Vince DeDomenico from an Armenian family recipe.

1958 Royal Crown Cola begins test marketing Diet Rite Cola, the first diet cola. It goes national in 1962.

1958 The first IHOP (International House of Pancakes) opened on July 7 at 4301 Riverside Drive in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, California.

1959 Charles 'Charlie' Trotter was born. Famed American chef and restaurateur. His eponymous Chicago restaurant (opened in 1987) was recognized as one of the finest in the world.

1959 Danny's Coffee Shops are renamed Denny’s.

1959 Emeril Lagasse was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. American celebrity chef, restaurateur (13 restaurants), cookbook author and cooking show host ('Emeril Live', 'Essence of Emeril', etc).

1959 Hawaii officially became the 50th state of the U.S.. (Voters in the Hawaii Territory had ratified a state constitution in 1950).

1959 Icelandic gunboats fired on British trawlers during their 'Cod War' over fishing rights.

1959 Polish born New York businessman Reuben Mattus created a premium ice cream. He gave it the Danish sounding name, Haagan Dazs.

1959 The one billionth can of Spam was sold.

1960 Domino's Pizza was founded.

1960 OPEC, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, was formed.

1960 The first Playboy Club opened in Chicago at 116 E. Walton Street, in downtown Chicago.

1960 There are about 45 million television sets in the U.S. About 90% of homes had at least one TV set.

1961 'Boiling Bags' were introduced - frozen plastic packages of food that can be dropped in boiling water to heat them for serving.

1961 Carnation introduced 'Coffee-Mate' nondairy creamer.

1961 Carpaccio was invented in 1961 at Harry's Bar in Venice, Italy. It was named for the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio who was noted for his use of red in his paintings.

1961 Coca-Cola Co. introduced 'Sprite' lemon-lime soft drink to compete with 7-Up.

1961 During lunchtime, Brian Epstein heard the Beatles for the first time at The Cavern in Liverpool.

1961 General Mills introduced 'Total' breakfast cereal.

1961 Julia Child's first book was published, 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking'

1961 Lutece restaurant opened in New York.

1961 Method developed for measuring pungency of onions by determining amount of pyruvic acid.

1961 Omar Knedlik of Coffeyville, Kansas invented the first frozen carbonated drink machine.

1962 David Burke was born. A multiple award winning American celebrity chef and restaurateur.

1962 Ferran Adria was born. Head Chef at El Bulli restaurant in Roses, Spain. Considered one of the world's greatest Chefs, he has been called 'the Salvador Dali of the kitchen.'

1962 Marilyn Monroe sings 'Happy Birthday' at a birthday salute to President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden.

1962 Michael Chiarello was born. American celebrity chef, author, winery owner and cooking show host.

1962 Planters introduced dry roasted peanuts.

1962 The pull tab for beverage cans is introduced.

1963 Black Forest cake & Texas sheet cake

1963 Julia Child's TV show 'The French Chef' begins.

1963 Maxwell House introduced the first freeze-dried instant coffee.

1963 President John F. Kennedy said 'I am a jelly donut' (Ich bin ein Berliner) in a speech to the citizens of Berlin. He meant to say 'I am a Berliner' (Ich bin Berliner). 'Ein Berliner' means jelly donut.

1963 The 'Whisky A Go-Go' opens in Los Angeles - the first disco in the U.S.

1963 The one billionth McDonald's hamburger was served by Ray Kroc on the Art Linkletter Show.

1964 Chef David Skinner is born

1964 Ants on a log

1964 Pepsi Cola introduced Diet Pepsi.

1964 Plastic milk container introduced commercially.

1964 Robert William Flay (Bobby Flay) was born. Celebrity chef, restaurateur, cookbook author, host of numerous TV cooking shows.

1964 World's largest cheese was made, a 34,591 pound cheddar. It was created by the Wisconsin Cheese Foundation for the 1964/65 New York World's Fair. It took 170,000 quarts of milk from 16,000 cows. It was eaten at the 1965 annual meeting of the Wisconsin Dairymen & Cheesemakers Association. A replica is on display in Neillsville, Wisconsin.

1965 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' premiered on CBS TV.

1965 Astronaut John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich aboard the first Gemini spacecraft flight.

1965 At 5:15 pm on November 9, a 13 hour blackout of the northeastern U.S. and parts of Canada began when the electric grid failed.

1965 Cool Whip, a whipped cream substitute, was introduced by General Foods. Within 3 months it is the top selling whipped topping product.

1965 The first Subway sandwich shop opens in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

1965 The Pillsbury Doughboy, 'Poppin' Fresh,' was born. He made his debut in a commercial for crescent rolls.

1965 The Rolling Stones recorded the frustrated diners lament, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction."

1966 Gordon Ramsay was born in Scotland. Controversial award winning British celebrity chef, cookbook author, restaurateur and tv show host.

1966 Heston Blumenthal was born. English celebrity chef, author and restaurateur. Owner of 3- Michelin star restaurant, The Fat Duck and The Hinds Head in Bray, Berkshire, and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London.

1966 Ingredients are required to be listed on food packages. The first Truth in packaging law.

1966 Quaker Instant Oatmeal is introduced.

1966 The first episode of the TV show 'Star Trek' airs.

1967 Gatorade, the original sports drink, is developed by the University of Florida for their football team.

1967 The Beatles single 'Strawberry Fields Forever' is released.

1967 The movie 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner'premiered, starring Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier and Katharine Hepburn.

1967 The U.S. population passed 200 million, according to the Census Clock at the Department of Commerce.

1967 Yellow margarine became legal in Wisconsin. It was the last state to allow coloring to be added to margarine.

1968 About 98.4% of U.S. farms have electricity, 83% have telephones.

1968 Cat (Catherine Ann) Cora was born. American celebrity chef, restaurateur, cookbook author. Only female 'Iron Chef' on Food Network's 'Iron Chef America'

1968 Haleyville, Alabama became the first U.S. telephone system to use 911 as the universal number for emergency services.

1968 John Besh was born. Award-winning chef and restaurateur (9 restaurants). Host of PBS TV shows, 'Chef John Besh’s New Orleans' and 'Chef John Besh’s Family Table.'

1968 John Steinbeck died. American novelist, some of his titles were: 'The Grapes of Wrath,' 'Tortilla Flats' and'Cannery Row.'

1968 Joseph 'Joe' Bastianich was born. Restaurateur, winemaker and author. He is also a judge on TV cooking shows MasterChef and MasterChef Junior.

1968 Rachael Ray was born. American celebrity chef, cookbook author and cooking show host (Rachael Ray; 30 Minute Meals; etc.).

1968 Taco salad, Astronaut fruitcake & Impossible pie

1968 Upton Sinclair died. His novel, 'The Jungle,' was a horror story about conditions in the meat packing industry of the time. It led to extensive reforms.

1969 Canned beer outsells bottled beer for the first time.

1969 Dave Thomas opened the first Wendy's Hamburger restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.

1969 Elena Arzak was born. Joint head chef with her father, Juan Mari Arzak, at the family's 3 Michelin star restaurant Arzak in San Sebastian, Spain. Named World's Best Female Chef in 2012.

1969 Flower Pot Bread & Hummingbird Cake

1969 Pringles potato chips were introduced - made from dehydrated, mashed potatoes.

1969 The 3 day Woodstock Music and Arts Fair began on a dairy farm in Upstate New York.

1969 The first men on the moon. Neil Armstrong took "one small step" followed Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr. They found no cheese.

1969 The Galloping Gourmet TV show hosted by Graham Kerr premiered.

1970 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2' by Julia Child & Simone Beck was published.

1970 Craig Claiborne's 'Classic French Cooking' was published.

1970 Giada De Laurentiis was born in Italy. American chef, cookbook author and TV cooking show host ('Everyday Italian', 'Giaca At Home', etc.)

1970 The first Earth Day was celebrated.

1970 The population of the U.S. is now 203,211,926. Farmers are 4.6% of the labor force. There are about 2,780,000 farms, averaging about 390 acres.

1971 Alice Waters opened Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

1971 Disney World opened at Orlando, Florida.

1971 Fajitas

1971 French's Onion Bits were introduced.

1971 Smoke-flavored SPAM was introduced.

1971 The final episode of 'The Beverly Hillbillies' TV show is aired.

1971 The first Starbucks opened in Seattle.

1971 The home food processor, Le Magi-Mix, was introduced in Paris by Pierre Verdon, also the inventor of the restaurant version, Robot-Coupe.

1972 Francis Ford Coppola's 'The Godfather' premiered. ("Leave the gun. Take the Cannolis," Clemenza).

1972 General Tso's chicken

1972 Hyman Golden and Leonard Marsh introduced Snapple Fruit Juices in New York.

1972 Leslie Revsin became chef at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. She was the first female chef to head a major hotel kitchen.

1972 President Nixon signed the first proclamation of National Hunting and Fishing Day on the 4th Saturday in September.

1972 The Culinary Institute of America moved to Hyde Park, N.Y. from New Haven, Connecticut.

1972 The first Ruby Tuesday restaurant was opened by Sandy Beall and 4 fraternity brothers near the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee.

1973 'Beard on Bread' by James Beard is published.

1973 'Cup o'Noodles' was introduced in the U.S. by Nissin Foods.

1973 'Stove Top Dressing' was introduced by General Foods.

1973 Heinz cannot fill its orders of ketchup to McDonald's due to a tomato shortage.

1973 Sales of Vodka beat out whiskey sales in the U.S. for the first time.

1973 The California Certified Organic Farmers was founded.

1974 A package of Wrigley’s chewing gum with a bar code printed on it was the 1st product logged on the new Universal Product Code system (UPC).

1974 Alexandre Dumaine died (born Aug 26, 1895). One of the most decorated French chefs. Proprietier of 3 Michelin star Hôtel de la Côte-d'Or.

1974 Filming for 'Jaws' began at Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

1974 French's Mustard squeeze package was introduced.

1974 London's famous flower and vegetable market moves from Covent Garden.

1974 Pop Rocks were unveiled by General Foods. Ever since 1956, when company research chemist William Mitchell found a way to put carbon dioxide into a solid, General Foods searched for a way to market the invention. The popping, crackling candy turns out to be worth the wait; in only five years the company will have sold 500 million packets of Pop Rocks.

1974 The BBC broadcast the last episode of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus.'

1974 The discovery of the 'charmed quark', a subatomic particle, was announced.

1974 The stay-on tab for beverage cans was invented.

1976AC – 1999AC

1976 Iceland broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain when the two couldn't settle their disagreement on the 'cod war' fishing dispute.

1976 In Paris, two California wines won top honors at a blind wine tasting by the best of France's wine experts. The French were shocked, and the wine world was changed forever.

1976 The Wire Whisk opens in Ponca City, OK

1976 Jimmy Buffet's 'Margaritaville' was released.

1976 Pierrier water was introduced in the U.S.

1976 The popular food coloring, Red Dye No. 2, was banned by the FDA because studies had shown it might cause cancer. Red M&Ms disappeared for 11 years because of the ban.

1976 The supersonic Concorde commercial aircraft built with funding from the French and British governments, began regular service today.

1976 The U.S. Department of Labor upgraded the definition of 'Chef' from 'domestic' to 'professional.'

1977 A power blackout hit New York. Power was out for about 25 hours. There was widespread looting, unlike the calm of the 1965 blackout.

1977 Apple Computer incorporates.

1977 Buffalo, New York declared this day 'Chicken Wing Day' in honor of the famous Buffalo Chicken Wings, created by Teressa Bellissimo.

1977 On July 28 at 11:02 p.m. the first oil from Prudhoe Bay arrived at Valdez in the trans-Alaskan pipeline. It took 38 days to travel the 800 miles.

1977 The Apple II computer went on sale priced at $1298

1978 Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream and Crepes opened in a former gas station in Vermont.

1978 President Jimmy Carter signed a bill legalizing home brewing on Oct 14. However states could still set there own limits.

1979 Paul Prudhomme opened K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen.

1979 The first Zagat restaurant survey was published.

1980 Cook's magazine begins publication. Christopher Kimball is the publisher.

1980 Chef David Skinner opens "La Vie en Rose" restaurant at the age of 16

1980 Due to record high sugar prices, Coca Cola begins substituting high fructose corn syrup for half of the sucrose (sugar) used in Coca Cola.

1980 McDonald's test marketed Chicken McNuggets in Knoxville, Tennessee. They are so popular that they have to look for a second supplier.

1980 The population of the U.S. is now 226,545,805. Farmers are 3.4% of the labor force. There are about 2,439,500 farms, averaging about 426 acres.

1980 Turducken

1981 IBM introduced its Personal Computer (PC) and PC-DOS 1.0

1981 Radicchio (a red variety of chicory) was first grown commercially in this country in 1981 in California.

1981 The USDA announced that ketchup could be counted as a vegetable in the school lunch program.

1981 The Yukon Gold potato was introduced.

1982 Crystal Light powdered drink mix is introduced by General Foods.

1982 Diet Coke was introduced.

1982 First genetically engineered crop plant developed (tomato).

1982 Larry Walters used 45 helium filled weather ballons tied to an aluminum lawn chair to ascend to 16,000 feet above Long Beach. Several very perplexed commercial airline pilots reported seeing Larry sittring in his lawn chair in the sky to the Long Beach airport. The FAA fined him $4,000, but later settled for $1,500.

1982 Newman's Own Food is founded by Paul Newman and he devotes the profits to charity.

1982 Saturday Night Live had viewers vote whether to boil 'Larry the Lobster' or not. The audience voted to free him

1982 The 'Time' magazine Man of the Year was the personal computer.

1982 The population of China reached 1 billion.

1982 Wolfgang Puck and his wife & partner, Barbara Lazaroff, opened their restaurant 'Spago' in Los Angeles.

1983 French's introduced its Dijon mustard.

1983 Karen Carpenter died from anorexia nervosa.

1983 Wendy's introduced Baked Potatoes with toppings.

1984 McDonald's served its 50 billionth hamburger.

1984 The Apple Macintosh computer was introduced in a TV commercial ("1984") during Super Bowl XVIII. Two days later they went on sale to the public.

1984 Wendy's 'Where's the Beef?' ad campaign debuted.

1985 'Most Embarrassing Moment': Coca Cola announced it was bringing back the old formula Coke, to replace the New Coke nobody wanted.

1985 A bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite Bordeaux that had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, sold at Christie’s London for 105,000 British Pounds ($158,000).

1985 Coca Cola introduces its new formula - no one wants it.

1985 First Farm Aid Concert was held at Champaign, Illinois.

1985 Hole in Earth's ozone shield discovered over Antarctica.

1985 James Beard, culinary expert and cookbook author, died in New York at age 81.

1985 Live Aid rock concert was held to raise funds for famine relief in Ethiopia. Events were held in numerous venues around the world and broadcast live on TV.

1985 The Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood, California closed after 57 years. Robert Cobb, owner of the Brown Derby, created the Cobb Salad there in 1936.

1985 Chef David Skinner opens Christopher's on Washington one of the first farm to table restaurants

1985 The wreckage of the British luxury liner 'Titanic' was located 73 years after it sank. This inspired a new interest in the menu and last meals that were served on the ship.

1986 Chernobyl nuclear plant in the Ukraine explodes. The worst nuclear disaster in history.

1987 Andy Warhol died.

1987 Charlie Trotter opens his restaurant in Chicago, 'Charlie Trotter's'

1987 Howard Schultz buys Starbucks, a Seattle coffee bean business, and begins building an empire of coffee bars.

1987 Red M&Ms return. There were none since 1976.

1988 The first U.S. patent on an animal life form was issued to Harvard scientists for a genetically engineered mouse.

1988 The term 'molecular gastronomy' was coined by Nicholas Kurti and Hervé This.

1989 Chefs from Japanese restaurants in New York have finally persuaded the FDA to allow them to import and serve fogu.

1990 Alain Chapel died. French Master Chef and restaurateur. His restaurant, Alain Chapel, was awarded its 3rd Michelin star in 1973 and maintained it throughout his life.

1990 Third Michelin star awarded to Restaurant Louis XV in the Hotel de Paris.Chef Alain Ducasse, 33, is the youngest chef ever to have his restaurant receive 3 stars.

1991 Chocolate molten lava cake

1992 Emeril Lagasse opened Nola in New Orleans.

1993 On the TV show 'Seinfield,' Kramer came up with the idea to write a coffee table book about coffee tables.

1993 The Food Network premiers on television.

1994 John Candy died. Canadian comedian and actor, member of 'The Second City' comedy troupe.

1994 Joyce Chen died. Chinese American Chef, restaurateur, author. She is credited with popularizing northern-style Chinese cuisine in the U.S.

1994 The French Laundry restaurant opens in an old French laundry in Yountville, California.

1995 The Soup Nazi first appears on Seinfeld TV show.

1996 Dolly the sheep was born at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. Dolly was the first animal cloned from an adult animal.

1996 World's largest grilled cheese sandwich made, 3,000 pounds.

1997 Jacques-Yves Cousteau died. Ocean explorer, marine biologist. Co-inventor of the aqualung.

1997 Lottie Williams, 48, of Tulsa, Oklahoma became the only person known to have been hit by man-made debris from space.

1998 In West Virginia if you run over a animal, you can legally take it home and cook it for dinner. A law passed in 1998 lets drivers keep their road kill, as long as they report it within 12 hours.

1999 The Russian Duma passed an animal rights bill that prohibits people from eating their pets.

2000AC - PRESENT

2000 Craig Claiborne died. Influential American food writer, cookbook author. Food editor and restaurant critic for the NY Times.

2000 The last original 'Peanuts' comic strip is published.

2001 China reported that its population is now 1.26 Billion.

2001 Justin Wilson, Cajun chef and humorist died.

2002 Spaniards threw 120 tons of tomatoes at each other at the annual Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain.

2004 A 60 ton, 56 foot long sperm whale exploded on a busy street in Tainan, Taiwan. A buildup of gas from internal decay caused the explosion.

2004 Julia Child died 2 days before her 92 birthday. American cooking authority, cookbook author, TV Cooking show host, etc.

2005 Cristeta Comeford became the first female White House Executive Chef.

2006 A Hong Kong real estate tycoon and his wife paid $160,000 for a 3.3 pound Italian Alba white truffle.

2006 Chicago's oldest restaurant, the 107 year old Berghoff Restaurant closed today.

2006 Deep Fried Coca-Cola is offered at the State Fair of Texas.

2006 Six Flags theme park in Gurnee, Illinois held a live cockroach eating contest.

2007 Edna Lewis died, southern chef and author of 'The Taste of Southern Cooking' (1976).

2007 On May 25 Coca Cola created a 3,000 gallon, 15 foot high ice cream float with Vanilla Coke and ice cream, and set a new world record for the largest ice cream float. The float was certified as drinkable by health inspectors, but it was disposed of by a garbage company. Coke also held the previous record from 1998 with a 2,085 gallon float.

2007 The 7 billionth can of Spam was sold in 2007.

2007 The animated movie 'Ratatouille' opened in U.S. theatres. The story is about a rat, who can also cook, who befriends a young kitchen worker at a famous restaurant.

2007 The average farm in the U.S. is 441 acres. In 1900 the average size was 147 acres.

2007 There were 1,449 total breweries in the U.S. in 2007, 1,406 of them small, independent and traditional craft brewers.

2008 Oil prices hit $100 for the first time.

2008 The Global Seed Vault ('doomsday seed vault') opened deep within an Arctic mountain in the remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

2008 The UN designated 2008 as the International Year of the Potato. (Potatoes are the world's 4th largest food crop.)

2009 After months of numerous mechanical failures, a new recycling system was activated on the international space station. The new system recycles astronauts urine and sweat into drinking water.

2009 Connecticut has 149 dairies. In 1940 there were 6,200 dairies in the state.

2009 The end of Analog TV. All full power over-the-air analog television transmission signals on channels 2-13 and 14-69 in the U.S. ended.

2009 The movie 'Julie & Julia' opened in U.S. theatres. The story of Julia Child's start in the cooking profession, intertwined with blogger Julie Powell's 2002 challenge to cook all the recipes in Child's first book.

2009 The November 2009 issue of Gourmet magazine was the last issue published. The first issue was published in 1941.

2010 An explosion and fire destroyed the Deepwater Horizon oil rig 40 miles off the Louisiana coast in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 men.

2010 Average bottled water consumption in the U.S. is 30 gallons per person each year.

2010 Chris Stevens of New Richmond, Wisconsin 1,810.5 pound pumpkin was confirmed by The Guinness World Records as the new world’s heaviest pumpkin.

2012 The movies 'Jiro Dreams of Sushi' and 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen' opened in U.S. theatres.

2014 'Drink a Beer' by Luke Bryan is number 1 on the country music charts.

2014 The movie 'Chef' was released in the U.S. A chef loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck.

2014 Eculent opens on november 7th

2015 The United Nations has declared 2015 as the ‘International Year of the Soil’

2016 Archaeologists uncovered a 5,000-year-old brewery in the Central Plain of China. It is the oldest beer-making facility ever discovered in China.

2016 The United Kingdom voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.

2018 Anthony Bourdain died of an apparant suicide. Influential American celebrity chef, author ('Kitchen Confidential') and culinary traveler.

2018 Paul Bocuse died in his sleep in the same room in which he was born at Collonges-au-Mont-d'Or in France (born on Feb 11, 1926).