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149 short, true stories behind the things you use every day. Each one names its source.
In 1943 the US banned sliced bread.
Answer to read the story.For seven weeks, partly to save on wrapping. Read the story
In 1957 the BBC showed spaghetti growing on Swiss trees
On April 1, 1957, the BBC current-affairs program Panorama ran three minutes from southern Switzerland, where a mild winter had brought a bumper spaghetti crop.
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The fortune cookie most likely came to America from Japan
Bakers in Kyoto were making a small cookie with a paper fortune tucked into its fold by the 19th century.
The modern strawberry began with a French spy's five plants
In 1712 France sent an army engineer, Amédée-François Frézier, to Chile to sketch the Spanish forts while posing as a merchant.
The Royal Navy poured its sailors rum every day until 1970
Until 1970, every Royal Navy sailor aged 20 or older could draw a daily tot of rum, poured out before noon after the call "Up Spirits." Parliament had discussed ending it twice in the 1800s, and nothing came of it.
A stone pineapple 46 feet tall sits on a Scottish hothouse
In 18th-century Britain, growing a pineapple took a heated glasshouse and a great deal of labor, so the fruit became a status symbol.
All Hass avocados come from a tree a mailman nearly cut down
In the 1920s a California mail carrier named Rudolph Hass planted avocado seeds, meaning to graft a better variety onto the seedlings.
In 1833 Boston sent a shipload of pond ice to Calcutta
In 1806 Frederic Tudor of Boston began cutting ice from New England ponds and shipping it to the tropics.
Tin cans were patented 45 years before the can opener
In 1810 a patent was granted in Britain for preserving food in tin cans.
Mrs Beeton began her cookbook at 21 and copied most recipes
Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management came out in 1861 and sold 60,000 copies in its first year.
In 1943 the US banned sliced bread for seven weeks
On January 18, 1943, America's wartime food administrator banned the sale of sliced bread, partly to save on wrapping.
149 stories. Ten free a day.
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