Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit gum was introduced in 1893. During World War II Juicy Fruit gum was temporarily taken off of the civilian market because of ingredient shortages and the demand for the gum to be included in C-rations.
1893 was a huge year in Colorado state politics. Due to the collapse of silver prices, a third-party (the Populist Party) took control of the General Assembly and in November, Colorado passed legislation giving women the right to vote.
In the presidential election of 1892, the Populist Party nominated former Union general James Weaver of Iowa, placing him on the ticket with vice-presidential candidate James Field of Virginia, a former Confederate army officer. Weaver won over one million votes, carried Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, and Nevada, and received electoral votes from Oregon and North Dakota.
The Garrison Dam on the Missouri River in central North Dakota forms Lake Sakakawea. Built shortly after World War II ended, it is an earthen dam two miles long. It is the 5th largest earthen dam in the world.
Lake Sakakawea is the second largest man-made lake in the US, behind Lake Oahe in South Dakota, and it’s also on the Missouri River.
During the 20th century, the Missouri River basin was extensively developed for irrigation, flood control and the generation of hydroelectric power. Fifteen dams impound the main stem of the river, with hundreds more on tributaries. Meanders have been cut and the river channelized to improve navigation, reducing its length by almost 200 miles (320 km) from pre-development times. Although the lower Missouri valley is now a populous and highly productive agricultural and industrial region, heavy development has taken its toll on wildlife and fish populations as well as water quality.
The Missouri Pacific Railroad (often referred to as “MoPac”) was a major U.S. railroad, primarily operating between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The Missouri Pacific was purchased by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1982, though MoPac operated as a separate railroad company for a number of years afterwards, and was not fully merged with Union Pacific until 1997.
At 12,972’ high, Mount Robson is the highest point of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Located in eastern British Columbia near the border with Alberta, Mount Robson was likely named after Colin Robertson, who worked for both the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company at various times in the early 19th century, though there was confusion over the name as many assumed it to have been named for John Robson, an early premier of British Columbia.
The 4,921 ft Emperor Face on the northwest side provides the most formidable challenge to elite climbers on the mountain.
Jay Ward was a pioneer in original television animation, starting with Crusader Rabbit in 1947. He later went on to produce several shows featuring Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose.
Quisp and Quake were a pair of breakfast cereals, introduced by Quaker Oats in 1965, and supported by a long-running advertising campaign, created by animator Jay Ward. In the ads, Quisp (a space alien) and Quake (a miner) were voiced by a pair of veteran voice actors, and frequent collaborators with Ward: Daws Butler as Quisp, and William Conrad as Quake.
In 1967, Quake sales were not doing well. Quaker decided to re-invent Quake the mascot, who was a burly miner with a square jaw and a miner’s helmet. Quake went through a new-and-improver machine. He came out slimmed down, with red hair and freckles, wearing a cowboy hat.
Side note: as part if the re-invention, Quaker put out a one-sheet black and white comic strip narrating the change. Packages of the cereal had one-frame colour stickers that you could add to the B&W sheet.
Between 1970 and 1998, the number of different types of breakfast cereals in the US more than doubled, from about 160 to around 340. As of 2012, there were roughly 4,945 different types. This estimate is based on the mass customization of online shopping.
On March 13, 2012, the Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it would cease print publication. Instead, all future editions will be online. That ended a run of 244 years in which the encyclopedia released a new printed edition.
The Encyclopædia Britannica has been printed since 1768, until 2012. It was the longest running in-print encyclopaedia in the English language. It now focuses on its online version.
Coca-Cola’s bottle reportedly stems from Britannica’s 11th edition. In response to a 1915 Coca-Cola challenge to glass companies to design a distinct bottle, an employee from the Root Glass Co., of Terre Haute, Ind., returned with Britannica’s illustration of the ribbed, middle-bulging cocoa pod, from which the iconic shape was born.
The Coca-Cola Company owns or licenses products and brands including Bimbo, Fresca, Nestea, Dasani bottled water, Mello Yello, Capri Sun, Alhambra drinking water, Bacardi Mixers, Seagram’s, Kilimanjaro water, Minute Maid, Schweppes, Barq’s root beer, Dr. Pepper (but only in Europe & S. Korea; Dr. Pepper is an independently owned company elsewhere), Odwalla, Hi-C juice drink, Fanta, Tab (Coke’s original diet soda, was discontinued in 2020 due to/in response to the COVID-19 pandemic), Mr Pibb, and my personal favorite, Caffeine Free Diet Coke.
Speaking of Tab, Lisa Parker was the bikini girl in that famous Tab cola commercial from the early 1980s.
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Out of play: Loved Quisp as a child. Like Cap’n Crunch, but better.
In play: Much like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, Dr Pepper was invented by a pharmacist. Dr Pepper was created by Charles Alderton in Morrison’s Old Corner Drugstore in Waco, TX. Drugstores had soda fountains, and the drinks were all stated to have medicinal properties.
Present-day Waco TX was occupied by the Wichita Indian tribe known as the “Waco”, or in Spanish, Hueco or Huaco. Property owners wanted to name the city Lamartine, but a surveyor convinced them to name the area Waco Village after the Indians who had lived there.
Four of the ten largest cities in the United States are now found in Texas. Houston is the fourth-largest, while San Antonio is number 7. Dallas and Austin are numbers 9 and 10 on the list.
Texas capitals through history include Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco, Columbia, Houston, and Austin.
The pop song “Galveston” was written by Jimmy Webb; it is about a soldier who thinks about his girlfriend, and his home town of Galveston, Texas, as he prepares to enter battle. The song was first released by Hawaiian singer Don Ho in 1968, but the best-known version of the song was recorded by Glen Campbell, which was a top-ten hit in the U.S. the next year.