The First Barcode
The first item sold after being scanned with a UPC barcode was a 10-pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit Gum. The sale occured at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974 at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio. The gum is now on display at the Smithsonian American History Museum in Washington D.C.
Strange Pick
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, dictator for nearly a quarter century and infamous for his use of police terror and the frequent mass murders of his own people, was Time's "Man of the Year" in 1939 and 1942.
The Tiny Tub
U.S. President William Howard Taft, who weighed over 300 pounds, often got stuck in the White House's bathtub. To remedy this problem, Taft ordered a new one. The new bathtub was large enough to hold four grown men!
Einstein Designed a Refrigerator
Twenty-one years after writing his theory of relativity, Albert Einstein invented a refrigerator that operated on alcohol gas. The refrigerator was patented in 1926 but never went into production because new technology made it unnecessary. Einstein invented the refrigerator because he read about a family that was poisoned by a sulphur dioxide-emitting refrigerator.
A Renamed Russian City
Did you know that in 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Russia renamed its capital city St. Petersburg to Petrograd because they thought the name sounded too German? This same city changed name again only ten years later when it was renamed Leningrad after the Russian Revolution. In 1991, the city regained its original name of St. Petersburg.
