On This Day: February 13

 

Fact of the Day: potato chips

Potato chips were invented in 1853 at Saratoga Springs, New York, where chef George Crum of Moon's Lake House shaved potatoes paper thin and sent them out to a patron who had complained that his French fries were too thick. The customers were delighted, ordered more, and encouraged Crum to open up his own restaurant. Crum's new restaurant had people standing in line to get potato chips. Wise potato chips were introduced in 1921 by grocer Earl V. Wise as a way of dealing with overstocked and old potatoes. He sold them in brown paper bags the then in cellophane starting in the 1930s.

Events

1633 - Galileo was detained by the Italian Inquisition in Rome.

1635 - The oldest public school in the United States, the Boston Public Latin School, was founded.

1689 - Following the Glorious Revolution in Britain, Mary II, the daughter of the deposed king, James II, and William III prince of Orange, her husband, were proclaimed joint sovereigns.

1741 - "The American Magazine" was published in Philadelphia, and became the first U.S. magazine, beating Benjamin Franklin's "General Magazine" off the presses by three days.

1795 - The first U.S. state university opened, the University of North Carolina.

1914 - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) was founded.

1920 - The League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.

1945 - Allied planes began the controversial and devastating bombing the German city of Dresden.

1974 - Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the USSR.

2001 - A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit El Salvador, killing at least 402 people just one month after another quake killed more than 800 people.

Births

1728 - John Hunter, English surgeon and founder of pathological anatomy

1849 - Lord Randolph Churchill, English politician and father of Winston Churchill

1891  - Grant Wood, American painter

1910 - William Shockley, American Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work led to the miniaturization of radio, TV, and computer circuits.

1950 - Peter Gabriel, English musician.

1956 - Princess Alia bint Al Hussein, Jordanian Royal Family member.

1974 - Robbie Williams, an English singer-songwriter and occasional actor.

1979 - Mena Suvari, an American actress, fashion designer, and model.