June 16 is Fresh Veggies Day
National Fudge Day
1755 – French and Indian War: the French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians. Fort Beauséjour is a large, five-bastioned star fort on the Isthmus of Chignecto in eastern Canada, a neck of land connecting the present-day province of New Brunswick with that of Nova Scotia.
June 16, 1816 – Lord Byron read Fantasmagoriana to his four house guests at the Villa Diodati: Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori. He then challenged each guest to write a ghost story, which culminated in Mary Shelley writing the novel Frankenstein, John Polidori writing the short story The Vampyre, and Byron writing the poem Darkness.
Abraham Lincoln delivered his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois on June 16, 1858.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand….
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.”
From “Today in Science”:
In 1903, Pepsi-Cola Co. registered the Pepsi-Cola trademark with the U.S. Patent Office. Pharmacies at the time were favorite gathering places. To increase business at his store’s soda fountain, pharmacist Caleb D. Bradham created a soft drink. In the summer of 1898, he mixed carbonated water, sugar, vanilla, oils, pepsin, and kola nut extract. Customers at in his pharmacy in New Bern, N.C., liked the beverage and called it Brad’s Drink. As its popularity grew, Bradham changed the name to Pepsi-Cola. The name emphasized the pepsin and kola nut extract it contained for their supposed health benefits. Pepsin, an enzyme, was thought to aid in digestion, and caffeine, an alkaloid found in kola nuts, was believed to bestow beneficial energy.
Also from “Today in Science”:
In 1893, Cracker Jack was invented by R.W. Rueckheim, a unique popcorn, peanuts, and molasses confection which he introduced at the World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago’s First World Fair. The company he formed with his brother Louis as a partner was called F.W. Rueckheim and Brother. In 1896, Louis discovered the process for keeping the molasses-covered popcorn morsels from sticking together. This secret formula is still in use to this day. In 1912, “A Prize in Every Box” was introduced with toys inserted into every package. In 1918, Sailor Jack and his dog, Bingo, first appeared on packages. Sailor Jack was modeled after F.W. Rueckheim’s young grandson, Robert.