Celebrate National Popcorn Day

Celebrate National Popcorn Day annually observed on January 19th with a short history of popcorn followed by an infographic with 7 fun facts about popcorn!

Popcorn becomes a “pop-ular!” snack!

Popcorn started becoming popular in the United States in the middle 1800s. It wasn’t until Charles Cretors, a candy-store owner, developed a machine for popping corn with steam.

The convenient savoury snack became more abundantly poppable and  by 1900 he had horse-drawn popcorn wagons going through the streets of Chicago.

“Buy Me Some Peanuts & Cracker Jacks…”

At about the same time, Louise Ruckheim added peanuts and molasses to popcorn to bring Cracker Jack to the world.  The national anthem of baseball was born in 1908 when Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer wrote Take Me out to the Ballgame. From that point onward, popcorn, specifically, Cracker Jack, became forever married to the game.

Popcorn And A Movie?

Popcorn has another romance that may have had a slow start but eventually took off. Today, who can imagine going to the movies without getting a box of buttered popcorn?

While popcorn itself was an economical choice for snack food, the expense of installing a machine and venting the building properly didn’t seem worth the effort.  If it weren’t for Glen W. Dickson, we would be purchasing our popcorn from a vendor on the street before taking in the show. Dickson put in the effort and expense of placing machines inside his theatres. After realizing how quickly he recouped his costs, other theatre owners followed suit.

Microwave Popcorn Arrives!

The next significant advancement for popcorn was the invention of the microwave.

Magnetrons, a technology produced by Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation for the military during World War II, were later used to develop microwave ovens. Percy Spencer the inventor of the microwave used popcorn as a primary experiment during the microwave’s development.

7 Fun Facts About Popcorn

Now that we have enjoyed a bit of the history behind popcorn, enjoy these seven fun facts! 

“Popcorn is one of the only situations in which you eat the result of an explosion” 

If you are looking for more bite sized bits of knowledge check out our Fun Facts category!

Its loaded with all kinds of interesting facts like Fun Facts About Einstein.

Or perhaps you might be more interested in Fun Facts About Dogs.