Welcome to Monday! Another week, another Spark! The usual mix of trivia and humour is here to ease you into the working week with a smile on your face.
On This Day – 7th July 1928 – The first sliced bread is sold in Missouri, USA
Although I love nothing more than slicing into a fresh crusty loaf to make my thick, breakfast toast, the convenience of grabbing a couple of slices to make a sandwich cannot be underestimated. On this day in 1928, the citizens of Chillicothe, Missouri were the first to experience the joy of peeling back the waxed paper and revealing the uniform, regular slices of bread within.
Although numerous attempts to perfect bread-slicing machines had been made over the years, it took until 1928 for Otto Rohwedder, an inventor from Davenport, Iowa to perfect his machine. The Chillicothe Baking Company used Rohwedder’s machine to produce their ‘Kleen-Maid Sliced Bread’. The moment was advertised as the “Greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped”. This is turn has led on to the popular saying, ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’.
By 1933, 80% of bread sold in the US was sliced. In the UK, a slicing and wrapping machine was installed by the Wonderloaf Bakery in London in 1937. It took until the 1950’s for 80% of the UK bread market to be sliced. People obviously liked wielding the bread knife as much as I do (although I never pointed one at errant users, honest!)
Read more here.
Also on this day:
1898 – President McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution, annexing Hawaii to the United States
1907 – Florenz Ziegfeld Jr stages his first ‘Follies’ on the roof of the New York Theater
1958 – President Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into US law
2003 – The NASA Opportunity Rover is launched towards Mars on a Delta II rocket
2005 – A series of terrorist bombs explode on London public transport, killing 56 people
Arrivals
1919 – Jon Pertwee, British actor (‘The Navy Lark’, ‘Doctor Who’)
1940 – Ringo Starr, British musician and singer-songwriter (The Beatles)
1941 – Jim Rodford, British musician and bass player (Argent, The Kinks, The Zombies)
1949 – Shelley Duvall, US actress and producer (‘The Shining’, ‘Popeye’, ‘Time Bandits’)
1981 – Synyster Gates, US heavy-metal guitarist (Avenged Sevenfold)
Departures
1930 – Arthur Conan Doyle, British doctor and author (‘Sherlock Holmes’)
1973 – Veronica Lake, US actress (‘I Married a Witch’, ‘The Blue Dahlia’)
1990 – Bill Cullen, US TV presenter and game show host (‘The Price is Right’, ‘To Tell the Truth’)
2006 – Syd Barrett, British musician and singer-songwriter (Pink Floyd)
2007 – Donald Michie, British cryptographer, AI researcher and former Bletchley Park codebreaker
The Funnies:
Recipe of the day: Microwave Sausage and Bean Stew with Crusty Bread
This recipe from BBC Food is quick and easy and as I have sausages to cook this evening, I might just try this myself. Plus, it contains bacon!
Ingredients
· 8 sausages, separated
· 3 rashers smoked back bacon, trimmed and cut into 1.5cm/¾in slices
· 1 onion, finely chopped
· 2 garlic cloves, crushed
· 400g tin chopped tomatoes
· 400g tin baked beans
· 400g tin red kidney beans or any other beans, drained and rinsed
· 50ml/2fl oz hot chicken or vegetable stock, made with 1 stock cube
· 1 tsp mixed dried herbs
· ¼ tsp chilli flakes
· 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
· chopped fresh flatleaf parsley (optional)
· freshly ground black pepper
· ½ baguette or other crusty bread, to serve
Method
- Prick each sausage twice with the tip of a sharp knife. Place the sausages on a large microwaveable plate, spaced apart and pointing inwards like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Cook uncovered on HIGH for 2 minutes (1000W) or 2 minutes 30 seconds (800W). Turn each sausage over and flip so the ends that were closest to the middle are now closest to the rim of the plate. Cook uncovered on HIGH for 1 minute 50 seconds (1000W) or 2 minutes (800W), or until the sausages are cooked. They won’t go brown but should be firm and hot throughout (see Tip below). Set aside.
- Place the bacon, onion and garlic in a large, wide-based microwaveable bowl or casserole (large enough to hold at least 2 litres/3½ pints). Cover with a microwaveable lid or dinner plate and cook on HIGH for 4 minutes (1000W) or 5 minutes (800W). Stir in the tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans, stock, dried herbs and chilli flakes. Cover and cook on HIGH for 4 minutes (1000W) or 5 minutes (800W).
- Slice the sausages in half and stir into the bean mixture. Add the Worcestershire sauce, if using. Cover and cook on HIGH for 6 minutes (1000W) or 7 minutes 30 seconds (800W), or until piping hot throughout. Stir halfway through the cooking time and remove the lid carefully as there will be lots of hot steam. Season with black pepper.
- Cut the bread into four pieces, put on a microwaveable plate and microwave uncovered on HIGH for 20–30 seconds, or until warmed. Do not cook for too long or it will toughen. Serve the bread with the sausage stew. Garnish with parsley, if using.
Quote of the Day:
“He was known to Ankh-Morpork’s professional underclass as a thoughtful, patient man, and considered something of an intellectual because some of his tattoos were spelled right.” (Hogfather)
– Sir Terry Pratchett
Choon of the Day:
Happy Birthday Ringo!
Comic of the Day:
Mouseover: “Low gravity can cause bone loss, so we’re pleased to report that, since we initiated capsule motion, the number of bones in each crew member has been steadily increasing”
Image Credit: https://xkcd.com/3111
Explain XKCD: explain xkcd
Inspirobot Always Controversial, Occasionally Inspirational Quote of the Day:
If you missed Friday’s independent Spark! from @Lonny6654, you can find it here:
(Spark! Pro series – 4th July 2025)
