Can you believe this happened?
When was sliced bread banned in America?
Image: Jametlene Reskp
When was sliced bread banned in America, and why? Can a natural disaster be caused by molasses? What crop was brought to trial and declared innocent? In its more than two centuries of history, the United States has been the scene of many bizarre events , from a pig war to spy cats and snow in July. Here are 10 times American history was frankly bizarre.
1
The Battle of Los Angeles (1942)
On the night of February 24th, 1942, a few months after the Pearl Harbor attack, sentinels identified what they thought was an aircraft near Culver City, which prompted them to fire over 1,440 anti-aircraft shells into the sky.
The enemy was never identified, and no bombs were dropped, although the chaos caused by the shooting resulted in five civilian casualties. The event was later reported as a false alarm, but to this day no one knows what caused the uproar , though some theories suggest it was a weather balloon, a tray bird, or a weather phenomenon.
2
The Great Molasses Flood (1919)
We’ve heard about disasters caused by heavy rains, overflowing rivers, and mudslides, but how often are they caused by syrup? For Bostonians, it was at least once, on January 15, 1919. A 50-foot-tall and 90-foot-wide steel tank owned by the United States Industrial Alcohol Company burst , releasing 2.3 million gallons of molasses into the streets.
A wave of molasses from 25 to 40 feet high swept through Boston's North End, toppling buildings and infrastructure , taking the lives of 21 people and several animals, and injuring at least 150 people. The cleaning efforts took weeks to remove the residue from the street, and a lawsuit against the company resulted in reforms in engineering, building codes, and safety certification.
3
The sliced bread ban (1943)
Pre-sliced bread is one of the comforts of modern life we take for granted now, but there was a time when it was banned as part of the war effort. On January 18, 1943, the American government decided to ban the sale of sliced bread to reduce the use of steel (used for slicing machines) and wax paper (used for wrapping the bread).
The measure was not only unpopular but also ineffective, as it didn’t make a real difference in wax paper and steel savings . The seemingly easy task of slicing bread by hand caused an uproar across the country, and bread sales dropped, forcing the government to lift the ban only two months after.
4
The Ohio "Toledo War" (1835)
Border disputes among states are not uncommon in American history, usually settled in court and unlikely to result in a military standoff. But sometimes they do, as in 1835, when Ohio and Michigan (then still a territory) quarreled over the Toledo Strip, a 468-square-mile piece of land with critical access to Lake Erie . Official boundary demarcations were vague, so control over the area was asserted by constructing roads and collecting taxes in the case of Michigan, and by involving Congress and creating demarcation lines in the case of Ohio.
National intervention proved necessary when both governors mobilized their militias, and President Jackson mediated in the dispute. The Toledo Strip was given to Ohio, but in turn, Michigan was granted statehood , and the Upper Peninsula was added to its territory. While the conflict was luckily bloodless, it’s at the root of the historic rivalry between Michigan and Ohio.
5
The Salem tomato trials (1820)
Although Salem, Massachusetts, is famous for its witch trials, this particular case takes us to Salem, New Jersey. In 1820, tomatoes had already been popularized worldwide, but some people still had reservations because they were rumored to be poisonous . Robert Gibbon Johnson, a wealthy local farmer, decided to dispel the stigma and sponsored competitions for the largest tomato grown, which sparked an uproar and drew in the local courts.
According to the story, Johnson arrived at court with a basket full of tomatoes and proceeded to eat them all in front of the crowd. As he didn’t die or become violently ill, it was proven that tomatoes were safe for consumption.
6
The Battle of Athens (1946)
The Greek city of Athens claims to be the birthplace of democracy, but Athens, Tennessee, has also done its part to ensure the safeguarding of democratic values. In the 1940s, McMinn County in Tennessee was part of a criminal network involving politicians and law enforcement, who randomly detained citizens under false charges to collect fines. The system was dependent on rigged elections, so when armed deputies locked themselves with the ballot boxes in the county jail during the August 1, 1946 elections, the people of Athens and Etowah took matters into their hands.
Around 200 veterans, recently returned from WWII, raided the National Guard Armory for guns and ammunition, and laid siege to the jail. After a gunfight that lasted through the night, they breached the entry using dynamite and secured the ballot boxes , which were then counted in public, resulting in a landslide victory for the opposition. All the firearms were then cleaned and quickly returned to the armory, and no criminal charges were raised against the veterans on account of their righteous intentions.
7
The pig war (1859)
The U.S. and the U.K. have gone to war more than once, but only one time was a pig the cause of the conflict. In 1859, the San Juan Islands (now part of Washington state) were a disputed territory between America and the U.K. as a result of vague wording in the 1846 Oregon Treaty. The diplomatic dispute quickly turned into real conflict when an American farmer in one of the islands shot a pig that regularly dug into his garden.
As it turned out, the pig belonged to an employee of the British Hudson's Bay Company. Although the farmer offered to pay for the animal , its owner demanded higher compensation, and British authorities threatened to arrest the farmer . This caused the American settlers to petition for military protection, and both countries mobilized troops into the area. The conflict was resolved through international mediation 12 years later in favor of the United States, with the pig as the only casualty.
8
The child mailing system (1913)
The railroad and the establishment of a national postal system did wonders for communication in America, but sometimes it led to controversial and potentially dangerous situations, such as the child mailing system. In 1913, the U.S. Post Office Department launched a parcel post service for packages up to 11 pounds. The content of the parcels was not clearly delimited, and people started using it to send for small children , as it was cheaper than paying for a train ticket.
Children as small as 8-month-olds were mailed (although unwrapped) with postage stamps attached to their clothes and under the care of railroad workers. The system was short-lived, as the Postmaster General banned the mailing of children as soon as he learned about it, claiming they didn’t count as "harmless live animals".
9
Project Acoustic Kitty (1960s)
At the height of the Cold War, espionage had turned into an art form, with agencies on both sides of the conflict resorting to all kinds of methods to gather sensitive information, including the development of technological gadgets and the recruitment of non-human agents . "Project Acoustic Kitty" was one of the CIA’s attempts, aiming to infiltrate the Kremlin and the Soviet embassies with the help of surgically modified cats.
The cats underwent surgery to implant a microphone into their ear canal and a transmitter into their body, allowing them to record and transmit sound from their surroundings. The cats would then be released near the target location, hoping to pick up conversations between Soviet diplomats and office workers. According to some sources, the first mission ended abruptly when the cat in question was struck by a taxi, but CIA former officials claim that the project never prospered due to the difficulty in training the cats.
10
The Year Without a Summer (1816)
In 1816, North America (as well as part of Europe) experienced freezing cold temperatures during Spring and Summer, all thanks to an Indonesian volcano. In April 1815, the Indonesian Mount Tambora experienced a massive volcanic explosion, releasing millions of tons of ash, dust, and sulfur dioxide across the world , which created a shield in the stratosphere, blocking sunlight.
In America, the event manifested as a fog that was not dispersed by rain or wind, and the lack of sunlight resulted in frost and snow during late Spring and early Summer, especially across New England. While the low temperatures themselves were not as taxing on the population, they were detrimental to the crops and livestock, creating food shortages and causing thousands of families to relocate to different regions of the country to escape famine and poverty.
