Is That A Fact!?

Aubrey Beardsley’s “On This Day” Fun Facts and Trivia

On this day, in 1895, corn flakes were invented!

Dr John Harvey Kellogg was trying to find a way to make a healthier vegetarian diet for his patients at the Battle Creek Sanitarium (which is interesting, because the major competitor to Kellogg’s in Australia is a company called Sanitarium). Anyway, like all good inventions, it was when Dr Kellogg wasn’t watching the pot boil that the magic happened and he discovered the wonder of corn flakes. When he then rolled the grains they came out as flakes, and then when he baked them they became delicious! And on this day, in 1895, the patent for “flaked cereals” was filed. Dr Kellogg’s brother then went on to found the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906 to mass market the invention. And in 1907, the advertising campaign offered a free box of cereal to every woman who would wink at her grocer. Which is of course perfectly outrageous. What if you can’t wink? And another Corn Flakes advertising campaign was in a famous episode of The Young Ones, where the task was to write in ten words what Corn Flakes mean to you. Vyvyan wrote “Corn Flakes” nine times. But shouldn’t it be five times? Obviously everyone considered “Corn Flakes” to be one word, such is the power of Kellogg’s branding.

“Corn Flakes” cereal is also related to “Rice Bubbles”, a notoriously noisy cereal, which is appropriate because today is Save Your Hearing Day. Which is ironic (or possibly on purpose), because also on this day, in 1976, The Who went into the Guinness Book of Records for playing the loudest rock concert ever at an eardrum exploding 120 decibels. Drummer Keith Moon also liked to explode hotel toilets while on tour … by flushing sticks of dynamite, not by eating too many bean burritos.

And that’s a fact.

I already have the rockstar hair!