Ever marvel who received the first Social Security Card ? Who was demand in the first tight T - shirt contest ? Today ’s your lucky day .

1. The First Hamburger Chain

McDonald ’s , Burger King and that young lady with the braid are better known , but they were all latecomers to the game . Walter Anderson and Billy Ingram partnered up to employ Henry Ford ’s assembly line model in a restaurant setting . They open their first White Castle in Wichita , Kansas , in 1921 , a time when Americans were disbelieving about the wholesomeness of ground beef . Anderson put the sodding " making of" taradiddle in full persuasion of the client ; they keep an eye on as a James Cook formed the ground beef into a patty and placed it on the grill . The bleak livid and shiny chrome radical in the building ’s dà © cor was also a subliminal clue as to the whiteness of the food . Sales at that first eatery were so overpowering that they soon opened more White Castles ( each with the same midland and exterior architecture ) , first in Kansas and then in Nebraska and Minnesota .

2. The First Social Security Card

John David Sweeney , Jr. , of Westchester County , New York , was the person who was issued Social Security Number 055 - 09 - 0001 in November 1936 . When the Social Security Board first started their plan to issue numbers , they act in junction with the Postal Service . SS-5 forms were sent out to employer across the state for their employee to fill out . The completed physique were either mail or returned to the local position situation in person , and then a Social Security act would be assigned and a card typed up . The first 1,000 cards were mail out at the same time , so there is no way to accurately decide who in reality physically get the first Social Security Card . The records for those 1,000 cards were sent to the main processing center in Baltimore , where they began the process of becoming a permanent Indian file in which the number holder ’s earnings could be record . The foreland of the Division of Accounting Operations rip the top physique off of the pile ( which was John Sweeney ’s ) and declared it to be the official first Social Security Record . Sweeney died at the geezerhood of 61 and never collected any Social Security benefit , but his widow did until she passed away in 1982 .

3. Automobile Insurance

4. Class Name 101

The first recorded use of an prefatorial class being designated as " 101" was in a University of Buffalo course catalog dated 1929 . However , it was n’t until the former thirties — when students started regarding a university academic degree as a means to a good job and shoal add more specialized class to their curriculum — that university in the U.S. started using finger’s breadth to key out their path . Students were also traveling further afield after commencement exercise in hunt of work , so it became authoritative for a likely employer to be able to compare prospect : Was a passing mark in Cost Accounting 203 at Kent State the same as one in Business Accounting 4 at the University of Michigan ?

finally , colleges started using a more unvarying three - finger designation , in which the first digit indicated the academic layer ( 1 = Freshman , 2 = Sophomore , etc . ) . The second finger’s breadth ordinarily lay out a section ( English , Science , etc . ) and the third the level of the class within the section . These were not punishing and fast rule , and still change from school to school . However , as the three - digit system of rules became more well-worn , it seemed that " 101" always be a basic commencement track , no matter what the discipline . By the late sixties , the musical phrase was begin to introduce the vernacular at big , out of doors of the collegial realm .

5. Real Person in a Feminine Hygiene Ad

6. Telephone Entertainment

Which came first , 1 - 800 - PARTYON or 976 - infant ? Actually , when telephony entertainment part out , it was geared toward lone people seeking spiritual fulfillment rather than kittenish youthful singles . On Thanksgiving Eve 1955 , Rev. R.R. Schwambach , the minister of religion of Bethel Tabernacle Church in Evansville , Indiana , rented a grey , typewriter - sized machine from Indiana Bell . He recorded a 43 - second non - denominational orison and hooked the gadget up to the Christian church ’s telephone . An clause in the November 23 , 1955 , edition of theEvansville Courierprinted the phone act for " Dial - a - Prayer" and explained that folk feeling the pauperization of comforter and divine guidance could call at any hour , Clarence Shepard Day Jr. or night . Rev. Schwambach reckon he ’d leave the simple machine up for the continuance of the holiday weekend , but the service of process proved to be so popular ( the phone company report a backlog of some 5,000 calls and ordered the church building to instal additional lines ) that he remain to record a new message every day . Similar services started popping up first at other churches in Indiana , then across the state .

7. Mainstream Use of “Gay" to Mean Homosexual

8. Wet T-Shirt Contest

The first soused T - shirt contest was n’t held in some tropic cheery climate ; it took place in January at a ski resort in Idaho . In 1969 , a sales repp for a company called K2 hired a filmmaker to dash some footage of professional skiers " hotdogging" on the slopes in Sun Valley . The 12 - mo film was used as a promotional shaft to sell K2 ’s new crease of skis , and the distributors loved it . They clamor for a young film the next year , and the next . In January 1971 , output on the third film was wrapping up when a K2 rep inform the filmmaker that the following hebdomad was " airline business week" at Sun Valley , and gave him 200 K2 T - shirt to give away to the stewardess ( as they were still call at the clip ) who would be advert . Officials got together and decided to award a swag to whomever look the " best" in a T - shirt .

After a few rounds of drinks , they decided to add a academic degree of " difficulty" to the contest — the gentlewoman would have to dive into the resort ’s heated pool garb in the shirt , and extra point would be grant if she did so sans brassiere . Not surprisingly , the event was a thunder succeeder . K2 stage a similar event after that yr at the Red Onion in Aspen , and that timePlayboyhad photographer on the by-line . Many of the participants were later on featured in a full - color spreading . * * * * * Have you ever wonder about the origin of some terrestrial or average ( or even strange or disturbing ) item or concept ? My as inquiring idea is at your table service !

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