Popcorned

Popcorn history

By zpetereit
  • 4700 BCE

    Earliest popcorn?

    Archaeologists discovered that people have known about popcorn for thousands of years. Fossil evidence from Peru suggests that corn was popped as early as 4,700 BC. Through the 19th century, popping of the kernels was achieved by hand, on stove tops.

  • The word: "popcorn"

    The term popped corn first appeared in John Russell Bartlett’s 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms.

  • The first popcorn maker

    Charles Cretors invented the first commercial popcorn machine in 1885

  • Movie theater popcorn

    Midwestern theater owner named Glen W. Dickson installed popcorn machines in the lobbies of his theaters.

  • Orville Redenbacher

    In 1970, Orville Redenbacher's namesake brand of popcorn was launched.

  • Microwavable popcorn

    In 1981, General Mills received the first patent for a microwave popcorn bag, with popcorn consumption seeing a sharp increase by tens of thousands of pounds in the years following.