CHOCOLATE-Y FACTS In honor of Chocolate Day on July 7, Tidbits checks out the facts on this favorite confection. • A small evergreen tree ranging in height from 15 to 26 feet is the source of cacao beans. The Theobroma cacao, native to Central and South America, produces seeds directly on its trunk rather than on branches. Each seed pod is about the size of a pineapple and holds between 30 and 50 seeds that have a very bitter taste until they undergo a seven-day fermentation process, which develops the flavor. In the ancient Mayan civilization, cacao beans were so valuable, they were used as currency. They were commonly counterfeited, with fakes fashioned out of painted clay.
• Milton Hershey was already a candy manufacturer specializing in caramels when, in 1894, he decided to start producing sweet chocolate as a coating for the caramels. Soon Hershey was producing milk chocolate in 114 different bars and other shapes. He chose a location in south-central Pennsylvania for his operation, which has grown into the largest chocolate manufacturer in North America. • Hershey’s kisses came along in 1907, and today the company produces over 80 million kisses every single day. About one billion pounds of chocolate products are produced annually by Hershey’s.
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ternal impressions," which posited that what a pregnant woman looked at could influence the appearance of her child. This belief set off a rush of pregnant Parisian women • In 1811, London be- heading to the Louvre to gaze at came the first city in the the lovely artworks, hoping to world to reach the mile- give birth to attractive babies. stone population of 1 million. • If you were at a certain street • If you're like one-third of corner in Manitowoc, WisAmerican men, you'd like a shot consin, on a certain day in at hosting "The Tonight Show." 1962, you would have seen a startling thing: After plung• You might think that hot dogs ing through the atmosphere, a are a relatively recent food of- 21-pound chunk of the Soviet fering, but you'd be wrong. Sputnik IV spacecraft made The first sausages were cre- impact at the corner of Park ated more than 3,500 years Street and North 8th Street. ago when ancient Babylonians began stuffing spiced meat • Half of first-time marriages in into the intestines of animals. Kentucky involve teenagers. • If you hear the word "Bil- • Those who study such things bo" you might think of a fa- say that after Paul Revere mously adventurous hob- made his famous midnight bit, but a bilbo also is a ride, he billed the Massachufinely tempered Spanish sword. setts state house 10 pounds, 4 shillings to cover his expenses. • Elvis Presley report* * edly was worth $10 mil- * lion when he died in 1977. Thought for the Day: "A mathematician is a de• In Western medicine in the vice for turning coffee into 19th century, experts believed theorems." -- Paul Erdos in a phenomenon called "ma© 2014 King Features Synd., Inc. • It was civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. who made the following sage observation: "Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
King CROSSWORD
by Samantha Weaver
• Christopher Columbus brought cacao beans back from what is now Honduras, presenting them to the Spanish king and queen who had financed his journeys. The beans’ value was overlooked for years until fellow explorer Hernando Cortez also brought back a stash of the precious cargo.