1917 History, Fun Facts and Trivia

Firsts, Inventions, and Wonders: 
Kiwanis International was founded in Detroit, Michigan

The term “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” was popularized by marketing campaigns of cereal companies after it appeared in Good Health Magazine.

The modern concept of a grocery store, where you get items off the shelf yourself, wasn’t invented until 1917, at Piggly Wiggly grocery stores.

The Converse All Star “Chuck Taylor” Basketball Shoe was first produced in 1917.

The first use of OMG was in a September 9, 1917 letter to Winston Churchill, from Lord Fisher.

Lions Clubs International was founded by Melvin Jones.

Pop Culture News: 
Jeannette Rankin, the first Congresswoman, served just two non-consecutive terms starting in 1917 and 1941, and was the only person to vote against the declaration of war in both WWI and WWII.

A bank in Utah was built using 80,000 bricks mailed via USPS in 50-pound packages to save on freight costs. The post office changes parcel post rules after that.

Cape Canaveral is part of the Diocese of Orlando, making its Bishop technically Bishop of the Moon, according to the 1917 Code of Canon Law (“any newly discovered territory was placed under the jurisdiction of the diocese from which the expedition which discovered that territory left”).

The Miracle of the Sun, which occurred in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, and was accepted as a miracle by the Catholic Church in 1930. At least 30,000 people gathered to see a multicolored sun dancing in the sky.

The United States purchased the Danish West Indies for $25,000,000 and renamed them the Virgin Islands.

The Royal Family officially adopted the name ‘Windsor’ as their surname in 1917.

WWI News:
The model for Uncle Sam on the famous 1917 post I Want You is the face of the painter, James Montgomery Flagg. For effect, he aged his own portrait and added the goatee beard. Flagg used his own picture in order to avoid the need to find a model. It was partially inspired by a British recruitment poster showing Lord Kitchener in a similar pose.

US troops in Paris stopped at the grave (composed of soil from the United States) of French Revolutionary War Hero, Marquis de Lafayette, and proclaimed “Lafayette, we are here!”

The Trading with the Enemy Act of 1917 enabled the U.S. government to seize private assets worth millions of dollars, including Bayer’s trademark on Aspirin.

Emily Grant Hutchings tried to release a “Mark Twain” novel called Jap Herron after his death, claiming the dead author dictated the book using an ouija board.

Journalist H.L. Mencken published a hoax news article stating bathtubs were popularized in the US by President Millard Fillmore after he had one installed in the White House. Thirty years later, even after he admitted it was false, it was still being reprinted as fact.

Popular and Notable Books From 1917: