January 23 is Pie Day.

Pie is arguably one of the greatest and most versatile food structures known to mankind. Sweet, savoury, filled with gravy or sauce, pies come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. Pies can be full meals, or delicious desserts. Pie pastry is believed to have been developed by ancient Greeks, with mentions being made in texts of the time to sweet pastries filled with fruit or meat.
What is your favorite?

Today in history: January 23: The Frisbee is born.

Actually, the Flying Disc toy had been around for a while when a man named Fred Morrison was offered 25 cents for a cake pan he and his wife were tossing back and forth on a beach. The cake pan cost a nickel, and after selling it for a quarter, Morrison realized a market. In 1948 he began producing what he called the “Flyin’ Saucer”, capitalizing on the UFO craze sweeping the country in the late 1940s.
In 1955, Morrison designed the prototype for the disc we all would come to recognize, and called it the “Pluto Platter”.

On this date in 1957 Morrison sold the rights to the Pluto Platter to the Wham-O corporation, who changed the toy’s name to the Frisbee, after the Frisbie baking company who supplied pies to Yale University..  Students at Yale had developed their own craze by tossing the pie tins around.

Wham-o re-designed the plastic mold to remove the planetary names from the disc, and accidentally increased the thickness and mass of the plastic at the rim. This adjustment created a more controllable disc that could be thrown more accurately.
The Frisbee’s popularity has never diminished, and there are now dozens of flying disc sports, and dozens of Frisbee models to suit them. There have been well over 100 million Frisbees sold since their debut.

Fact: Why Guinness Keeps World Records

You’ve probably heard of the Guinness Book of World records, and have probably even owned a copy or two of it in your time. But did you know the book was originally published as a tool to settle bar room arguments?

In 1951 a man named Sir Hugh Beaver was the managing director of Guinness Breweries. While was out on a hunting trip he missed a shot. Later in a tavern he related his story, and it developed into a heated argument with other bar patrons over what was the fastest game bird in Europe.

Without material to reference, he had a realization. He realized that there must be plenty of similar debates that take place in pubs and bars across the country and abroad, and that there was no material to reference to to settle the arguments.
Beaver commissioned the London-based twins Norris and Ross McWhirter who had been running an agency dealing with facts and figures to develop a book of records.
And so, the first edition of The Guinness Book of Records was published in 1954. Since then, the Guinness Book of World Records set a world record of it’s own, becoming the most sold copyrighted book of all time.