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19281776 Club

Chillicothe bakery sells the first machine-sliced loaves; Rohwedder's invention reaches the public on his 48th birthday

The Kleen Maid Sliced Bread hits shelves today, cut by Otto Rohwedder's automatic slicer, as the company calls it "the greatest forward step in baking since bread was wrapped."

Before 1928, every American loaf came whole, and every household sliced its own. On July 7 of that year, the Chillicothe Baking Company in Chillicothe, Missouri, sold the first loaves cut by Otto Rohwedder's automatic bread-slicing machine, on Rohwedder's 48th birthday. The company advertised its Kleen Maid Sliced Bread as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped." Within five years, roughly 80 percent of bread sold in the United States came pre-sliced…

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More from July 7
1846

Sloat raises the flag over Monterey; Mexico's California falls without a shot

Sailors and marines from three warships walk ashore unopposed, ending both Mexican rule and the weeks-old California Republic declared at Sonoma.
1898

McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution; Hawaii is annexed, and its $4 million debt with it

The House voted 209 to 91 and the Senate 42 to 21, with a Pacific war making the islands' coaling station and anchorage look essential to Washington.
1958

Eisenhower signs Alaska into the union; the territory has waited forty years for this moment

The House voted 210-166, the Senate 64-20; Alaska is cleared to become the 49th state, though formal admission is not yet complete.
19411776 Club
The 1st Provisional Marine Brigade, sailed from Charleston via Argentia, begins disembarkation on an island the U.S. has no treaty obligation to defend.
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Read the full July 7 edition →Everything that happened on July 7 →
More from The World Wars
1945

50 nations sign the United Nations Charter in San Francisco

China signs first, as the nation that bore Axis aggression longest; delegates from all 50 Allied powers file through the Herbst Theatre to add their names.
1932

The Dow closes at 41.22; ninety cents of every dollar are gone

Three summers of selling, and still no floor in sight.
1944

Saipan falls to Smith's Marines and infantry; Japan's inner defense ring is broken

Twenty-four days through caves, cane fields, and Tapotchau's slopes: 3,100 Americans dead, 13,000 wounded, and roughly 30,000 Japanese killed.
1942

Navy pilot spots a downed Zero on Akutan Island; the U.S. has its first intact enemy fighter

Bill Thies, flying a PBY, finds Petty Officer Koga's crashed Zero upside down in the mud, a month after it went down during the Dutch Harbor attack.
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