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Popcorn Machine Timeline

Author: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

Around 3600 B.C.: A form of popcorn exists in America, according to modern-day archaeological finds. In 1948, explorers find small ears of corn in Bat Cave of central New Mexico estimated to be around 5,600 years old.

1500s: Spanish explorer Hernando Cortes (1485-1547) gets his first sight of popcorn when he invaded Mexico. The Aztecs use popcorn to decorate ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and ornaments on statues of their gods.

Father Bernardino de Sahagun (1499-1590), a Franciscan priest, describes popcorn as " . . . a kind of corn which bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes itself look like a very white flower. . . . "

1612: French explorers in the Great Lakes region note the Iroquois pop popcorn with heated sand in a pottery vessel.

1700s: Colonial women make the first breakfast cereal by pouring milk and sugar over popped corn.

1866: William Oberton applies for the first popcorn popper patent.

1893: The World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago's first World's Fair, launches the world's first portable popcorn machine and the forerunner to Cracker Jack.