A candy store owner in Onawa, Iowa, Christian Nelson, was confronted one summer day in 1920 with a most challenging customer: a little boy who could not decide between an ice cream or a chocolate bar and could not afford both.

Nelson spent the next year in a (mostly enjoyable) search for a method by which he could coat ice cream with chocolate. In 1921, he started selling “I-Scream Bars,” and he applied for a patent for his invention. An Iowa confectioner named Russell Stover (he was a real person) agreed to mass-produce Nelson’s creation but under a name that Mrs. Russell Stover devised: “Eskimo Pie.”

On this date in 1922, Nelson was awarded Patent Number 1,404,539 for “the production of a commercially practical coated brick or block of ice cream or the like.” The Eskimo Pie is 95 today. (Not the original one. That one is long gone.)

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Apple Inc. released the original Macintosh, the Macintosh 128K, to the market on this date in 1984. The retail price was $2,495.

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Sir Winston Churchill died on this date in 1965. L. Ron Hubbard died on this date in 1986. Thurgood Marshall died on this date in 1993. Fayard Nicholas died in 2006 on this date. Chris Penn died on this date in 2006.

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Edith Wharton was born on this date in 1862. Ernest Borgnine was born 100 years ago today. The late Marvin Kaplan would have been 90 today. (He died August 25, 2016.) Sharon Tate was born on this date in 1943. Klaus Nomi was born in 1944 on this date. Warren Zevon was born 70 years ago today. “Keep Me In Your Heart”:

 
John Belushi was born on this date in 1949.

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Desmond Morris is 89 today. Ray Stevens is 78. Aaron Neville is 76 today. “Be Your Man,” from 2016:

Neil Diamond is 76 today. Michael Ontkean is 71. Yakov Smirnoff is 66. Jools Holland is 59 today. Phil LaMarr is 50. Mary Lou Retton is 49. Ed Helms is 43 today.

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