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Fascinating and Lesser Known People Who Changed American History

Khalid Elhassan May 5, 2020 33 min

Normandy landings - Operation Overlord — Men of the 320th in Normandy. YouTube

1. From Melted Chocolate to Microwave Ovens

An early Raytheon microwave oven was installed in the cruiser USS Savannah. Wikimedia

Percy Spencer was working for defense contractor Raytheon as head of its power tube division, when America was thrust into WWII. His expertise earned Raytheon contracts to produce radars for the military – the second highest priority after the Manhattan Project. One day, while standing in front of active radar, Spencer noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted.

Curious about how that came about, he investigated and began experimenting with food, including popcorn – resulting in the world’s first microwaved popcorn. Spencer eventually attached an electromagnetic field generator to an enclosed box, and thus created the world’s first microwave oven. Raytheon patented his invention in 1945, but Spencer’s only reward was a one-time $2 gratuity from Raytheon – a standard token payment the company paid all inventors on its payroll back then.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Burton, Turkus B., and Feder, Sid – Murder Inc.: The Story of the Syndicate (2003)

Carlson, Elliot – Joe Rochefort’s War: The Odyssey of the Codebreaker Who Outwitted Yamamoto at Midway (2013)

Daily Beast – These Black Soldier Fought For America. It Didn’t Protect Them From Jim Crow

Daily Beast – The Black Heroes Who Protected US Troops on D-Day

First Battalion, 24th Marines – Underwood v. Klonis

Hervieux, Linda – Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, At Home and At War (2016)

New York Times – When Jim Crow Reigned Amid the Rubble of Nazi Germany

Smithsonian Air & Space Museum – Protecting the Beaches with Balloons: D-Day and the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion

History Net – Joe Rochefort’s War: Deciphering a Code Breaker

Hornfischer, James D. – The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the US Navy’s Finest Hour (2005)

Motley Fool – How Coke Helped Create Pepsi, and Other Historic Market Moments

ThoughtCo – The History of Pepsi Cola

Murderpedia – Louis Lepke Buchalter

New England Historical Society – Percy Spencer Melts a Chocolate Bar, Invents the Microwave Oven

New York Times, July 3^rd, 2010 – America’s Revolution: The Prequel

Orkent, Daniel – Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (2010)

Parshall, Jonathan – Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway (2005)

Smithsonian Magazine, December 27^th, 2017 – Three Things to Know About Radical Prohibitionist Carrie A. Nation

Stars and Stripes, February 28^th, 2007 – Vietnam War Helicopter Pilot Awarded Medal of Honor

Mashed – The Untold Truth of Microwave Popcorn

Wikipedia – Albert Anastasia

Wikipedia – Ed Freeman

Wikipedia – Uriah P. Levy

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.